Reading 3.000.000 words in German

[slowmoon]

Are these all hard copies that you're finding in real life or are you reading digitally? My problem is that I only have access to so much engaging material before I have to start reading from a computer and that's much less engaging for a long period of time.

Reading digitally doesn't bother me, but I have a Kindle as well. Highly recommended.

[Sparverius]

Are you able to link your account directly to amazon.de and get books from there, or what repository are you drawing on?

[slowmoon]

Are you able to link your account directly to amazon.de and get books from there, or what repository are you drawing on?

amazon.com works fine. For example: https://www.amazon.com/Das-Parfum-Gesch ... 3257228007

[jeffers]

Starting now, I will update once every two weeks. Finding content that I want to read is becoming difficult. Familiar stuff translated from English is comprehensible but boring. Original, unfamiliar German literature is incomprehensible, but potentially interesting. It seems I have no choice but to slow down and try to read more difficult books more intensively.

Your reading might be more effective if you re-read some of the books that you enjoyed the most rather than constantly reading new things. There have been studies showing that repeated reading increases the retention of new vocabulary encountered over purely extensive reading. You won't encounter as many new words, but you will remember more of them. As a plus, you'll keep your sanity!

[slowmoon]

Your reading might be more effective if you re-read some of the books that you enjoyed the most rather than constantly reading new things. There have been studies showing that repeated reading increases the retention of new vocabulary encountered over purely extensive reading. You won't encounter as many new words, but you will remember more of them. As a plus, you'll keep your sanity!

Oh, I'll definitely re-read things. I've always re-read a lot in English. But I usually wait a while before re-reading, don't you? That will probably come into play next year.

[slowmoon]

Week 8-9 Update

Was kommen muss, wird kommen, und wenn es da ist, nehmen wir den Kampf auf.

- Hagrid

Reading

Frank Schätzing: Der Schwarm, pages 98-116
Joanne Rowling: Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch, pages 700-767
Joanne Rowling: Harry Potter und der Orden des Phönix, pages 7-681
RL Stine: Sonnenbrand, pages 1-118
RL Stine: Zugeschneit, pages 1-115
RL Stine: Eifersucht, pages 1-5

1000 pages or ~250.000 words.

Notes

1. I'm not ready to abandon my precious young adult fiction translations. Diverse corpus be damned.

2. I'm reading most of these Harry Potter books for the first time. The best one so far is easily Der Gefangene von Askaban. Die Kammer des Schreckens is the worst. Facts.

[slowmoon]

Week 10-11 Update

Habe ich dir nicht einmal gesagt, daß die perfekteste Barriere gegen das Lernen die ist, daß man etwas zu wissen glaubt?

- Leto

Reading

Joanne Rowling: Harry Potter und der Orden des Phönix, pages 682-937
Frank Herbert: Der Gottkaiser des Wüstenplaneten, pages 1-434
RL Stine: Die Rache der Gartenzwerge, pages 1-86
RL Stine: Der Geist ohne Kopf, pages 1-82

856 pages, or ~214.000 words.

Notes

1. After reading something easy, I crave something difficult.

2. After reading something difficult, I crave something easy.

3. Nearly at the halfway mark.

4. An article in German explaining why the arealme.com German test sucks. https://wortschatz.tk/hintergrund/ein-falsches-ich (In summary: it's a direct translation of the English test, so the word frequencies are all messed up.)

5. The wortschatz.tk author recently posted a bunch of data about his test. https://jealousmarkup.xyz/texts/german- ... -analysis/ According to his data, the German native speaker test-takers clustered around 42500 words known (out of the 55000 most frequent words). My result was 13400 words. Interesting.

[tungemål]

Where is the quote from?

Habe ich dir nicht einmal gesagt, daß die perfekteste Barriere gegen das Lernen die ist, daß man etwas zu wissen glaubt?

4. An article in German explaining why the arealme.com German test sucks. https://wortschatz.tk/hintergrund/ein-falsches-ich (In summary: it's a direct translation of the English test, so the word frequencies are all messed up.)

5. The wortschatz.tk author recently posted a bunch of data about his test. https://jealousmarkup.xyz/texts/german- ... -analysis/ According to his data, the German native speaker test-takers clustered around 42500 words known (out of the 55000 most frequent words). My result was 13400 words. Interesting.

Interesting. It can be fun with vocabulary tests, and I like the statistics he presents. My result was 15400. 42500 words, that is ehrfurchtgebietend. (one word I learned from the article). Do you think that would correspond to the 20000 word families of Nation?

[Gustav Aschenbach]

4. An article in German explaining why the arealme.com German test sucks. https://wortschatz.tk/hintergrund/ein-falsches-ich (In summary: it's a direct translation of the English test, so the word frequencies are all messed up.)

5. The wortschatz.tk author recently posted a bunch of data about his test. https://jealousmarkup.xyz/texts/german- ... -analysis/ According to his data, the German native speaker test-takers clustered around 42500 words known (out of the 55000 most frequent words). My result was 13400 words. Interesting.

Interesting. It can be fun with vocabulary tests, and I like the statistics he presents. My result was 15400. 42500 words, that is ehrfurchtgebietend. (one word I learned from the article). Do you think that would correspond to the 20000 word families of Nation?

Interesting test. I just took it and "only" scored 40,000 words as a native speaker.

[slowmoon]

Where is the quote from?

Habe ich dir nicht einmal gesagt, daß die perfekteste Barriere gegen das Lernen die ist, daß man etwas zu wissen glaubt?

The fourth Dune book by Frank Herbert. God Emperor of Dune.
Great book, but you must read the preceding ones for it to make any sense.

Interesting. It can be fun with vocabulary tests, and I like the statistics he presents. My result was 15400. 42500 words, that is ehrfurchtgebietend. (one word I learned from the article). Do you think that would correspond to the 20000 word families of Nation?

Coincidentally, the word ehrfurcht is used often in God Emperor of Dune, as the main character is regarded as a god by his followers.

I don't think the 42500 word level on this test corresponds to the 20000 word families of an educated English speaker. My guess is that the 42500 level is much higher. According to TestYourVocab.com, the median test taker on that website had standardized test scores (SAT scores) in the 99th percentile of the general population. Apparently, only supernerds seek out these kinds of tests. Heavy selection bias. I would assume that a 42500 word score is equivalent to a 99th percentile German native. A normal, university-educated German in his 20s would probably score closer to 30000 on this test.

Interesting test. I just took it and "only" scored 40,000 words as a native speaker.

If I'm correct about the selection bias, this score likely places your vocabulary somewhere in the top 5% of native speakers. Does that sound right?