Language-learners' chat

cinnamon123

Thanks @Cherryfudge - I studied it a little years (and years) ago as an adult. Started, then stopped because of life/work. Then didn't want to pay for classes that I might end up not being able to attend because of life/work.

So far, I am liking the easy no-pressure method of Duolingo. Have also started watching DW News in German on Youtube. Had a look at BBC Bitesize but, as I'm across the pond, it was a tad confusing because of the different levels which seem to correspond to the UK school system I think. Will revisit it when I'm ready to add another resource.

Not planning any travel to Germany or Austria or Switzerland anytime soon so my studies will be taking a very leisurely pace.

Cherryfudge

I love that Duolingo tells me I'm 'awesome' - not quite how my French teacher would have described me, but a lot more encouraging!

I have a similar problem with Duolingo to yours with Bitesize. Duolingo is American English which is very confusing to me as a Brit. Football is soccer and American Football is football - that's before I have to put them into French.  

I did a tiny bit of German when I was homeschooling my daughter as she had done a year of it at school. We did some French together too, which was as well because when she decided she was ready for school again, they seemed to forget she hadn't 'officially' done French and made that her language to study.

I'd love to be fluent but interestingly, Duolingo's blog ask us to consider what fluency is. When I thought about it, an ideal answer is to speak the language as well as your mother tongue, but that might be hard to achieve unless we live with it all the time. I would like to be able to read a book or carry out a conversation to a level where I understand and am understood. Being word perfect is a shade too challenging from where I stand now!

cinnamon123

Duolingo makes me laugh. The cartoon characters are crazy excited - so ridiculous but hey I'm glad someone is rooting for me. Actually, I think they are perfect for children/young people as the praise will keep them interested and wanting to get to the next level.

The differences in English can be confusing at times. I understand most British English because I've been watching UK television shows since I was quite young. I'm just so happy to have so many freely available resources.

Fluency is an interesting topic. If you take the example of an extremely learned professor and compare that person to an average Joe/Jane who may not have much schooling. Both have the same mother tongue and could thus be considered fluent except that the professor may use more vocabulary/more complicated words plus may have more in depth knowledge of certain topics. (I'm completely generalizing but think it's a likely example.) The important thing is that both people are able to live their lives in their country and make themselves understood. But fluency in a foreign language is usually viewed from an academic level (read/write/speak) and people often need to test closer to the professor than the average Joe/Jane to be considered fluent.

If pushed (really, really hard - think rapping a ruler on knuckles ) I would probably be considered fluent in English and French. But oh what a horrible accent I have (in both languages probably). And I'd really need my brain to kick it up a gear. Too much knowledge is locked away.

For German, I would be happy to be able to understand the language, read some and speak it. I will only be a tourist and cannot see myself using German for work or to have really deep conversations. But I'd love to watch the news or a film, or listen to the radio and understand it. Of course that is years away as I'm only doing a little bit each day.

Mistral001

I have started to use Anki, the flashcard programme, again to learn German.  I gave up on Anki a couple of years ago when I was making my own Anki flashcards, but this time I have been using decks of flashcards made by other Anki users and put up for sharing with all users.  This has turned out to be a success it would appear. I have tried Busuu, Duolingo, Quizlet and Memrise which are all fine, but Anki seems to be more versatile than any of these.  Any other users of Anki here?

daz378

I did German at uni  as part of a business course...first 3 semesters  we had 5 hours German a week...semesters  4 and 5 in Bremen...that was 30 years ago.  Dont think I ever got fluent...more I could get by in a lot more topics...also did 6 weeks work Mercedes Benz....but reckon  could get by in German on holiday even now

Mistral001

liamricci said:

German is not an easy language, so it takes a lot of practice before you can talk. All those super long words which consist of two or even three different ones... I just passed my B1 exam and trying to keep it up with the learning 10 new words every day. Programs like word finder are pretty helpful in that

That is cool.  I am stuck at about A2 level as far as I can see.  I know quite a lot of vocabulary, but I think I have sort of reached a barrier with word order.  The comprehensible input method that I have been using recently helps a lot I think.  That and Anki for vocabulary learning.

kiss_me_now9

liamricci said:

German is not an easy language, so it takes a lot of practice before you can talk. All those super long words which consist of two or even three different ones... I just passed my B1 exam and trying to keep it up with the learning 10 new words every day. Programs like word finder are pretty helpful in that

But that's the beauty of German - once you can break down a word into it's constituent parts and have a fair understanding of what those parts are, it's easy to work out what's being said/what's written. Harder for you to speak and write yourself (especially with the grammar rules!) but I always found that in comparison to other languages it's much easier to comprehend. 

Mistral001

kiss_me_now9 said:

liamricci said:

German is not an easy language, so it takes a lot of practice before you can talk. All those super long words which consist of two or even three different ones... I just passed my B1 exam and trying to keep it up with the learning 10 new words every day. Programs like word finder are pretty helpful in that

But that's the beauty of German - once you can break down a word into it's constituent parts and have a fair understanding of what those parts are, it's easy to work out what's being said/what's written. Harder for you to speak and write yourself (especially with the grammar rules!) but I always found that in comparison to other languages it's much easier to comprehend. 

Yes many words are just are just made up to simple words, rather than having a completely new word imported from another language.  An umbrella is a rain shield, a vucumm cleaner is a dust sucker etc.  German is sometimes criticised for this, but it makes life a lot simplier for the German learner.  Another saving grace for people who struggle with the complexities of German grammar and word order is the fact that, unlike French and English and many other languages, German words are nearly always spelt exactly how they are pronounced.  

kiss_me_now9

Mistral001 said:

kiss_me_now9 said:

liamricci said:

German is not an easy language, so it takes a lot of practice before you can talk. All those super long words which consist of two or even three different ones... I just passed my B1 exam and trying to keep it up with the learning 10 new words every day. Programs like word finder are pretty helpful in that

But that's the beauty of German - once you can break down a word into it's constituent parts and have a fair understanding of what those parts are, it's easy to work out what's being said/what's written. Harder for you to speak and write yourself (especially with the grammar rules!) but I always found that in comparison to other languages it's much easier to comprehend. 

Yes many words are just are just made up to simple words, rather than having a completely new word imported from another language.  An umbrella is a rain shield, a vucumm cleaner is a dust sucker etc.  German is sometimes criticised for this, but it makes life a lot simplier for the German learner.  Another saving grace for people who struggle with the complexities of German grammar and word order is the fact that, unlike French and English and many other languages, German words are nearly always spelt exactly how they are pronounced.  

Yep, my German is beyond rusty now but I can still impress the OH with understanding written words that make no sense to him just because I can break them down and logically figure out what it means. My favourite recently was 'Abwasserleitung' (sewage pipe) which breaks down to Ab - out, Wasser - water, leitung - management/system.

Cherryfudge

Mistral001 said:

Yes many words are just are just made up to simple words, rather than having a completely new word imported from another language.  An umbrella is a rain shield, a vucumm cleaner is a dust sucker etc.  German is sometimes criticised for this, but it makes life a lot simplier for the German learner.  Another saving grace for people who struggle with the complexities of German grammar and word order is the fact that, unlike French and English and many other languages, German words are nearly always spelt exactly how they are pronounced.  

This may be why I accidentally appeared to be ready for 'advanced' German classes though I've never had a lesson or lived there. I did an online assessment to see where I needed to start and understood a lot of it by sounding it out. There's no point me even looking at the advanced classes when I don't know the basics, but with plenty of time and a good English vocabulary, I could make some sense of what was written.