Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6087 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 273 of 292 15 September 2013 at 9:12am | IP Logged |
I'm always changing methods. That's my problem. I guess we all have to go with what works :)
Heute hole ich meine Konjunktiv-Kenntnisse aus der Schublade! Für meine Lektion "Protokollführung", benutze ich die Form der indirekten Rede. Ich habe "Übungsgrammatik" von Heuber und ich werde mich da heute mal durcharbeiten. Am Ende der Übung werde ich ganze Interviews in die indirekte Rede umformen können. (^-^)b
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6087 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 274 of 292 16 September 2013 at 10:20am | IP Logged |
I'm writing monologues of my kids, vacation, seasons, traffic, weather. I just wrote one about sports at lang-8.
I'm going to start memorizing my monologues today.
I have to return to Konjunktiv 1. Those excercises were hard! It's no wonder that Übungsgrammatik für Fortgeschrittene was recommended by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München for foreign speakers! I feel like I'm in school. I was able to tackle the interview from ZEITmagazin better than "Anleitung zum Unglücklich sein". I made a lot of mistakes on that one. I'm really out of my element there. I just need more practice. I can't stay on it for long. I have too much to do.
What else is on the list for today? Mostly reading. I have two books to finish.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6063 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical)
| Message 275 of 292 21 September 2013 at 3:58am | IP Logged |
Übungsgrammatik für Fortgeschrittene and Das Oberstufenbuch were the two grammars used by our teacher last year. Whenever I tackled an exercise, images of flagellants came to mind. It's that mixed feeling: on one hand, you're supposed to be an advanced student; on the other, you're flabbergasted with how much you (still) don't know.
Konjunktiv I is also something I had (have?) trouble grasping, mainly because it's the one thing I can't find in any other language I know. And apparently it's supposed to be quite simple. Or so they say. :p
Kudos to you on your efforts.
2 persons have voted this message useful
|
Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6087 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 276 of 292 21 September 2013 at 11:55am | IP Logged |
Thank you. I'm not that used to it because I don't use it when I speak. I use the substitute form of "würde", but German newspapers can't do without it. I think if I ever had to write a report or meeting minutes or something (which I've done in the past) Konjunktiv 1 is something I need to review.
I just got home from work and I'm about to engage in that ol' wanderlust that has plagued so many of our good forum members. I found a copy of McGraw Hill's "Complete Spanish Grammar" and I think it will be fun if I do an hour or two of some heavy-duty German grammar (the passive voice is always a good one) and then coast through a few chapters of some nice and easy regular verb conjugations in Spanish! Aaaah. I feel like grammar today for some reason. Studying advanced German grammar and then switching to beginning Spanish grammar will be like taking off the ankle weights while jogging.
French is going along well. I've written 7 or 8 (?) monologues in French and they've all been corrected. I'm starting to memorize them. I've been really inspired by Boris Shekhtman's book, "How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately" and I'm confident that his advice about creating "islands" -- these monologues Ive been doing -- will finally help me get over that B1 hump. I wrote a simple review :
J'ai lu un livre très utile intitulé “How to improve your foreign language immediately”. L’auteur décrit des outils que l’on peut utiliser pour communiquer plus facilement. L’un des outils est : îles. Le concept est simple : Il compare langue étrangère à la natation. Parler sa langue maternelle, c'est comme marcher, mais parler une langue étrangère, c'est comme nager. Lors d’une conversation avec un locuteur natif, on a besoin d'un endroit où l'on peut se recharger/récupérer. Ces îles ne sont ni plus ni moins que des petits textes que l'on a écrits et mémorisés. Il faut que mémoriser le plus d'îles que possible. Plus il y a d’iles, meilleures sont les chances de réussite dans une conversation. Je donne des cours d’allemands à trois adultes anglais/d'Angleterre et j’ai voulu leur faire connaître cette idée des « iles » mais ils ont en train d’apprendre la grammaire. Ils ne sont pas prêts. À bien y penser, il va falloir que je tienne aussi à jour mes compétences grammaticales
I haven't been keeping up with anki. Only one of my decks is at 0 -- the rest are brimming at 24-30 cards. I'll have to live with that for now because I have so much I want to do this weekend! This is the time of the week that I look forward to the most because my time is my own.
Edited by Sunja on 21 September 2013 at 12:04pm
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6087 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 277 of 292 23 September 2013 at 8:23am | IP Logged |
As if I didn't have enough to do! Wanderlust got the best of me on the weekend:
I started dabbling in Italian. There's two Italian gents that are going to join my DAZ group on Tues. and Thurs. starting in Oct. They don't speak any German and maybe a smattering of English. They work for the same company as the 3 English guys that I've been teaching since spring. I decided to go over the the very first few lessons of my DAZ Kursbuch "Themen Neu 1" and translate "my name is", "I live..." and so forth. I even bought Tedesco in Tasca, because it was only 5 Euros -- I can get a glimpse the problems they might have learning German, pronunciation-wise.
J'ai du pain sur planche. I think I can handle it. I'm almost finished with my German Lernheft "Benutzerverwaltung und Systemwartung". I have one more to go. I'll finish the three just in time for October.
As for French, I'm still memorizing what I wrote last week. My goal this week is to do all Anki decks. I also want to write new monologues for lang-8: my last vacation, favorite season, weather, traffic. I'd better get to it.
Edited by Sunja on 23 September 2013 at 10:07am
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6063 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical)
| Message 278 of 292 23 September 2013 at 7:55pm | IP Logged |
As far as language learning goes, I love the beginnings. That's the part when many pieces fall into place easily.
I believe there are two sides to language learning:
1. The professionally useful side; and
2. The "wanderlust" side (to use your expression).
When the two come together, one really is on to something.
Whether this is your case or not, don't feel guilty for straying a bit. :)
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6087 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 279 of 292 27 September 2013 at 9:08am | IP Logged |
My problem is now, I have too many unfinished beginnings, and not enough endings -- he-he! But you're right Luso, there has to be a balance of both.
GERMAN: I got my two Einsendeaufgaben back today: 98 and 99 points! That basically means that I understood the lesson and I was able to apply what I learned. Textformulierung is a major weak point and I've asked my tutor to give me some advice on that. I'll post her response when I get it!
FRENCH: I'm a bit worried about having too much on my plate -- I didn't get much French done this week. I'd really like to sit the DELF this Feb. I -need- a benchmark. I'm still so far away from that goal. No panic. I'll stay on my present course, no changes.
fall break is coming and I plan to do a few house-related projects that I didn't do over the summer, but one of my major goals is to revise my French grammar. I even have it in my calendar in big letters "GRAMMAR". I haven't practiced for 9 months or so. I think it will do me some good -- especially after I've done so much writing at lang-8.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6087 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 280 of 292 29 September 2013 at 10:01am | IP Logged |
MY TUTOR:
ja, da haben Sie recht. Alle Bereiche dieses Lehrganges "stemmen" Sie "mit links"; nur mit dem Thema "Formulieren" haben Sie Ihre Problemchen ( ... )
eine E-Mail später:
ich bin eben gerade im Internet fündig geworden. Vielleicht helfen Ihnen diese Übungen ja ein bisschen weiter.
http://www.buero-update.de/download/verstaubte%20Formulierun gen%20Uebung.pdf
I put this here for reference. Unfortunately there are no Lösungsvorschläge. I have to rely on my own better judgement which is not really helpful considering how I write, so I'm considering buying the book "Praxishandbuch Korrespondenz" by Jutta Sauer. That should help me loosen up my style a little bit. I'll have to buy it later. I'm a bit tapped out at the moment!
I'm keeping pace with my Lehrgang. I'll finish one book today and then I start on two for October.
Whenever I get busy like this French seems really estranged and far away. Instead of heading "home" I feel like I keep having to move two spaces back. I'll try to take the time to work on that today. I love Sundays. Sunday is MINE. No work, no other impeding obligations :)
I'll work on memorizing my 10 monologues/islands today. I also have Assimil. I'm working with leçon 100. If I can catch up with Anki, I can start inputting the excercises and setences in Anki again, but the work I'm doing to memorize these islands has really cut into my anki-review time. I have to decide what's more important.
Edited by Sunja on 29 September 2013 at 10:11am
1 person has voted this message useful
|