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Fluent German by the end of the year | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| valkyr Triglot Groupie Romania Joined 5182 days ago 79 posts - 112 votes  Speaks: Romanian*, EnglishC1, GermanB2 | Message 41 of 70 25 March 2012 at 1:18am | IP Logged | ||
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I was thinking ... one thing I didn't get to practice a lot during my stay here in
Germany was speaking, which is quite sad since this is one of the few things that I really can't do at home. My only conversation partners are my colleagues at work, but since we're all glued to our computer screens for most of the day, there's not much conversation going on. I probably don't speak more than 15 - 20 minutes per day. It might be a bit more but it's usually one-sided, as the native speaker tends to hijack the conversation and do most of the talking himself. I could have tried being more sociable, but I didn't feel comfortable enough talking to random people ... and I was wondering why ... I speak well enough to get my point across. That's not an issue. However, what I constantly find frustrating is that I don't understand well when they speak. Asking "wie bitte?" every other sentence is not particularly pleasant. This reduces my confidence, especially when it comes to talking to strangers. Judging by the practice test results, I'm at least B2 with listening. But the B2 sample is not even representative for a news broadcast, let alone real speed conversation with local accents. How do I improve listening comprehension? Following news broadcasts won't do it. I need to understand real world conversations, not Angela Merkel's speech to the Bundestag or other such contrived forms of communication. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4686 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 42 of 70 25 March 2012 at 3:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I'd hardly call Angela Merkel's speeches to the Bundestag a contrived form of communication, unless you're
trying to make some sort of political statement...but why can't you just watch non-news TV, instead? People on TV shows have full-speed, colloquial conversations with each other all the time, right? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| valkyr Triglot Groupie Romania Joined 5182 days ago 79 posts - 112 votes Speaks: Romanian*, EnglishC1, GermanB2 | Message 43 of 70 25 March 2012 at 11:13am | IP Logged | ||
I was referring to the form of communication being unnatural, not the content. Somebody reciting a prepared speech in front of the cameras is definitely going to be a lot easier to understand compared to colloquial speech. I guess some non-news shows might be a good idea. I haven't really tried them so far, since I found the news more interesting. Edited by valkyr on 25 March 2012 at 11:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6083 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 44 of 70 25 March 2012 at 1:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm trying to improve my French listening by doing transcription. It really forces me to concentrate on what I hear. I basically take a simple text (usually one level below my current reading level) write it down then I check it. I always rewrite everything with the corrections and try to highlight my mistakes. With this method, I tend not to make the same mistake twice.
Other than that, you can try these exercises for listening comprehension at deutsch-lerner.blog. Here's some free worksheets that I found but it looks like only the A1-A2 levels come with audio. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| valkyr Triglot Groupie Romania Joined 5182 days ago 79 posts - 112 votes Speaks: Romanian*, EnglishC1, GermanB2 | Message 45 of 70 26 March 2012 at 12:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Sunja
Thanks for the links. While reading the B2 exam description on Goethe's website I realized, that you don't need 60% on each of the 4 sections to pass. Rather, you only need a minimum of 60% for the speaking part (15/25) and 60% for the other parts combined (45 out of 75 points)! In the practice test I got 47 points without doing the essays at all, which are worth 15 points. Even if I would have written poorly, and only gotten 7 points out of 15, that's still 55 / 75, which means I would have passed with room to spare. This differs from the Großes Deutsches Sprachdiplom (C2), which requires at least 60% on each part of the exam. I looked up the C1 description and the passing conditions are similar to the B2 test - the non-speaking sections are all bundled together in this respect. This is really good news, as it allows me to focus on the parts of the language that I'm interested in. An underdeveloped skill, like writing for example, will not lead to a failed test, as long as the overall skill level is appropriate. The only thing you can't compensate for is a lack of speaking skills. Edited by valkyr on 26 March 2012 at 12:46pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| valkyr Triglot Groupie Romania Joined 5182 days ago 79 posts - 112 votes Speaks: Romanian*, EnglishC1, GermanB2 | Message 46 of 70 28 March 2012 at 2:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Just wanted to share with you some podcasts to listen to if you want to improve your
German. There's a wide variety to choose from. I found this chart of the "best" German language podcasts www.podcharts.de (note sure which criteria they use to rate them). There are some video podcasts in there as well. I personally listen to: SWR2 - Wissen Philosophy, science, research etc. Sounds similar to Discovery channel. Each episode is about 30 min long and it's aired every other day. It's also #1 in the chart. SWR1 - Leute Interviews with interesting people from different backgrounds. What I like about this is that you get to listen to someone new every episode, and since these people come from all over Germany, you'll get a broader exposure than you would have with other podcasts where you listen to the same speaker all the time. Tageschau The well known news show - 15 minutes daily - Schlaflos in München You may have heard of this one. It doesn't have any theme in particular, it's just Annik Rubens talking about stuff. However, it's only updated rarely these days - every two weeks or so. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| valkyr Triglot Groupie Romania Joined 5182 days ago 79 posts - 112 votes Speaks: Romanian*, EnglishC1, GermanB2 | Message 47 of 70 31 March 2012 at 3:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Newspaper reading has definitely become easier. I use a pop-up dictionary, which
speeds things up dramatically, and makes reading a much more enjoyable experience since I don't need to switch pages to find out what a word means. Out of curiosity, I tried reading a whole article without any dictionary help. The article I chose was about politics, so relatively hard to understand compared to the short news reports which describe specific events. There were a few sentences which I couldn't figure out with certainty, and it was a bit harder to read without any crutches, but I got all of the main points in the end. Three months ago I wouldn't have stood a chance. This is a really big step for me, because in the future I might not have the time, nor the mood to study German. But I will still be reading newspapers and watching TV, and if I can do this in my target language, than it would be very easy to at least maintain my level. It's far easier to maintain a language where you can read and listen to whatever you like, rather than one where you are still relegated to dumbed down texts that don't interest you in the slightest. You have to reach "critical mass" if you will, with a language, in order to make sure you won't just forget it in the coming years. This is what I think happens to most wannabe polyglots: they start learning 5 languages at a time, do not reach that critical level in any of them, and the first time some life event interrupts their learning, or they have a temporary loss of interest, they end up forgetting everything. Edited by valkyr on 31 March 2012 at 3:38pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| valkyr Triglot Groupie Romania Joined 5182 days ago 79 posts - 112 votes Speaks: Romanian*, EnglishC1, GermanB2 | Message 48 of 70 10 April 2012 at 4:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Just returned from France. I visited a friend there. It's interesting to note how much
harder it is to learn a language which is unrelated to your native tongue. Although I took some French classes in school, I never really learned anything and I thought my level was close to zero. Despite that I understood more than 50% from what I heard around me and could easily get the gist of most texts. Most of the words are very similar to Romanian, and the sentence structure is also very natural. It took so much more effort to reach this level in German. Anyway, I'm back in Germany now, and only have a few days left before returning home. The B2 exam is due next Friday and, after having spent the last couple of days without learning any German, I feel somewhat unprepared. I stopped adding words to Anki since I already have a 600 card backlog and I'll focus on mock exams and grammar. Edited by valkyr on 10 April 2012 at 4:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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