CarlyD's 2020/2021 German Log

[CarlyD]

Ok, I know it's not 2020 yet. But 2019 turned out to be a terrible, horrible year and I'm just totally done with it. So I'm starting 2020 early.

I'm in the 6 Week Challenge and it is the first time I wasn't totally prepared, with lists of goals to accomplish, sitting at the door of the Challenge chanting "Open-Open-Open." But I started, and will work on goals early this week. (For some reason, my system is messing up changing between English/German keyboards and the z/y stays in German while I'm typing in English. Making me crayz.)

My Memrise subscription (that I'd been doing since the beginning mostly for support of the site) expired and I just found that you have to subscribe now if you want to be able to use Difficult Words. Don't know when that started. The only online sites I'm using right now are Memrise and Clozemaster. My Glossika will expire later this month, but I just really didn't find it all that helpful and won't renew. But Benny Lewis is coming out with his Black Friday specials later this month, so I'll probably end up in something.

[CarlyD]

I just signed up for Busuu. I think I tried it before, but it seems like they've added a lot more content to it, and it's 50% off, so it seems worth it.

They have an option to set up a study plan and even notify you when it's time to study. I set it up for 20 minutes a day, 7 days a week. They said at that rate, I would move from A0 to B2 by February 8, 2020.

That's 4 months. In 20 minutes a day. Woohoo!!

In other more reality-based news, my community college just announced a totally online German class that will start in mid January. I'll find out the end of November if I can get in--only 30 slots available.

[CarlyD]

So I have this horrible cold that I'm probably going to die of. At least it feels that way, so I only did Memrise and Clozemaster today. I tried Busuu, but just want to curl up and die--or knit--whichever comes first.

The 365 Day Challenge that I started last January:

It didn't work for me. Yes, I "did the time." But far too many of the days were going-through-the-motions-review and I don't think I made the progress that I thought I was going to make. Or possibly any progress. So the only thing gained was being able to check off the day in my Language Log book. And I missed a couple of 6 Week Challenges because I just didn't care enough to bump up my daily time to really compete. Which kind of defeats the purpose of even trying.

For 2020, I'm considering either a 6 weeks on/6 weeks off schedule to follow the Challenge, or possibly/probably a 6 Week Challenge, 2 weeks off, 2 weeks Personal Challenge, 2 weeks off, then the next 6 Week Challenge. I don't like the idea of going "off"--but I know part of my burn-out is scaling back and just wanting to review, so maybe this will work better.

Benny Lewis has announced he's doing the Black Friday deals again this year and is supposed to release them this coming Friday. I did cancel my Glossika--it does seem a lot like Clozemaster and for some reason I'm finding Clozemaster to work better for me. I've probably tried most of the programs out there, but we'll see what the deals bring.

[Morgana]

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[CarlyD]

Two weeks into the 6 Week Challenge, and I'm in 1st place. I've had the Cold From Hell since last Friday and can barely function. Did everyone slow down in a show of support?

Today was a slow day--just over an hour--because I was either coming up with the wrong answer, or the correct one--in Spanish. Drugs are wonderful. (Vick's DayQuil)

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a Memrise course that would accept the answer in more than one language? Probably not actually helpful, but it would stop people (me?) from yelling "bisabuela" at the screen when it clearly wants Urgroßmutter.

Off to take more drugs and yell at the tv for awhile. Hopefully this cold will be gone by the weekend, as I finally made a goal list and I'm a week behind.

[CarlyD]

I just realized I did something stupid. I used to have GermanPod Pro, with the assigned teacher. I wasn't happy with it--I got a cut-and-paste welcome from the teacher and never heard from her again.

After I dropped the Pro part, I thought I'd dropped all the paid part and just had the free mini access, so I kind of faded away and stop using the site.

I was just looking at it today, wondering if I should see if there's a Black Friday deal going, and saw, somewhat to my horror, that I hadn't dropped it. I'd moved from Pro to Premium, and everything but the teacher had been available all this time. I wasted MONTHS of subscription.

Still plugging away on learning vocabulary. I have a good number of words learned, that I get wrong every time on Memrise, because I'm STILL getting the gender wrong. I'm thinking by now I must have some kind of brain damage going on. Why can't I remember the gender? Particularly when I didn't seem to ever have a problem with Spanish gender. Unless I got those wrong too and my brain damage has blocked the memory.......

[CarlyD]

Plugging away every day, still fighting genders of words, but making progress.

Today's tragedy:

I have a Language Notebook. Miquilruis, quad-rule, 5x7 or so. It contains my language life. Every goal sheet--and progress--every challenge, everything I'm doing now or want to do in the future all laid out with dividers.

Today I took it back to the desk in the back room as usual to start my Memrise. I set it down on the side of the desk and when I picked it up, there was a large (grease?) stain on the page I was currently using. And it had already soaked through to about 15 pages, all pages currently in use every day. I can't even imagine what was on the desk. The cats do walk across it--but grease? (Edit: it was the tube of antibiotic cream for my dog's foot. Didn't realize it was there--or so greasy.)

Now I'm debating on taking this upcoming rainy/windy week and making a whole new Language Notebook. I'd already sat and set up the entire year for 2020 in all the different areas. I've tried the library thing of placing a paper towel in between every page in the hopes of soaking whatever it is up and then weighing down the book.

I sat and went through GermanPod yesterday. I've been working on one series for awhile (before I left and since I returned) and hadn't really paid attention to the site. They've added a TON of new sections and themes, plus an 80-section Master Class for each level. Lots more choices now--I think I have about 10 on my Dashboard now--Listening Comprehension, one to help with reading, plus bonus ones for staying motivated and how to study. Lots of good stuff there.

[CarlyD]

So, Benny talked me into it.

I signed up for German Uncovered, from Olly Richards and Kirsten Case. It's basically a 20 chapter book, and they go through each chapter, written and audio, with all kinds of grammar and vocabulary activities and explanations to help you understand the book. Actually, it looks kind of fun. They were very clear that the grammar and vocabulary exercises were totally optional--some people (me!) like to do that kind of thing, others don't. You can just go through the book if you want.

When I signed up, Olly had several other courses available, all currently on Black Friday special. I've read his blog, but never signed up for one of his courses. His learning style is different than mine, but then, mine isn't working all that well, so why not?

And I'm (sigh) slowly making a new Language Notebook, to start in December. But instead of jamming everything in every which way, I'm actually thinking it through and setting up sections for goals and progress and challenges.

We're starting 7 days of bad weather today, so my first challenge is to see how much German I can do in that time--assuming my electricity and internet stays on.

[CarlyD]

New language notebook is ready to go for December. And this one actually makes sense, instead of all jumbled up like the last one.

Review of German Uncovered (from Olly Richards, currently on Black Friday special.

Amazing. It's like taking a college German class. It's based on a 20 chapter book, and I thought we'd just go through each chapter.

I'm still on Chapter 1. I've read it (somewhat) in German. Then there was a whole lecture on Cognates--figuring out words based on English, Latin, Germanic roots. (I'd learned teuer as expensive, never realized it was related to the British word "dear" meaning expensive.) Next up is Vocabulary, a 20 minute lecture with 15 pages of homework. Then Grammar, another 20 minute lecture (with homework?). Then Pronunciation, Speaking Activities, Chapter Quiz and finally Check in with Progress Report.

I was thinking I'd do a chapter at a time, maybe once a week, fitting it in with everything else. Nope. Today I only did the Vocabulary lecture and will do the homework later this afternoon.

This is an amazingly dense program--and now I wished I'd gotten the additional classes for the special price.

[CarlyD]

I've spent the last couple of days pulling out all my German fiction books--some kids books, readers, easier versions of regular books. I have a total of 2571 pages in all the books.

That's 7 pages a day, every day, to finish all of them by the end of 2020. Hmmm....... 7 is a doable amount. It's the every single day that's the problem. I'm going to have to think about what magic will make this happen, 'cause four hours a day struggling sentence by sentence is a clear path to burnout. Maybe just pick out certain books for the year. Definitely the Sherlock Holmes one.

I've returned to Duolingo--for now. Still semi-irritating. I read that there's a brand new German tree going, but only to new people. I'm considering opening up a second account--my dog has been considering learning German, so he'd probably let me share his account. I don't know if it's a better tree or not, but would be interesting to find out.

Ok, back to Memrise and waiting for our next 3-day storm starting this afternoon.