ShawnP's German Adventure

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jeffers
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Re: ShawnP's German Adventure

Postby jeffers » Mon May 13, 2024 7:55 am

ShawnP wrote:I did jump on Netflix Kid's section to try and find some easy content. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything easy enough for me. I tried watching a show called "I woke up a vampire" which is maybe an almost teen to early teenage level. It was interesting enough but I struggled through 30 minutes and called it quits. I next tried Dr. Suess Green Ham and Eggs but again just couldn't keep up. I'm not going to count this time on my weekly totals since it was over my head. So for now, TV shows in German are out and its back to listening/reading until I get a few more months of German under my belt.


Whether a show is for kids or not, it is still geared towards native speakers rather than learners in terms of the pace, vocabulary and grammar. Yes, since they're for kids the language level is going to be somewhat simplified, but not necessarily in the ways a foreigner learning the language would want. Have you tried watching them with German subtitles? And have you tried Peppa Pig? There's a whole thread here somewhere about using Peppa Pig for language learning. Sadly, UK Netflix doesn't have German language for Peppa Pig, but I would suspect they do in Germany.
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ShawnP
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Re: ShawnP's German Adventure

Postby ShawnP » Wed May 15, 2024 5:26 pm

jackb wrote:You could also rewatch some of the movies you recently watched in you Spanish adventure. I'm thinking particularly about the string of Marvel movies. Between the action and the straightforward dialog, you may not have too much trouble.

Jackb, definitely missing my Spanish adventures, especially all the Star Wars and Marvel content. I went from rockin-n-rollin with Spanish to being smacked around by German. I'm enjoying the process so far though. Once I get some good momentum then its off to the races again.
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Re: ShawnP's German Adventure

Postby M23 » Wed May 15, 2024 7:25 pm

jeffers wrote:
ShawnP wrote:I did jump on Netflix Kid's section to try and find some easy content. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything easy enough for me. I tried watching a show called "I woke up a vampire" which is maybe an almost teen to early teenage level. It was interesting enough but I struggled through 30 minutes and called it quits. I next tried Dr. Suess Green Ham and Eggs but again just couldn't keep up. I'm not going to count this time on my weekly totals since it was over my head. So for now, TV shows in German are out and its back to listening/reading until I get a few more months of German under my belt.


Whether a show is for kids or not, it is still geared towards native speakers rather than learners in terms of the pace, vocabulary and grammar. Yes, since they're for kids the language level is going to be somewhat simplified, but not necessarily in the ways a foreigner learning the language would want. Have you tried watching them with German subtitles? And have you tried Peppa Pig? There's a whole thread here somewhere about using Peppa Pig for language learning. Sadly, UK Netflix doesn't have German language for Peppa Pig, but I would suspect they do in Germany.


There is a good show that is like Peppa Pig in that it is short and the language used is simple and understandable for beginners. It is called Pócoyo. I am not sure if it is on Netflix but I know you can get it on Youtube. You might want to try that one for the German.
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ShawnP
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Re: ShawnP's German Adventure

Postby ShawnP » Sat May 18, 2024 5:45 am

A crap week in my German adventure has come to an end. Monday and Tuesday were good days. I mostly stuck with Nico's Weg 1-30, trying to listen to each lesson many times while reading the script to solidify some things. I really enjoy Nico's Weg thus far. Seems just more natural and the conversations between the people are more like what you will encounter in the real world. Oh, my household goods were supposed to be delivered Tuesday from Florida but they made a change on me to Thursday.

On Wednesday, after work, I sat down and had some leftover spaghetti from the previous day before I got to my German input. For some reason shortly after, my stomach started aching. Not emergency room pain but aching bad enough to stop any study. From that point on, I was in some pain. To make a long story short, I went from the bed to the couch several times throughout the night without an ounce of sleep. Stomach pain eased off around 9am or so and I crashed hard on the couch. I was woke up about 11am by the delivery truck.

My stuff was delivered from Floriday finally but my body was all messed up with lack of sleep and just feeling "wrong" so to speak. The rest of the day was a wash. I had no desire to do anything. Friday rolled around and I had to be in a motorcycle class at 0745 til 1200 then to work the rest of the day. Friday evening study session was a wash. Body just drained and just wasn't feeling it. I guess I"m not in my teens/early 20's anymore so pulling that all-nighter really messed me up.

Today is Saturday morning and I'm gonna start unloading boxes. Need to try and get as much accomplished this weekend so I can really feel like I'm settling in here in Germany. I plan to listen to some Coffee Break German podcasts while I'm unpacking. That's really about it. That will take most of the day and I need to run to the grocery store and pick up some other basic house stuff.

To make this long story short, this was a crap week in my German adventure. But I'm up and moving good this morning, enjoying my coffee, and will soon get to unpacking. Next week will be much better, guaranteed.
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: 147 / 1000 1,000 Hours of German

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ShawnP
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Re: ShawnP's German Adventure

Postby ShawnP » Sat May 25, 2024 8:00 am

Unlike the previous week, a very good week in my German adventure has come to an end even though its only Saturday morning. I'm off golfing in about an hour and when I get back I got to cut some grass. Apparently its very frowned upon, unsure if illegal, to cut grass or make noise on Sundays so I need to do it today or wait til next week. I'm off to just south of Strasbourg, France on Monday to go golfing with a group so Monday is a wash.

This week consisted only of German lessons from DW and LingQ, some YouTube videos, and Anki. I can't wait to get to where I can watch TV movies and episodes but right now just ain't the time. I've accepted that, but I'm hard-headed and will keep trying. But for the most part, its comprehensible input/things I can read and listen to over and over.

For my German lessons, most of them occurred on Deutsche Welle with only about 10 off of LingQ. I held off this week on Nico's Weg as I wanted to try out Harry gefangen in der Zeit. It is another A1 level course on DW. Needless to say, I racked up 15 lessons. It's really interesting and was already a little easier for me because of all the Nico's Weg lessons. For those of you starting out, I'd recommend doing a lesson from Harry and another from Nico's Weg. For me, I didn't want to complete Nico's Weg A1 and then do another A1 course. But because I'm new to German, I decided to do them both in conjunction. I've made it through 30 lessons on Nico's Weg and I have the dialogs down pat, so I'm not worried about losing anything there. I'll continue with Harry gefangen in der Zeit until lesson 30, then I'll do a lesson from Nico's Weg and Harry each day until I'm done with both A1 courses. Then I'll be off to some A2 courses.

For YouTube videos, I've dabbled in several channels since I've jumped on this German Zug. I like all that I have tried so far from Easy German, Learn German with Anja, and Learn German but this week I gave Natürlich German a shot and I'm glad I did. She teaches using a whiteboard, sometimes repeating stuff. I have the cc turned on so I can listen and hear lessons totally in German, no English, and I can easily follow along with the English subtitles. With Easy German, its not always so Easy even with the subtitles because they often speak too fast. So if you are a new German learner and reading this log, I recommend giving Naturlich German a shot. Go to her playlists and you can find around 90 beginner videos. I know I will jump around but this is one channel I'll definitely come back to.

Lastly, I'm rocking n rolling a little each day with Anki. The Der, Die, Das thingy is giving me aggravation but it will come in time.

German Lessons: DW: Harry gefangen in der Zeit: Lessons 1 - 15 / LINGQ: Greetings & Goodbyes 1-8, Eating Out 1-3
German Podcasts / YouTube videos: YT: Natürlich German 1-9
German Movies / TV episodes: NONE
German Books: NONE
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: 147 / 1000 1,000 Hours of German

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ShawnP
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Re: ShawnP's German Adventure

Postby ShawnP » Sun Jun 02, 2024 5:56 am

A decent week in my German adventures have come to an end. For some reason, I was slightly disappointed in my weekly performance this week. It seems as though I did more than what my excel tracking sheet shows. But once I tallied up the number of lessons and YouTube videos I watched, it just wasn't so. Either way, still plugging along. Rome wasn't built in a day.

This week, study from Deutsche Welle was the main focus. I really like Harry gefangen in der Zeit A1 course and I'm glad I went back and working on it. There are only 50 lessons in this A1 course. I didn't do any lessons on LingQ this week as I was only focusing on DW. However, I joined a 90-day challenge on LingQ that started yesterday so now I must juggle both.

For my YouTube watching, it was only Natürlich German this week. I highly recommend new learners go over to her channel and find the Beginner lessons.

German Lessons: DW: Harry gefangen in der Zeit: Lessons 16 - 25
German Podcasts / YouTube videos: YT: Natürlich German
German Movies / TV episodes: NONE
German Books: NONE

Things I really need to do: Dedicate more time to reading. Dedicate more time to podcasts. Unless a person is working 20 hours day, there is always time. We just got to make the time to squeeze it in.

Since the weather in Germany is decent now, I'll be doing a bit more walking the golf course after work. There's no reason I can't squeeze in some podcasts during that time.
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: 147 / 1000 1,000 Hours of German

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ShawnP
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Re: ShawnP's German Adventure

Postby ShawnP » Sat Jun 08, 2024 6:21 pm

A decent week in my German adventure has come to an end. Overall, I'm still plugging away. Harry gefangen in der Zeit from the Duetsche Welle website has taken the most of my time. I'm really trying to push on and knock these out since there is only 50 lessons. For each lesson I do, I copy paste sentences that I think will be relevant and put them on an excel spreadsheet. I think I have about 280 sentences so far that I plan on putting in Anki eventually. But more to follow on the Anki front. Some people swear by it, some hate it. I like it now and again. I liked it this week, maybe hate it next.

For my YouTube video fix, it was only Natürlich German this week. I finished out all 24 lessons in her Total Beginner playlist. I will most likely move on over to her Beginner playlist that has 55 videos in it. Then after that, move to pre-intermediate and intermediate playlist. What I'm getting at here is that I highly recommend new German language adventurers to check out her channel. I really like it. I may add a different channel to change things up a bit but this will be my go-to YouTube video channel for now.

I broke down and got back on the Netflix journey again. Kid cartoons just wasn't doing it for me and I gave The Worst Witch a try. It's still too hard for me to understand so I'm heavily reliant on subtitles. But what can I do?? I plan on toggling that show with I Woke Up a Vampire. Both are kid shows and enjoyable for the most part and all episodes are only 20-25 minutes.

I didn't do any book reading or podcast listening this week. On Friday, I went out and walked 9 holes of golf after work. Thats a perfect time to get in 2 hours of podcast listing each time I go golfing. Just need to put that plan into action.

German Lessons: DW: Harry gefangen in der Zeit: Lessons 26 - 33
German Podcasts / YouTube videos: YT: Natürlich German - 8 videos
German Movies / TV episodes: (TV-The Worst Witch 1 - 5)
German Books: NONE
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: 147 / 1000 1,000 Hours of German

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ShawnP
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Re: ShawnP's German Adventure

Postby ShawnP » Sun Jun 16, 2024 4:34 pm

A less than stellar week in my German adventure has come to an end. This week, Harry gefangen in der Zeit from the Deutsche Welle was my main go-to. I decided to just finish out the 50 lessons at the A1 level then get back to Nico's Weg. I will probably go back to LingQ also as Nico's Weg (A1, A2, and B1) are all on LingQ. Plus, I like listening/reading to the same thing many times over instead of doing individual lessons. I feel I learn better that way. My YouTube video watching was down as I only watched two videos from Naturlich German, but at least I'm now on the Beginner level instead of the Total Beginner level. My TV time went up a little as I watched a total of five episodes from two different series. One is The Worst Witch and the other is I Woke Up a Vampire. Both are pretty good and short. I'll do my best to pick it up my Netflix shows this coming week. Lastly, I knocked out some Anki reps. I didn't do any reading nor podcasts yet again.

In my defense, however poorly, I was out of town all day in Wiesbaden, Germany on Wednesday and didn't get back in until almost 7pm so that day was a wash. Yesterday, I was down in Bitche, France playing golf. I left at 9am and got back maybe 5pm so that day was also a wash. I can't say I dislike German nearly as much as I use to, but I like golf much better. I even went golfing today only because my golfing buddy is going to be traveling out of the area and we won't play for 2 more weeks. However, I beat him like he owed me money so it was a good day nonetheless. I generally reserve Sundays as a day off no matter what from language learning.

German Lessons: DW: Harry gefangen in der Zeit: Lessons 34 - 40
German Podcasts / YouTube videos: YT: Natürlich German Beginner channel - 2 videos
German Movies / TV episodes: (TV-The Worst Witch - 2 episodes), (TV-I Woke Up a Vampire - 3 episodes)
German Books: NONE
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: 147 / 1000 1,000 Hours of German

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ShawnP
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Re: ShawnP's German Adventure

Postby ShawnP » Sat Jun 22, 2024 12:48 pm

A much better week in my German adventure has come to an end. Today is Saturday and I haven't done anything German related today other than some Anki this morning. I may just relax this weekend. This week, I made a big push and finished out the A1 course Harry Gefangen in der Zeit from the Deutsche Welle on Wednesday evening. I really like this course and highly recommend it for new German learners. I would not recommend pushing through it as fast as I did but do one lesson per day and even do the same lesson twice to reinforce what I learned the first time around.

The day after I completed the course, I went back and did an A1 placement test on Duetsche Welle website. Out of 30 questions I scored a whopping 74. Obviously not as good as I would have liked but it seems I'm heading in the right direction. There were a few of the written parts where I didn't know the meaning of some words. There were a couple audio parts that dealt with numbers that threw me off. If the German speakers would have spoken more slowly and clearly then I'm sure I would have done a little better. But in the real world that's probably not the case.

For my YouTube video fix, it was a combination of Natürlich German (7 videos) and Easy German (14 videos), 21 videos in total. The Natürlich videos are longer than the Easy German ones. Both were from their Beginner playlists. I really like both channels but I still have to give Natürlich German a leg up over Easy German, but for the total amount of videos Easy German will win out.

My TV time went up quite a bit also. I watched The Worst Witch (8 episodes) and I Woke Up A Vampire (6 episodes). Both are way over my head and will be for a long time but I'm going to assume I'm learning somehow. If anything, I can say I can pick out the words easier even if I don't understand their meaning. Need to get my vocabulary on up but all in due time.

Lastly, I knocked out some Anki reps. I have 2 Anki decks now. One is a collection of sentences from FSI German that I handpicked (2,317 sentences) and I also made a deck on Friday from all the sentences I kept from Harry gefangen in der Zeit (432 sentences).

Reading and Podcasts were again non-existent. By the time I get home in the evenings, around 5:30pm, cook supper and eat, then watch two episodes off of Netflix, its already pushing 8pm. Just not enough time in the day. For book reading or podcast listening, I'll have to give up something. I think I may ask over in the main group, General Language Discussion or Practical Questions and Advice section, whats the best bang for the buck, so to speak. Specifically for a new language learner. Is it better to read books with translations or watch TV shows with translations?? :?:

German Lessons: DW: Harry gefangen in der Zeit: Lessons 41-50
German YouTube videos: Natürlich German - 7 videos, Easy German - 14 videos
German Movies / TV episodes: The Worst Witch - 8 episodes, I Woke Up a Vampire - 6 episodes
German Podcasts: NONE
German Books: NONE

I'm looking forward to this coming week. I'm going back to LingQ to do a lot of listening/reading from Nico's Weg and other German content. Who knows where I'll go from there. But I paid for a year membership on LingQ so I might as well use it to the fullest. Some people may dog LingQ, and I'm not here to promote it, but looking back LingQ was instrumental during my very early days of ShawnP's Spanish Adventure.
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: 147 / 1000 1,000 Hours of German

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ShawnP
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Re: ShawnP's German Adventure

Postby ShawnP » Sun Jun 30, 2024 7:28 am

This week was a crap-show and my German adventure has come to an end.

This week, I really didn't do much of anything once I tallied up all the things I accomplished. No lessons were done as I start a 90-day challenge on LingQ 1 July. My YouTube time was down quite a bit also. My Netflix time was down quite a bit also.

For my YouTube video fix, it was only Natürlich German this week. I didn't get into any Easy German videos which seemed strange. My Netflix time consisted only of The Worst Witch. It's a funny little show but I'm unsure how much it is helping me since I don't understand what they are saying and the subtitles go by too fast.

Lastly, I did knock out a couple hundred Anki reps.

I did golf yesterday and left the house about 0930 and didn't get back home til 5pm. Took shower then just relaxed the rest of the day so that was one day of no German. Today is Sunday and I'm just chilling. Big thunderstorm last night and its raining out now, and pretty much all day according to the weatherman. Gonna smoke some baby-back ribs I think.

German Lessons: NONE
German YouTube videos: Natürlich German - 7 videos
German Movies / TV episodes: The Worst Witch - 4 episodes
German Books: NONE
German Podcasts: NONE

I'm enjoying my morning coffee and have been pondering over some things. I've decided I'm going to change some things up this coming week and for the foreseeable future.

#1 change: The vast majority of Listening/Reading will be done on LingQ because of the 90-day challenge I'm in, starting 1 July. I'm really going to focus on LingQ because not only am I competing against myself but also a lot of other people around the world that are learning German. 140 people right now, I just checked. Probably some more by tomorrow. I may not end up first but I wont be last. You are ranked by the number of hours you listen, the number of words you read, and the number of words you learn, based on their tracking algorithm I assume.

#2 change: I've decided to put a pause on Netflix German until I get my vocabulary and comprehension up. I just don't think I'm getting a lot out of them at this point. I think I need to work on my vocabulary learning by LingQ lessons, YT videos, and books. With books, I'm not speed-reading but can take my time and look at the same words over and over again. I will definitely keep my YouTube videos going though. I think its important to listen to a lot of different voices from German people plus I enjoy YT videos. I can see the different situations people are in, different topics, and watch the speakers' facial expressions. They are short enough where I could watch them two or three times in a row if I wanted. In fact, that's probably not a bad idea.

#3 change: I may or may not drop Anki. I probably will keep it going because they don't take very long to complete each day. I can do them on my lunch break, sitting in my vehicle, or relaxing on the toilet while contemplating my poor life choices.
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: 147 / 1000 1,000 Hours of German


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