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Five months to get to B1 German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Randwulf Newbie United States Joined 4892 days ago 32 posts - 93 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 22 24 September 2011 at 6:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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That's how long I have and I was hoping I could get some thoughts on how to proceed.
Right now I think I'm about at an A2 level in reading and perhaps A1 in speaking and listening. I could be totally wrong there. So more specifically: I can read young adult (i.e. Harry Potter) in German, but I need to look up about 10-15 words per page. But I mostly understand the grammar. It usually takes me about 10 minutes to read a page, and that's while I aggressively look up words I don't know, write them down, and say them a few times. I've tried watching German TV a few times but I'm basically clueless about what they're saying. Listening to the slowly spoken news on Deutsche Welle I can usually vaguely understand what is being said minus a bunch of nouns. I have all three Pimsleur audio lesson sets (German I, II, and III). I just finished the first. I'm moving through them somewhat rapidly. I do two per weekday and four per day on the weekend (50 minutes per weekday, 1:40 on weekend days). I should be done with the other two within a month. But it's possible that I'll need to listen to some lessons multiple times in the future. At this point, since I practiced reading a lot more than listening, I already knew virtually all of the words used in the lessons. That may well change. Right now, besides the audio tapes, I read maybe an average of 10 minutes per day of German. I'm really putting my time into the audio lessons right now to catch up with that. At this pace, is reaching B1 and getting my Goethe certification realistic? I can put some more time in, but not too much. And any recommendations for how to proceed? Thanks :) Edited by Randwulf on 24 September 2011 at 6:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dr. POW Groupie Canada Joined 4965 days ago 48 posts - 58 votes Studies: German, English* Studies: French | Message 2 of 22 24 September 2011 at 7:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not sure how large the gap between A2 and B1 is, but I would recommend reading more
than just 10 minutes of German per day. You could combine reading and writing together, such as by using the LR method. This would be one of the more efficient ways to learning. You can hear the word in the context it is being used while getting rid of any ambiguity from surrounding words you don't understand. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5320 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 3 of 22 24 September 2011 at 8:58pm | IP Logged | ||
You can increase your reading speed by getting an ebook version of Harry Potter. If you find an epub ebook, you could use Firefox and the Firefox EPUBReader and Globefish add-ons. If you find an azw Kindle version, you could use the free Kindle app and look up words with the free monolingual Duden dictionary, or if you get a mobi version, you could use the free Mobipocket Reader and any English-German mobi dictionary. Edited by Doitsujin on 24 September 2011 at 8:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| H.Computatralis Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6304 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Polish*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Latin | Message 4 of 22 24 September 2011 at 9:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Deutsche Welle suggests A-1 is reached with about 75 hours of German study. A-2.1 about 150 hours. A-2.2 about 225 hours. B 1.1 about 300 hours. B 1.2 about 400 hours. From that we can say that the gap between A-2.1 and B-1.2 is about 250 hours. From what you say it appears that you spend about 8.5 hours per week, which means you probably won't reach that level in five months. Five months is about 21 weeks so you should put in about 12 hours of study per week if you realistically want to achieve your goal.
I understand that all these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, but they can certainly be used as a rough estimate. I'd say you need to increase the intensity of your study. Edited by H.Computatralis on 24 September 2011 at 9:29pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| LebensForm Senior Member Austria Joined 5050 days ago 212 posts - 264 votes Studies: German | Message 5 of 22 24 September 2011 at 9:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey, I am doing Goethe too, next fall. I don't know what level I'm at, but I think I take a placement test either before I go or when I get there. Ya, like others say, I would just increase the reading and the intensity. I too, am working on that, along with my other classes. From what you said, I sound maybe I am around the same level as you.
Viel glück! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Randwulf Newbie United States Joined 4892 days ago 32 posts - 93 votes Speaks: English* | Message 6 of 22 24 September 2011 at 10:24pm | IP Logged | ||
Hmm, it's good to see some solid numbers like that. Do you think you could pass on a link to those estimates? Thanks a lot for your analysis there. I might be able to put in 12 hours a week. I suppose I'll start and see if it's possible. I'm learning because I want to study abroad, and B1 is required (and if you're less than B2 they put you in an intensive German course for three weeks prior to the beginning of classes). If I can't do 12 hours a week, I may have to put off study-abroad for another semester, which would however make things a little more difficult. Hopefully self-studying is quicker than classroom learning, but I won't bank on that. I'll try to increase the intensity of my studies immediately. It's also possible that I don't need my certificate when I apply initially. The initial application is through my school, and some time after I submit that application, I get interviewed by my prospective host university. I might get an extra month in there. Ugh I hate when things are down to the wire like this! Lol. But I shall not be thwarted. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| H.Computatralis Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6304 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Polish*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Latin | Message 7 of 22 24 September 2011 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I took those numbers from Wikipedia, but here's the original source.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4828 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 8 of 22 24 September 2011 at 11:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Randwulf,
As you are listening to Deutsche Welle (which I think is brilliant, by the way): I can't remember if the slow news is one of the services that comes with transcripts, but if it isn't, try also listening to some of the ones that do. "Alltagdeutsch" is one such; about 15-20 mins per podcast, and it explores the odd-corners of the language, which you don't necessarily need to know at your stage, but of course in explaining them they use regular German which is useful in everyday situations - the obscure stuff just makes it more interesting. Anyway, the transcripts can be found under the "Additional Information" (or similar wording) link, and can be downloaded as a PDF, and the audio downloaded as MP3. There is a massive archive of stuff as well. You can experiment on how to use it, e.g. listen and read at the same time; read first then listen; listen first, then read, then listen again....etc. If you really get stuck, you could put the text through google translate, but I doubt if you will need to. You should get by with just a dictionary for the words you don't get. In the past, I've listened to a lot of foreign language radio without really understanding it, hoping it would come by osmosis, but while that can help with your accent, intonation, etc, and with recognising individual words, if you are not careful, it can slow down progress, and as you have a deadline to consider, you don't want too many barriers to progress. Good luck and have fun while learning. 6 persons have voted this message useful |
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