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Brushing up my German | ||
Tags: German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| mausi15 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4898 days ago 24 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, French | Message 1 of 4 22 May 2014 at 3:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello all,
I'm currently in my final year at school studying German (Advanced Higher which is roughly equivalent to A-Level) with the intention of continuing to study it at university this September as my degree (at the University of Edinburgh). I do try to spend time immersing myself in native materials at home and whilst I can only give a rough estimate I'd say I'm around a comfortable B2 level at least when it comes to my passive skills. Ie I can comfortably listen and watch most documentaries, radio programmes, TV shows and understand around 80-95% without straining or having to concentrate too hard. Naturally it varies - for example, I recently watched a film set in Hamburg, so it was nice clearly spoken Hochdeutsch whereas I had difficulty completely following a Viennese film that I recently watched partly because of the accent and mumbling etc. My reading skills are pretty sound for my level too, I'd say. I can read 'good' literary fiction (ie Kafka, der Vorleser, Hesse) without having to resort to a dictionary or struggling but things like Thomas Mann are a bit of a stretch to read without putting some effort in. Okay, I've rambled a bit but I'll cut to the chase. In spite of feeling quite confident about my passive skills I feel I've sort of hit a stumbling block with regards to my written skills (I actually feel quite confident re oral progress peculiarly). It's not really to do with grammar or technicalities like that, but more to do with a reluctance to express myself in written form for fear of sounding 'clumsy'. Ie not quite knowing what the best/most native sounding way to express myself would be. This sounds like something which is perhaps quite common once you've reached the intermediate stage. I suspect I'll gradually develop more feeling and intuition for what sounds best as you progress, though. In any case, does anyone here have any advice as to how you managed to brush up your active skills, in particular written, when you felt they were perhaps lagging rather too far behind your passive ones? Again, any advice would be greatly appreciated. :D Edited by mausi15 on 22 May 2014 at 3:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 2 of 4 22 May 2014 at 11:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Write more and get it corrected on lang-8, italki etc. The only way to get better at this
sort of thing is to do it. Especially since you have the vocabulary but probably just need to be shown how German sentences click together. 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 3 of 4 23 May 2014 at 12:30am | IP Logged | ||
You sound like you are actually a bit more advanced that I am so take my suggestions with a grain of salt. If you need to do writing soon, then I would suggest writing as soon as possible to start getting comfortable. I think Tarvos is right on the money. At some level language skills are modular, and to get better at writing you need to write more. However, I suspect you really need to be exposed alot more to the language for it to really become comfortable, and for you not to fear being clumsy. How much do you read? I am not at your level, but I am B2, and am trying to read a novel a week. Contemporary literature, krimis etc. Nothing to heavy at this point. Mann is still a way a way for me. It's very hard to judge future progress, but I have sense that I am going to have keep reading at this rate (10k-15k pages/year) for quite a long time before I really start getting comfortable with the language, but I don't really see any other way of doing it. Edited by patrickwilken on 23 May 2014 at 12:33am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 4 of 4 23 May 2014 at 11:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think comfort is something you really ever get. You just pretend that you do and
muddle through. Besides that expressing yourself in writing will train you in the use of your German in a more idiomatic way anyway. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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