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CarlyD’s German/Spanish Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4329 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes  Studies: German | Message 33 of 63 13 January 2015 at 9:42am | IP Logged | ||
I wouldn't worry too much. This is sort of a classic mistake. Exposure and practice will fix this, but it might take a while. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3785 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 34 of 63 15 January 2015 at 6:28am | IP Logged | ||
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I went back to my first post to check what I'd listed for my goals--and didn't list any. My original goal was to go all the way through my beginning resources--textbook, Assimil, maybe Level 1 of Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, etc. by the end of the year. I think I can do that.
I was looking at Quizlet again today. I was hoping that other people's decks would work for me, but I don't think so. I tried a couple but even same book/same chapter their words didn't match what I'm learning. Maybe I'll try again later. So today was lots of grammar--prepositions that take the dative mostly. I really like this grammar workbook--Practice Makes Perfect Complete German Grammar by Ed Swick. There's a million written exercises to do and he just doles out tiny bits of grammar in between. I've completed four chapters so far. Rest of week: Finish chapter 6 in textbook, read a few pages in my easy reader, lots of listening. Find some easy youtube videos to listen to people with different accents. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ccaesar Triglot Groupie Denmark Joined 3591 days ago 84 posts - 94 votes Speaks: Danish*, English, German Studies: Italian | Message 35 of 63 17 January 2015 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hallo Carly!
Hier kommt was von noch einem, der Deutsch lernt :D Ich habe schon gelesen, dass die Kritik an Rosetta Stone mit dir geteilt worden ist, deswegen werde ich das nicht beleuchten, sondern über die Grammatik sprechen. Wenn du die Regeln verstanden hast, empfehle ich dir kurze Version/Lieder/Phrasen/Beispiele zu machen, die dich daran erinneren können, weil Regeln selber schwierig zu memorisieren sein können. z.B. "Durch für gegen ohne weder um Kennst du kein Akkusativ dann ..." Dativ:" Aus bei mit nach seit von zu" Also; have a look at the "Räumliche und nicht räumliche Bedeutung" when it comes to the gruop that requires both. an auf in hinter neben über unter vor zwischen Good luck! Edited by Ccaesar on 19 January 2015 at 1:16pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3785 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 36 of 63 19 January 2015 at 11:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Ccaesar--thank your for the advice.
So it's something like 45 days since I started learning German. I went through the "everybody's so much more advanced than me" stage, then the "everybody is learning faster than me" stage. Got to hurry up!! Got to catch up!! I've calmed down. My German journey is for the whole year of 2015. I don't want to hurry to the next lesson, the next chapter, the next book. I want anything I learn to be totally learned, never forgotten. I've sorted out my learning-alone style. If I can hardly speak English in the morning, why would I think I could leap up and do 5 lessons of Assimil before breakfast? Now I do quiet-time workbook writing early in the morning, textbooks and talking later in the day. And a probably 3-month learning schedule spread out over the whole year. I'm ok with that. I'm doing pronouns right now. Nominative and accusative. They were easier in Spanish--probably because I didn't know what they were called and it was just "this is how you say it". Sometimes I think the Spanish books are a bit more user-friendly than the German books. Or they seem that way to me. I looked at the Deutsch im Blick website yesterday. I like the videos--very short, interviewing several German people and then several German language students, all the same questions. It gives the script in both German and English. I could understand the language learners a lot easier because they spoke much slower but it gives you the opportunity to play the videos over and over. I'll go there often just for that. Their website: http://coerll.utexas.edu/dib/ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3785 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 37 of 63 20 January 2015 at 9:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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I signed up for Babbel today. I started at the absolute beginning, figuring it would be an easy review. Well, I knew all the words, but the spoken is normal speech--in other words, fast. I had a huge problem with "seid ihr"--I listened to it 5 times and just couldn't catch the words. In another sentence a woman refers to "meinem Hund"--I only heard "mein Hund" so I'm not sure if I'm not hearing it or if its just dropped a bit in spoken German.
I completed the first three modules plus review of all three, plus the vocabulary today. Babbel is much harder than Duolingo or Rosetta Stone--it pushes you to think it through and communicate. Plus I have access to a number of classes including Writing Class and Grammar Class. This will be good. Hard, but good. Otherwise, I'm working on Accusative Pronouns. I understand them fine, but when presented with sentences the word order is confusing me. I need lots more practice on these than Duolingo can provide so I will shop around all my various resources and find more practice before I move to the next section. I think those will be my two goals for the rest of the week. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3785 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 38 of 63 22 January 2015 at 12:55am | IP Logged | ||
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I just found a copy of Ed Swick's "Pronouns and Prepositions"--it is wonderful. Goes over every form of pronoun with tons of examples and exercises. I'm going to work through just the pronoun part over the next week or two. I'm hesitant to move ahead without totally "getting" this, because I never totally got it in Spanish and to this day I have to slow down and sort it out in my head.
I like Babbel. It's not as hard as I thought it was--it says that if you complete all the beginner classes it takes you to A2--although possibly just barely A2. There's an intermediate class--but not much of one--that is B1. Don't know if I can get there by the end of the year or not. In Duolingo I'm doing conjunctions and the sentences are getting harder and longer--and I'm sorting them out just fine. I wish they incorporated some grammar, but for a free site, it's fun. I'm just going to do reviews and not move ahead to Datives until I've sorted out the pronouns. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3785 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 39 of 63 26 January 2015 at 12:37am | IP Logged | ||
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Last week of the month--so nearly 2 months since I started seriously learning German.
Still working on the various pronouns--much easier than even just a few days ago and did the whole grammar chapter on verbs this morning--barely touching the various verbs--but they relate so well to Spanish that I don't have any issues. I was reading someone's blog--or an interview with someone--can't remember where I saw it. It was about becoming actually fluent and the person was talking about "learning groups"--something like when you start a conversation and you already have memorized all the "how are you" and "where are you from" phrases needed for that initial meeting. But he was talking about doing that for many many different situations--have phrases already grouped. I'm explaining this badly, I know. Like if the conversation turns to books you can immediately talk about favorite books or last-read books because you've got that pool of phrases memorized and ready to grab. It made a lot of sense to me for that portion of time between grasping for words and easily conversing. I'll have to find it again. I really really need to start writing in German. I think I've said that several times before--I'm doing that "it won't be perfect, so you better wait" thing. Goal for this last week: Write at least a paragraph--post it in my log and onto Lang-8. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| agantik Triglot Senior Member France Joined 4431 days ago 217 posts - 335 votes Speaks: French*, English, Italian Studies: German, Norwegian | Message 40 of 63 26 January 2015 at 11:07am | IP Logged | ||
I don't know if he's the one you're looking for, but the same idea has been expressed by Boris Shekhtman in his book How to improve your foreign language immediately. He insists on the importance of building up what he calls "islands" in order to be able to have a conversation based on a few "rehearsed" topics which deal with your personal interests. Don't buy his book though, you can find the same ideas for free here on HTLAL! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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