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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4335 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes  Studies: German | Message 129 of 180 24 June 2014 at 8:27pm | IP Logged | ||
OK. That makes sense. I got to a very solid B2 in 24 months in Germany, so you should be able to get to a much higher level in German if you want to in the remaining time if you want. Sorry to sound like a cracked record, but to me by far the biggest advantage being here is the fact we are surrounded by German. You can go to German classes in the US or anywhere else in the World. You can't engage in German conversation with random strangers down at the local Kneipe or go to the cinema and see a movie in German very easily. If you haven't already done it you should join your local library - for 10 Euros/year I have access to the whole library system in Berlin, with DVDS, books, ebooks, audio books, graphic novels, etc etc. And of course you should join your local video shop as well. But hey, if you feel the need to stop and just enjoy being here, I certainly understand. If it makes you feel any better I have a colleague who's parents are Syrian, who was born here in Germany, and grew up speaking Arabic, English, French, and German. She says that she still finds German the hardest at least in the sense she has to think about certain grammar rules - but that hasn't stopped her speaking it her whole life like a native. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3884 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 130 of 180 24 June 2014 at 10:40pm | IP Logged | ||
Why would you eat an elephant? :( They are so cute! 
Patrick: I dont think my town has a local library - it's not a big town unfotunately. Edited by Gemuse on 24 June 2014 at 10:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3709 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 131 of 180 25 June 2014 at 4:39am | IP Logged | ||
Hey, no offense meant toward the elephants!
I'll second (or rather, third) this notion. I'm not sure if language classes in Europe are similar to those in the US (I'm guessing they are, but I could be wrong) but they tend to focus too heavily on grammar and analytical aspects and not so much conversational/usefulness. I've known people who have come through semesters upon semesters of a language and when they get out they have absolutely no conversational fluidity except for "textbook" conversational dialogues. That's been my own experience as well. I think you'd benefit much better from doing a combination of self study and a 1 on 1 tutor so the focus is all on you, your strengths and weaknesses and speaking. Those are just my 2 cents. Now get out there and start talking to natives! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3884 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 132 of 180 01 July 2014 at 6:33am | IP Logged | ||
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The classes here actually focus more on the conversational aspect. Rather, they expect you to somehow become conversant. There is a short lesson. In addition to the usual fill in the blanks kind of stuff, there is usually a short snippet of "native" German.
Then the book says converse with your partner on a given subtopic of the lesson. Somehow students are magically expected to have assimilated all the verbs and adverbs that were present in the text of the lesson (and to have assimilated the words in previous lessons), and produce output with them. Yeah, this does not happen with almost all of the students. Grading on a scale of 1 to 100 on the vocabulary utilized in the book, with 100 being everything, students would passively recognize maybe 60%, and actively maybe 15% after having done the lessons. The repeated massive exposure to known vocab just isnt there. We have been having a test every few weeks from the book as sort of a review. Again it's fill in the blanks kind of stuff. That doesnt really test how well students know German, it just measure familiarity with super simple grammar rules and constructs. If you can believe it, we will not be taught about zu+infinitive construct. So after almost a year of German instruction and at the end of A2, students will not be able to say things like "I am going to the store to buy groceries". I have been writing some sentences on my own and giving them to the teacher for correction. I am upto 60 sentences. I think the teacher is getting tired of my correction requests. But I guess she tolerates them as noone else in the class does any extra work. I had hoped to get upto 150, but that might be out of reach (the course is ending soon). A couple of German tidbits learned from my sentences endeavor; gleich nach: just after in temporal sense gleich hinter: just after in spatial sense. Usage of spät: The Bus was late: This is *not* Der Bus war spät. It is Der Bus ist spät gekommen . (or is it Der Bus ist spät zu gekommen?) Or Der Bus war verspätet. öffnen/eröffnen öffnen seems to be used for things that are opened repeatedly, like a door, post office, store in the morning etc. Eröffnen for one off things, like when a store opens after a renovation, or the opening of a bank account. Oh, and in English we say "The store is *on* the right after the pharmacy. In German there is no preposition apparently. Das Geschäft steht gleich hinter einer Apotheke rechts. The verb werden is throwing me off. I keep getting the future vibe, and keep forgetting that it also means "to become", like in Der Fernseher wurde beschädigt. Last week time logged: 12H15min. Again slacked off on the weekend. And no work on the other tasks which is shameful. I wish I had more energy. Edited by Gemuse on 01 July 2014 at 6:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3884 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 133 of 180 07 July 2014 at 10:50am | IP Logged | ||
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14h German logged this week.
In general this was a decent week. Didnt feel like a lazy slacker for the first time in months. Itchy Feet for this week 
"It burns" ... LOL. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4711 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 134 of 180 08 July 2014 at 2:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey Gemuse! As wanderlust is taking over I'm going to start following your log to get ideas for German study. I've just read the last two pages, but I'll read the rest soon. As for your recent conversation, I agree with the others that it just takes time. As for B1 or B2 when you leave Germany, you might be a bit disappointed, but B1 is a pretty good place to be. It's the point where you can really benefit from native material, and so you will be able to maintain/improve fairly well when you're out of the country.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3884 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 135 of 180 14 July 2014 at 3:59am | IP Logged | ||
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11H 50 min this week. Crashed after wednesday and did not do anything :(
Motivated by Pat's log, I took the B1 de.de test. Scored 62% overall. I only attempted 80% of the questions, the rest were too hard, and I didnt want to blind guess. So according to dw I am technically B1, but in reality I would rate myself as B0.25; midway between A2.2 and B1.1. I wish I had made more progress...oh well. Edited by Gemuse on 14 July 2014 at 5:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4711 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 136 of 180 14 July 2014 at 4:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Gemuse, that seems pretty good to me. You are leaving Germany in about a year, and your goal is to get to B2? Even if you only do 10 hours a week of German study, that's over 500 hours. I really think you can do it!
1 person has voted this message useful |
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