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CarlyD’s German/Spanish Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3990 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 1 of 63 09 December 2014 at 11:49pm | IP Logged |
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Editing to add that I've joined the TAC for 2015, and will note which post that starts on January 1st.
I started getting serious about learning German last weekend, after playing around with it over the last year or so. I have (that I've collected in my "going to learn" stage): Pimsleur (just the first lessons, not the whole package) Assimil Rosetta Stone--all 5 levels Various textbooks Various easy readers, A1/A2 books with corresponding CD's I started with the 1st Pimsleur CD and discovered that with all the "playing around" I'd been doing, I totally understood the conversation. Yay!! Went on to Lesson 2, still too easy. 12/8/14 Started both Memrise and Duolingo. Joined a 100-day German Challenge on Duolingo, so that will be fun. So the plan for at least 5 days a week is: Computer time: Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, Memrise, any of the German websites I've saved Kindle Fire: Youtube videos for listening practice. Mix of German lessons and cartoons. I found Scooby Doo cartoons there in German. :) Desk time: Listen to Assimil, go through textbooks, review flashcards Car time: Listen to Pimsleur Waiting time: Take red notebook with word lists, phrases to look at while in line, etc. I'm going to do this "everything" approach during December, then maybe revise it if I see problems. Edited by carlyd on 11 July 2015 at 11:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Xenops Senior Member United States thexenops.deviantart Joined 3826 days ago 112 posts - 158 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 2 of 63 10 December 2014 at 1:18am | IP Logged |
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Welcome carlyd! I have enjoyed Pimsleur. :) The cheapest way to purchase Pimslear that I've found is on Audible, a part of Amazon, where you pay for a certain amount of credits each month, and five credits buys a whole Pimsleur Comprehensive.
While you do have Scooby Doo in dubs, I imagine Iguanaman, another member here, would recommend some native material to read ("more" native than readers). This is a practice I need to put into use myself. Have fun! :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| CheChe Groupie United States Joined 3967 days ago 41 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 3 of 63 10 December 2014 at 5:10am | IP Logged |
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As a fellow German learner good luck!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4534 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 4 of 63 10 December 2014 at 8:27am | IP Logged |
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Hi from another German learner!
I've heard some negative things about Rosetta Stone, so you might want to focus more energy on Assimil and Pimsleur. It's great that you've started to watch Snoopy. Starting to watch shows will really improve your German over time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 5 of 63 10 December 2014 at 5:14pm | IP Logged |
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Hi from yet another German learner!
I wish you lots of fun and success on your path. :-) From all I read about RS (and the demo I tried), I think it is basically an overpriced srs, which however may be a good supplement to anything, if you got it for free (some people get it from their employer). Assimil is awesome, I don't know which edition you've got, I am using two and they are very helpful. How far have you got during the last year? :-) What other courses have you been using? Your mysterious "various courses", that sounds like an interesting collection. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3990 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 6 of 63 10 December 2014 at 11:04pm | IP Logged |
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Day 2 Update
Thank you everyone. :) The Scooby Doo didn't work out--I couldn't find any that were actually in German. But I did find Peppa Pig episodes done--not dubbed--in German and saved them. The first episode (they are only a few minutes each) I clearly understood one phrase and 3 different words. Daddy Pig's accent was very different that what I'm hearing in the language classes. I got Rosetta Stone very cheaply--I've heard all the opinions but for the price it seemed like a good addition--not as the main course. We've had bad weather and I keep crashing so I won't upload it until the storms have passed. My Assimil is the brand new one that came out in November. Pimsleur--started Lesson 3 today, not finished. Textbook 1--working on Chapter 4. Working on learning gender/word endings Duolingo--on 1.4 or so. Current goal is 2 sections, each done twice, a day. Memrise--doing the "1st 1000 words" one--goal is 15 minutes a day. I tried going back to LiveMocha, but was sadly disappointed. I used to go there all the time--didn't learn much, but I spent a lot of time correcting English and in the chat room with people learning English. Now it's just "you haven't purchased any lessons yet" and no where else to go. Someone shared the following link to a whole list of easy German stories: http://www.stories.uni-bremen.de/sprachfoerderung/sprachfoer derung.html 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4534 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 7 of 63 10 December 2014 at 11:31pm | IP Logged |
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There is lots of free German material at all sorts of levels on the Deutsche Welle website.
When your level is a bit better you might also want to check out the news videos on die Zeit. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3990 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 8 of 63 12 December 2014 at 7:03am | IP Logged |
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Day 3
Today I worked on Chapter 3 and 4 from Text 1 (German Made Simple); Duolingo--3 sections done twice each; Memrise--one "learn new words" and then the full review. I read a bilingual kid's book out loud, concentrating on correct pronunciation, and then went over my notebook, which is just everything--word lists, verbs, phrases that I'm working on. The notebook is small enough to go everywhere with me to take advantage of waiting time, etc. The storm today was weird and unsettling, and I had trouble settling down and concentrating, so I felt like I spent less time than I should have. And spent no time with listening at all. Success today: On the "type what you hear" portion in Duolingo I found that "ihr" and "wir" sounded very similar but immediately sorted them by the verb ending. :) Goal for tomorrow: Listening, either Pimsleur or Assimil--30 minutes minimum. Textbooks--2 hours, split up throughout the day. Duolingo/Memrise--30 minutes. Re-read first 2 chapters in Easy Reader. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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