2020 - C1 in German by june

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
Sahmilat
Orange Belt
Posts: 107
Joined: Sun May 13, 2018 7:37 pm
Location: Texas
Languages: English
x 263

Re: German - would anyone like to correct a text?

Postby Sahmilat » Tue Mar 24, 2020 1:15 am

tungemål wrote:My German is getting slowly better. I have had a few Italki-lessons and it is beneficial, because I need a lot of practice speaking German.

I would also like to get some exercise writing German. I think the best way is to write a text on a topic and then get it corrected. I am wondering if there are anyone here that would be interested in correcting one of my texts, and in return getting help with a Norwegian text. Any Germans studying Norwegian here?


Have you checked out Lang-8? I only used it briefly and that was a while ago, but it was just about writing texts and getting corrections from native speakers. Probably worth looking at?
1 x

User avatar
tungemål
Blue Belt
Posts: 947
Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2019 3:56 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N)
English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Polish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17672
x 2181

Re: 2020 - Advancing in German

Postby tungemål » Tue Mar 24, 2020 9:07 am

Thanks for the tip. Yes, I've been using Lang-8 for some years. It works best for short texts of a couple of sentences. For some reason it tended to be hard to get German texts corrected there. Japanese and Polish was easier.
0 x

User avatar
tungemål
Blue Belt
Posts: 947
Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2019 3:56 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N)
English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Polish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17672
x 2181

Re: 2020 - C1 in German by june

Postby tungemål » Sat Mar 28, 2020 10:50 am

Due to the current situation I don't know if it will be possible. But if the world slowly returns to normal (let's hope so!) I set myself the goal of taking the Goethe C1 proficiency test in june.

A language exam is a useful goal to have, because it makes me keep focus, and it gives me a deadline. Besides, German might be useful for me professionally as well.
2 x

Sahmilat
Orange Belt
Posts: 107
Joined: Sun May 13, 2018 7:37 pm
Location: Texas
Languages: English
x 263

Re: 2020 - C1 in German by june

Postby Sahmilat » Sat Mar 28, 2020 6:54 pm

Have you made yourself a specific study plan for the C1? I told my professor at the beginning of the semester that I was planning to take the B2 test sometime this year and she said "nein, unbedingt C1". I don't think I'll be ready for it by June, but I hope you will be. I just figured we might be able to share study plans (once I get around to actually making them).

Are you planning to do grammar work, or focus on input, or practice a lot of output, or some combination? I have pretty much exclusively been doing input since I left school, but I would like to practice some writing and speaking to keep up my skills while I'm stuck by myself. I'm not completely convinced of the efficacy of grammar work at this level, but I'd like to hear other opinions on the subject.
1 x

User avatar
tungemål
Blue Belt
Posts: 947
Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2019 3:56 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N)
English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Polish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17672
x 2181

Re: 2020 - C1 in German by june

Postby tungemål » Sun Mar 29, 2020 12:44 pm

Yes, I don't know if I will pass, but I'll try. Good idea, I am interested in how you will prepare. I will follow your log.

Study plan:

Grammatik: I am going through a grammar book with exercises from cover to cover. I just calculated that to be finished in june I need to do 2 pages a day on average. Not hard if I can keep the discipline. I had German in high school many years ago, so a lot of the grammar is repetition for me.

Hörverstehen: I have listened to radio and watched TV in German every day since about september. Listening comprehension is now good but can get better, of course.

Sprechen: I have an Italki-teacher, but I don't know if it is enough. I need more exercise since my speaking skills are probably not good enough. I am not sure how to get enough practice as Italki will get expensive in the long run.

Lesen: I should read more. I can now read complicated texts without a dictionary, but I read slowly, so I just need to read a lot more. I think I will focus on reading magazines and news articles.

Schreibfähigkeiten: My plan is to write 10 essays that I will get corrected. This is to improve mye writing skills (without using google translate) and I hope it will also indirectly improve my speaking skills.
5 x

User avatar
tungemål
Blue Belt
Posts: 947
Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2019 3:56 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N)
English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Polish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17672
x 2181

Re: 2020 - C1 in German by june

Postby tungemål » Sun Apr 05, 2020 10:13 am

Hörverstehen
I felt like I've come to a tipping point in listening comprehension. I watched one Tatort episode yesterday - "Meta" - and I was able to follow the story without subtitles, even if I didn't get all of the sentences. I checked afterwards with subtitles anyway. It might be that the actors in the Berlin Tatort are easier than others to understand for me. Very cool story by the way. The film is about a murder which is connected to a film that shows the same murder, which is also connected to a film inside the film inside the film.

I use the series as a "gauge" of my listening level. I have to keep in mind that I also find English movies hard to understand without subtitles, but I force myself to train my listening comprehension in that way. This would mean that my German listening level is almost at my English level. To improve now is mostly about acquiring more words and expressions.

Wortschatz
It's possible to sort the Anki entries by "created date", and in this way it is easy to see how many words I've learned since a particular date. So far in 2020 I have learned 662 words. I don't know how that compares to others here but I feel I am being very active acquiring new words.
1 x

User avatar
tungemål
Blue Belt
Posts: 947
Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2019 3:56 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N)
English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Polish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17672
x 2181

Re: 2020 - C1 in German by june

Postby tungemål » Sun Apr 05, 2020 10:26 am

SWR2 Wissen:
Latein fördert logisches Denken? Mythen vom Fremdsprachenerwerb

About myths of second language learning. No new revolutionary insight here but many good points.

I have realised that Latin is still an important school subject in Germany, and it is apparently regarded (by some) as beneficial for the mind. I had thought that Latin died as a school subject more than a hundred years ago but not in Germany, it seems.
1 x

Mista
Blue Belt
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
x 1459

Re: 2020 - C1 in German by june

Postby Mista » Sun Apr 05, 2020 11:32 am

tungemål wrote:I have realised that Latin is still an important school subject in Germany, and it is apparently regarded (by some) as beneficial for the mind. I had thought that Latin died as a school subject more than a hundred years ago but not in Germany, it seems.

No, that's just in Norway, actually. That's why half of the Latin professors in Norwegian universities are Swedish.

(Don't take that as an accurate percentage ...)
1 x

User avatar
tungemål
Blue Belt
Posts: 947
Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2019 3:56 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N)
English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Polish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17672
x 2181

Re: 2020 - C1 in German by june

Postby tungemål » Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:51 pm

This Easter I've spent a lot of time on languages (German and Japanese). I like to listen to radio, but nowadays I try to avoid too much news. By the way, Easter in German is "Ostern", and it obviously derives from the same word. According to Wiktionary it comes from a Proto Indo-European word that meant "dawn" and "east", Easter then meaning springtime and the dawn of summer.

Grammar: it is boring but very useful for me to go through the "B Grammatik". I do get more hold of the German grammar, and I notice constructions in texts I read.

Essay: I've written one more essay, and I have made a deal with my Italki teacher who will correct it. With the essays I improve my writing, and as a bonus I get a couple of texts on subjects that are relevant and interesting for me, texts that can function as language islands.

One new TV-channel I discovered: Arte, which is a collaboration between France and Germany, and their programs seem to be in both languages - you can choose the audio track.
3 x

User avatar
tungemål
Blue Belt
Posts: 947
Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2019 3:56 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N)
English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Polish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17672
x 2181

Re: 2020 - C1 in German by june

Postby tungemål » Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:33 pm

Lately I have mostly:
- been working with grammar
- been watching german TV
- saving new words in anki and reviewing

Haven't done that much reading, and no speaking. I do need more speaking practice, so I will have to book italkie-lessons, or find someone else I can practice my german on.

Some new idioms I've learned. Do you know these? Some of these I understand intuitively, but not all of them.

etw unter den Tisch fallen lassen
etw unter den Teppich kehren
auf Nummer sicher gehen
etw nicht auf die reihe kriegen
das Zünglein an der Waage
sich von jemandem eine Scheibe abschneiden können
durch den Wind sein
er hat es drauf
von wegen!
jmd aus dem Verkehr ziehen
sich den Kopf zerbrechen
ins Visier geraten
etw geht über die Bühne
4 x


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: fromaalborg, Sizen and 3 guests