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Material for improving German Listening? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4080 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes  Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 1 of 10 18 October 2013 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm at beginning A2 level in German. I am terrible at making out the audio conversations
in my coursebook. Any material which will help me with this? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4634 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 2 of 10 18 October 2013 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Which course is it?
Since it's just a course, try as hard as you can to understand it, and if you can't, move on. It'll come later. Edited by sillygoose1 on 18 October 2013 at 7:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 3 of 10 18 October 2013 at 10:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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There are tons of material at the deutsche welle site, including audio courses or interactive courses, easy news and so on. There are resources for all the learners from the beginning up to the level of comfortable shift to normal native things. And it is all for free.
Audiobooks may be another idea, especially if your listening skills are far bellow the reading. Many graded readers come with a cd, however, they are one of the more boring options. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chokofingrz Pentaglot Senior Member England Joined 5187 days ago 241 posts - 430 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Japanese, Catalan, Luxembourgish | Message 4 of 10 19 October 2013 at 2:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Further to what Cavesa said, here is the specific page for A2 at Deutsche Welle: link. You could try the "Radio D Part 2" audio series, or the "Warum Nicht?" video series. They are well done but not always the most gripping.
Personally I'm at a level closer to consuming native materials. Lately I've been watching episodes of House dubbed into German. Some of the German is too difficult or fast, but since I've already seen them in English I can pick up quite a few useful words and phrases. There are quite a few German episodes of TV shows on Youtube for when you outgrow the educational materials. Even kids' stuff like Sandmännchen is potentially useful, if you can tolerate it! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4080 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 5 of 10 19 October 2013 at 4:13am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks. Will try out the RadioD series first.
What are the better non-boring options? The material at the deutsche welle site you mentioned? sillygoose1: these are the conversations in Menschen, Schritte etc books being used in my Goethe Institut class. For example: I had to listen 3 times to complete this exercise: http://www.schubert-verlag.de/aufgaben/uebungen_a1/a1_kap6_h oeren1.htm In more advanced exercises, I get lost. Reading, I am ok. But I am terrible at making out the words in spoken German samples from these books. Edited by Gemuse on 19 October 2013 at 4:47am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 6 of 10 19 October 2013 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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The non boring options are real native material but you might need to progress a bit further for these things to not be boring by being too demanding. I started watching tv series in Spanish when my active skills were really really low and passive were like A2, but my French gave me a lot of an advantage there. So, if you know you won't get frustrated by the first two or three episodes being really difficult, go for it. And the same applies to audiobooks (perhaps in combination with the real books). A2 is quite a border level, in my opinion. While most people start native material later (usually when they encounter the shortage of advanced learner aimed material), it is already possible to dive into something you really like.
So, if you go this way of early native material, there are a few words of advice: -get a dubbed tv show first (and something likely to have nice dubbing). They are much easier. And something you like and won't mind watching more times if you feel the need. If there is a transcript available somewhere on the internet, get it. Subtitles are usually abridged and not a precise transcript of the dubbing. -audiobooks-get only non abridged versions. And unless you really like the classics and are passionate about those, get something easier at first. Harry Potter translation is a very common choice. Again, translations are easier than originals (usually) and books of "lesser" genres are easier than classics. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4826 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 7 of 10 20 October 2013 at 2:33am | IP Logged | ||
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An "authentic German" alternative to Harry Potter might be the Tintenwelt trilogy. As you
are in Germany, you should have no trouble getting hold of the original (book and audio...maybe it's in a local library). You could get the translations from amazon.uk (other retailers are available), if it's not easily findable over there. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4080 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 8 of 10 20 October 2013 at 10:53am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks .. I will keep both series in mind.
Its too early for that for me now, as I am only beginning A2. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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