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Learning German effectively | ||
Tags: Learning Strategy | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Mikry Newbie South Africa Joined 4967 days ago 14 posts - 18 votes Studies: German | Message 1 of 9 27 September 2010 at 10:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm been studying German on and off by myself for about two years, but recently I decided to really make a push to become fluent in it.
I decided to, when not paging through my course book, start sending instant messages to Germans to really learn authentic German and not the awkward 'See Spot run' types of sentences pawned off on you in textbooks. However, I've come across one very odd problem: I'm exposed to too much new German! Whenever I start a conversation I get drowned in words and phrases I don't know, and it's just impossible for me to learn such massive wads of language(let alone in context) at a time. At the same time, I don't have enough free time to sift through entire conversations to decide what I should learn and what I should leave out. What should I do to make use of this fountain of authentic language without drowning in it and ultimately giving up? Additionally, how should I go about holding these conversations? I'm finding it very awkward to have to keep on referring to my dictionary and grammar book every 5 or so minutes just for me to type my on messages, not taking into account the time I spend deciphering what my partner is writing. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5147 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 2 of 9 28 September 2010 at 2:06am | IP Logged | ||
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In the beginning it is difficult, and that is for any language that I have ever studied. If you are constantly relying on your dictionary when chatting online, I think that my advice may help you a bit, as this is what I did when I was at your level.
Find a penpal/email partner online, and exchange emails with him/her. You have all the time in the world to write your emails, and can look up grammar/words to express the ideas that you want to convey in your messages. In return, you will receive real, authentic German. Once again, you will have all the time in the world to analyze this message for its meaning, before you write your next one. This is a great way to build up vocabulary, reading comprehension, grammar and writing skills, without placing a burden on anyone or feeling overwhelmed. I would also choose some sort of vocabulary-limited book to read, some type of graded reader. These stories are written for learners, and are often not overly exciting, but once again, I felt that this really helped me with building up my vocabulary. Then once you get more used to writing and reading the letters, you will rely less on your dictionary and be able to write more quickly for chatting. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mikry Newbie South Africa Joined 4967 days ago 14 posts - 18 votes Studies: German | Message 3 of 9 28 September 2010 at 7:26am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks for the response! I really like your idea about going for more email/letter writing. I also think graded readers is an excellent idea. One problem though. I'm not entirely certain where to get my hands on some, I see that you have German as a language you studying, so, do you know where I could perhaps find some? Thanks again for your response. I've been going on my own mission so much these past few weeks I've sort of lost all order in my studies. :P 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5147 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 4 of 9 28 September 2010 at 4:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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With finding penpals, a simple Google search will do the trick, but with graded readers, it is a bit harder.
In the USA I often stumbled upon (old...late 1800s) graded readers for German in a used bookstore, and since German materials were hard to come by in my area, without dropping a large chunk of cash to import something, I grabbed these and they served me well. The only problems I had were that the text was written in the old script, and once in a while I came across a really archaic-sounding word. By now, I grab 90% of my foreign materials from used bookstores/booksales, so maybe there is something of the like in South Africa too? Of course the internet also yields many results. There is a whole series of graded readers that a German friend of mine recommended me when I went to Germany, and they have a bluish/teal cover, though I am not sure of the correct name of them. I definitely think reading is a great way to go though, and with the glossed entries for harder words, graded readers make the process much more enjoyable. Before you know it, you'll have gained a large vocabulary and also, after awhile one is able to easily recognize words through context, especially when written. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mikry Newbie South Africa Joined 4967 days ago 14 posts - 18 votes Studies: German | Message 5 of 9 28 September 2010 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Unfortunately it's a little tricky getting most German language related material in South Africa. There were quite a few Afrikaans schools that taught it back in the 70's, but that since has, along with the German books, disappeared. It's also a bit expensive getting most language material, as it is almost exclusively only available abroad.
Though, I might be going to Germany for a week or two within the coming year, so, with a bit of luck and research, I might find suitable readers! :) Also, if you remember the name of that reader set you were advised, please tell me! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6265 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 6 of 9 28 September 2010 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Bookdepository.co.uk is your friend. Free shipping worldwide, and the book prices are
often cheaper than Amazon(.de). They also have a great selection, e. g. I was able to find some Swahili books on there. The only problem is finding them, because there is little categorization and the site ignores Umlaute. Here are two that I recognize right away: http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9783126754941/Die-Weiss e-Rose (about a German resistance group, vocabulary of 1200 words) http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9788711091777/Man-Kann- Ruhig-Daruber- Spreche (short stories, vocabulary of 600 words) I also really like this grammar with exercises: http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9783190016570/Em-Ubungs grammatik-Deutsch-Als- Fremdsprache Remove spaces from all links. And a search for "Harry Potter und" will show you all German Harry Potter books. With free shipping it's a really sweet deal. Edited by Sprachprofi on 28 September 2010 at 6:41pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Mikry Newbie South Africa Joined 4967 days ago 14 posts - 18 votes Studies: German | Message 7 of 9 28 September 2010 at 7:03pm | IP Logged | ||
Wow! This is really like an early Christmas for me! Thanks for the links. Methinks I'm going to be scrounging around there for quite a while. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| t123 Diglot Senior Member South Africa https://github.com/t Joined 5406 days ago 139 posts - 226 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans | Message 8 of 9 28 September 2010 at 11:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Some things that could be useful:
The podcast: http://pukkagerman.com/index.php From their site description: German slang, idioms, funny sayings, common German words and phrases Read through tabloids, they use more colloquial language, like http://www.bild.de/ or something. Find a German forum and read through some posts there, on topics on like sport and music people tend to use written language which is more like the spoken language. That'll give you time to find the expressions and new words (but watch out for bad grammar and spelling). And you can post there and not worry about replies taking too long, since it's a forum. You can practice more formal writing at http://lang-8.com/ And finally if you're looking for a way to remember words, you may be intested in using a SRS. Anki is pretty popular and free, but there are others. I don't know of any German stuff specifically in SA, but maybe kalahari has something? Or perhaps some shops in Namibia that can post, don't know how much German still exists there though. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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