kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5189 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 417 of 436 24 November 2013 at 1:55pm | IP Logged |
Hehe it sounds like you're not dropping japanese at all if you're still doing a weekly
language exchange. When I neglect a language I totally ignore it. I haven't touched European
languages at all in months and only for a brief stint did I look at German in September. Not
that I'm advocating that.
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g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5987 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German
| Message 418 of 436 24 November 2013 at 2:05pm | IP Logged |
Last night I discovered I am able to stream episodes of Tatort with German subtitles on the
Das Erste website. I was able to understand enough, with the assistance of the subs, to enjoy
the show and pick up a short list of key words, although I'm not at a point where I could
just sit back, turn the subs off and learn by listening. Still, it was a fun way to spend 90
minutes.
I've also noted that DW's Warum Nicht programme is available in French. The French narration
is very clearly spoken which led me to think about trying L3 (or is that L4) through L2.
Problem is I know I will get German more efficiently if I just learn through English until
I'm good enough to use native materials. But I think maybe using the French version would
help me get used to switching between the two languages. Maybe I could use the French version
for a review.
I've got back into Assimil German. I'm determined to finish it this time. I wasn't sure
whether to go back a few steps but in the end I just continued from where I left off. The
first lesson I did was tough, but it was worth it. I have decided to split the active and
passive wave lessons across different days though. I find myself wanting to spend as much
time on the active wave as the passive and an hour of Assimil in one go is too much.
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stifa Triglot Senior Member Norway lang-8.com/448715 Joined 4878 days ago 629 posts - 813 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Japanese, Spanish
| Message 419 of 436 24 November 2013 at 5:34pm | IP Logged |
Last time I tried turning on subs on Tatort on DasErste, I found the subs to be very
inaccurate and sloppily made.
And don't worry, you'll reach that level soon enough; after restarting learning German
(from a point where I had to even look up some of the prepositions and basic words like
"nehmen"...), my listening comprehension was actually good enough to learn from
listening after four-five months of a little bit of study every day..
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g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5987 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German
| Message 420 of 436 29 November 2013 at 8:45pm | IP Logged |
I think if you're at the point where the subs feel inaccurate, it's time to turn them off and rely on your ears alone. I'm nowhere near that point yet, so the subs were indispensible for when I couldn't keep up with the dialogue!
So we have just over one month remaining of the 2013 TAC. A post about 2014 goals has already popped up and it's a little too easy for me to be swept away by the fun of fantasising about learning languages, which for some bizarre reason can at times feel almost as satisfying as actually learning languages. Anyway, to try and keep myself focused on doing some more genuine work before the year is out, I thought I would set out a few mini goals to get me through December:
German
Assimil: Get to Lesson 85 of the passive wave and 36 of the active wave (that covers about 10 passive and 10 active lessons, including the review lessons)
Deutsch Warum Nicht: Finish listening to season 2 (have listened to the first 10 of 26 episodes already)
Begegnungen A1+: Complete chapters 3 and 4 (currently halfway through 3)
French
Finish reading L'homme aux cercles bleues
Finish watching the TV series Les Revenants
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g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5987 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German
| Message 421 of 436 04 December 2013 at 11:42pm | IP Logged |
Just completed chapter 3 of Begegnungen. I hate to admit it, but I'm quite enjoying doing German grammar exercises. Combined with my experiences of learning Japanese, I'm starting to think that all languages ought to have some kind of case markers!
Alternating active/passive each day is working well with Assimil. I don't know why, but as much as I love the quirkiness of the Assimil dialogues, I can't stand to spend a whole hour working on it in a day. I think it might just be because the lessons are quite intensive and seem to contain a lot of information. I can spend an hour conjugating the present and building basic sentences using Begegnungen, but Assimil requires too much brain power!
This week I've also discovered that my lunchtime walk is just long enough for me to listen to one lesson of Warum Nicht plus two or three songs. I'm not always in the mood for language study in my lunchbreak, even if it's as effortless as walking around and listening, but for days when I am, it's perfect. The deeper I get into Warum Nicht, the more impressed I am with the course. They seem to do a brilliant job of giving you just enough information to actually understand what is going on in the dialogues.
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kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4852 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese
| Message 422 of 436 05 December 2013 at 1:21am | IP Logged |
I'm happy that you're enjoying Warum Nicht and enjoying your studies lately.
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g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5987 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German
| Message 423 of 436 06 December 2013 at 10:15pm | IP Logged |
I have even more love for Warum Nicht after listening to a lesson which covered Die Dreigroschenoper. I ended up having to fish out the version I have on CD to give it another listen. It's the only opera I like (I'm not certain it even counts as an opera!) and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it.
I've also been having a little bit of seasonal fun, thanks again to Deutsche Welle, with this Adventskalender which provides a bite-sized portion of seasonally themed listening comprehension every day. So far I've managed to figure out the answer for each day, so clearly something is happening with my listening comprehension!
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g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5987 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German
| Message 424 of 436 14 December 2013 at 2:40pm | IP Logged |
I seem to have lost my voice. Can someone help me find it?
Seriously, the common cold is without doubt an enemy of language learning. I haven't touched German for a few days because it's hard to memorise things and solve grammar problems with a headache and impossible to do the listening and repeat out loud thing I do with Assimil when you sound more like a frog than a human. Even the Quark lesson.
My German is just not good enough for me to have anything in German undemanding enough to watch while recovering on the sofa. So I've been watching Cédric Klapisch movies (he shares the credit with Fred Vargas for getting me interested in French media) along with indulging my native language by watching Wonders of the Solar System (documentaries like this are my comfort food when I'm ill), and having a mini 90s revival by watching Neverwhere.
Anyway, although Assimil is still impossible for me I'm clearly feeling well enough to complain about being sick on the internet, so I must be getting better. I just need to get my voice back!
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