Hidden Groupie Joined 4921 days ago 42 posts - 48 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin
| Message 9 of 47 23 December 2011 at 3:34pm | IP Logged |
I seem to have 'accidentally' acquired a set of the Michel Thomas French CD's.
My mum was sorting through some of her stuff and came across it. Apparantly she started with some of it, then lost interest/forgot all about it. Of course I asked if I could borrow it. :)
Now it's sat there on the table, calling to me.
I may not be able to resist starting on French soon. o.O
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Hidden Groupie Joined 4921 days ago 42 posts - 48 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin
| Message 10 of 47 25 December 2011 at 4:05pm | IP Logged |
I'll be doing the 'family christmas thing' today, so I'm going to sit down for a bit of German practise in a minute. I doubt I'll have much time to study later.
I'm also adding a new goal today; To get to the level where I can start writing at least part of my posts in German. :)
Fröhliche Weihnachten
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NickJS Senior Member United Kingdom flickr.com/photos/sg Joined 4991 days ago 264 posts - 334 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese
| Message 11 of 47 01 January 2012 at 7:18pm | IP Logged |
Just dropping by to give you the list of team mates for the TAC:
Team Logs Here
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Hidden Groupie Joined 4921 days ago 42 posts - 48 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin
| Message 12 of 47 06 January 2012 at 9:47pm | IP Logged |
First post of the new year for me.
I haven't done much over the last few days, recovering from the holidays, but now I'm ready to get back at it. :)
When I started this log I didn't have any set goals, but I seem to have come up with quite a few since I've started thinking about it.
I'm going to list them altogether in this post, so they're easier for me to keep track of...
List of goals for 2012
High A2/Low B1 German by the end of the year
Be able to hold a (short) conversation completely in German
Pass the tests on my German course
Start writing part of my posts in German
Read a book in German
I also need to build up my vocabulary.
I have a copy of 'Der Kleine Prinz' that's screaming to be read, so I hope to be able to attempt it at some point this year.
My first test is coming up for my German course in a few weeks. It's a speaking assessment, so I'm dreading it. :(
German
So far today I've done half an hour of Michel Thomas German.
I'm going to spend at least another half hour on German this evening.
I intend to spend at least a few minutes everyday reviewing the things that I might need for my first course assessment. It's difficult to know what to revise though, as the tutor can't tell us more about the assignment until we're closer to the date.
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Hidden Groupie Joined 4921 days ago 42 posts - 48 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin
| Message 13 of 47 22 January 2012 at 4:44pm | IP Logged |
Sorry for the sporadic start to my log, I've been doing a lot of procrastinating over the last couple of weeks. I know I should be getting in more German time, but I keep putting it off. "I'll do it later" "...err...tomorrow..." o.O
*sighs*
German
I need to work on my listening comprehension...a LOT. I'm so bad at listening to things in German, it's cringworthy.
I don't know how I can improve this (other than listening to more German obviously). I don't have a lot of different materials to listen to. :(
Any tips/advice on improving listening skills would be very much appreciated. :)
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NickJS Senior Member United Kingdom flickr.com/photos/sg Joined 4991 days ago 264 posts - 334 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese
| Message 14 of 47 23 January 2012 at 3:35am | IP Logged |
I have no experience in German (apart from tonnes of Rammstein when I was younger haha) but I'd say find lots of music on Youtube, or get the mp3s and pretty much play them as often as you can.
I personally don't often get much chance to sit down and study, atleast this month I wont, so I pretty much play my TL music and various other things all the time and it definitely helps as eventually you just start to sing with it and if you do not know some of the words, just google the lyrics so you can sing with it :P. I do think constant listening even when passive improves recognition though as I was doing tone drills for Mandarin the other day and I only failed to recognise 2 tones out of 40.
Furthermore, if you like gaming on the pc or xbox - try getting into servers or simply messaging people who you notice are German, that way you can get some informal listening practice from them too. I was sat in a group online the other night full of people speaking Dutch and my friend was also speaking some German too haha!
Hope that helped a little and keep going strong :)!
Edited by NickJS on 23 January 2012 at 3:36am
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Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5427 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 15 of 47 23 January 2012 at 3:47am | IP Logged |
I agree with NickJS. Find some German music you like.
I work two jobs (about 70 hours a week), and at one of my jobs, I can listen to music. I have my mp3 player on shuffle with 6-8 different languages. It has vastly improved my listening comprehension, especially in French, Italian, and Croatian - the languages where I'm at a low-intermediate or high-beginner level.
Plus, it makes mundane tasks a lot more bearable. I turn TL music on while I'm doing housework and stuff, and a lot of times, my kids will start dancing and singing to it as well. It turns dishes and laundry into something a little more enjoyable. =)
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Hidden Groupie Joined 4921 days ago 42 posts - 48 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin
| Message 16 of 47 23 January 2012 at 2:37pm | IP Logged |
Thanks for the advice Nick and Kerrie. :)
I don't tend to listen to a lot of music, but I dare say I could find something I like if I look around a bit.
I prefer listening to stories (audio books), so maybe I should see if I can find some I can listen to in German? I guess Harry Potter is an obvious choice to look for, but I'm not really interested in it. I haven't read any of the books, but I have watched a couple of the films.
I don't 'dislike' it though, it just doesn't appeal to me that much, so it may not be too bad from the point of listening practice.
Moan for the day
I think I have my first language learning 'pet peave'; Subtitles that don't match up with the soundtrack. Darn it! x(
So much for my idea of reading along and listening at the same time. :(
*walks away grumbling*
Edited by Hidden on 23 January 2012 at 2:38pm
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