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Via Diva
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3994 days ago

1109 posts - 1427 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek

 
 Message 513 of 812
07 August 2014 at 4:49pm | IP Logged 
6WC, day seven
Like it usually happens to me in cases like this, I can't stop doing the thing I got into - and now we're talking about poker. I didn't manage to do three levels in Memrise, and, frankly, seeing the amount of daily watering, I even consider that being actually good for my tired brain.
And still I can list a lot of time for German today. Not only I have listened to a lot of songs, I have also finished HP6 and already uploaded HP7 on my phone, and if my new favorite poker tournament will be just as good and it was today afternoon, I will have about 4 hours to be filled with something for my ears and I prefer HP7 to songs. Well, naturally, I still divide the time because of the lack of attention, but this is good enough.
Assimil isn't forgotten, and if I will be bored I will consider reading grammar book (maybe Lextra Grammatik, maybe DGmMA) instead of playing 2048, but this will require either silence or music, not HP7. Meh...
1 person has voted this message useful



Via Diva
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3994 days ago

1109 posts - 1427 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek

 
 Message 514 of 812
08 August 2014 at 9:40am | IP Logged 
Stuff about German I love

I am learning German for about year and a half now (not regularly, though), so I think it's time to list some impressions from the language. There is going to be a lack of logic, reason and other important qualities, which should matter for an average language learner, but I don't care :)

1) the sound of the language
Spoken language isn't a song that you can just turn on and listen to, but that's the point! Only via Harry Potter audiobook (read by Rufus Beck) I can hear a lot of different pronunciation styles, let alone all the other sources. I actually adore the way he reads Snape's speech, I even think about doing just the same, rolling all the r's sounds funny and it's still much easier for me than anything else. I don't think I am going to sound just as brilliant as Beck's Snape, but should that stop me? I don't think it should.

2) grammar structure with "handling"
When I don't have to learn the rules or try to speak or write German verbs and adverbs, flying directly to the end of the sentence sound just awesome to me. I have no idea how can native speakers say a lot of additional things, but still successfully manage to put the verb/adverb at the end.
Seriously, how can they even write this?
Wenn er aber auf der Strasse der in Sammt und Seide gehüllten jetzt sehr ungenirt nach der neusten Mode gekleideten Regierungsräthin begegnet.
I don't really know the answers, but I just adore this sometimes. Like there:
Sprach sie ihren Liebsten an ob er es ihr steigen kann (yeah, I like to say things twice)
And sometimes I do enjoy handling these nasty verbs and adverbs too, you know. Not in the case when I listen to Michel Thomas course though, I can't deal even with simple sentences there, feeling dull and numb (I'm curious if that had changed by now, haven't tried to listen to that for months)...

3) cases
Did you know that Russian has Suffering case? It's the one with questions за что? почему?...
Speaking seriously: cases were invented to simplify the speech. Unfortunately, German loses that bit, demanding lots of prepositions and killing Genitiv by Dativ's hand, but language still has its flexibility, allowing us to say sentences like Den Apfel isst der Mann. Yes, well, if I were looking for flexibility, I could get [much further] away with Russian, but in the case of German is just a bonus.
I still have a German declension table hanging on the door of my fridge, and I can't say I am comfortable with cases anyway, but it's better to avoid the ways of studying for now, hehe.

4) words
Oh, let me just think a little...
- die Hochzeit: German speaking folks could consider a lot of things to be taking place at "high time", but somehow they have chosen the wedding for that. The modern world devaluate the very phenomenon of the wedding fast, but this word reminds me of its original meaning and importance.
- die Vergangenheit: speaking of past... I am history nerd and I like to think about the past (whatever awful it is) anyway, and to be able to call the past with such a beautiful and natural (vergehen,vergangen) word is beyond great.
- die Gegenwart: both analogues I know fail to be that inspiring as this one.

Present? It's just there. Настоящее? It just stands on something (на + /стоит => стоящее/). Boring.
- die Leidenschaft: oh, this is one of the first German words I ever learned, but that's not the single reason for me to like it. Well, analogues from Russian and English sound just fine, but none of them has this etymology of having so much grief that it becomes a passion. Okay, okay, Russian follows this pattern too (страдать - страсть), but this is not that obvious and I prefer German morphology here.
- verrückt: oh, yeah, I have been moved, hence I'm crazy. Mwahahahaha!
- vergeben: only having learned this word I realized that both English and German are giving one consolation/ atonement/ anything else for something that one has done wrong. What a concept!
- steigen, springen: combined with Russian стоять (вставать), прыгать I don't only can easily remember the meaning of these words, but also enjoy the sound of them more...
- wahr: for the person who struggles when trying to produce a long vowel... ich war, ich wahr makes simply no difference. Well, yeah, the second also makes no sense, but isn't it funny?
- leben, lieben: I just prefer this pair to live, love, yes.
- ich, ja: these two in that order make quite a funny interference with Russian их я и не вспомнил (I haven't even remembered them), for example. It's really funny to think about yourself when you hear German yes and not to think about yourself when you say German I. These weird sensations pass by quickly, but sometimes they come back and make me laugh again :)

Okay, logic and reason have completely vanished from this post, which means that I have to finish it. I hope it wasn't boring :)
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Via Diva
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3994 days ago

1109 posts - 1427 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek

 
 Message 515 of 812
09 August 2014 at 3:26pm | IP Logged 
6WC, day nine
I listened to a lot of HP7 and thought that that would be everything I can do today. But eventually I opened Memrise, watered, finished current level... and then my phone started to behave badly. So today and tomorrow (and maybe even the day after tomorrow as well) German will be somewhat limited... although I hope I will be able to do things faster and be able at least to listen to HP7 by tomorrow, I got used to that.
1 person has voted this message useful



Via Diva
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3994 days ago

1109 posts - 1427 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek

 
 Message 516 of 812
10 August 2014 at 4:02pm | IP Logged 
6WC, day ten
Okay, I have barely slept that night, but I finished managing my smartphone. Unfortunately, sleepy (and unable to sleep) bored girl isn't really burning with the desire to study, and I though I would just fall asleep during nearly all Memrise sessions that I have done today.
I have listened to HP7 for 1,5 hour (reduced to 45 minutes in stats), maybe I will listen more, but my mind is a little bit distracted. First of all, I bumped into a free Android app that has news and articles with audio (in English), and this is my chance to catch two rabbits at once: 1) get even more immersed in English 2) have an understanding about what's going on in the world (I watch news rarely, really rarely). But, of course, just like I have dropped all the grammar things in German (I am hopeless...) this way of getting immersed could just not stuck and I will forget about that app sometime soon.
I also watched some documentaries (in Russian) and now I intend to read Hawking and Dawkins... after I finish Красное и черное (that books look like the one I might actually finish, not drop halfway through). I don't know whether I will read their books in Russian or English, it depends.

Edited by Via Diva on 10 August 2014 at 4:03pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Via Diva
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3994 days ago

1109 posts - 1427 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek

 
 Message 517 of 812
11 August 2014 at 4:21pm | IP Logged 
6WC, day eleven
At the end of the day it feels like I was really busy, but the finniest thing is that I wasn't. At least it doesn't feel so.
I seem to have listened to things quite a lot again, but does that really counts as being busy? Whenever I listen to Harry Potter I manage to do something else, but that something else shouldn't (nearly wrote sch instead of sh) distract me too much. Games like 2048 don't distract me too much, and this is the best way... because L-R requires patience and concentration, and summer doesn't seem to be the best time of year to do so.
I know that this way is bad, but that's exactly how I did level up my English! So I keep going on being maximum relaxed... so relaxed that it freakes me out already.
I was thinking of doing something with grammar (again), but over here is... stop. Excuses. Meh. There can be no more excuses. Time to work. Unfortunately, not today, but tomorrow if I won't start doing something I will have to kick my own ass because I say so here right now.
I accidentally bumped into an app that pays you for fulfilling your plans and does quite the opposite if you fail. I am not going to that kind of risk now, but who knows, perhaps, later that would be the only choice I have.

Now to the actual learning. Memrise feels dull, but it works, because I recognize the words I learned when listening to HP7. When I bump into a funny word or meme I feel some motivation to go on (I LOLed on ausbuhen and einmarschieren yesterday, for example). Still I only have done a level today. I am obviously tired from SRS.
And I am satisfied with my listening comprehension. The fact that I can follow HP7 in most of the time doesn't matter so much on its own, but the fact that now I am not afraid to listen to Deutsch - Warum nicht? without looking in the transcripts does. Although I listen to Russian-based version and don't know all the words I hear (and sometimes can't spell them after I heard them a lot of times anyway), I think that this proves that I do have a level, which is higher that A1 (yeah, I doubted that). There is a long way to the level I have in English (I hope that I wouldn't have had any problems with English texts of the same level), but... it feels like a barrier has been broken and that now I can just march on.

I don't dare to think about what will I feel when 6WC ends, but if that won't be a good feeling... I either failed all my plans or just want too much.

Edited by Via Diva on 11 August 2014 at 4:29pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Via Diva
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3994 days ago

1109 posts - 1427 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek

 
 Message 518 of 812
12 August 2014 at 4:41pm | IP Logged 
6WC, day twelve
Oh, I haven't forgotten about "do something with grammar", but today seem to be all about reading.
I began with simply and usual for me listening to HP7 audiobook, but at some moment I felt that I can't go on like this anymore. It was the end of the book (less than 25% left to read, I think), so I opened the German book and began to L-R.
Sometimes I was losing everything, sometimes I was running faster and at least three times my reader app was running 60-seconds timer for me to rest my eyes. I wanted to sleep, I managed to eat (pausing only for cooking process), but I couldn't take long pauses. Some ideas of what a fanfic can I write, sudden thoughts like "why not to watch the movies again regardless of how bad are they" and so on... but still, I got a total of over seven hours of L-R (Ger-Ger).
If only that was easier to make pauses I would also list words I don't know (if the fact of not knowing them is annoying enough, e.g.: erneut, der Boden - I had an idea of what could that be, but needed to check for sure), but no, it's not easy in my case.

After I was done and after I took some rest it was Memrise time. I turned on two BtBaM albums (The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues EP and The Parallax II: Future Sequence) and ended up finishing Memrise exactly when my playlist ended. Well, my plans were to water and to deal with 3 levels, but I had time to start forth one. The start was, however, really bad, and I was running out of time so that was it.
While I was working I remembered two movies: Die Tür, which I told my mother to look for, and... what do you think, which movie could I remember at once, seeing the word die Staatssicherheit?

I think I will read some grammarbook instead of reading Assimil, like yesterday, but, who knows, maybe in the very first minutes I will freak out and switch to movies? I have a plenty...

P.S. If I had time I would have rewatched Awakenings (1990)...

Edited by Via Diva on 12 August 2014 at 5:02pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Via Diva
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3994 days ago

1109 posts - 1427 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek

 
 Message 519 of 812
13 August 2014 at 3:30pm | IP Logged 
6WC, day thirteen (feels like Friday as well)
I wanted to roar from laughter when I saw words like ich, du, er on 70th level of 83-level long course. Jaah, nothing is perfect and I am really thinking about making a brand-new course, which could be based on that one, but will be more useful. I don't really think that die Strähnchen is more important for an elementary course, that, for example, der Boden. Haven't encountered that word yet, yeah. And, to be honest, words like die Ostalgia aren't for elementary level just as well. So is (alas!) die Staatssicherheit (regardless of the fact that I like this word).
Apart from Memrise I had big plans and did nothing. There is sill some time, but I don't feel like taking FSI or even Lextra Grammatik, though I had read DGmMA a little. In the morning I was busy browsing and looking for German audiobooks... I have found a plenty, but I wouldn't dare to listen to most of them anyway since: 1) I haven't read them before 2) I don't think that L-Ring a book you don't know is a good idea.

Shortly: meh...
1 person has voted this message useful



Via Diva
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3994 days ago

1109 posts - 1427 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek

 
 Message 520 of 812
14 August 2014 at 12:52pm | IP Logged 
6WC, day fourteen
I have thrown away the very idea of using FSI just a minute ago. It just doesn't feel right for me. Yes, of course I would like to speak, but the reality and my intentions suggest that I should be able to read and understand, whereas speaking just isn't something I need. I believe that the level of spoken German which I will achieve studying without FSI and with my weird methods would be just alright for me since I really can't see a scenario of using German in my life yet. Any attempt to establish communication with native German speaker via italki failed, and I don't even feel too bad about that. Maybe it's some high level of being an introvert? :)

Yesterday evening I have tried to listen to German stand-up comedian Mario Barth. I don't think I did good, 5% at best, though separate words was easy to catch as usual.
I can also review my L-R principles since some books of Andreas Eschbach look tempting, and not all of them are translated in Russian or English (or available for me). But I am still reading Stendal in Russian, so it seems that there would be quite a queue...

And today morning I felt like a kid while listening to German kid radio. My comprehension there was way better, I think, better that I have expected, though not good as well. I particularly enjoyed Kinder Nachricht and the stories about a man and his talking and always hungry Kater :D

So now I just need to do some Memrise, grammar (and just as usual I am not damn sure if I will actually do something, ugh) and listen some more or watch something. I don't really know how I have managed to complete over 70 hours (mind that I also divide time by 2 and 3 - last in case of songs), but it's already clear that 6WC manages to direct my laziness in the right direction :)

P.S. If you look up my twitter profile (viadiva9) and see the way I work you will definitely understand the new title of this log :)


1 person has voted this message useful



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