AlexKastani Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3845 days ago 22 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, Estonian* Studies: German, Spanish
| Message 1 of 21 12 May 2014 at 3:36am | IP Logged |
Hi everyone!
I decided to start a log for my little German adventure. I took (literally) a decade of German classes in
school, but felt like I didn't learn a thing. In reality, I'm sure the long term exposure to the language
taught me more than I realized, but either way I certainly couldn't speak and didn't do a good job at all
with it. After a 3 or so year hiatus, I decided to give it another go now that I finally actually WANT to learn
it. So I picked up a copy of Assimil and got started!
I'm now on Assimil unit 9 and will start updating my log from this point on. I'm using Assimil and trying
to use Luca Lampariello's translation method on it. I'm also getting some native audio input by watching
the Easy German series on youtube, which is quite enjoyable. After I'm done with that, I'm not quite sure
what I'll transition to. In addition, I listen to Michel Thomas Advanced German on my commute.
Apparently the years of German classes got me at least that far :)
Goals for now:
1) I want to get to B1 by the end of this calendar year. I'm starting a PhD program in August in
international political Economy (focusing on the European Union) and, for that, I want to pick up German,
Spanish (which I'm currently also learning, somewhere between A2 and B1) and eventually either French
or Russian.
2) I will do at least 30 minutes of German per day. (1 Assimil lesson + whatever amount of listening I can
do at work and on my commute).
3) In around 2 months, I want to start trying to have some skype conversations. Also, I have friends from
Germany visiting in July and I'm hoping to be able to surprise them with some German :)
Looking forward to some mutual support and feedback with my fellow German learners here on htlal!
tschüss!
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Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4052 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish
| Message 2 of 21 12 May 2014 at 7:41am | IP Logged |
Guten morgen Alex,
welcome to the forums and good luck on your language journey ;)
I don't know if I can give you advice on how to learn German (because it's my mother tongoue and therefore never really studied it like you do ^^)
However, if you have questions on what is correct, just ask and I hope I can help you out. :D
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patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4526 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German
| Message 3 of 21 12 May 2014 at 10:20am | IP Logged |
Good luck with your German adventure. I've been studying for about two years. It's nice to see another German learner on the board.
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AlexKastani Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3845 days ago 22 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, Estonian* Studies: German, Spanish
| Message 4 of 21 12 May 2014 at 7:29pm | IP Logged |
Komma wrote:
Guten morgen Alex,
welcome to the forums and good luck on your language journey ;)
I don't know if I can give you advice on how to learn German (because it's my mother
tongoue and therefore never really studied it like you do ^^)
However, if you have questions on what is correct, just ask and I hope I can help you
out. :D |
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Guten morgen, Komma!
Thanks for the nice wishes! I appreciate your willingness to help. I'm sure I'll have
plenty of questions as time goes on :)
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AlexKastani Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3845 days ago 22 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, Estonian* Studies: German, Spanish
| Message 5 of 21 12 May 2014 at 7:29pm | IP Logged |
patrickwilken wrote:
Good luck with your German adventure. I've been studying for about
two years. It's nice to see another German learner on the board. |
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Thanks PatrickWilken! How far have you gotten with two years? :)
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patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4526 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German
| Message 6 of 21 12 May 2014 at 7:46pm | IP Logged |
AlexKastani wrote:
patrickwilken wrote:
Good luck with your German adventure. I've been studying for about
two years. It's nice to see another German learner on the board. |
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Thanks PatrickWilken! How far have you gotten with two years? :) |
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I haven't done any tests so my level is only a rough guess:
For reading/writing it's somewhere in the B2+/C1- level - for a long time I've though of it as B2, but I am starting to find normal books in the bookstore easy enough to read without a dictionary so I think I am starting to get into C1 territory. I would expect in the next year to really consolidate that.
For speaking/writing I am still about B1, though perhaps a bit better. I haven't made any effort in writing for two years, and little effort to really improve my speaking - though I speak German every day now. I could obviously improve my spoken German relatively quickly if I wanted to, but at the moment I am happy enough to keep reading as I can feel my progress going very fast there now, and let the other's catch-up in the next six months or so.
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AlexKastani Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3845 days ago 22 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, Estonian* Studies: German, Spanish
| Message 7 of 21 12 May 2014 at 9:43pm | IP Logged |
patrickwilken wrote:
AlexKastani wrote:
patrickwilken wrote:
Good luck with your
German adventure. I've been studying for about
two years. It's nice to see another German learner on the board. |
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Thanks PatrickWilken! How far have you gotten with two years? :) |
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I haven't done any tests so my level is only a rough guess:
For reading/writing it's somewhere in the B2+/C1- level - for a long time I've though
of it as B2, but I am starting to find normal books in the bookstore easy enough to
read without a dictionary so I think I am starting to get into C1 territory. I would
expect in the next year to really consolidate that.
For speaking/writing I am still about B1, though perhaps a bit better. I haven't made
any effort in writing for two years, and little effort to really improve my speaking -
though I speak German every day now. I could obviously improve my spoken German
relatively quickly if I wanted to, but at the moment I am happy enough to keep reading
as I can feel my progress going very fast there now, and let the other's catch-up in
the next six months or so. |
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So quite far along then. That's great! I'm looking forward to getting there as well :)
What are you in Germany for?
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AlexKastani Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3845 days ago 22 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, Estonian* Studies: German, Spanish
| Message 8 of 21 13 May 2014 at 4:04am | IP Logged |
Just finished my German for the day, which consisted of studying units 9-11 in Assimil and translating
unit 5 from L1 to L2. So far so good. I know almost all of the things I'm studying, but the little things I'm
learning are very helpful and clearing some things up :) As ever, gender seems to be the primary thing I
struggle with in German. (Conversely, so easy in Spanish!)
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