What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

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gsbod
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Thu Jun 01, 2023 6:09 pm

Caromarlyse wrote:Which Nele Neuhaus did you go for? If it's the most recent one in the Pia Kirchhoff series then you're in for a treat.

I went to Foyles in early February and was quite disappointed. To be fair, I'm not quite sure what I expected (and I tend to buy electronic versions of books and research them to death beforehand), but I didn't see anything interesting, i.e. nothing that made me think that it was an out-of-the-norm stock choice.


I got Muttertag, so not the most recent one, but it was next on the list of ones I haven't got yet. Interestingly it was the only one from the series that they had, but that worked out well for me anyway!

They seemed to have less stock than I remember. It was always better for coursebooks and learning materials than general reading material anyway. But they seemed to be missing some textbooks I would have expected them to carry. That being said, I was able to pick up some supplementary learning materials for Spanish that seem hard to get hold of online at the moment, so you win some you lose some I guess.

But yes, for German reading material it's nothing like going to Mayersche in Köln or Dussman in Berlin.
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gsbod
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Tue Jul 04, 2023 9:58 pm

After a much needed break I'm feeling the itch to learn something again. The problem is I can't decide what :roll: At the moment I seem to have either no time to myself, or too much time to myself, depending on the week, which isn't really conducive to consistent study routines, although may be OK if I could decide on something shorter and more intensive to focus on.

Currently my thoughts are edging towards taking another Spanish class in autumn, so I could focus maybe on one or two grammar topics for that.

Another option would be to brush up my already serviceable German, to serve no purpose other than to satisfy my intellectual curiosity and genuine interest in the intricacies of the language. (For a brief moment I thought I should finally sit a Goethe Zertifikat exam, but then I remembered how much I hate exams).

And then I started feeling nostalgia for my Japanese learning days, but I think that's just a distraction...

Anyway, what I am doing is listening to podcasts when I can't sleep (happening a lot recently), including the Spanish for false beginners podcast, and a bunch of podcasts from Deutschlandfunk. And then just procrastinating a lot with indecision paralysis. Maybe I'd be better off deciding not to study and just go to the beach!
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby språker » Thu Jul 06, 2023 10:08 am

Break, continue to learn or to brush up? I am deliberately keeping down my options myself, by not introducing too many of them, i.e. by not starting new languages.

If your German is at a high level, maybe trying to prepare for the test would be inspirational? But it can also be boring of course. When I am studying a language, I have the bits and bolts in my head, but after some years of not studying it is "just" the language left. Sitting a test would of course still be possible, if you take a test at comparatively lower level. I don't know how well I would fare in a German test, even if I understand and speak generally without problems. I also don't like tests, I have the feeling they try to "fool me" all the time.
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gsbod
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Thu Jul 06, 2023 11:28 am

språker wrote:Break, continue to learn or to brush up? I am deliberately keeping down my options myself, by not introducing too many of them, i.e. by not starting new languages.


I have six languages on my list and no plans to add any more. German and French are already at a level I'm happy with (and my French is only around B1, but that's good enough for me). Spanish I'm working on and Italian will have to wait until I'm done with that. I suspect, like French, I'll be satisfied with around B1 for Spanish too. I'm not exactly happy with Japanese but also don't know what to do with it, so it stays mothballed for now. And one day I'll get around to learning Welsh.

språker wrote:If your German is at a high level, maybe trying to prepare for the test would be inspirational? But it can also be boring of course. When I am studying a language, I have the bits and bolts in my head, but after some years of not studying it is "just" the language left. Sitting a test would of course still be possible, if you take a test at comparatively lower level. I don't know how well I would fare in a German test, even if I understand and speak generally without problems. I also don't like tests, I have the feeling they try to "fool me" all the time.


These days I differentiate between tests, which exist to tell you where you're at, and exams, which exist to tell others what you are worth. The assessments that were part of the Spanish course I did last year were what I would define as tests, and as such they were useful to me and I didn't mind doing them. Whereas a formal CEFR exam like Goethe Zertifikat or DELE would be firmly in the exam camp for me, and I have no interest in putting myself through an exam ever again, unless it's absolutely necessary (which at my stage in life/career, is quite unlikely).

It's interesting though, I do miss going to classes for German, and that sense of making progress in a language that I love. Once all that is over, although it is amazing to have this genuinely useful skill, it still feels a bit like "ok, now what?"
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gsbod
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Tue Jul 11, 2023 9:53 pm

After a few more days of decision paralysis I came to a solution of sorts. Try to do everything. It's impossible to stick to everything, of course, but I think it helps focus the mind on what I actually want to do, in a way that just thinking about things doesn't. Turns out my happy place is reviewing some German grammar. Who'd have guessed?
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gsbod
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Sun Aug 13, 2023 9:31 pm

It's looking increasingly likely that I'm going to be able to move house some time soon. Given how wrecked the UK housing market is at the moment (both for sales and rentals), this is a really exciting development. It does mean that in the short term I've not got much time for languaging...but in the longer term I should be getting more space for my language books!

It also means that now it seems I'm commiting to staying in Wales, it's probably about time I really did learn Welsh. (It also means that moving to Germany is now firmly off, even if that dream was already pretty much destroyed by Brexit anyway).

But to start with, need to get the moving thing sorted out first.
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Re: Tatort und Español (DE|ES|FR|IT)

Postby DaveAgain » Tue Sep 19, 2023 7:03 pm

gsbod wrote:I've been trying again with the TV show Babylon Berlin but I'm struggling to get into it. I enjoyed reading Der nasse Fisch, but I think there are just too many differences between the characters in the book and the characters in the TV show, including their history and the plot development. As a result, the TV show version looks good (well it should do, given the budget), but it just doesn't feel right.
ArdAudiothek.de have a radio adaptation:

EDIT
A website linked to the book series has a bibliography for books/films from & about the Weimar era.
Last edited by DaveAgain on Fri Sep 22, 2023 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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gsbod
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Tue Sep 19, 2023 7:20 pm

That's cool, thanks for the tip! I haven't had much time lately for any consistent language related activity, but this might be good to stick on in the background. I want to get back into reading the books at some point too!
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Fri Oct 13, 2023 5:43 pm

It's been a while since my last update, since I was busy over the summer moving house :D

The new house is so much better in many respects than where I was living before, so it's a very positive development. Although despite having been here a few weeks already, it still feels a bit like I'm staying in a weird AirBnB whose owners have exactly the same taste in furniture as me...

It's the first time I've moved house in over a decade so going through the process of packing and unpacking all my possessions has also been quite a strange experience. Over the space of a few days I really got an overview of my life in objects (including those I'd forgotten all about). I'm not one for a minimalist lifestyle, but having discovered a couple of dusty boxes of things shamefully forgotten over the years, I've certainly developed more of a sense that if you're going to own something, you ought to look after it.

I've got enough space now that all my language books have been unboxed, which is lovely. Except they all keep looking at me expectantly now, as if I have enough time to study them all, all at once :lol:

I've decided to keep going with Spanish classes. Now that all the house moving is finished with I should also have a lot more bandwidth to make more effort with it, which would be good. I do feel like so far I've just been getting through relying on my metalinguistic skills to communicate and figure things out, which is ok if you're purely task oriented but I do feel like I'm cheating a bit and more effort on my part would bring more rewards.

I also nearly signed up to some Welsh classes, but decided against it. They would have been free of charge, and I definitely want to make a go of Welsh at some point. However the teaching would have all been online (I'm still allergic to zoom after the pandemic) and I wouldn't really have been "present" for the first few weeks of the course, given everything else I've had going on, so the timing wasn't quite right. I expect there will be more opportunities in the future. Or I could just self study once I feel I've got the time to put to it - I have enough resources to make a start.
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Sun Oct 22, 2023 10:06 pm

I'm starting to get back into the habit of studying Spanish, although there are still plenty of other things in life competing for my attention. Also, I don't know if this is a consequence of reaching middle age, or just that I have a natural aversion to romance languages, but I am definitely finding it harder to make things stick with Spanish.

Anyway, I've put together a plan around a few tasks which I'm trying to keep up with on a weekly basis, including the following:

- Turning up to class, doing my homework, making and reviewing Anki cards for any interesting vocabulary that comes up in class
- Watch 1 episode of Destinos a week. My only task here is to pay attention, listen, and try to understand as much as possible
- Some grammar study using Gramática de uso del español A1-A2. I'm not sure what the ideal amount per week is here. If I go with one chapter per week I'll stick to it, but it'll take me over a year to finish it. Ideally I'd do more, but not sure I can fit it in. As well as doing the exercises, I also take vocabulary notes and make Anki cards
- Listen to 1 episode of the Spanish for False Beginners podcast, then review the transcript and make Anki cards for interesting new vocabulary
- Read 1 chapter of an A2 Lernkrimi from the collection "El misterio del Camino de Santiago". As with Destinos, my aim here is just to read, pay attention and try to understand as much as possible. If I tried taking vocabulary notes I'd soon be overwhelmed with too much information, but it's useful to practice comprehension without doing a deep dive on vocab. Also it comes with German vocabulary notes for some words, meaning today I learned the German word Armbrust (crossbow). I've forgotten the Spanish equivalent already, however!

Also, hopefully this week I'll get my TV set up again with DVD player and Chromecast (since moving house, we've only had the TV set up to receive regular UK channels) which means I get to enjoy some German TV crime drama again :)
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