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Trying to reach C1 German in 8 months | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Randwulf Newbie United States Joined 4891 days ago 32 posts - 93 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 17 13 May 2012 at 3:43am | IP Logged | ||
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I've been working hard on German for a little over a year and a half now, and my time window is really starting to close up. I wanted to get some ideas on the best way to proceed given that goal and the amount of time I have. I am very grateful for any input! I hope to study abroad in Germany or Austria for a semester, which is the reason behind my goals.
Specifically, I probably have 700-900 hours between now and then that I can dedicate to studying the language. Over the past month I've been doing about 50 hours a week but I'll need to slow that down to 3-4 hours per day soon. Where I'm at now: Reading: ~high B2. I can read the news with no trouble. When I read literature I typically look up 4-6 words per page (looking up every word I don't know, even words that are unimportant or have guessable meanings). The grammar rarely trips me up at all, maybe I need to re-read one or two sentences per page. Listening: ~threshold B2. Listening to the news, which is generally spoken slowly and clearly, I understand 75-90%. Movies and fast talking people probably only 30-40%. Speaking: Well, I don't even know! The only speaking I do is pronouncing vocab words I'm memorizing and talking a bit in my head. Writing: Probably around B1. This is something I also don't actively practice yet. I've always been a great imitator, but not such a great innovator. Which is why I've been favoring input to the near exclusion of output. I recognize that it is nearly time to change that. How I study currently: I spend 1/7ths of my time reading news. Any words I don't know I generally look up and add to a list to be studied. 2/7ths of my time reading literature, also looking up any words I don't know. 1/7th of my time studying vocabulary. I use Iverson's word list method to memorize any vocabulary I found while reading (now, when I read 3 hours a day, I've been getting about 80 new words) and I put those words in Anki decks afterward. I also review Anki decks from past sessions. 3/7ths of my time listening. I've just recently moved two of those 7ths from Reading to listening and I'm seeing a lot of improvement since. Most of this time is spent watching Norddeutscher Rundfunk TV. I expect to receive a book and audiobook soon though and try L-R, but I feel that I need to focus more on quickly and less-clearly spoken language as opposed to audiobooks and news broadcasts. Right now, given no outside input, these are my plans: After I amass a C1 size-ish vocabulary, start using half of my reading time to practice writing. I love stories and would probably try writing a lot of them. I also intend to find some native speakers to chat with online. As I begin to approach C1 level listening skills, start using most of my listening time to practice speaking. I'll probably begin by working on my pronunciation by repeating after recordings and then see about making some skype friends or something. If you read all that, I really appreciate it, and any advice would really help me out. Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6084 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 2 of 17 13 May 2012 at 10:07am | IP Logged | ||
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You sound like you're on the right track! In addition to what you're doing, I'd start to prepare for language testing. I just mentioned in another thread that TestDaF is a widely acceptable "Sprachnachweis" and it's C1. Modeltests are still available for free (so far) or I'd recommend getting the preparatory book "Prüfungstraining DaF: B2-C1 - TestDaF". Even if you're not there yet it will be a good gauge to see how far you need to work to take the exam. Watch out: under "Sprachnachweis" at university sites they will mention tests like Kleines Deutsches Sprachdiplom (C2), Großes Deutsches Sprachdiplom (C2+) and ZOP. These are tests that aren't offered any more by the Goethe Institut as of January 2012 but the sites will still have them listed because they're probably still administered outside of Germany, and are therefore still accepted by the Unis. To be on the safe side, contact a real person at the university you want to apply to and make sure you have the right language requirements.
As for language, college entry level doesn't have to be advanced. When I was tested they wanted to make sure I could understand everything spoken, probably -the- most important skill. Renting an apartment, applying for a student ID, knowing how to use the media center or help desk, getting around by train -- basically everything relating to student life. (During the speaking part I was asked to call and ask about an apartment advertised for rent.) The testers will want to make sure you can get around in Germany so start to imagine situations you might find yourself in during your first year: die Post, die Apotheke, die Bank, die Bahn. A tip: check out the websites for Die Deutsche Post, Sparkasse (a bank), Deutsche Telekom (media) -- you'll get automatic vocabularies. The TestDaf preparatory book will have lots of oral exercises that you can practice alone or with a speaker. A likely test for listening are interviews. The interviews are fast and have at least two speakers. The comprehension questions are very tricky and require you know -exactly- what they're talking about, no chance to "get by" with generalizations or gist. Maybe someone can point in the direction of some online listening materials, otherwise podcasts are probably excellent to help train listening. That's all that I can think of for the moment :) Edited by Sunja on 13 May 2012 at 10:33am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4687 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 3 of 17 13 May 2012 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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http://www.testdaf.de/teilnehmer/tn-info_nivea.php
TestDaF measures levels ranging from B2 to C1, to be precise. Any passing score is listed as at least B2, and a top score is listed as C1. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Randwulf Newbie United States Joined 4891 days ago 32 posts - 93 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 17 13 May 2012 at 7:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ah thanks, especially for telling me about TestDaF. That would probably be a better exam.
I was worried about barely failing a C1 level exam and then having absolutely nothing to show for it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| stmc2 Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6250 days ago 45 posts - 58 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German | Message 5 of 17 21 May 2012 at 9:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is a very nice thread, thanks to Randwulf for opening it. I have very similar goals but my level is slightly lower than yours and I have less free time to put in.
I have a couple of questions if you don't mind. 1- What is a C1 vocab? What kind of number is that ? Maybe a tricky question. 2- What literature have you been reading that is approachable for your level? I have alomost finished making an anki deck for 4,000 words and I plan to pay someone to talk with and correct me once a week when I have finished it. I also plan to divide my time between literature, watching TV and more formal grammar work. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6084 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 6 of 17 22 May 2012 at 9:29am | IP Logged | ||
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B1 is usually around 2,000 so I'd assume that C1 is double that. I've tried searching for C1 Anki decks for French and there are none :( It's amazing how many "basic" decks there are out there.
I have an idea, try downloading this in Anki: "CAE (Certificate of Advanced English) Wordlist, 2202 Words English -> German (CAE Result, OUP)". It says "C1" in the description. Maybe you could modify it, make it your own? You could at least compare that with your current deck to see what words you might need for your own study. That's probably the best that Anki has to offer because there aren't many "advanced German" decks. I'm sure there's a lot more Germans studying advanced English. Better than books are newspaper articles because the reading comprehension questions on the TestDaf test will probably be a 1-2 page article/editorial on some sort of modern theme or problem; a scientific study, or "Umfrage". (If the comprehension section is about a book or author, there will be excerpts from the book.) Presse und Sprache used to rate their articles by CEFR-level of difficulty -- but I don't know if they still do that, sorry. I think anyone can order a free sample of the paper. My French paper from the same publisher has a lot of B1/B2 articles. ZEIT-Online is my favourite online magazine. I always make PDFs and go through them with a highlighter. Every word that I come across that I don't know I put in Anki and tag it with a theme: Wirtschaft, Familie, Umwelt..etc. This is the cheapest and best way to increase your vocabulary. edit: this last link is for the level of solid C1 and not B2. Edited by Sunja on 22 May 2012 at 9:59am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4687 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 7 of 17 22 May 2012 at 3:08pm | IP Logged | ||
I've seen these numbers thrown around before in relation at least to CEFR-level tests: are they for passive recognition? Also, to be clear, I assume you don't mean that zeit.de only uses a vocabulary of only 4000 or so words, but rather, that you can get good coverage of the vocabulary in their articles starting with a 4000-word vocabulary (95%, maybe? 97%?), so that you can generally comprehend what they're writing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Randwulf Newbie United States Joined 4891 days ago 32 posts - 93 votes Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 17 22 May 2012 at 4:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not really sure about this so take it with a grain of salt but 4000 words seems a little low for C1. If I had to guess I was going to say 6000-8000, ~4000 of which are active.
Right now I have Langenscheidt's 4000 most common words: ( http://www.amazon.com/Basic-German-Vocabulary-Langenscheidt- Bock/dp/3468494009/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337697768&sr=8-1 ) of which I already passively knew almost all but I'm now drilling really hard to activate them. I think you'd have difficulty reading the news with only the words in this book. However, the introduction to the book says the following:
So it seems he's saying that the 4000 most common words make up 85%-90% of the language. I've also seen this figure elsewhere I think. For me, I couldn't read with full satisfaction or comprehension at that level. As for literature, I just read things that interest me. That's the most important thing for me. It's mostly medieval fantasy and such. Probably not the best because I get a bunch of vocab that no one's used for 1000 years but the fact that I enjoy reading it allows me to put a lot of time in without overstressing myself. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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