mekalika Diglot Senior Member United States sarahnguyen.com/ Joined 7011 days ago 30 posts - 33 votes Studies: Vietnamese, English*, German
| Message 1 of 8 13 April 2009 at 9:30am | IP Logged |
A friend of mine grew up with German at home (lives in the US) and speaks it just like she speaks it perfectly conversationally, but can't read or write very well (She can understand what's she's reading by reading phonetically to herself). What could she do to get reading/writing up to speed?
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5953 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh
| Message 2 of 8 13 April 2009 at 10:56am | IP Logged |
To learn to do something quicker, do it more. Maybe more often, maybe for longer periods of time, but one way or another... more.
When you learned to read and write English at school, you did it every day for years. Well, your friend shouldn't have a problem with individual letters, so it shouldn't take nearly as long to learn to read and write German.
In particular, I'd suggest not just reading, but writing as well. I believe that when we hear or read language we understand it by thinking about what we would have meant if we had said or written the same thing (Google "mirror neuron theory"). I'd say to make sure to both read and write, not just trying to read until it sticks....
1 person has voted this message useful
|
J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 5972 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch
| Message 3 of 8 13 April 2009 at 2:13pm | IP Logged |
Audio books in German would probably work really well and touch up on Hochdeutsch. Her family most very likely doesn't speak the standard dialect at home so it would be a learning experience.
That would, at least, take care of reading.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6845 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French
| Message 4 of 8 14 April 2009 at 12:56am | IP Logged |
Maybe it wouldn't a bad idea to listen and read in the same time? (And really concentrate on what's written?)
1 person has voted this message useful
|
mekalika Diglot Senior Member United States sarahnguyen.com/ Joined 7011 days ago 30 posts - 33 votes Studies: Vietnamese, English*, German
| Message 5 of 8 14 April 2009 at 8:18am | IP Logged |
Yeahh that all makes sense. Now that I think about it, movies with subtitles or songs + lyrics would also be great.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Recht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5743 days ago 241 posts - 270 votes Speaks: English*, GermanB1
| Message 6 of 8 17 April 2009 at 1:53am | IP Logged |
She's just got to read more. You could speak fluent English long before you could read
and write it fluently.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
leonidus Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6268 days ago 113 posts - 123 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, French Studies: German, Mandarin
| Message 7 of 8 17 April 2009 at 11:18am | IP Logged |
I don't see any problem here, just let her read more and in a couple of months it'll all be settled. Now, if it was Chinese, that time could easily be 20 times longer. With German I don't see any problem here.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Kyrie Senior Member United States clandestein.deviantaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5671 days ago 207 posts - 231 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese
| Message 8 of 8 18 April 2009 at 7:54pm | IP Logged |
Find something that could teach her the rules of how to read German. (Kind of like how we Anglophones took Saxon Phonics in school.)
She should learn diphthongs, special characters, and how letter order is pronounced. That's how I learned how to write well in English and Spanish.
That way she'll be ready to read, and in no time she'll be writing.
1 person has voted this message useful
|