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German: massive input in Berlin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4534 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes  Studies: German | Message 49 of 295 11 January 2014 at 12:13am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I watched the Münich based Tatort just after reading your comment, and was laughing as the detectives arriving at the murder scene said 'servus' to every police officer they passed (about a dozen) on the way to the victim. I have lived in East Germany to and everyone greets you politely there as well. I always put it down to an example of something a little old fashioned that survived in the DDR, but not in the bigger West German cities. So perhaps it's a country/Ostdeutsch phenomenon. Though perhaps it happens in other West German cities. In Berlin I always say goodbye/thanks to the store staff as you leave. It would just feel rude to walk out without saying something. I don't really notice it, except when friends visit and I realize I am sort of horrified that they just walked out the random (record/book/clothing) store without saying goodbye. Edited by patrickwilken on 11 January 2014 at 12:14am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4083 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 50 of 295 11 January 2014 at 6:23am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I was wondering how you covered A1 to B1 in only 6 months :) It takes at least 6 months to do it in *intensive* courses. And I agree that other language institute courses are crap too.
Thats an excellent idea. I will check out the library here.
I dont like the 15cm form factor, am looking for something bigger :-\ I could get the bigger Kindle, but I am also getting an android tablet for Anki/duolingo. I am currently at A1.2/A2.1 level. I want to finish Assimil, and then I will start reading graded story books. Edited by Gemuse on 11 January 2014 at 6:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4534 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 51 of 295 11 January 2014 at 3:37pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I found films much more accessible than books and started regularly watching TV shows from about your level onwards. It's not that you'll magically pick up lots of vocabulary from listening, but I felt it was important to start hearing native materials as soon as possible. I was able to enjoy my first film in a cinema without subtitles after about four months. Videoland here in Berlin rents videos for 1 euro a night, and if you use Handbrake software you can copy DVDs to watch later when you get a chance. TV series are great as they use repetitive language and you can get really immersed in the story. I don't know how much time you have, but if you want to learn fast, then I would recommend, say, 20 films a month as a doable goal. The Super Challenge starts up again in 1st May, so you might want to consider doing this for German. Once you've read 10000 pages German you'll should find your German is a strong B2 (and that's only 30 pages/day for a year).
Or you could just jump straight into real books like Harry Potter once you finish Assimil. You should certainly be able to read that by the time you get to A2+/B1-. One thing I hate about the language schools is that they de-motivate you, and I think actually discourage you a way to start tackling native materials early on. Your first L2 book is going to be hard whenever you start, my first 200 pages took a few weeks to read, now I read that in about 4-5 days, but sooner is better than later. I would concentrate on getting some vocabulary down from Anki, and try adding matching sentences as you learn words, which will start teaching you grammar implicitly as well as make it much easier to learn words. One thing that surprised me is that you don't really need to know so much grammar to enjoyably read books. It really doesn't matter if you know whether das/die/der is the correct definite article, so long as you know that it is the definite article as you read. That's not to say grammar may or may not be important, but you can get a long way without worrying about it too much. Edited by patrickwilken on 11 January 2014 at 3:44pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ummagumma Senior Member IrelandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5257 days ago 217 posts - 241 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 52 of 295 11 January 2014 at 9:24pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Hi Patrick,
Thanks for the message over on my log. I am looking forward to our improvements in 2014. I've being reading through your log. By the way I am a big Tatort fan. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4534 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 53 of 295 12 January 2014 at 3:29pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Thanks. My wife is a Tatort fanatic, so unless I hide in the bedroom on Sunday nights, I watch it. I still find it pretty hard, but it's definitely an interesting window into German culture. Last week's episode, involving the culture clash of a new North German colleague in the Munich team wasparticularly amusing. ------------- I was at a party last night and two Germans I was speaking with swore that dubbed media are much clearer than undubbed German moves/tv. They thought the syntax was also simpler - which probably makes sense when they are approximating English sentence structures. Another argument for beginners to take advantage of the massive amount of dubbed films on offer. I was actually really pleased with my ability to follow rapid drunken conversations last night on all sorts of issues: Israel, EU economic policy, human trafficking, the Internet, vegan cooking (it was a student birthday party). At some point I found myself talking English (I think because I was bit drunk and tired and needed to speak fast to keep up), but everyone kept talking German back at high speed, and everyone seemed happy. No one could believe that I had only been studying German for a year-and-a-half, which was very satisfying. Hopefully next year I be able to keep to German the whole time. Edited by patrickwilken on 12 January 2014 at 3:41pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4083 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 54 of 295 13 January 2014 at 9:53am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Good job Patrick!
Although technically you have been learning German for more than 1.5 years (eg your previous 6 month Goethe courses...) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4534 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 55 of 295 13 January 2014 at 10:02am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I have been trying to learn German on and mostly off for years: it's only been in the last 1.5 years that I have been succeeding when I seriously started self-learning in London and then Berlin. When I started in June 2012 I was A1 both in grammar and vocabulary. I am pretty confident that in my first three months of self-learning I spent more time on German than the previous eight years. So you could say I have been learning German for 18 months well, and 2-3 months badly in total. Edited by patrickwilken on 13 January 2014 at 10:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4083 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 56 of 295 13 January 2014 at 10:49am | IP Logged | ||||||||
You were only A1 even after the 6 months of Goethe courses?!? *Shakes fist at Goethe Institut* 1 person has voted this message useful |
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