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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| brian00321 Senior Member United States Joined 6541 days ago 143 posts - 148 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 1 of 16 15 March 2008 at 10:27am | IP Logged | ||
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I've been a member of this forum since '06 and am barely over the halfway mark to 100 posts. I'll start being a little more active and try to contribute back whatever this forum has given me by logging any advances and milestones. Since nobody has posted or said anything about the active stages of LR yet the posts will be of that. Any leaps that I take while doing LR.
After hours of LR-ing in German with *cough* Harry Potter *cough* I figured it a good time to start with the active stages of LR. And if you're thinking, "why Hairy Potter?" Well they're the only books I've toyed with so far and the only ones that I really love. And isn't that the key to being successful in LR, or anything for that matter? I'm not following the exact prescribed stages of LR outlined by siomotteikeru, but will take a subtler approach towards it early on and then start playing around with stage 5 (translations). Background on me and LR . . . I've never kept count but I've LR-ed Half-blood Prince 4 times and Sorcerer's Stone 3 times. Almost a 100 hours, give or take a few. Sorcerer's stone was used first more as an introduction to LR, and German, since it's pretty short and easy. However, Halbblutprinz is my favorite, so that'll be used for S5. The accomplishments I've made with LR might seem "small" to the learner that just wants to speak, but I'm pretty happy with what I've done. If I know a story before hand and just listen and imagine it in German with no English text, I'm able to recognize most verbs and objects quite with ease. When watching the Video on Demand shows on Deutsche-Welle I can understand about 70-80% of what the speakers are saying without knowing anything about the subject beforehand. Sometimes I can understand an entire show. I can go through the German chat forum on here and understand a good bit of what people are writing too. Thanks to LR, I'm naturally used to word order, verb conjugations, and the noun declension system. If you're wondering about speaking, I can also shadow/echo the speakers with ease, except for a few sounds that still haven't stuck yet. The only downside? I can't reproduce anything yet. Part of it is due to the fact that I haven't tried. I feel a bit apprehensive and still not sure whether it's the right time yet. Despite being a little worried I'll go forth with the active stages and, again, keep everyone posted on how it's going. Note to Reader: I'm just a kid and definitely no expert, but if you have any questions I'll be glad to answer them. Brian Edited by brian00321 on 09 April 2008 at 8:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dvergr Newbie United States Joined 6119 days ago 32 posts - 33 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch | Message 2 of 16 15 March 2008 at 10:53am | IP Logged | ||
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Brian,
I'm looking forward to reading about your progress. I've done some LR with the first Harry Potter book in German, but I haven't shadowed it. Do you try to imitate the reader as closely as possible, including the voice characterizations? I'm curious whether his use of so many different voices would hinder or possibly help language learning... Dvergr Edited by Dvergr on 15 March 2008 at 10:53am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| brian00321 Senior Member United States Joined 6541 days ago 143 posts - 148 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 3 of 16 15 March 2008 at 11:09am | IP Logged | ||
I try somewhat to imitate the reader. Basically I just repeat it however I hear it. The voice I keep standard though. Standard as in how I want myself to sound. If you're worried that imitating the reader as close as possible might seem difficult then you haven't LR-ed enough. Once you've done enough, intonation, pronunciation (somewhat), and the language in general should be pretty predictable. If it still seems a bit tough chorus a few long phrases for a couple hours or so (spread over days), and when you go back shadowing/echoing should be easier. Again, this isn't recommended until you've had enough exposure. Like in my initial post, I believe the amount that I have still isn't enough. But maybe I'm just being a little tough on myself. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| brian00321 Senior Member United States Joined 6541 days ago 143 posts - 148 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 5 of 16 17 March 2008 at 11:04am | IP Logged | ||
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Went through chapter 5, Schleim im Überfluss, and solidifed any nouns, verbs, and adjectives that needed to be solidified. Took about an hour and a half. Steps I take . . .
1) Skim through the text in German and see what words I don't know, which isn't much. Compare the text to the English version. Hold on to the meaning. 2) Re-read the chapter in German with the audio in German to further cement whatever's still loose. 3) Shadow the first 15 minutes of the chapter. No book. Audio only. The way I'm doing it might seem tedious but at the moment I'm just tinkering around with it. That's the best way to find out what works and doesn't. Hopefully I can come up with an easier way of going around this. It's frustrating knowing that I can understand movies, books, and some music but can't string any complex sentences together. If anyone has suggestions I'd be happy to hear 'em. Edited by brian00321 on 17 March 2008 at 11:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| brian00321 Senior Member United States Joined 6541 days ago 143 posts - 148 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 6 of 16 17 March 2008 at 11:06am | IP Logged | ||
If you search topics you can find better explanations, but I'll try in a nutshell. Shadowing - speaking with the speaker simultaenously Echoing - echoing; Don't know a better way to explain it. Chorusing - Taking a sentence, putting it on repeat, and parrotting/shadowing it about 20 times or so. Sorry that I can't offer a better explanation. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| brian00321 Senior Member United States Joined 6541 days ago 143 posts - 148 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 8 of 16 18 March 2008 at 5:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Today I just re-read Chapters 3-5 of Halbblutprinz in German without any audio. I can feel myself thinking in German pretty often. When people ask me questions or talk to me I try to make a response in my head in German and speak in English. Pretty interesting.
Oh, and I watched "Kebab Connection" without any subtitles today. I could get about 70% of what was being said. Also listened to some Wir Sind Helden and Virginia Jetzt. Some of the lyrics of Wir Sind Helden were hard to grasp since they were pretty colloquial, but Virginia Jetzt was pretty simple. Hopefully I can keep the progress going. After 6 weeks or so I'll try to write some of my posts here in German. Edited by brian00321 on 18 March 2008 at 5:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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