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Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian
| Message 9 of 236 07 January 2013 at 10:05pm | IP Logged |
Hello BAnna,
here is a correction of your text. Your German is very good and I think it can become really great if you want it to be. Maybe this TAC is the opportunity to brush it up? If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Best regards from your "Godfather"! :)
BAnna wrote:
Heute ist mir eingefallen, dass ich mich noch nicht vorgestellt habe. Ich bin eine 50-jährige Frau, die zu viel arbeitet und nicht genug Zeit zum Sprachenlernen hat. Natürlich ist Englisch meine Muttersprache, weil ich in den USA geboren und aufgewachsen bin, aber ich spreche auch seit meiner Kindheit Spanisch. Ich spreche meistens Spanisch zu Hause, weil mein Mann Nicaraguaner ist. In der Grundschule habe ich ein Jahr Deutsch gelernt, als ich dreizehn war. Später in der "High School", habe ich für zwei Jahren Französisch gelernt. Ich kann besser Französisch lesen als sprechen, aber ich würde niemals sagen, dass ich Französisch wirklich sprechen kann. Ich habe auch vor vielen Jahren nur oberflächlich Japanisch und Italienisch gelernt, erinnere mich aber kaum noch daran. Seit zwei Jahren lerne ich Deutsch. Mein Sohn hat mir empfohlen, Deutsch zu lernen, um interessante Bücher zu lesen. Ich habe an Kursen beim Goethe-Institut und bei der Volkshochschule teilgenommen. Ich habe keine offizielle Prüfung gemacht, aber ich glaube, mein Niveau ist B1 oder so, je nachdem, wie müde oder ungeduldig ich bin. Meine Sprachfähigkeit ist viel schwächer, als ich es mir wünsche, aber ich lese gern und viel. Weil ich in den USA wohne, habe ich eigentlich keinen Bedarf und nur wenige Gelegenheiten, Deutsch zu sprechen, trotzdem gefällt es mir sehr. Ich freue mich darauf, euch kennenzulernen. Ich hoffe, wir können zusammen viel lernen und teilen.
Viel Spaß beim Lernen.
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Edited by Josquin on 07 January 2013 at 10:05pm
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| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish
| Message 10 of 236 13 January 2013 at 9:15pm | IP Logged |
Josquin: Vielen Dank für die hilfreichen Korrekturen!
All specifics on progress are in my first log post, with incoherent, rambling, stream-of-consciousness comments in follow on entries. In order to make sure I actually spend more time practicing German than checking the forum, my plan is to only check logs maybe twice a week and only post once a week (so please don't take it personally if I don't respond to something you might say right away).
All subject to change: Life is an experiment!
About 20 hours total exposure to German this past week (mostly on the weekend, but also doing 1-2 hours per day on weekdays). I was able to get the 15-hour long film Berlin Alexanderplatz from the library, and am slowly working my way through it, I am watching it with English subtitles because of the strong Berlin dialect: wat/dat for was/dass, ick for ich, non-standard pronunciation of words such as Kaffee and weinen, probably also 1920s slang or underworld expressions. As a native English speaker, I am happy that I can actually hear that "ick", but according to my skype friends I usually say "ich" most of the time. I am also noticing more regional variation in podcasts I listen to. Earlier, it all sounded "German" unless the person was speaking dialect in a really obvious way. No, I can't place where the person is from, but I am noticing differences. Hurrah!
Writing is dreadful: only did a small amount of scriptorum. This continues to be my weakest area of practice: what to do? I have been unsure as whether I would take a class or not, and now have decided that yes, a native speaker's guidance is essential and I have a great opportunity: 2 students with one teacher 2 hours a week (so not really a very formal class: I'm calling it Kleingruppenunterricht in my progress update). I am reviewing some vocabulary from A2, since many of my errors with adjective endings and cases stem from my incomplete learning of genders. My most strident advice to beginners would be to really learn those genders until they are completely automatic. I wish I had listened to that advice earlier: when communicating one needs to concentrate on the content, not what ending the adjective needs. Not surprisingly, since my only dealings with German officials have been at airports or train stations, many of the A2 words I forgot had to do with filling out forms and dealing with officials. I "know" what BAFöG is, but cannot imagine it is anything I would ever actually need to know. Some interesting and maybe more useful words that I came across several times in different contexts Pechvögel (unlucky fellow), bahnbrechende (breakthrough) and ausweichen (evade/dodge).
Reading Experiment: tried intensive reading, extensive reading and L-R this week with mixed results.
Intensive: Die gläserne Schlüssel von Hammett (original in English). Spent 20 minutes covering 3 pages. I think this was a bad choice because it has so much difficult to translate slang from the 1930s. I will try again this coming week with something else.
L-R: Another dud. I haven't really done L-R before, so I'm just playing around with it. I did an L2-L2 L-R with Die Stadt der Träumenden Bücher. This is a fantasy-adventure story and has lots of flowery and unique language. I did an hour of L-R and thought my head would explode. I may try another book or I may request the English version from the library and try L2-L1. I like the book a lot, but I enjoy EITHER listening to it OR reading it, not both together. I think my reading of this material is just too slow.
Extensive: Ahhh. this was truly a pleasure. Finished a fairly long young people's book called Rosa Riedl (from age 10 up, not a picture book) about a Schutzgespenst "Guardian ghost". It was set in Vienna, and used a lot of Austrian expressions and slang. It included an Österreichisch-Hochdeutsch glossary (z.B. Marille v. Aprikose for apricot) Now I am well into Schami's Der ehrliche Lügner and am really enjoying it so far. Both books were at a good level for me. There were at the very most maybe 6 or 7 unknown words per page, most of which were clear by context and only very occasionally did I have to look something up. For example, Hammel = mutton, It came up repeatedly and from the context, I could only tell that it was some sort of food/animal. It's der Hammel, by the way.
Viel Spaß beim Lernen!
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| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish
| Message 11 of 236 17 January 2013 at 1:52am | IP Logged |
Die folgende klingt vielleicht lächerlich, aber ich würde gerne mit einigen Wörter und Ausdrücke, die ich vor kurzem gelernt habe, üben.
Bald kommt der Geburtstag meines Vaters. Er wird 79 Jahre alt. Sein Geburtstagsfest spielt sich am gleichen Tag des Endspiels um die US-amerikanische Football-Meisterschaft ab. An diesem sogenannten Superbowl-Sonntag, werden wir seinen Geburtstag feiern. Ich muss denn nachdenken, woran ich ihm schenke. Er ist ein anspruchsvoller Herr, der aus einem würdigeren Zeitalter als unseres, entsteht. Mein Mann kann ziemlich geizig sein, deshalb ist es sichtlich, dass ich die Auswahl des Geschenkes zu ihm nicht überlassen kann. Ich möchte meinem Vater etwas gleichzeitig vornehm und günstig vorliegen, weil er immer nach dem Preis fragt und es ihm peinlich wäre, wenn das Geschenk zu teuer wäre. Vielleicht könnten wir ihm ein schöner Pullunder aus Wolle schenken und könnte ich ihm ein besonderes Abendessen zubereiten. Wenn sein Lieblingsteam im Superbowl spielte, wird er beschwingt , auch ohne ein angenehmes Geschenk und Abendessen zu erhalten.
Edited by BAnna on 17 January 2013 at 1:52am
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| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian
| Message 12 of 236 17 January 2013 at 12:26pm | IP Logged |
BAnna wrote:
Das Folgende klingt vielleicht lächerlich, aber ich würde gerne _ einige Wörter und Ausdrücke, die ich vor kurzem gelernt habe, üben.
Bald kommt der Geburtstag meines Vaters. Er wird 79 Jahre alt. Sein Geburtstagsfest findet am gleichen Tag wie das Endspiel um die US-amerikanische Football-Meisterschaft statt. An diesem sogenannten Superbowl-Sonntag werden wir seinen Geburtstag feiern. Ich muss darüber nachdenken, was ich ihm schenke. Er ist ein anspruchsvoller Herr, der aus einem würdigeren Zeitalter als unserem stammt. Mein Mann kann ziemlich geizig sein, deshalb ist es offensichtlich, dass ich ihm die Auswahl des Geschenkes nicht überlassen kann. Ich möchte meinem Vater etwas sowohl Vornehmes als auch Günstiges vorlegen, weil er immer nach dem Preis fragt und es ihm peinlich wäre, wenn das Geschenk zu teuer wäre. Vielleicht könnten wir ihm einen schönen Pullunder aus Wolle schenken und ich könnte ihm ein besonderes Abendessen zubereiten. Wenn sein Lieblingsteam im Superbowl spielt, wird er beschwingt, auch ohne ein angenehmes Geschenk und Abendessen zu erhalten.
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That was a really demanding text you wrote. Sehr gut und weiter so! :)
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| Dagane Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4512 days ago 259 posts - 324 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishB2, Galician Studies: German Studies: Czech
| Message 13 of 236 17 January 2013 at 5:32pm | IP Logged |
BAnna wrote:
The ver- prefix is interesting:
It can form verbs from adjectives, conveying the meaning of become: alt-veralten=become old.
It can form verbs from nouns, conveying the meaning of provide with:
Gift-vergiften=to poison.
It can form verbs from verbs, conveying a variety of meanings:
completion of an action: brauchen(use)-verbrauchen=to use up
a mistaken action: schlucken(swallow)-verschlucken=to choke
an intensification: zweifeln(to doubt)-verzweifeln=to despair
Vorsicht:
"verschreiben"=to prescribe (a medication) but the reflexive "sich (etwas) verschreiben"=to commit oneself to something and "sich verschreiben"=make a written mistake
Wir haben uns die Sprachentwicklung verschrieben.
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I must go through that grammar at some point... By the way, you're taking the TAC seriously. And your writing is way better than mine, he, he. Viel Glück with January. Next month will be different, I hope Schnitzel members all continue learning from each others' improvements, as well as from Josquin's corrections, of course!
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| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6086 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 14 of 236 17 January 2013 at 6:07pm | IP Logged |
BAnna wrote:
My most strident advice to beginners would be to really learn those genders until they are completely automatic. I wish I had listened to that advice earlier: when communicating one needs to concentrate on the content, not what ending the adjective needs. |
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I hate to say it, but even after years of immersion endings are still a struggle. I correct myself in mid-sentence sometimes. I did it today on the phone, in fact. I said "Wir haben einen neuen Betriebsy-- ääh, neueS Betriebsystem" (das System) Not everything is a struggle, though. There are patterns. If you search "German Genders" here in the forum, I'm sure I've posted a list of endings and their genders once or twice. If not, I'd be happy to post it again.
Another bit of advice for your readers: memorize words with prepositions. This may be hard to do in the beginning, but it's it pays off immensely in the intermediate stages.
zur Post - to the post office
an der Wand - on the wall
im Himmel - in the sky/heaven
auf der Straße - on the street
BAnna wrote:
I like the book a lot, but I enjoy EITHER listening to it OR reading it, not both together. I think my reading of this material is just too slow. |
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So do I! When I Listen/Read, I concentrate to make sure my eyeballs and my ears are in sync, then I have no idea what I'm reading. ^^ My brain doesn't like multi-tasking.
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| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish
| Message 15 of 236 20 January 2013 at 8:18pm | IP Logged |
20Jan: All specifics on progress are in my first log post
@Josquin, Thank you for your corrections and words of encouragement. Du bist der Hammer!
@Sunja: Ach, Herrje! Even after "years of immersion" the gender confusion still lurks? Alas. Oh well, perfection is not a realistic goal, but I can always dream. Unfortunately I do get some interference from Spanish, for example: el pescado = der Fisch (both masc), but (fem) la ballena=(masc)der Wal (and then of course there is die Wahl, but that is another story). The English part of my brain wants to put das on everything, and the Spanish part of my brain is trying to convince me to forgo das completely and pick its appropriate gender, while the German part of my brain is completely unreliable. Any good tips to combat interference (if you do have any between German and French for example)? I am sincerely impressed by people who are able to study multiple languages simultaneously.
...and yes your advice about learning the prepositions is absolutely spot on. I was glad to have spent some time this past week relearning prepositions (both location and verbal) and the locational prefixes hinaus-, herab-,etc.
A find out of the free discards box: A book called Kurze deutsche Grammatik für Ausländer. It is very old school: 275 pages with no exercises and no pictures, but lots of explanations and examples. One of the example sentences was:
"die Freiheit der Arbeiterklasse nach dem Sturz des Kapitalismus"
Can you guess the origin of this book? Leipzig (DDR) 1980.
Update on LR: my first reaction last week was "meh". However, when I went back a couple of days later to reread the section I had L-R'd, I could hear the words from the recording in my head as I read along. Even stranger: the next day I just listened to the recording and I could actually visualize the words. Hmm, maybe there is something to it? In reading more about L-R, I think you're supposed to do it for multiple hours at a time, but I just don't have time for that. In future, maybe I'll just call it audioreading to avoid misleading anyone that I'm doing true L-R.
For vocab study, since I'm not a fan of flash cards or srs, I tried something new for me: intensive reading, with picking out and looking up words/expressions, then writing a log entry using them. It sort of worked, but just getting a definition doesn't really always convey enough about meaning. It is worth taking the time to look up sample sentences to see how words are actually used in context. Scriptorium has some promise since you say the words out loud numerous times, but my hand gets tired. Tomorrow is a holiday for me, but my husband is working, so I'll have a nice chunk of time to play in German.
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| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6086 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 16 of 236 20 January 2013 at 9:24pm | IP Logged |
BAnna wrote:
@Sunja: Ach, Herrje! Even after "years of immersion" the gender confusion still lurks? Alas. Oh well, perfection is not a realistic goal, but I can always dream. Unfortunately I do get some interference from Spanish, for example: el pescado = der Fisch (both masc), but (fem) la ballena=(masc)der Wal (and then of course there is die Wahl, but that is another story). The English part of my brain wants to put das on everything, and the Spanish part of my brain is trying to convince me to forgo das completely and pick its appropriate gender, while the German part of my brain is completely unreliable. Any good tips to combat interference (if you do have any between German and French for example)? I am sincerely impressed by people who are able to study multiple languages simultaneously.
...and yes your advice about learning the prepositions is absolutely spot on. I was glad to have spent some time this past week relearning prepositions (both location and verbal) and the locational prefixes hinaus-, herab-,etc. |
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I worry about interference between languages I know half-way and less. For instance, I ordered Assimil "Spanish" because I want to one day try to finish learning it. I used to be able to read simple Spanish with a decent accent. Now I read Spanish with a French accent. Oh my. I may need to call on you when I'm ready to learn Spanish again! As for the German and French genders, often I'll make up stories to use as a memory aid. The stories have all words "fem." or all words "masc.".
"Le groupe of French boys sit on le banc and eat le plat of le chocolat."
"die Gruppe German girls sit on die Bank and eat die Schokolade on die Platte."
The stories don't make much sense since they're disjointed and nobody eats a platter of chocolate, but it helps. It's not fullproof, I have to keep working with the words that I don't use (I forget easily).
It's super helpful that the German books for French always have nice lists of the words with genders that don't match. That means I have lists of words all ready for me to work with. Do Spanish books for German have lists?
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