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Nieng Zhonghan Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Antarctica Joined 3663 days ago 108 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin
| Message 105 of 225 12 January 2015 at 3:25pm | IP Logged |
patrickwilken wrote:
I find it hard to believe *any* course gets you much beyond B1, as the big stumbling
block is always going to be vocabulary, not grammar.
I know I am a bit extreme here, but I think you are much better off doing one (or two)
basic courses, and getting into native materials as soon as possible, then later start
writing and fill in the gaps you have in grammar that become apparent when writing
then.
I see this a lot in Berlin where expats go to language schools, and am regularly told
by participants they are B2 or C1 level, but they have never read a book or could not
watch a movie without subtitles. |
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I second that, Patrickwilken.
Those participants can't be a real B2 or C1 not having read any book in German.
Textbooks, grammar drills plus German classes only won't lead you to a solid C1 level.
2 persons have voted this message useful
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4525 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German
| Message 106 of 225 12 January 2015 at 4:00pm | IP Logged |
WingSuet wrote:
I see what you mean and I tend to agree. Many course books focus on vocabulary for
only a few situations and when you find yourself in another situation, suddenly you
can't say anything. However, I have no experience of using Assimil, so I can't judge
its contents, it might be a great resource. |
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From what I've heard Assimil is one of the only German courses that actively teaches a fair bit of vocabulary as you go, so it's actually quite useful.
But whatever courses people do they should also be from the beginning working out a strategy for learning 2000-4000 words so they can start accessing native materials. If you don't have much vocabulary language study remains very theoretical.
I used word lists with Anki, but I think in retrospect it was too inefficient; I tried to learn gender/plural forms of words, and I learnt words in isolation - not as parts of sentences, but at least it was enough to get me to a point where I could start reading after a few months.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4074 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German
| Message 107 of 225 12 January 2015 at 4:33pm | IP Logged |
@Nieng Zhonghan.
I had a look at your log. You are working on a bunch of languages.
I know the allure (all too well) of wanting to work simultaneously on several books, but IMHO you just will not have the time, especially as you are working on many languages.
Stick to just two German books - Assimil+Hugo. Once you have completed (any one) Assimil, you can wander onto other books.
The only other supplements I recommend now are the Appendices from A1/A2 Begegnungen books(since you have access to them), for grammar nomenclature and to see what is really expected at A1/A2 levels.
Also @Patrick
The three editions of Assimils are from different time periods.
The first one (without toil) is from way back, has 120 lessons (20 more than the current one), but does not use "du" much, and may use material which is outdated (but should not impact learning).
The second one is from 80s, and the third one was just released (people have said that the latest version is a bit better than the 2nd one). Every iteration, however, is good. I am working on the 2nd edition.
All take you to B1.
Edited by Gemuse on 12 January 2015 at 4:50pm
2 persons have voted this message useful
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6589 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 108 of 225 12 January 2015 at 7:13pm | IP Logged |
WingSuet wrote:
patrickwilken wrote:
I see this a lot in Berlin where expats go to language schools, and am regularly told by participants they are B2 or C1 level, but they have never read a book or could not watch a movie without subtitles. |
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I see what you mean and I tend to agree. Many course books focus on vocabulary for
only a few situations and when you find yourself in another situation, suddenly you
can't say anything. However, I have no experience of using Assimil, so I can't judge
its contents, it might be a great resource. But I also know that even though I have
read native books from a certain genre and have learned a lot of vocabulary from it,
simply reading something from a different genre might cause a lot of trouble, since
I'm not used to the kind of vocabulary used in that genre. |
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Imo it's more about listening than vocabulary. No course can make up for not listening to native audio.
1 person has voted this message useful
| suzukaze Triglot Senior Member Italy bit.ly/1bGm459 Joined 4594 days ago 186 posts - 254 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, Spanish Studies: German, French, Swedish, Japanese
| Message 109 of 225 14 January 2015 at 11:40pm | IP Logged |
Hi all!
Excuse me for the belated introduction, both my computers died within a couple of days from each other and had no way to get online.
Aside from books read for my German courses back at university, my use of native material is rather limited. I guess my biggest problem is to find something at the right level for me; most of the books I read, or tried to read, are either too easy or too difficult.
My German has been stagnant since I graduated so I’m looking forward to make some progress this year. I love German, I actually ditched Spanish to study it, but the vocabulary hurdle is hard to overcome :/
agantik wrote:
I'd like to share two poems which made a strong impression on the young learner of German I used to be some 20 years back : Erlkönig, and die Lorelei. |
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Die Lorelei was one of the poems I studied in my German Literature class :)
My professor selected a lot of great works, both poems and novels. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to fully enjoy them given my low language level, but I plan to re-read some of them when my German reaches a decent level.
Edited by suzukaze on 14 January 2015 at 11:40pm
1 person has voted this message useful
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5140 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish
| Message 110 of 225 15 January 2015 at 8:04pm | IP Logged |
Introductory Challenge
Music: I was taken over by an obscure song called "Geist des Leben, Atem Gottes", which I saw performed by an equally obscure band called HABAKUK in Frankfurt am Main a couple years ago. I couldn't understand all the lyrics and it drove me nuts until I finally found out what they were more than a year later.
Book: Almost all of the books I've read in German have been translations. The book that's been the most valuable to me is "A Practical Dictionary of German Usage" by K. B. Beaton, which explains subtle differences in the meaning of German words. Unfortunately, it's out of print and obscenely expensive.
Movie: I like documentaries. My favorite is "John F. Kennedy in Berlin", the second film in the "Die Berliner Mauer" series, which records Kennedy's visit to Berlin in 1963. Included is the famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech with Adenauer's brilliant interpreter, Heinz Weber.
1 person has voted this message useful
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3981 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish
| Message 111 of 225 17 January 2015 at 12:22am | IP Logged |
Could someone at a higher level of German please help me with this?
Deutsch im Blick, Chapter 1
I can open and watch the welcome video, play the audio for the wordlist and the grammar, but the interviews won't open. Since everything is in German I have a feeling that I'm just not clicking on the right thing.
Thanks!!
Edited by carlyd on 17 January 2015 at 12:23am
1 person has voted this message useful
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4525 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German
| Message 112 of 225 17 January 2015 at 12:43am | IP Logged |
carlyd wrote:
I can open and watch the welcome video, play the audio for the wordlist and the grammar, but the interviews won't open. Since everything is in German I have a feeling that I'm just not clicking on the right thing.
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They work fine for me. You just click on the person's name (e.g., Berna etc) and a new window opens up with the interview.
Edited by patrickwilken on 17 January 2015 at 12:43am
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