So, come on over and check out the all-new:
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Blog Has Moved! Come Join Me at www.HowToLanguages.com
Hello. I know it's been awhile and as I've continued to maintain and advance my conversational German, I've also added a few other languages to my learning agenda (Spanish, Mandarin, some Cantonese and a little bit of Indonesian), so it felt like a good time to move to a more general purpose language learning blog where I could continue to talk about language learning in general rather than only German.
So, come on over and check out the all-new:
So, come on over and check out the all-new:
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
The Test - My First German Language Meetup Group
Well, last night was the German Language Meetup Group. I went with my friend, coworker and German speaker Gerald. I was nervous beyond belief and it took me almost a full pint of beer tp stop shaking. So how did the big test go? Read on...
So, my first real interaction (outside of Gerald) was with a nurse who used to work in Switzerland many years ago. She had only recently re-engaged in the language and was reasonably fluent in her speech and although she had some holes in her vocabulary, she could easily talk around her shortcomings. Surprisingly, my speech was what I found to be slightly lagging behind my comprehension which is opposite of what I was expecting. I found myself easily understanding everything she was saying and I did reasonably well in speaking back to her. All in all we had an excellent conversation.
From there I hopped groups a couple times and found a fantastic group of younger (maybe 22-26 y/o) German speakers that I really clicked with. I was able to understand everything they were talking about and I was even able to engage the group several times (once with my only German joke) with no issues. Afterwards, everyone congratulated me and told me that they were very impressed with my German after only one year and that my vocabulary was "amazing".
I plan on making this group a permanent part of my Monthly schedule and am really looking forward to attending another group on the 19th of this Month.
I'd say if this were pass/fail, I'd pass. On a letter grade, I earned a solid C+/B-. My comprehension is so much better than I thought it would be but my speech (mostly due to nerves) was a little slower than I'd like.
I appreciate everyone who has been following me through this journey and I intend on continuing to post but I imagine it will be less frequent moving forward.
Tschüss!
So, my first real interaction (outside of Gerald) was with a nurse who used to work in Switzerland many years ago. She had only recently re-engaged in the language and was reasonably fluent in her speech and although she had some holes in her vocabulary, she could easily talk around her shortcomings. Surprisingly, my speech was what I found to be slightly lagging behind my comprehension which is opposite of what I was expecting. I found myself easily understanding everything she was saying and I did reasonably well in speaking back to her. All in all we had an excellent conversation.
From there I hopped groups a couple times and found a fantastic group of younger (maybe 22-26 y/o) German speakers that I really clicked with. I was able to understand everything they were talking about and I was even able to engage the group several times (once with my only German joke) with no issues. Afterwards, everyone congratulated me and told me that they were very impressed with my German after only one year and that my vocabulary was "amazing".
I plan on making this group a permanent part of my Monthly schedule and am really looking forward to attending another group on the 19th of this Month.
I'd say if this were pass/fail, I'd pass. On a letter grade, I earned a solid C+/B-. My comprehension is so much better than I thought it would be but my speech (mostly due to nerves) was a little slower than I'd like.
I appreciate everyone who has been following me through this journey and I intend on continuing to post but I imagine it will be less frequent moving forward.
Tschüss!
Thursday, January 24, 2013
One Year Has Come and Gone - How is my German?
Hallo Freunden!
Also, ein Jahr ist vergangen. Habe ich es tun? Bin ich fließend Deutsch? That's a good question. And I will try to answer it. But first, I want to re-iterate my original goal which was "conversational fluency". Typically this is considered to be a high B1 to a B2. During this wide, fuzzily defined phase of learning, conversational fluency starts to take shape. I am going to lay out a few of my personal requirements and see how I did:
1. I wanted to be able to express myself in the spoken language with another speaker of German. By express myself, I mean be ale to discuss my hobbies, my life, my family, current events, and anything else that I would normally talk to people (friends or strangers) about on a daily basis.
2. I wanted my spoken interaction to be relatively in line with a fluent speaker's pace, prosody, and accent.
3. I wanted to be able to understand spoken German at a normal speed by a fluent speaker about the same types of things that I listed in #1 above.
4. I wanted to be able to read and write to a certain degree, but my primary focus was on speaking.
How did I do?
1. Nailed it (mostly). I can pretty much discuss anything outside of specialized fields (eg: science, gardening, politics, etc). Fortunately, I don't talk about any of those specialized things much in English, so I'm fine not being able to discuss them in German. Vocabulary is not really an issue here. I still make some grammatical errors, but I am getting better everyday and will continue to with practice.
2. Kind of. My pace is a little slow when talking but it is improving. My prosody is pretty noticeably non-native level but it doesn't seem to interfere with my being understood. My accent is decent but not great. I've actually been told that I have kind of a French accent when speaking German which I guess is better than an American accent.
3. This is one of my weaker spots. I struggle to keep up with a lengthy dialog from a fluent speaker. Shorter sentences or a slower pace help me a lot but I have a tendency to get lost ("Wie, bitte?") in some full speed interactions. This will come with practice.
4. Nailed it. I am a decent reader and writer in German and have no complaints about my abilities in either.
My big test.
My big test is going to come in 2 weeks when I go to a German speaking Meetup group. I've been putting this off for Months and the time has come to finally sink or swim. I will post my findings after that as well as (hopefully) my one year video.
Tschüss!
Also, ein Jahr ist vergangen. Habe ich es tun? Bin ich fließend Deutsch? That's a good question. And I will try to answer it. But first, I want to re-iterate my original goal which was "conversational fluency". Typically this is considered to be a high B1 to a B2. During this wide, fuzzily defined phase of learning, conversational fluency starts to take shape. I am going to lay out a few of my personal requirements and see how I did:
1. I wanted to be able to express myself in the spoken language with another speaker of German. By express myself, I mean be ale to discuss my hobbies, my life, my family, current events, and anything else that I would normally talk to people (friends or strangers) about on a daily basis.
2. I wanted my spoken interaction to be relatively in line with a fluent speaker's pace, prosody, and accent.
3. I wanted to be able to understand spoken German at a normal speed by a fluent speaker about the same types of things that I listed in #1 above.
4. I wanted to be able to read and write to a certain degree, but my primary focus was on speaking.
How did I do?
1. Nailed it (mostly). I can pretty much discuss anything outside of specialized fields (eg: science, gardening, politics, etc). Fortunately, I don't talk about any of those specialized things much in English, so I'm fine not being able to discuss them in German. Vocabulary is not really an issue here. I still make some grammatical errors, but I am getting better everyday and will continue to with practice.
2. Kind of. My pace is a little slow when talking but it is improving. My prosody is pretty noticeably non-native level but it doesn't seem to interfere with my being understood. My accent is decent but not great. I've actually been told that I have kind of a French accent when speaking German which I guess is better than an American accent.
3. This is one of my weaker spots. I struggle to keep up with a lengthy dialog from a fluent speaker. Shorter sentences or a slower pace help me a lot but I have a tendency to get lost ("Wie, bitte?") in some full speed interactions. This will come with practice.
4. Nailed it. I am a decent reader and writer in German and have no complaints about my abilities in either.
My big test.
My big test is going to come in 2 weeks when I go to a German speaking Meetup group. I've been putting this off for Months and the time has come to finally sink or swim. I will post my findings after that as well as (hopefully) my one year video.
Tschüss!
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Some Practical Advice and 9 Month Progress Report
Hallo! I know it's been awhile since I've posted so i wanted to give an update on my progress and talk about a few things that I have been doing lately.
I would put my level right now at a B1. I have completed several online placement tests and assessments and this appears to be the overall consensus. What does this mean? Glad you asked:
Language Levels explained here
With regards to me and my B1 assessment, here are my abilities/limitations in a nutshell:
Listening: "I can understand the main points of clear standard speech on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. I can understand the main point of many radio or TV programmes on current affairs or topics of personal or professional interest when the delivery is relatively slow and clear."
Reading: "I can understand texts that consist mainly of high frequency everyday or job-related language. I can understand the description of events, feelings and wishes in personal letters."
Spoken Interaction: "I can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. I can enter unprepared into conversation on topics that are familiar, of personal interest or pertinent to everyday life (e.g. family, hobbies, work, travel and current events)."
Spoken Production: "I can connect phrases in a simple way in order to describe experiences and events, my dreams, hopes and ambitions. I can briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. I can narrate a story or relate the plot of a book or film and describe my reactions."
Writing: "I can write simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. I can write personal letters describing experiences and impressions."
Now, as a disclaimer, some of these are no 100% true regarding me personally. My Spoken Interaction and Production skills are slightly better than listed above whereas my listening comprehension is not quite as good as what is described. Overall though, i'd say that is a decent overview of where I am at with German.
Now, as usual, I have some advice based on personal experience:
1. What are your goals? As I mentioned, my listening comprehension is somewhat behind my speaking production. This is somewhat on purpose and is related to the methods by which I have chosen to learn German. I have, from the beginning, focused on speaking. I have done extensive "self-talk" exercises as well as shadowing, The Pimsleur Method, The Michel Thomas Method, and Language Exchanges. All of these activities are designed around output. They are all specifically geared towards improving verbal fluency, accent, and production in general. I have not been as good at incorporating things like: Movies, TV shows, Podcasts and Skype conversations with native speakers. These are designed more around listening comprehension.
What should you do? I would suggest a nice mix of the two, but it really depends on your ultimate goals. You want to learn to read well in German? Read a lot of German. You want to speak? See above. You want to write German? Write a lot of German and have it corrected by natives on Lang-8.com
2. Verbs. I've mentioned this before too but it bears repeating. Verbs are the key to any language. Learn to use them and learn to use them well. You will be in better shape REALLY knowing 50 verbs and how to use them then you will be knowing 200 verbs but not having a good grasp on their usage and/or conjugation. This is true, not just for German but for other languages as well. There are verbs in German like lassen, ankommen, finden, halten, machen, stehen and ausgeben that have numerous meanings and usages (especially colloquially). A solid grasp on their usage and formations would have you head and shoulders above someone who went through and learned twice as many verbs but only one meaning for each. I try to learn 20+ vocab words per day but only one or two verbs.
3. Self-talk. I am a firm believer in self-talk exercises. These can be as informal as talking to yourself in the shower to as formal as picking a topic, learning vocab specific to that topic, and filming yourself talking unrehearsed. Will your grammar be perfect? No. Will your vocab always be correct? No. Will it make you more comfortable speaking? Yes. Will it improve your speed and ability to "think on your feet" when speaking? Absolutely. I do quite a bit of my self-talk with a dictionary handy to fill in missing vocab that I can add to my ANKI deck later. There is no right or wrong way to do this, but if you want to improve your speaking skills, you need to speak more. I said it above with reading and writing. Practice makes better.
4. Do something everyday. I went through a phase where I struggled with this. There were times when i went days without touching anything German related. While this can feel like a "recharge", I found it to be a major setback.
When I get exposure to German everyday, i find myself thinking in German sometimes. It may only be a minute until I catch myself, but I do it. I want to get to the point where I can "think" in German like I do in English. Maybe not to the same extent as I believe that those neural pathways are developed and cemented in very early childhood, but I have experienced brief flashes of it and it is a great feeling.
I've gotten slightly off topic here, but my point is that in order for You to learn something as complex as a language, you need to do it everyday. I compare it to Math class in school. After Summer break, it would always take me weeks (or months) to get myself back to the same level that I was when school let out 3 months earlier, much less be in a position to really learn anything new. Keep it fresh. Don't just review either. Learn SOMETHING new everyday. Even if it is one grammar point or one new verb or one key vocabulary word. Move forward.
5. Learn Colloquialisms. I'm not learning German to pass a test. I'm learning German to talk to other people who speak German. I want to know how German people talk. I don't talk like the sentences I read in ESL textbooks, so I know Germans don't talk like the sentences in my Pimsleur course. Language exchanges are good for this. Forums in your Target Language are good for this. There are books too but be careful as slang can change so quickly that you may sound like your Grandfather by the time the slang book hits the market. There are great websites devoted to slang in almost any language.
I have a friend who speaks fluent "textbook" French. She can conjugate verbs and has a strong active vocabulary but she struggles to watch films in French and to talk to real French people because she doesn't speak how they speak. She is embarrassed to tell people that she speaks French because she doesn't feel like she speaks the language like it is spoken in the real world. This is fine is she wants to book a hotel room or buy train tickets, but if she wants to meet French friends and hang out and be social, she struggles.
I dedicate an ANKI deck and at least sometime everyday to slang. I pick up sentences from online forums, from slang websites, from books (checked through Google for accuracy and frequency of use) and from emails with my email exchange partners. I have also been known to pull some slang from TV shows (like How I Met Your Mother and Friends) in German.
All in all, I feel like I am in a good position to meet my goal of conversational fluency (B2) within one year. I thank you for joining me on this journey and I hope to have a 9/10 Month video up within the next couple of weeks.
Tschüss!
I would put my level right now at a B1. I have completed several online placement tests and assessments and this appears to be the overall consensus. What does this mean? Glad you asked:
Language Levels explained here
With regards to me and my B1 assessment, here are my abilities/limitations in a nutshell:
Listening: "I can understand the main points of clear standard speech on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. I can understand the main point of many radio or TV programmes on current affairs or topics of personal or professional interest when the delivery is relatively slow and clear."
Reading: "I can understand texts that consist mainly of high frequency everyday or job-related language. I can understand the description of events, feelings and wishes in personal letters."
Spoken Interaction: "I can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. I can enter unprepared into conversation on topics that are familiar, of personal interest or pertinent to everyday life (e.g. family, hobbies, work, travel and current events)."
Spoken Production: "I can connect phrases in a simple way in order to describe experiences and events, my dreams, hopes and ambitions. I can briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. I can narrate a story or relate the plot of a book or film and describe my reactions."
Writing: "I can write simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. I can write personal letters describing experiences and impressions."
Now, as a disclaimer, some of these are no 100% true regarding me personally. My Spoken Interaction and Production skills are slightly better than listed above whereas my listening comprehension is not quite as good as what is described. Overall though, i'd say that is a decent overview of where I am at with German.
Now, as usual, I have some advice based on personal experience:
1. What are your goals? As I mentioned, my listening comprehension is somewhat behind my speaking production. This is somewhat on purpose and is related to the methods by which I have chosen to learn German. I have, from the beginning, focused on speaking. I have done extensive "self-talk" exercises as well as shadowing, The Pimsleur Method, The Michel Thomas Method, and Language Exchanges. All of these activities are designed around output. They are all specifically geared towards improving verbal fluency, accent, and production in general. I have not been as good at incorporating things like: Movies, TV shows, Podcasts and Skype conversations with native speakers. These are designed more around listening comprehension.
What should you do? I would suggest a nice mix of the two, but it really depends on your ultimate goals. You want to learn to read well in German? Read a lot of German. You want to speak? See above. You want to write German? Write a lot of German and have it corrected by natives on Lang-8.com
2. Verbs. I've mentioned this before too but it bears repeating. Verbs are the key to any language. Learn to use them and learn to use them well. You will be in better shape REALLY knowing 50 verbs and how to use them then you will be knowing 200 verbs but not having a good grasp on their usage and/or conjugation. This is true, not just for German but for other languages as well. There are verbs in German like lassen, ankommen, finden, halten, machen, stehen and ausgeben that have numerous meanings and usages (especially colloquially). A solid grasp on their usage and formations would have you head and shoulders above someone who went through and learned twice as many verbs but only one meaning for each. I try to learn 20+ vocab words per day but only one or two verbs.
3. Self-talk. I am a firm believer in self-talk exercises. These can be as informal as talking to yourself in the shower to as formal as picking a topic, learning vocab specific to that topic, and filming yourself talking unrehearsed. Will your grammar be perfect? No. Will your vocab always be correct? No. Will it make you more comfortable speaking? Yes. Will it improve your speed and ability to "think on your feet" when speaking? Absolutely. I do quite a bit of my self-talk with a dictionary handy to fill in missing vocab that I can add to my ANKI deck later. There is no right or wrong way to do this, but if you want to improve your speaking skills, you need to speak more. I said it above with reading and writing. Practice makes better.
4. Do something everyday. I went through a phase where I struggled with this. There were times when i went days without touching anything German related. While this can feel like a "recharge", I found it to be a major setback.
When I get exposure to German everyday, i find myself thinking in German sometimes. It may only be a minute until I catch myself, but I do it. I want to get to the point where I can "think" in German like I do in English. Maybe not to the same extent as I believe that those neural pathways are developed and cemented in very early childhood, but I have experienced brief flashes of it and it is a great feeling.
I've gotten slightly off topic here, but my point is that in order for You to learn something as complex as a language, you need to do it everyday. I compare it to Math class in school. After Summer break, it would always take me weeks (or months) to get myself back to the same level that I was when school let out 3 months earlier, much less be in a position to really learn anything new. Keep it fresh. Don't just review either. Learn SOMETHING new everyday. Even if it is one grammar point or one new verb or one key vocabulary word. Move forward.
5. Learn Colloquialisms. I'm not learning German to pass a test. I'm learning German to talk to other people who speak German. I want to know how German people talk. I don't talk like the sentences I read in ESL textbooks, so I know Germans don't talk like the sentences in my Pimsleur course. Language exchanges are good for this. Forums in your Target Language are good for this. There are books too but be careful as slang can change so quickly that you may sound like your Grandfather by the time the slang book hits the market. There are great websites devoted to slang in almost any language.
I have a friend who speaks fluent "textbook" French. She can conjugate verbs and has a strong active vocabulary but she struggles to watch films in French and to talk to real French people because she doesn't speak how they speak. She is embarrassed to tell people that she speaks French because she doesn't feel like she speaks the language like it is spoken in the real world. This is fine is she wants to book a hotel room or buy train tickets, but if she wants to meet French friends and hang out and be social, she struggles.
I dedicate an ANKI deck and at least sometime everyday to slang. I pick up sentences from online forums, from slang websites, from books (checked through Google for accuracy and frequency of use) and from emails with my email exchange partners. I have also been known to pull some slang from TV shows (like How I Met Your Mother and Friends) in German.
All in all, I feel like I am in a good position to meet my goal of conversational fluency (B2) within one year. I thank you for joining me on this journey and I hope to have a 9/10 Month video up within the next couple of weeks.
Tschüss!
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
My Podcast Method for Learning German
Hallo Freunde!
I wanted to drop a quick post about a German Language resource I found online called The Slow German Podcast. It is a podcast series (in German of course) read at a slightly slower pace than normal speech. I'm not talking radically slower or anything like that, but slow enough to make out the difference between words.
So, I listened to a few of them and discovered they were a little beyond my abilities but they contained some great information. Of course I contrived a structured plan for tackling these podcasts and wanted to share it with you:
1. I listen to the podcast 3 or 4 times without focusing on it too much. I don't look at the transcripts yet and I don't try to pick out any words.
2. I listen to the same podcast another 2 or 3 times but with focused attention this time. I try to pick out specific words I know and I try to identify what the podcast is generally about. I can usually pick out some main topics through vocab but often I get very little else besides a general idea at this point.
3. I read through the transcript without listening to the podcast. I try to pick out as much vocab as I can. I am usually a little better at picking out vocab I know from written words than from the listening. At this point I have a much better idea of what the podcast is about.
4. I listen to one paragraph at a time while reading along with the transcript. I then copy/paste the paragraph into Google translate to get a more solid grasp on unknown vocab. Google Translate isn't perfect, but it will definitely help you figure out what they are talking about.
5. I jot down the main vocab words that I think will help me understand the podcast. I do not pull every unknown word, just the main vocab.
6. I review the list of words and try to play around with them by making my own sentences and just having fun.
7. I listen to the podcast again while following along with the transcript. At this point I usually have no trouble following along and understanding.
8. Finally, I listen to the podcast again without reading along. I might do this 2 or 3 times (or more) until I feel comfortable that I "get it".
This entire process can take me anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour+ depending on the length of the podcast. I also will review the previous day's podcast along with an older podcast on a rotating schedule to make sure I am keeping my new vocab fresh. I have done this with about 20 or so podcasts for Slow German and I think it is helping quite a bit. I am surprised at how much easier each subsequent podcast is thanks to the hard work on the previous ones.
I hope this proves helpful!
Tschüss!
I wanted to drop a quick post about a German Language resource I found online called The Slow German Podcast. It is a podcast series (in German of course) read at a slightly slower pace than normal speech. I'm not talking radically slower or anything like that, but slow enough to make out the difference between words.
So, I listened to a few of them and discovered they were a little beyond my abilities but they contained some great information. Of course I contrived a structured plan for tackling these podcasts and wanted to share it with you:
1. I listen to the podcast 3 or 4 times without focusing on it too much. I don't look at the transcripts yet and I don't try to pick out any words.
2. I listen to the same podcast another 2 or 3 times but with focused attention this time. I try to pick out specific words I know and I try to identify what the podcast is generally about. I can usually pick out some main topics through vocab but often I get very little else besides a general idea at this point.
3. I read through the transcript without listening to the podcast. I try to pick out as much vocab as I can. I am usually a little better at picking out vocab I know from written words than from the listening. At this point I have a much better idea of what the podcast is about.
4. I listen to one paragraph at a time while reading along with the transcript. I then copy/paste the paragraph into Google translate to get a more solid grasp on unknown vocab. Google Translate isn't perfect, but it will definitely help you figure out what they are talking about.
5. I jot down the main vocab words that I think will help me understand the podcast. I do not pull every unknown word, just the main vocab.
6. I review the list of words and try to play around with them by making my own sentences and just having fun.
7. I listen to the podcast again while following along with the transcript. At this point I usually have no trouble following along and understanding.
8. Finally, I listen to the podcast again without reading along. I might do this 2 or 3 times (or more) until I feel comfortable that I "get it".
This entire process can take me anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour+ depending on the length of the podcast. I also will review the previous day's podcast along with an older podcast on a rotating schedule to make sure I am keeping my new vocab fresh. I have done this with about 20 or so podcasts for Slow German and I think it is helping quite a bit. I am surprised at how much easier each subsequent podcast is thanks to the hard work on the previous ones.
I hope this proves helpful!
Tschüss!
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Six Month German Learning Post
Hallo Freunde!
Well, the 6 Month mark has come and gone. Am I where I had hoped? Not really. Am I proud of what I have accomplished? Yes. Very proud. What have I been up to for the last Month?
1. Continuing with sentences. Yes, I feel like I finally hit pay dirt with this method. I am really getting a grasp on grammar this way without studying the boring textbook stuff. I have found that once I get the layout of a sentence, I can mix and match verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs to come up with dozens of variations for each sentence. This is VERY motivating as it feels like I am learning things at a quick pace.
2. Vocabulary. I have been slacking on new vocab words this last Month and concentrating on solidifying the vocab I already have. I try to use a lot of "self talk" to force this vocab into my active use but it is tough without easy and consistent access to native speakers.
3. Verbs. I have been pushing the verbs hard this Month and I am having mixed results. It seems like every time I learn 10 new verbs, I find a need for 20 more that I don't know yet. Language really IS all about verbs.
4. I signed up for Lang-8.com and have been submitting material for correction as well as correcting other people's submissions in English. If you have not checked this out, do so.
5. MUSIC! I know, every post I'm sure I've found the ultimate learning tool and this one is no different. I found some German songs on Youtube that I liked and I imported them to my iPod. I have been listening to this pretty consistently. What I do is: listen to a song all the way through about 3 or 4 times. I pick up a few words here and there and try to figure out what it is about. Next, I pull the German lyrics of the internet and follow through with the song a few more times. I pick up a lot more this way. Finally I pull the English translation off of the internet and go through the song a few more times. After this, I find that I really understand the songs and can stop focusing on translation and just enjoy the songs.I have learned a lot of good stuff this way. Here are a few bands to check out: Rammstein (heavy), Bosse (light rock), Tokio Hotel (Pop-punk), and Azad (rap). Much more enjoyable than studying grammar!
Tschüss
Well, the 6 Month mark has come and gone. Am I where I had hoped? Not really. Am I proud of what I have accomplished? Yes. Very proud. What have I been up to for the last Month?
1. Continuing with sentences. Yes, I feel like I finally hit pay dirt with this method. I am really getting a grasp on grammar this way without studying the boring textbook stuff. I have found that once I get the layout of a sentence, I can mix and match verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs to come up with dozens of variations for each sentence. This is VERY motivating as it feels like I am learning things at a quick pace.
2. Vocabulary. I have been slacking on new vocab words this last Month and concentrating on solidifying the vocab I already have. I try to use a lot of "self talk" to force this vocab into my active use but it is tough without easy and consistent access to native speakers.
3. Verbs. I have been pushing the verbs hard this Month and I am having mixed results. It seems like every time I learn 10 new verbs, I find a need for 20 more that I don't know yet. Language really IS all about verbs.
4. I signed up for Lang-8.com and have been submitting material for correction as well as correcting other people's submissions in English. If you have not checked this out, do so.
5. MUSIC! I know, every post I'm sure I've found the ultimate learning tool and this one is no different. I found some German songs on Youtube that I liked and I imported them to my iPod. I have been listening to this pretty consistently. What I do is: listen to a song all the way through about 3 or 4 times. I pick up a few words here and there and try to figure out what it is about. Next, I pull the German lyrics of the internet and follow through with the song a few more times. I pick up a lot more this way. Finally I pull the English translation off of the internet and go through the song a few more times. After this, I find that I really understand the songs and can stop focusing on translation and just enjoy the songs.I have learned a lot of good stuff this way. Here are a few bands to check out: Rammstein (heavy), Bosse (light rock), Tokio Hotel (Pop-punk), and Azad (rap). Much more enjoyable than studying grammar!
Tschüss
Monday, June 25, 2012
German Progress - Always Evolving
Guten Tag meine Freunde!
It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post, so I figured it would be a good time to update you on my progress:
1. I've been learning verbs. I haven't been learning them at quite the clip I was aiming for, but I feel like I am retaining the ones I do learn. I have been creating sentences with new verbs that I learn. This helps with context and helps me to remember the conjugations as well.
2. I have been learning sentences. Yes, complete sentences. I have been pulling them from multiple sources like: The dictionary, emails to/from my German penpal, forum posts, fiction books, and textbooks. I have been writing them down and reviewing them everyday. These sentences are not necessarily related to anything in particular, but they are all sentences that I could see myself using somehow in conversation. I have filled almost 2 dozen pages with sentences this way (over 200 sentences so far). This sentence method is doing 3 things for me: First, they are giving me some stock or "canned" phrases that I have practiced and feel comfortable with. Secondly, they are providing a grammar framework that I can use to form other structurally related sentences by substituting other nouns and verbs but maintaining the grammar structure and organization. Thirdly, they are helping me learn vocabulary (especially verbs) as these are sentences that are not necessarily sentences I could construct with my current vocab knowledge.
3. I've been listening to The news, read slowly in German. This has been helpful in continuing to "tune my ear" to German and to improve my vocabulary. I listen to it a couple of times and follow along with the written text (in German). Then, I try to determine what the particular article is about. I then translate it to determine how close I was. Once I read through the translation, I listen to it again a few more times with the translation in mind. I can usually get 3-5 news vocab words out it without really even trying. Every little bit helps, right?
And that is pretty much what I've been up to on the German front. It's a slow process but I am very proud of my progress and I feel confident that we will reach our goal of fluency in 7 more Months.
It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post, so I figured it would be a good time to update you on my progress:
1. I've been learning verbs. I haven't been learning them at quite the clip I was aiming for, but I feel like I am retaining the ones I do learn. I have been creating sentences with new verbs that I learn. This helps with context and helps me to remember the conjugations as well.
2. I have been learning sentences. Yes, complete sentences. I have been pulling them from multiple sources like: The dictionary, emails to/from my German penpal, forum posts, fiction books, and textbooks. I have been writing them down and reviewing them everyday. These sentences are not necessarily related to anything in particular, but they are all sentences that I could see myself using somehow in conversation. I have filled almost 2 dozen pages with sentences this way (over 200 sentences so far). This sentence method is doing 3 things for me: First, they are giving me some stock or "canned" phrases that I have practiced and feel comfortable with. Secondly, they are providing a grammar framework that I can use to form other structurally related sentences by substituting other nouns and verbs but maintaining the grammar structure and organization. Thirdly, they are helping me learn vocabulary (especially verbs) as these are sentences that are not necessarily sentences I could construct with my current vocab knowledge.
3. I've been listening to The news, read slowly in German. This has been helpful in continuing to "tune my ear" to German and to improve my vocabulary. I listen to it a couple of times and follow along with the written text (in German). Then, I try to determine what the particular article is about. I then translate it to determine how close I was. Once I read through the translation, I listen to it again a few more times with the translation in mind. I can usually get 3-5 news vocab words out it without really even trying. Every little bit helps, right?
And that is pretty much what I've been up to on the German front. It's a slow process but I am very proud of my progress and I feel confident that we will reach our goal of fluency in 7 more Months.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
This German Just Got Real (bad)
Guten Tag! So, I was at the local Brewery Bar last week with some friends from work and I had an experience I would like to share that really opened my eyes and made me understand exactly where my German shortcomings were.
There we were, about 10 of us, just chatting away, drinking our beer and somehow it came out that one of my co-workers spoke fluent German. Turns out, her Dad moved here from Germany and she was raised bi-lingual. Well, of course I told her I was learning German and she started to speak it to me. That's when the crushing blow came...
All of a sudden, I couldn't remember basic vocabulary. She was talking and I was not processing. I tried to speak back and baby talk spewed from my mouth. What was happening? I knew this stuff. She was speaking reasonable, short, basic sentences and I was just not getting it. She actually asked me "Wie viele Biere trinkst du heute Abend?" This translates to the super simple "How many beers will you have tonight?". My answer? "Ummm, uhhh, ja (yes) Bier (beer), ummm..." She looked at me like I had lost my mind. I hung my head in shame.
So, I found out 3 things that day:
1. I'm NOT very good at thinking on my feet in German.
2. My listening skills could use some sharpening.
3. I need more automatic "canned"-type responses to help give me time to gather my thoughts.
So, I started thinking about some things I could do to fix these:
1. The only I can do about thinking on my feet in German is to get more exposure to speaking to native speakers. No way around it. The more I talk the better I will listen and the better I will speak. This one is easy.
2. I need to kick my listening into high gear. More movies in German, more dialogs, and more podcasts. I have several audiobooks in German that I will add into my everyday routine. Again, verbs are an issue for me because of where they fall in the sentence but I have already addressed verbs in my last post.
3. I feel like I should explain "canned" responses. I hadn't really thought of this concept until this day. I can't help but think that if I had some stock sentences that I felt were automatic that I didn't have to think about then I could have recovered. These would be sentences that I had drilled and worked on so much that I couldn't help but spew them out even under the most stressful of circumstances. These would be sentences that steered the conversation in a direction I was comfortable with. In theory, this would help to de-stress me and as the conversation moved outside of my comfort zone, I could comfortably move with it.
I need to think about #3 some more... I'll see what i can come up with in a future post.
Do you have any stories like the one above (positive ones are great too)?
Tschüss!
There we were, about 10 of us, just chatting away, drinking our beer and somehow it came out that one of my co-workers spoke fluent German. Turns out, her Dad moved here from Germany and she was raised bi-lingual. Well, of course I told her I was learning German and she started to speak it to me. That's when the crushing blow came...
All of a sudden, I couldn't remember basic vocabulary. She was talking and I was not processing. I tried to speak back and baby talk spewed from my mouth. What was happening? I knew this stuff. She was speaking reasonable, short, basic sentences and I was just not getting it. She actually asked me "Wie viele Biere trinkst du heute Abend?" This translates to the super simple "How many beers will you have tonight?". My answer? "Ummm, uhhh, ja (yes) Bier (beer), ummm..." She looked at me like I had lost my mind. I hung my head in shame.
So, I found out 3 things that day:
1. I'm NOT very good at thinking on my feet in German.
2. My listening skills could use some sharpening.
3. I need more automatic "canned"-type responses to help give me time to gather my thoughts.
So, I started thinking about some things I could do to fix these:
1. The only I can do about thinking on my feet in German is to get more exposure to speaking to native speakers. No way around it. The more I talk the better I will listen and the better I will speak. This one is easy.
2. I need to kick my listening into high gear. More movies in German, more dialogs, and more podcasts. I have several audiobooks in German that I will add into my everyday routine. Again, verbs are an issue for me because of where they fall in the sentence but I have already addressed verbs in my last post.
3. I feel like I should explain "canned" responses. I hadn't really thought of this concept until this day. I can't help but think that if I had some stock sentences that I felt were automatic that I didn't have to think about then I could have recovered. These would be sentences that I had drilled and worked on so much that I couldn't help but spew them out even under the most stressful of circumstances. These would be sentences that steered the conversation in a direction I was comfortable with. In theory, this would help to de-stress me and as the conversation moved outside of my comfort zone, I could comfortably move with it.
I need to think about #3 some more... I'll see what i can come up with in a future post.
Do you have any stories like the one above (positive ones are great too)?
Tschüss!
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Verb Power!
Hallo!
This post will be about actually doing something. Anything really. Actually, it is about verbs. Michel Thomas believed that verbs were the heart of any language. I'm starting to think he was on to something. One of my weak spots at the moment in German is verbs and it is kind of frustrating me a little.
Truthfully, I know about 150 verbs (according to my flashcards) and their conjugations. Truthfully it isn't nearly enough. I'm finding that (like English) German has several verbs that mean relatively the same thing. I'm also finding that just because I learn one of those verbs doesn't mean that other people/books will use the one verb that I happen to have learned. Weird huh?
So what to do about it? Well, I've narrowed by plan of attack to the essentials. I need to know the infinitive of the verb and it's meaning. I also need to know if it is irregular or not. I also need to know the Past Participle and whether it takes haben or sein. Really that's it. Now, to my mind, a verb is equal to about 3 regular vocab words because of the additional information required. Because of this, it makes sense that I would not be able to acquire verbs at the same rate as adjectives or nouns. Typically, I like to add 10-20 vocab words per day to my list. By this reasoning, it would make sense to add 3-6 verbs per day, right? Sounds like a plan.
So, how do I do this? I mentioned in a previous post that I had purchased a book called Barron's 501 German Verbs. Well, in this book, they list 55 "essential" verbs. These are the bad boys that you simply have to get down. These are the most common verbs you will encounter and should be the 1st verbs you learn. I reviewed those and found a few (about 6) that I was not familiar with. So, I wrote them all down in my notebook, infinitive, meaning, Past Participle, the whole nine yards. I reviewed them all and created an ANKI deck just for them. I then went through the rest of the book and highlighted the verbs that I already knew (161 of them to be precise). Given the overlap, I am left with about 334 verbs of the 501 most common.
My guess at this point is that if I know the 501 most commonly used German verbs, I'm probably good to go. I will absorb additional verbs as they come up, but 501 should be sufficient for my goals of conversational fluency. So now I need to learn 334 verbs. If I devote each day to learning 5 new verbs and I do this 5-6 days per week, I should be able to get this down in 12 weeks. That's 3 Months of very manageable verb study. I think I can do this.
My next issue is what order should I learn these in. Alphabetical? I would rather not learn them in alphabetical order as I may rely on that subconsciously to memorize them in that order (being that they are so closely related by spelling). So, what then? Random? Random could work. By importance? I supposed I could type them all into a spreadsheet and evaluate their usefulness on a scale from 1-100 and learn them based on priority. In fact, the act of typing them into a spreadsheet from the book could help to give me an overview of the new verbs so that I would be a little bit more familiar with them come learning time. The drawback would be that it would take me several days to do this as I have a full-time job and a house full of kids. I think random is the way to go here.
Ok, well I guess I will start today. I do need to be very careful that I don't neglect any of my other vocabulary study or reading time.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments below. Bis bald.
Tschüss!
This post will be about actually doing something. Anything really. Actually, it is about verbs. Michel Thomas believed that verbs were the heart of any language. I'm starting to think he was on to something. One of my weak spots at the moment in German is verbs and it is kind of frustrating me a little.
Truthfully, I know about 150 verbs (according to my flashcards) and their conjugations. Truthfully it isn't nearly enough. I'm finding that (like English) German has several verbs that mean relatively the same thing. I'm also finding that just because I learn one of those verbs doesn't mean that other people/books will use the one verb that I happen to have learned. Weird huh?
So what to do about it? Well, I've narrowed by plan of attack to the essentials. I need to know the infinitive of the verb and it's meaning. I also need to know if it is irregular or not. I also need to know the Past Participle and whether it takes haben or sein. Really that's it. Now, to my mind, a verb is equal to about 3 regular vocab words because of the additional information required. Because of this, it makes sense that I would not be able to acquire verbs at the same rate as adjectives or nouns. Typically, I like to add 10-20 vocab words per day to my list. By this reasoning, it would make sense to add 3-6 verbs per day, right? Sounds like a plan.
So, how do I do this? I mentioned in a previous post that I had purchased a book called Barron's 501 German Verbs. Well, in this book, they list 55 "essential" verbs. These are the bad boys that you simply have to get down. These are the most common verbs you will encounter and should be the 1st verbs you learn. I reviewed those and found a few (about 6) that I was not familiar with. So, I wrote them all down in my notebook, infinitive, meaning, Past Participle, the whole nine yards. I reviewed them all and created an ANKI deck just for them. I then went through the rest of the book and highlighted the verbs that I already knew (161 of them to be precise). Given the overlap, I am left with about 334 verbs of the 501 most common.
My guess at this point is that if I know the 501 most commonly used German verbs, I'm probably good to go. I will absorb additional verbs as they come up, but 501 should be sufficient for my goals of conversational fluency. So now I need to learn 334 verbs. If I devote each day to learning 5 new verbs and I do this 5-6 days per week, I should be able to get this down in 12 weeks. That's 3 Months of very manageable verb study. I think I can do this.
My next issue is what order should I learn these in. Alphabetical? I would rather not learn them in alphabetical order as I may rely on that subconsciously to memorize them in that order (being that they are so closely related by spelling). So, what then? Random? Random could work. By importance? I supposed I could type them all into a spreadsheet and evaluate their usefulness on a scale from 1-100 and learn them based on priority. In fact, the act of typing them into a spreadsheet from the book could help to give me an overview of the new verbs so that I would be a little bit more familiar with them come learning time. The drawback would be that it would take me several days to do this as I have a full-time job and a house full of kids. I think random is the way to go here.
Ok, well I guess I will start today. I do need to be very careful that I don't neglect any of my other vocabulary study or reading time.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments below. Bis bald.
Tschüss!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Book Review - Essential German Grammar
Hallo,
This post will be my first book review and it will be about "Essential German Grammar" by Guy Stern and Everett F Bleiler. You can find it on Amazon.com here. It is relatively cheap at $5.95. I'm not an Amazon affiliate so I do not make any money off of any purchases, I'm just trying to give out good information.
To start out, I will explain what this book is NOT:
1. It is not for the absolute beginner. It does assume some knowledge of basic German vocab and phrases. There are many example sentences but I would not recommend this as your first German book, but I would recommend it as your first German GRAMMAR book..
2. This is not a complete reference on German Grammar in all situations. This is a small (120 pages) "bird's eye view" type of resource.
3. This is not a text book or a workbook. You will not find drills and exercises in it. This will not help you pass any tests in German class at school.
Now, What this book IS:
1. This is a reference for the most important basic German Grammar points you will encounter while teaching yourself the language.
2. It is written clearly and concisely. It gets right to the point and does not waste time with theory and historical explanations.
3. It is designed primarily for the native English speaker who is learning German through self-study. The book focuses on drawing parallels between English and German rather than the differences.
So. Now that we have establishes what this book is and is not, my opinion:
I think this book is great. I bought this book about 2 Months into my learning and it really helped bring everything together for me. When I got this book, my biggest issues were word order and noun/adjective declinations. Both of these topics are covered in this book and I have been through it several times over. It is clearly written and offers several example sentences for every concept presented.
Another great thing about this book is that it never tries to be anything but an overview reference to get you up and speaking. I sort of think of this as an anti-textbook. Textbooks focus on trying to make you an expert at a concept by preparing you for exam-type questions and answers. This book will not prepare you for any exams, but it will help you to formulate sentences in German and not sound like an idiot.
So that is my review. In short, I recommend this as anyone's first grammar book once they have a little vocab and pronunciation under their belt and they are looking for some clear explanations about some of the most basic topics.
Let me know in the comments if you think I am spot on with this review or if I need to have my head checked...
Tschüs!
This post will be my first book review and it will be about "Essential German Grammar" by Guy Stern and Everett F Bleiler. You can find it on Amazon.com here. It is relatively cheap at $5.95. I'm not an Amazon affiliate so I do not make any money off of any purchases, I'm just trying to give out good information.
To start out, I will explain what this book is NOT:
1. It is not for the absolute beginner. It does assume some knowledge of basic German vocab and phrases. There are many example sentences but I would not recommend this as your first German book, but I would recommend it as your first German GRAMMAR book..
2. This is not a complete reference on German Grammar in all situations. This is a small (120 pages) "bird's eye view" type of resource.
3. This is not a text book or a workbook. You will not find drills and exercises in it. This will not help you pass any tests in German class at school.
Now, What this book IS:
1. This is a reference for the most important basic German Grammar points you will encounter while teaching yourself the language.
2. It is written clearly and concisely. It gets right to the point and does not waste time with theory and historical explanations.
3. It is designed primarily for the native English speaker who is learning German through self-study. The book focuses on drawing parallels between English and German rather than the differences.
So. Now that we have establishes what this book is and is not, my opinion:
I think this book is great. I bought this book about 2 Months into my learning and it really helped bring everything together for me. When I got this book, my biggest issues were word order and noun/adjective declinations. Both of these topics are covered in this book and I have been through it several times over. It is clearly written and offers several example sentences for every concept presented.
Another great thing about this book is that it never tries to be anything but an overview reference to get you up and speaking. I sort of think of this as an anti-textbook. Textbooks focus on trying to make you an expert at a concept by preparing you for exam-type questions and answers. This book will not prepare you for any exams, but it will help you to formulate sentences in German and not sound like an idiot.
So that is my review. In short, I recommend this as anyone's first grammar book once they have a little vocab and pronunciation under their belt and they are looking for some clear explanations about some of the most basic topics.
Let me know in the comments if you think I am spot on with this review or if I need to have my head checked...
Tschüs!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
My Four Month Progress Video in German
Hallo!
So, I decided that the next logical step would probably be to record myself speaking German so that I could better analyze my shortcomings (at least as far as German goes). So, here it is, my first attempt at speaking German in front of a camera. In hindsight, I was VERY nervous and it shows. I think it gets a little better towards the end as I start to get more comfortable. The grammar may or may not be totally correct in all parts, but at least I gave it a try and I will have something to compare to next Month when i do it again.
So, there it is. For all the world to see. As you can see, I still have a lot of work to do but I am still proud of my progress.
Bis bald!
So, I decided that the next logical step would probably be to record myself speaking German so that I could better analyze my shortcomings (at least as far as German goes). So, here it is, my first attempt at speaking German in front of a camera. In hindsight, I was VERY nervous and it shows. I think it gets a little better towards the end as I start to get more comfortable. The grammar may or may not be totally correct in all parts, but at least I gave it a try and I will have something to compare to next Month when i do it again.
So, there it is. For all the world to see. As you can see, I still have a lot of work to do but I am still proud of my progress.
Bis bald!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Four Month German Learning Check-in
Hallo!
Well, this is the 4 Month check-in post. It doesn't FEEL like 4 Months. I can't tell if it feels closer to 1 Month or 10 Months, but not 4.
So what have I been doing lately? Glad you asked:
1. I've been adding and reviewing paper and ANKI flashcards everyday. I do not take days off from this. I still see vocabulary as the primary ingredient in the language learning process. Vocabulary is like the meat of the dinner plate with grammar as the side dish. Between the 2 methods, I have roughly 900-1000 flashcards that I review at regular intervals. As I don't make flashcards for every word, these usually are words or phrases that I either struggle with or may not come up frequently enough in my studies for me to retain them as easily.
One thing I really like to do when I struggle with a particular word or phrase is to use it out loud. If it is a phrase, I say it aloud and try to role-play myself in a situation that I may use it. This practice and context helps me retain it. If it is a word, I make up a sentence (or 10) and use it out load. Context is king when it comes to retention.
2. Reading. If you've been following my blog, you know I am reading Harry Potter und der Stein der Weissen right now. I am picking up speed, but I have gone back to the beginning several times and I find my understanding is much greater each time. My goal is to read it through without a dictionary (eventually).
3. Grammar. Yes, I've been studying some light grammar. I do not spend an enormous amount of time on it, but enopugh to not sound like an idiot or a 3 year old (no offense meant towards 3 year olds of course).
4. TV audio. This is a new one that I've recently started and am enjoying. Here's what I do: I find TV shows in German on Youtube. I convert the youtube file into an Mp3 and put it on my iPod. Right now I have 3 episodes of "How I Met Your Mother", 2 episodes of "American Dad" and a couple episodes of "Garfield" the cartoon. The beauty is that it's all audio (thus the Mp3). I went grocery shopping yesterday and listened to 3 full episodes while tooling around the grocery store. I was actually surprised at how much I was able to follow and how many words I was able to pick out. I am finding that even though it is a bit above my level, I am understanding more and more. I kind of wish I had done this earlier.
5. Language exchange emails without a dictionary. I have been emailing a German penpal for about 3 Months already and I decided to try writing without a dictionary or Google translate help. Wow. What a difference! I am finding my limitations better at this point and sometimes I have to find a roundabout way to say something if I don't know the vocab. This also makes sure that after I send it, I go look up those words I was missing. Because of the corrections that my penpal provides, this is an amazingly effective practice.
So. am I going to take a test this Month? Not sure yet. I am leaning towards no for one big reason: I don't think I've been studying the things that most tests are geared towards measuring. As I've said in previous posts, I'm learning this language to communicate. I'm not learning German to count farm animals or discuss the color of my clothing (I'm colorblind anyway). I'm learning German to talk to (or email) other people that speak German. Most courses and tests are not geared toward this.
I hope this has been useful. Please leave a comment if you have anything to add.
Tschüss!
Well, this is the 4 Month check-in post. It doesn't FEEL like 4 Months. I can't tell if it feels closer to 1 Month or 10 Months, but not 4.
So what have I been doing lately? Glad you asked:
1. I've been adding and reviewing paper and ANKI flashcards everyday. I do not take days off from this. I still see vocabulary as the primary ingredient in the language learning process. Vocabulary is like the meat of the dinner plate with grammar as the side dish. Between the 2 methods, I have roughly 900-1000 flashcards that I review at regular intervals. As I don't make flashcards for every word, these usually are words or phrases that I either struggle with or may not come up frequently enough in my studies for me to retain them as easily.
One thing I really like to do when I struggle with a particular word or phrase is to use it out loud. If it is a phrase, I say it aloud and try to role-play myself in a situation that I may use it. This practice and context helps me retain it. If it is a word, I make up a sentence (or 10) and use it out load. Context is king when it comes to retention.
2. Reading. If you've been following my blog, you know I am reading Harry Potter und der Stein der Weissen right now. I am picking up speed, but I have gone back to the beginning several times and I find my understanding is much greater each time. My goal is to read it through without a dictionary (eventually).
3. Grammar. Yes, I've been studying some light grammar. I do not spend an enormous amount of time on it, but enopugh to not sound like an idiot or a 3 year old (no offense meant towards 3 year olds of course).
4. TV audio. This is a new one that I've recently started and am enjoying. Here's what I do: I find TV shows in German on Youtube. I convert the youtube file into an Mp3 and put it on my iPod. Right now I have 3 episodes of "How I Met Your Mother", 2 episodes of "American Dad" and a couple episodes of "Garfield" the cartoon. The beauty is that it's all audio (thus the Mp3). I went grocery shopping yesterday and listened to 3 full episodes while tooling around the grocery store. I was actually surprised at how much I was able to follow and how many words I was able to pick out. I am finding that even though it is a bit above my level, I am understanding more and more. I kind of wish I had done this earlier.
5. Language exchange emails without a dictionary. I have been emailing a German penpal for about 3 Months already and I decided to try writing without a dictionary or Google translate help. Wow. What a difference! I am finding my limitations better at this point and sometimes I have to find a roundabout way to say something if I don't know the vocab. This also makes sure that after I send it, I go look up those words I was missing. Because of the corrections that my penpal provides, this is an amazingly effective practice.
So. am I going to take a test this Month? Not sure yet. I am leaning towards no for one big reason: I don't think I've been studying the things that most tests are geared towards measuring. As I've said in previous posts, I'm learning this language to communicate. I'm not learning German to count farm animals or discuss the color of my clothing (I'm colorblind anyway). I'm learning German to talk to (or email) other people that speak German. Most courses and tests are not geared toward this.
I hope this has been useful. Please leave a comment if you have anything to add.
Tschüss!
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Stuff That Didn't Help My Language Learning
So, this post will be the opposite of my last post. This is all about stuff that did NOT work for me (at least not as well as I had hoped).
1. Word of the day emails. I signed up for a "word of the day" email service and thought it would really help. Unfortunately, it did not. Maybe it just never came at the right time, but I have a backlog of 20+ emails and will probably never even look at them.
2. Word lists. I thought that if I could put together 5-10 words in a list type format, that I could learn a list every day. Not so much. Even when I was able to memorize the wordlist, I would find that I would often memorize the order of the words as much as the meaning of the words. I guess my mind does not memorize those kinds of things very well. Flashcards are the answer here.
3. Vocabulary at the expense of grammar. Let me explain. I started by learning copious amounts of vocabulary with almost no effective grammar constructions at all. Come to find out, all this did was cause me to speak in English with German words. By this I mean that my sentences were coming out using English grammar and word order. The nonsense I was spouting would never be mistaken for German by a real German speaker so it was effectively useless. Once I started studying more stock phrases and substituting my vocabulary words in and out to make new phrases (while keeping structure in place)I found I was making more sense and feeling better about my speaking. I still believe that vocab is more important than grammar in the early stages, but I now think that at least some basic grammar and phrase study should be incorporated early on.
4. Learning vocab words that I would never use. I started out with a combo of basic Kindergarten-type words and "frequency lists" of vocab to study. I found many of these words to be so useless to me in everyday conversation that I really was wasting my time learning them. Things like: The names of the Animals, shapes, colors, types of food, clothing, etc... Now I know many of you are saying "Hey, those are the basics! You have to learn those things first." Do I? I looked back on my recent conversations with friends and was amazed at how rarely I talked to people about Tigers, sweaters, potatoes, teal, squares, etc... I understand that eventually I will want to learn these things, but if I'm trying to work up to conversational fluency, I need to work on conversation. I need to know how to talk about the things I talk about in real life. I need to know how to say "Hangover" (Der Kater), "Chess" (Das Schach), awesome (prima, toll, super), etc... Learn what you want to talk about. It will be easier to remember things that you will use consistently. There will be plenty of time to learn how to say "The Giraffe and the tomato are wearing pink sweaters" ("Die Giraffe und die Tomate tragen rosa Pullover." for those keeping score at home).
5. Learning verbs from their infinitive only. I have re-evaluated the way I go about learning verbs. Knowing the infinitives only has proven to be very limiting. There are a few things that should be learned for each verb besides the infinitive. When I put together flashcards, I include the following information: regular or irregular, past participle and if it uses haben or sein), whether it is a reflexive verb, whether it is has prefix (separable or non). If it is irregular, I list the irregular forms as well. This is a lot of information but it is all very necessary I have found. Not learning the past participle was the biggest mistake.
6. Reading more about language learning than actually learning German. This may seem weird, but if you have ever delved into the mysterious underground of language learning enthusiasts (which is unbelievably fascinating to me personally), then you know what I am talking about. Forums, articles, blogs, youtube videos, etc... All dedicated to talking about how to best learn a foreign language. Maybe its our innate need to know how other people are so successful at something that we are struggling with? Maybe someone out there has a pain-free, easy, quick method that will save us time, money and frustration? Whatever it is is very time consuming. There are no shortcuts. Honestly, I am still doing this one and probably will continue to be involved in the language learning community, but it IS a time leech.
OK. There you go. My list of lessons learned. I am hoping to post my ultimate resource list soon as I've found many websites and books that I think were extremely helpful and I would love to share with you.
What mistakes have you made in the language journey? Let me know in the comments below.
1. Word of the day emails. I signed up for a "word of the day" email service and thought it would really help. Unfortunately, it did not. Maybe it just never came at the right time, but I have a backlog of 20+ emails and will probably never even look at them.
2. Word lists. I thought that if I could put together 5-10 words in a list type format, that I could learn a list every day. Not so much. Even when I was able to memorize the wordlist, I would find that I would often memorize the order of the words as much as the meaning of the words. I guess my mind does not memorize those kinds of things very well. Flashcards are the answer here.
3. Vocabulary at the expense of grammar. Let me explain. I started by learning copious amounts of vocabulary with almost no effective grammar constructions at all. Come to find out, all this did was cause me to speak in English with German words. By this I mean that my sentences were coming out using English grammar and word order. The nonsense I was spouting would never be mistaken for German by a real German speaker so it was effectively useless. Once I started studying more stock phrases and substituting my vocabulary words in and out to make new phrases (while keeping structure in place)I found I was making more sense and feeling better about my speaking. I still believe that vocab is more important than grammar in the early stages, but I now think that at least some basic grammar and phrase study should be incorporated early on.
4. Learning vocab words that I would never use. I started out with a combo of basic Kindergarten-type words and "frequency lists" of vocab to study. I found many of these words to be so useless to me in everyday conversation that I really was wasting my time learning them. Things like: The names of the Animals, shapes, colors, types of food, clothing, etc... Now I know many of you are saying "Hey, those are the basics! You have to learn those things first." Do I? I looked back on my recent conversations with friends and was amazed at how rarely I talked to people about Tigers, sweaters, potatoes, teal, squares, etc... I understand that eventually I will want to learn these things, but if I'm trying to work up to conversational fluency, I need to work on conversation. I need to know how to talk about the things I talk about in real life. I need to know how to say "Hangover" (Der Kater), "Chess" (Das Schach), awesome (prima, toll, super), etc... Learn what you want to talk about. It will be easier to remember things that you will use consistently. There will be plenty of time to learn how to say "The Giraffe and the tomato are wearing pink sweaters" ("Die Giraffe und die Tomate tragen rosa Pullover." for those keeping score at home).
5. Learning verbs from their infinitive only. I have re-evaluated the way I go about learning verbs. Knowing the infinitives only has proven to be very limiting. There are a few things that should be learned for each verb besides the infinitive. When I put together flashcards, I include the following information: regular or irregular, past participle and if it uses haben or sein), whether it is a reflexive verb, whether it is has prefix (separable or non). If it is irregular, I list the irregular forms as well. This is a lot of information but it is all very necessary I have found. Not learning the past participle was the biggest mistake.
6. Reading more about language learning than actually learning German. This may seem weird, but if you have ever delved into the mysterious underground of language learning enthusiasts (which is unbelievably fascinating to me personally), then you know what I am talking about. Forums, articles, blogs, youtube videos, etc... All dedicated to talking about how to best learn a foreign language. Maybe its our innate need to know how other people are so successful at something that we are struggling with? Maybe someone out there has a pain-free, easy, quick method that will save us time, money and frustration? Whatever it is is very time consuming. There are no shortcuts. Honestly, I am still doing this one and probably will continue to be involved in the language learning community, but it IS a time leech.
OK. There you go. My list of lessons learned. I am hoping to post my ultimate resource list soon as I've found many websites and books that I think were extremely helpful and I would love to share with you.
What mistakes have you made in the language journey? Let me know in the comments below.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The 9 Things That Helped My German Language Learning
Hallo Freunde!
So, I have been pretty quiet the last Month or so and I figured it was probably time to chime in and discuss some things that I have been doing for the last Month in regards to learning German.
1. I have been reading Der Kleine Prinz and Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen. This has been very slow going but it is really helping me understand the past tenses and how they work. I can usually only get through a page or two in a sitting but it has been a lot a fun. I will continue this.
2. I have been listening to Podcasts on Germanpod101 . These have been very helpful. I am on the Upper Beginner series and the cultural tidbits and helpful grammar points are great. One thing I did was download the dialogs from each lesson and put them all together on a CD that I listen to in the car. This gives me about a half hour or so of continuous German only audio that is appropriate for my level. When I listen to it, I try to distinguish each word and translate as I go. This is helping me with my listening comprehension. I will continue this.
3. I have picked up a few books including Barron's "501 German Verbs". It is fantastic and has really helped me in my study of verbs and their conjugations. I recommend this book. In a future post, I will lay out my recommendations for books, online resources and courses in detail.
4. I have been using the ANKI flashcard App on my android phone. This App is great! I have been building my own decks based on words that I feel fit in with the things that I would want to talk about in German rather than the typical boring beginner stuff (farm animals, weather, etc). I recommend this App. I will continue this.
5. I have been watching movies in German with English subtitles. The selection is very limited on Netflix and I have only found 2 Blu-Rays with German audio and subtitles (V for Vendetta and Constantine). I have also found several episodes of How I Met Your Mother in German. It has been a great help to hear how real German is spoken and I will continue this as I have picked up quite a bit of vocab from this.
6. I mentioned Pimsleur and Michel Thomas CDs in previous posts so I should mention them here as well. I made it through the 30 lessons in Pimsleur German I and through the 10 CD Michel Thomas Beginner Method. I enjoyed Michel Thomas quite a bit and will look to buy his Advanced course soon. Pimsleur has been great for my pronunciation but is seriously boring. I will be checking out the Level II and III course from the library, but I may or may not finish them. They are a struggle to get through and are only really good for pronunciation as my vocab and grammar are far beyond even the level III CDs at this point. I would recommend Michel Thomas and the Pimsleur German I for anyone starting out with no German background.
7. Paper flashcards. Yes, I've still been using them even though I have ANKI. There is just something about writing a word or phrase down with pen and paper that helps solidify it in my mind. I usually reserve this for verbs at this point.
8. Journal. I have been keeping a journal of useful phrases and words (especially slang) as I find them on the internet or in Penpal emails. I have been reviewing these phrases often and they are starting to stick. I will continue this practice.
9. German Penpal email exchange. I found an email Penpal in Germany that I have been emailing back and forth for 3 Months now. We generally exchange 2-4 emails per week and I correct her English for her and she corrects my German for me. It has been great having this kind of access to a native speaker and we will be talking over Skype soon.
I hope this gives some good ideas for German and for Language Learning in general. I will devote another post soon to things that did not work for me.
So, I have been pretty quiet the last Month or so and I figured it was probably time to chime in and discuss some things that I have been doing for the last Month in regards to learning German.
1. I have been reading Der Kleine Prinz and Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen. This has been very slow going but it is really helping me understand the past tenses and how they work. I can usually only get through a page or two in a sitting but it has been a lot a fun. I will continue this.
2. I have been listening to Podcasts on Germanpod101 . These have been very helpful. I am on the Upper Beginner series and the cultural tidbits and helpful grammar points are great. One thing I did was download the dialogs from each lesson and put them all together on a CD that I listen to in the car. This gives me about a half hour or so of continuous German only audio that is appropriate for my level. When I listen to it, I try to distinguish each word and translate as I go. This is helping me with my listening comprehension. I will continue this.
3. I have picked up a few books including Barron's "501 German Verbs". It is fantastic and has really helped me in my study of verbs and their conjugations. I recommend this book. In a future post, I will lay out my recommendations for books, online resources and courses in detail.
4. I have been using the ANKI flashcard App on my android phone. This App is great! I have been building my own decks based on words that I feel fit in with the things that I would want to talk about in German rather than the typical boring beginner stuff (farm animals, weather, etc). I recommend this App. I will continue this.
5. I have been watching movies in German with English subtitles. The selection is very limited on Netflix and I have only found 2 Blu-Rays with German audio and subtitles (V for Vendetta and Constantine). I have also found several episodes of How I Met Your Mother in German. It has been a great help to hear how real German is spoken and I will continue this as I have picked up quite a bit of vocab from this.
6. I mentioned Pimsleur and Michel Thomas CDs in previous posts so I should mention them here as well. I made it through the 30 lessons in Pimsleur German I and through the 10 CD Michel Thomas Beginner Method. I enjoyed Michel Thomas quite a bit and will look to buy his Advanced course soon. Pimsleur has been great for my pronunciation but is seriously boring. I will be checking out the Level II and III course from the library, but I may or may not finish them. They are a struggle to get through and are only really good for pronunciation as my vocab and grammar are far beyond even the level III CDs at this point. I would recommend Michel Thomas and the Pimsleur German I for anyone starting out with no German background.
7. Paper flashcards. Yes, I've still been using them even though I have ANKI. There is just something about writing a word or phrase down with pen and paper that helps solidify it in my mind. I usually reserve this for verbs at this point.
8. Journal. I have been keeping a journal of useful phrases and words (especially slang) as I find them on the internet or in Penpal emails. I have been reviewing these phrases often and they are starting to stick. I will continue this practice.
9. German Penpal email exchange. I found an email Penpal in Germany that I have been emailing back and forth for 3 Months now. We generally exchange 2-4 emails per week and I correct her English for her and she corrects my German for me. It has been great having this kind of access to a native speaker and we will be talking over Skype soon.
I hope this gives some good ideas for German and for Language Learning in general. I will devote another post soon to things that did not work for me.
Tschüss!
Monday, May 7, 2012
3 Month Testing results (a little late)
Hallo!
My three Month checkpoint came and went on April 24th and I took the BBC tests (as usual). I had not posted them to this point due to a very busy couple of weeks at work and at home.
Anyway, here they are:
Post-Beginner: 82%
Reading: 88%
Writing: 45%
Listening: 100%
Speaking: 94%
Intermediate: 76%
Reading: 75%
Writing: 43%
Listening: 92%
Speaking: 93%
As you can see, there is some improvement over my Post-Beginner 2 Month score and my Intermediate score was better that I would have thought. My writing skills seem to be the overriding negative here and I will focus some attention this Month on improving that area.
I am getting more and more confident everyday and I am really happy with my progress so far.
Anyway, here they are:
Post-Beginner: 82%
Reading: 88%
Writing: 45%
Listening: 100%
Speaking: 94%
Intermediate: 76%
Reading: 75%
Writing: 43%
Listening: 92%
Speaking: 93%
As you can see, there is some improvement over my Post-Beginner 2 Month score and my Intermediate score was better that I would have thought. My writing skills seem to be the overriding negative here and I will focus some attention this Month on improving that area.
I am getting more and more confident everyday and I am really happy with my progress so far.
Friday, April 13, 2012
My German Dual-Reading Method For Learning Explained
Hallo Freunde!
I think I may (in a few months) switch over to writing this blog as dual-language, with my posts being in both English and German. For now, I'm not 100% comfortable with my grammar and sentence structure to do it yet.
My books arrived and I came up with a system that I am going to test while trying to tackle these books:
Supplies needed: The German text, a pen and notebook, my Bilingual learner's dictionary, the text in English (if possible).
My plan:
1. Read a sentence from the German text. If I understand, I proceed to the next sentence. If not, I move to step 2.
2. I look up major words in my Dictionary that I don't understand (primarily nouns and verbs as adjectives and adverbs can often be deduced by context).
3. I write down these words with their translations in my notebook. This writing will help reinforce the word and it's meaning.
4. After I have determined what I think the sentence says, I can move on to the next sentence. When I have completed a paragraph, I can verify my translation of the paragraph with the English translation to confirm if I missed any major pieces of information.
5. Afterwards, I can determine from my list of words if there are any that are important enough to make into flashcards.
I have already started with Der Kleine Prinz and have found it surprisingly suited to my reading level. I have had to look up my share of words, but it is actually going slightly better than I had imagined.
I will continue to update as I continue my journey.
Bis bald!
I think I may (in a few months) switch over to writing this blog as dual-language, with my posts being in both English and German. For now, I'm not 100% comfortable with my grammar and sentence structure to do it yet.
My books arrived and I came up with a system that I am going to test while trying to tackle these books:
Supplies needed: The German text, a pen and notebook, my Bilingual learner's dictionary, the text in English (if possible).
My plan:
1. Read a sentence from the German text. If I understand, I proceed to the next sentence. If not, I move to step 2.
2. I look up major words in my Dictionary that I don't understand (primarily nouns and verbs as adjectives and adverbs can often be deduced by context).
3. I write down these words with their translations in my notebook. This writing will help reinforce the word and it's meaning.
4. After I have determined what I think the sentence says, I can move on to the next sentence. When I have completed a paragraph, I can verify my translation of the paragraph with the English translation to confirm if I missed any major pieces of information.
5. Afterwards, I can determine from my list of words if there are any that are important enough to make into flashcards.
I have already started with Der Kleine Prinz and have found it surprisingly suited to my reading level. I have had to look up my share of words, but it is actually going slightly better than I had imagined.
I will continue to update as I continue my journey.
Bis bald!
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
The Intermediate Wall - My Latest Idea for German Language Learning
Hallo! So I was reviewing my flashcards yesterday and skimming the frequency lists and I have my vocabulary up to a little over 1000 words in German at this point. I think that (combined with my mid-level grammar grasp) cleanly puts me at a low-intermediate level. I am guessing a very low B1 level.
This, of course, led me to my next question for myself: "What can I do moving forward to avoid hitting a wall at the intermediate level?" I have been fairly active on several language learning communities and forums over the last few Months and a common theme seems to be hitting this barrier between intermediate and advanced level. The internet is rampant with stories of people plowing through the beginning stages and hitting that 1000 word level that usually seems to signify some sort of intermediate understanding and they can't get past it. Some of the prevailing thoughts seem to be that this happens because there are so many language courses and guides for beginning a language but very little exists to take the learner beyond the B1-B2 stage into the C levels.
My plan? READ. Yesterday I ordered 3 books in German from Amazon.com. What are these powerful works of German literary genius that I ordered? Well, I'm glad you asked. Truthfully, 1000 words and limited grammar will not have me reading newspapers or advanced literary masterpieces. So, I went with the level that I feel like I am at (actually I aimed a little high, but that's ok). I ordered The Little Prince (one of my favorite books in French), Where the Wild Things Are, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (all in German of course). My plan is to move through them with a good dictionary and flashcard the main words that I do not understand. And when I get through them, I plan to read them again with no dictionary. I also have all of them in English, so I can try to follow along a little bit if the sentence structure gets too heavy for me.
Once I finish these books twice? I think I will be ready to tackle newspapers, maybe some popular magazines and things like that. I really think that traditional courses will no longer be as beneficial as they have been up to this point. I'm ready to go native!
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Tschüß!
This, of course, led me to my next question for myself: "What can I do moving forward to avoid hitting a wall at the intermediate level?" I have been fairly active on several language learning communities and forums over the last few Months and a common theme seems to be hitting this barrier between intermediate and advanced level. The internet is rampant with stories of people plowing through the beginning stages and hitting that 1000 word level that usually seems to signify some sort of intermediate understanding and they can't get past it. Some of the prevailing thoughts seem to be that this happens because there are so many language courses and guides for beginning a language but very little exists to take the learner beyond the B1-B2 stage into the C levels.
My plan? READ. Yesterday I ordered 3 books in German from Amazon.com. What are these powerful works of German literary genius that I ordered? Well, I'm glad you asked. Truthfully, 1000 words and limited grammar will not have me reading newspapers or advanced literary masterpieces. So, I went with the level that I feel like I am at (actually I aimed a little high, but that's ok). I ordered The Little Prince (one of my favorite books in French), Where the Wild Things Are, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (all in German of course). My plan is to move through them with a good dictionary and flashcard the main words that I do not understand. And when I get through them, I plan to read them again with no dictionary. I also have all of them in English, so I can try to follow along a little bit if the sentence structure gets too heavy for me.
Once I finish these books twice? I think I will be ready to tackle newspapers, maybe some popular magazines and things like that. I really think that traditional courses will no longer be as beneficial as they have been up to this point. I'm ready to go native!
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Tschüß!
Monday, March 26, 2012
My 2 Month German Testing Results.
Hallo!
As promised, here are my BBC test scores for the Post-Beginner test:
Overall: 78%
It breaks down as:
Reading: 90%
Listening: 94%
Writing: 51%
Speaking: 78%
When compared to my 1 month score of: 51% I would say it is a good improvement. I think I had hoped for larger steps... I will try intermediate level next Month and see where I fall.
As promised, here are my BBC test scores for the Post-Beginner test:
Overall: 78%
It breaks down as:
Reading: 90%
Listening: 94%
Writing: 51%
Speaking: 78%
When compared to my 1 month score of: 51% I would say it is a good improvement. I think I had hoped for larger steps... I will try intermediate level next Month and see where I fall.
Friday, March 23, 2012
2 Month Checkpoint
Hallo!
So today is the 2 Calendar Month checkpoint. I know I haven't posted in a considerable amount of time, so I have a lot to fill you in on.
Progress: I have been force-feeding myself vocab via several different methods:
1. Flashcards. I am up to about 500 flashcards with about 85-90% right each go around.
2. Dictionary work. I keep a notebook with me where I can jot down any words I want to look up in German later and I do so at the end of the day. If it is a really important core word, I make a flashcard out of it.
3. Journal notebook. I keep a notebook of key words and phrases that relate specifically to me. I have a monologue detailing who I am, my job, my hobbies, my family, my motivations, my language level, etc. I look this over every night and plan to use these in future conversations.
4. Vocabulearn in the car. Basically these are a series of CDs with vocab words. I have 8 of them and there are probably about 2500 words altogether. I listen to them when I drive. They are ok in short bursts, but probably useless for long trips (unless you listen to the same CD over and over). I like them because they are easy to listen to while driving and they really seem to be working.
I purchased the 10 CD Michel Thomas set and am very pleased so far. I am 5 CDs in and they have REALLY helped my grammar and sentence structure. Without them, I would probably still be struggling in that regard. I really encourage anyone starting out with German to use Michel Thomas and Pimsleur together as they seem to make a great foundation. The Pimsleur advantage is in accent and pronunciation. The Michel Thomas method is excellent for Grammar and learning to really put sentences together.
So, to sum up, I probably have about a 500-600 word vocabulary and can put together basic to intermediate level sentences with consistency. I can express almost anything I want (even if I have to massively simplify it) in German. I would put myself squarely in the A2 category of German language fluency (maybe nudging on B1).
My struggles really continue to be vocabulary and grammar. When I say grammar, I am referring more to noun and adjective declination than word order. As for vocabulary, even though I feel like I have picked up a lot of new vocab, it is always surprising how much I don't know.
I spend about 2-3 hours a day focused in some way or another on German learning. At this rate, I should meet the 750 hour requirement to Fluency of FSI. I will be taking the Beginner and post-beginner tests again in the next few days to compare my one month to my second month.
Tschuss!
So today is the 2 Calendar Month checkpoint. I know I haven't posted in a considerable amount of time, so I have a lot to fill you in on.
Progress: I have been force-feeding myself vocab via several different methods:
1. Flashcards. I am up to about 500 flashcards with about 85-90% right each go around.
2. Dictionary work. I keep a notebook with me where I can jot down any words I want to look up in German later and I do so at the end of the day. If it is a really important core word, I make a flashcard out of it.
3. Journal notebook. I keep a notebook of key words and phrases that relate specifically to me. I have a monologue detailing who I am, my job, my hobbies, my family, my motivations, my language level, etc. I look this over every night and plan to use these in future conversations.
4. Vocabulearn in the car. Basically these are a series of CDs with vocab words. I have 8 of them and there are probably about 2500 words altogether. I listen to them when I drive. They are ok in short bursts, but probably useless for long trips (unless you listen to the same CD over and over). I like them because they are easy to listen to while driving and they really seem to be working.
I purchased the 10 CD Michel Thomas set and am very pleased so far. I am 5 CDs in and they have REALLY helped my grammar and sentence structure. Without them, I would probably still be struggling in that regard. I really encourage anyone starting out with German to use Michel Thomas and Pimsleur together as they seem to make a great foundation. The Pimsleur advantage is in accent and pronunciation. The Michel Thomas method is excellent for Grammar and learning to really put sentences together.
So, to sum up, I probably have about a 500-600 word vocabulary and can put together basic to intermediate level sentences with consistency. I can express almost anything I want (even if I have to massively simplify it) in German. I would put myself squarely in the A2 category of German language fluency (maybe nudging on B1).
My struggles really continue to be vocabulary and grammar. When I say grammar, I am referring more to noun and adjective declination than word order. As for vocabulary, even though I feel like I have picked up a lot of new vocab, it is always surprising how much I don't know.
I spend about 2-3 hours a day focused in some way or another on German learning. At this rate, I should meet the 750 hour requirement to Fluency of FSI. I will be taking the Beginner and post-beginner tests again in the next few days to compare my one month to my second month.
Tschuss!
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