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Sarnek’s Log - TAC ’15 (Rätsel, Sleipnir) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5135 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 105 of 176 08 February 2015 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I recognize your frustration with studying German at university. The learning curve is simply too steep and the method isn’t always efficient or realistic. As for having syntax, cases, tenses come naturally, I wish you the best of luck! True, I’ve neglected the language for a long time, but I’ve never achieved that kind of fluency in German. My brain is always in overdrive when I must produce the language on my own (fortunately reading and listening are finally becoming fairly relaxing activities), that’s probably why I get tired so easily when I use German even after years of practice.
Anyway, don’t let these difficulties get you down. Find something you unequivocally enjoy about the German language or culture and when you feel disheartened remind yourself the true reason why you want to learn this challenging language. Sorry to butt in and offer unsolicited advice, but here’s my two cents. I’m sure you’re the best judge of what is good for you and re-starting German from scratch is probably a worthwhile project which will give you a sounder basis on which to build, but I urge you not to neglect what your university course requires of you. Do Assimil etc. on top of what you do for your course, not instead of it. That’s probably what you’ve had in mind all the time, but since you haven’t been explicit on the subject, I am. I’m speaking from experience: by going to class and doing your homework you’ll end up with better marks than people with a better overall knowledge of German but who haven’t bothered to follow the course and do all the required reading/exercises/assignments etc. So don’t underestimate the importance of your course syllabus. End of unrequested advice: I truly hope you won’t mind my meddling too much! By the way, which edition of Assimil are you using? The one by Hilde Schneider (original title: Assimil Le nouvel allemand sans peine) from the ’80s or the more recent one by Maria Roemer (L'Allemand, 2004)? The Schneider starts with: Erste Lektion - Im Café „Herr Ober! Der Tee ist kalt!” „Wie ist der Tee?“ „Er ist kalt“ … The Roemer starts with: Erste Lektion - Viel Glück „Guten Tag! Heute ist ein großer Tag.“ „Warum?“ „Sie lernen Deutch! Wir wünschen viel Vergnügen!“ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sarnek Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4003 days ago 308 posts - 414 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Swedish | Message 106 of 176 08 February 2015 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Your advice is always very appreciated Emme :)
And yes, I haven't been quite clear on that point. I will still go to class of course (we have been practicing quite a lot in speaking this year) and do homework etc. But what I was trying to say is that I don't think that that is going to take me very far. For example, we're now focusing on Konjunktiv I, and they want us to be able to produce it correctly in indirect speech. Okay, I get that it's a university course and it should teach us the language in details, but I don't think that's going to help at all when most of us in my class have much bigger problems... Anyway, the Assimil course I'm using is the Roemer. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5135 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 107 of 176 08 February 2015 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | ||
So true … and so familiar! The fact is that at university level there’s a total disconnect between the syllabus of language courses and the reality of most students’ abilities. Basically, unless you’re one of the very few proficient students (either because you’re bilingual or because you’ve had the chance of learning the language to a very high level outside of school), you’re left to swim or sink on your own. Classes are generally tailored on the “ideal” proficient student rather than on the “average” intermediate one and there’s very little help available to bridge the difference. That’s why they insist on the Konjuntiv in year two: people are supposed to have already mastered all more basic stuff and only need exercising advanced grammar points by this time. That’s often not the case. Kopf hoch! I know it’s hard, but you can do it! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sarnek Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4003 days ago 308 posts - 414 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Swedish | Message 108 of 176 13 February 2015 at 10:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Quick update.
Heute ist die erste Woche, die ich meine neue Methode benutzen habe, die ich letzte Woche entschlossen zu benutzen habe. Diese Woche habe ich Deutsch 6 Stunden studiert: Ich habe jeden Tag eine Assimilslektion gemacht, mir Videos auf Youtube angesehen, 5 Kapiteln von einer Kurzgeschichte und einige Zeitungsartikeln gelesen, und etwas auf lang-8 geschrieben. Es geht immer besser, aber ich muss mehr an meiner Aussprache arbeiten, damit ich auch mein Hörverstehen verbessern kann. Tschüss! Edited by Sarnek on 13 February 2015 at 10:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4309 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 109 of 176 13 February 2015 at 11:32pm | IP Logged | ||
Ich habe mal grob verbessert. "Kapiteln" nur im Dativ, sonst "Kapitel" im Plural. "studieren" bedeutet auf deutsch entweder an der Uni zu studieren, oder etwas genauer zu untersuchen. Bei Sprachen lieber "lernen" benutzen. Der letzte Nebensatz des ersten Satzes ist auch nach meiner Korrektur ziemlich komisch. Vielleicht lieber "zu deren Benutzung ich mich letzte Woche entschlossen habe", aber auch das klingt sehr hochgestochen. Am einfachsten wäre, die Zeitenfolge umzudrehen: "Nachdem ich mich letzte Woche dazu entschlossen habe, eine neue Methode zu benutzten, ist dies die erste Woche, in der ich sie benutze" oder ähnliches. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sarnek Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4003 days ago 308 posts - 414 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Swedish | Message 110 of 176 14 February 2015 at 12:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Danke schön! :D
Ich weiß, dass der Nebensatz des ersten Satzes etwas komish klingte, aber ich wollte die Nebensätze üben :P 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| WingSuet Triglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 5139 days ago 169 posts - 211 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, German Studies: Cantonese | Message 111 of 176 19 February 2015 at 11:10am | IP Logged | ||
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It's very interesting to read your blog, since I am a Swedish speaker learning German and
thus can relate to two of your languages. I must say, I'm very impressed by your level in Swedish, especially when I noticed your prosody in the recording. Prosody is something that is difficult in Swedish and usually what gives away most lerners, but I could tell that you were really paying attention to it and I would never have guessed you were Italian, it sounded more like a Norwegian or Dane trying to speak Swedish ;) So well done! I know it's some time ago since you wrote this, but I thought, since nobody else has done it so far, I would correct your passage underneath:
Correction: Svenska: I år använder jag en ny lärobok (Sagor och Sanningar) som verkar (vara) fantastisk. Det finns flera berättelser, tidningsartiklar, sagor m.m., med inspelningar och övningar både för aktiva och passiva förmågor. Hittills älskar jag den. Jag tror att det kommer att hjälpa mig mycket att utöka mitt ordförråd. Tyska: En ny lärobok för tyska har jag också: Begegnungen - Deutsch als Fremdsprach B1+. Den här boken är lämpligare för kurser, och med en lärares hjälp så kan det vara ett bra instrument. Precis som förra året så ska jag studera och lära mig ord ur en bok för min tentamen (som jag fullständigt hatar). Boken är Großes Übungsbuch Wortschatz och innehåller A2-C1 ord... Jag är inte säkert på om jag ska använda Anki detta år, eftersom det inte har fungerat så bra för mig. Vi får se. Some explanations: * "Verkar" is a lot more common than "tycks", which can sound a little stiff, except for in the expression "vad tycks?", meaning 'what do you think' (when you want to know what someone thinks about your new clothes or hair-do and similar). *O.s.v. means "och så vidare", 'and so on', m.m. means "med mera" ('and more'). We often use the latter when we are listing things and don't wanna list it all. * "Tycker" means 'think' as in 'in my opinion', whereas "tror" means 'I think, I believe (but I'm not sure)'. These are easily mixed up. * Many lerners have problems with "kommer att" versus "ska". One little rule to keep in mind is that "kommer att" is used about things we cannot control, such as "det kommer att regna imorgon". In this case you cannot know if it will help you or not, so you cannot control it. "Ska" is used when you are planning to do something (imorgon ska jag gå på bio). * Swedish, like German, always has the verb in second place, perhaps you already know this. That's why I changed the order in: och med en lärares hjälp så kan det vara ett bra instrument. Little words like "och" and "så" are ignored here, as they are only used to connect the two clauses. What's left in first position is "med en lärares hjälp", which can be replaced by "så" and is therefor a clause element. Next comes the verb, which means that "det" will have to come after the verb. I hope I've explained it a little bit clearly at least, let me know if you have any questions. I'll continue to read your blog :) We are team mates after all ;) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sarnek Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4003 days ago 308 posts - 414 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Swedish | Message 112 of 176 22 February 2015 at 2:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for the corrections WingSuet! It's lovely indeed to have a Swede in here :D
------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------- ENG: This week I have studied German for 16 hours. I expect do to a bit more next week. This week I've focused especially on Passivsätze and Konjunktiv II, which were still a bit mysterious, but I think I'm getting the hang of it now. Since I have had a few days of holidays from Uni (it's carnival here in Milan :D) I've decided to do the February Challenge for Team Rätsel and write a piece of fantasy. I wrote a short fable but unfortunately I'll have to leave it with a "cliffhanger" for now until I'll have more time to finish it. DE: Diese Woche habe ich Deutsch 16 Stunden gelernt. Ich glaube, dass ich noch mehr in der nächsten Woche tun kann. Diese Woche habe ich mich konzentriert besonders auf Passivesätze und Konjunktiv II, die noch ein bisschen mysteriös waren, aber ich glaube, dass ichjetzt den Dreh raus bekomme. Weil ich wenige Tage Urlaub bekommen habe (er ist Karneval hier in Mailand :D), habe ich mich entschlossen, die February Challenge für Team Rätsel zu machen. Also habe ich ein kurzes Märchen geschrieben, aber ich habe leider im Augenblick keine Zeit, um es zu beenden. SWE: Den här väckan har jag pluggat tyska 16 timmar. Jag tror att jag kan göra mer nästa väcka. Den här väckan fokuserade jag särskilt på Passivesätze och Konjunktiv II som var fortfarande lite oklara. Jag tror att jag fattar hur det funkar nu. Eftersom jag har haft några semesterdagar (det här karneval här i Milano :D) har jag beslutat att jag skulle göra February Challengen för Team Rätsel. Alltså har jag skrivit en liten saga, men jag kunde tyvärr inte komplettera den, eftersom jag inte har mycket tid just nu. Here it is:
Edited by Sarnek on 22 February 2015 at 2:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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