Deutsch and magyar

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Dagane
Orange Belt
Posts: 172
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2016 6:08 pm
Location: London, UK
Languages: I regularly use:
Spanish (N)
English (C2)
German (C1+)
Hungarian (A2?)

I formerly studied:
Galician (B2?)
Dutch (A1)
Czech (A0)
Portuguese (A2?)
French (A1?)
x 263

Re: Deutsch and magyar

Postby Dagane » Mon Sep 07, 2020 1:34 pm

en

Late in May I attempted to read my first short story in Hungarian. I struggled to extricate some meaning out of it and I couldn't read a sentence longer than two words without a dictionary. It took me days.

Today I read the same short story yet again. And it is so beautiful! :o. I understood it. Not only that. I didn't need to use a dictionary and I got the grammar right. I can see a huge improvement since that time in May when I first tried to read it. And most importantly, I enjoyed it. This short story spoke to my brain and my heart alike.
6 x

Dagane
Orange Belt
Posts: 172
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2016 6:08 pm
Location: London, UK
Languages: I regularly use:
Spanish (N)
English (C2)
German (C1+)
Hungarian (A2?)

I formerly studied:
Galician (B2?)
Dutch (A1)
Czech (A0)
Portuguese (A2?)
French (A1?)
x 263

Re: Deutsch and magyar

Postby Dagane » Sun Sep 13, 2020 6:33 pm

en

I took the last minute decision of signing up for the C2 course at the Goethe Institut :shock:.

de

Diese Woche habe ich eine Sammlung der Gedichten Novalis’ gelesen. Ein paar Gedichte gehen über zeitgenössischen Prominenten, manche zeigen eine frommen oder sensiblen Seite des Dichters, und andere Gedichte klingen ganz leicht und philosophisch am gleichen Moment. Die letzte habe ich am meisten genießt.

Meine zwei Freunde, mit wen ich jede Woche ein Gespräch auf Deutsch habe, und ich haben ein neuen „Protokoll“, um unsere Konversationen zu führen. Wir entscheiden ein Video oder einen Artikel im Voraus, darüber wir später diskutieren kann. Es wirkt. Es macht auch Spaß. Danach sprechen wir auch über verschiedene Trivialitäten.
3 x

Dagane
Orange Belt
Posts: 172
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2016 6:08 pm
Location: London, UK
Languages: I regularly use:
Spanish (N)
English (C2)
German (C1+)
Hungarian (A2?)

I formerly studied:
Galician (B2?)
Dutch (A1)
Czech (A0)
Portuguese (A2?)
French (A1?)
x 263

Re: Deutsch and magyar

Postby Dagane » Sun Oct 18, 2020 3:45 pm

en

I've neglected my log because of the ever increasing amount of work, that since the very beginning of September has driven changes to my lifestyle and made me work some weekends and many late evenings so that I and my team could meet a series of deadlines. During the last six weeks I missed my long evening walks, sometimes my morning exercise routine, and cooking. In fact, straight after having met the "last" deadline my body said enough and I became mildly sick for a couple days.

I managed to squeeze in a daily dose of language learning despite it all, even though it took me only a few minutes to finish it some times.

So here's an update on German:

I love the C2 classes. Actually, I love everything about them. The other students are nice, friendly and their level is (I believe) similar to my own. The teacher is cool and I like her methods. The fact of lacking a textbook and using native material only allows for freedom of choice when it comes to deciding on topics for each lesson. We tackle topics in depth from many perspectives and develop them through homework that doesn't feel like homework. And lastly, I find there is a good balance in the amount of listening, speaking, writing, (little) grammar and reading. Ich bin ja zufrieden.

My two friends and I continue organising a weekly meeting to speak German for 60 or 90 minutes, although I missed one of them because of work. These meetings do boost the confidence and fluency of the three of us, and they allow us to use our German in a somewhat "real setting".

On my own I read a German book titled "Vom Land", a light novel set in rural Austria that casts some light on modern family dynamics and racism against refugees. Although I stopped listening to the radio, I am listening to more podcasts about art, history, geography, economy, geopolitics and linguistics.

All in all, I feel far from stuck at German. My confidence is building up and I think I'm filling in some of the gaps in speech register, vocabulary and overall understanding I had been tagging for long.
6 x

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AroAro
Green Belt
Posts: 355
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
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Re: Deutsch and magyar

Postby AroAro » Tue Oct 20, 2020 7:24 am

Dagane wrote:en

On my own I read a German book titled "Vom Land", a light novel set in rural Austria that casts some light on modern family dynamics and racism against refugees. Although I stopped listening to the radio, I am listening to more podcasts about art, history, geography, economy, geopolitics and linguistics.



Hi, could you please share the titles of some of these podcasts, especially the ones about linguistics and geopolitics? I'm always looking for some interesting content in German and these topics are of true interest to me.
0 x
corrections are welcome

Dagane
Orange Belt
Posts: 172
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2016 6:08 pm
Location: London, UK
Languages: I regularly use:
Spanish (N)
English (C2)
German (C1+)
Hungarian (A2?)

I formerly studied:
Galician (B2?)
Dutch (A1)
Czech (A0)
Portuguese (A2?)
French (A1?)
x 263

Re: Deutsch and magyar

Postby Dagane » Wed Nov 18, 2020 6:38 pm

AroAro wrote:Hi, could you please share the titles of some of these podcasts, especially the ones about linguistics and geopolitics? I'm always looking for some interesting content in German and these topics are of true interest to me.

en

I rarely suscribe to podcasts or channels because I usually get bored of them more or less quickly. Instead, I google the topic I'm interested in, in the language I feel like using. Sometimes I just do so in a particular tv or radio station, or YouTube, which actually has very good quality material nowadays.

Nevertheless, Arte has a series of short videos about Geopolitics I quite like. I've been watching them in German for years. They're called "Mit offenen Karten". It is one of the very few channels I do follow regularly.
Last edited by Dagane on Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
1 x

User avatar
AroAro
Green Belt
Posts: 355
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
x 1791

Re: Deutsch and magyar

Postby AroAro » Thu Nov 19, 2020 7:52 am

Dagane wrote:
Dagane wrote:Hi, could you please share the titles of some of these podcasts, especially the ones about linguistics and geopolitics? I'm always looking for some interesting content in German and these topics are of true interest to me.

en
Hi, could you please share the titles of some of these podcasts, especially the ones about linguistics and geopolitics? I'm always looking for some interesting content in German and these topics are of true interest to me.

I rarely suscribe to podcasts or channels because I usually get bored of them more or less quickly. Instead, I google the topic I'm interested in, in the language I feel like using. Sometimes I just do so in a particular tv or radio station, or YouTube, which actually has very good quality material nowadays.

Nevertheless, Arte has a series of short videos about Geopolitics I quite like. I've been watching them in German for years. They're called "Mit offenen Karten". It is one of the very few channels I do follow regularly.[/quote]

Thanks for the recommendation, will definitely check it!
1 x
corrections are welcome

Dagane
Orange Belt
Posts: 172
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2016 6:08 pm
Location: London, UK
Languages: I regularly use:
Spanish (N)
English (C2)
German (C1+)
Hungarian (A2?)

I formerly studied:
Galician (B2?)
Dutch (A1)
Czech (A0)
Portuguese (A2?)
French (A1?)
x 263

Re: Deutsch and magyar

Postby Dagane » Wed Nov 25, 2020 6:18 pm

hu
Nem vagyok lusta, bár mostanában nem írtam semmit sem :roll:. Amikor több időm lesz, szólem kell a magyar nyelvrőll.
0 x

Dagane
Orange Belt
Posts: 172
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2016 6:08 pm
Location: London, UK
Languages: I regularly use:
Spanish (N)
English (C2)
German (C1+)
Hungarian (A2?)

I formerly studied:
Galician (B2?)
Dutch (A1)
Czech (A0)
Portuguese (A2?)
French (A1?)
x 263

Re: Deutsch and magyar

Postby Dagane » Thu Nov 26, 2020 3:07 pm

pt
Não tinha achado trabalhar no meu português ao menos até o ano seguinte, mas uma companheira do trabalho deixou-me "O melhor das comédias da vida privada" e agora o tenho lido. Fantástico! Eu não o conhecia. Sacou-me muitos sorrisos. Ótimo!
1 x

Dagane
Orange Belt
Posts: 172
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2016 6:08 pm
Location: London, UK
Languages: I regularly use:
Spanish (N)
English (C2)
German (C1+)
Hungarian (A2?)

I formerly studied:
Galician (B2?)
Dutch (A1)
Czech (A0)
Portuguese (A2?)
French (A1?)
x 263

Re: Deutsch and magyar

Postby Dagane » Mon Dec 14, 2020 10:56 pm

en

I keep myself busy with Hungarian and I feel it is about time to give an update on my progress. Last time I did so was on July 19th. Back then I had studied Hungarian for 3 months and my brief report revolved around three points: I had succeeded in learning Hungarian routinely, I was progressing in all skills more or less at the same time and without putting pressure on myself, and I thought that my level was a solid A1.

As I wrote before, my job became very demanding at the beginning of September and I dedicate less time to study languages since then. In spite of it, I've managed to study Hungarian nearly everyday, although most days I've only been able to study for a few minutes. I like the language. It seems so logical! Here it is what I've done during the last five months.

I'm less than half a lesson short of finishing volume 1 of the FSI course. Although I initially had my doubts about the course, I've learned to love it. I quite like the exemplary way of demonstrating grammar, vocabulary and listening comprehension through the drills. I keep using my Routledge grammer, albeit sparingly. Online TVs and Youtube music and podcasts have become my friends as opposed to the radio because of syntonising issues. I keep using Lang-8, although I am now writing very little. Regarding speaking, the end of the summer meant the end of outdoor meetings with my partner's Hungarian friends. Even though we speak English to each other, I've have a few (very few) conversations in Hungarian with him and his family.

So where am I?

VOCABULARY
1,961. That's the number of words and expressions I have actively studied so far. The adverb is important as that means I've gone through many and regular revisions for every one of them.

GRAMMAR
I'm familiar with (all?) noun cases. That doesn't mean I use them all well. I typically looked at a case in a website that explains grammar first and then created my own notes and charts. I'd later come across it in the FSI course. Finally, I'd read about it in the Routledge grammar.

I've studied the present, past and future definite and indefinite forms of the verbs. Again, it doesn't mean I master them yet. I glossed over the conditional and I use it in a few expressions I learned by heart only.

I've gone through different forms of expressing possession. They are hard. I learned that subordinate clauses aren't difficult and when the coverbs may and may not be separated from the stem.

READING
13 short stories read so far, apart from the dialogues and stories contained in the course book. I occasionally read Youtube comments also.

WRITING
I'm not writing much, and when I do I upload it to Lang-8 for natives to correct it. I always make mistakes, but they all manage to understand what I mean and propose corrections accordingly, so I guess I'm doing OK for my level.

LISTENING
Random TV shows, music and podcasts for both learners and natives. Lately, I got into the habit of typing topics I'm interested in in YouTube and finding videos by people who speak at a slow pace. That way I can understand quite a lot. For example, I may look for videos about learning languages. I then know I'll find words like "reading", "speaking", "habit", "grammar" and others I'm familiar with.

PRONUNCIATION
I still need to work on "é", according to my boyfriend.

SPEAKING
This one is interesting. Not long ago I had a long conversation in Hungarian with my boyfriend. We probably talked for half an hour. He asked me questions about travelling and other topics I like. At the end of it I asked him how well I can speak the language and his answer surprised me a little. He said I barely made any mistake, but also that my fluency, that has astonished him last summer, was now way worse.

His comment gave me food for thought. I feel my level has improved a lot. I can now understand stories and conversations about topics I like. I can also put together words and grammar to express myself with my own words. It is pretty clear to me that I couldn't do this before and that I now can, but he didn't think so. I think the reason is that, when I first started to learn the language, I focused on the intonation and the pronunciation, and I learned common expressions by heart. I was always ready to use them as soon as I heard a word that could trigger their usage. This surprised everybody. But that doesn't mean I was fluent.

It's interesting to think that, although I surely made many grammar mistakes, the definition of fluency is conveyed by how quickly and flawlessly you can say something, even though that something may be learnt by heart. The fact that you have a much better grasp of the language may only be visible when you can speak confidently, regardless of what you actually understand.

CONCLUSION
I'd like to wrap this up by stating my level, but I'm not sure about it. I can communicate about topics I like: languages, traveling, books. I can do so with a reduced but effective vocabulary, and with decent grammar too if I keep things simple. This may sound like an A2 to some, but I still feel there's some more basic stuff to learn before saying I've entered the intermediate levels. I may not be far from them, I may even get there in a month time, but I'm not there yet. And that's OK!
8 x

Dagane
Orange Belt
Posts: 172
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2016 6:08 pm
Location: London, UK
Languages: I regularly use:
Spanish (N)
English (C2)
German (C1+)
Hungarian (A2?)

I formerly studied:
Galician (B2?)
Dutch (A1)
Czech (A0)
Portuguese (A2?)
French (A1?)
x 263

Re: Deutsch and magyar

Postby Dagane » Wed Dec 16, 2020 2:13 pm

de

Dieses Jahr habe ich ganz viel auf Deutsch gelesen. Trotzdem habe ich noch das Gefühl, dass ich am meisten lese, um ein regelmäßiger Kontakt mit der Sprache zu haben. Das heißt: ich kümme mich an die Titeln nicht zu viel, weil das wichtigste ist, dass sie in Deutsch geschrieben sind. Es gab auch deutsche Bücher, die ich unbedingt lesen wollte. Trotz meiner Interesse habe ich sie in meiner Muttersprache gelesen. "Der Zauberberg" und "Also sprach Zarathustra" sind gute Beispiele. Andererseits lese ich nur auf Englisch, Spanisch und Galicisch, wenn ich mich für ein besonderes Buch interessiere. Auf Deutsch ist es anders. Jawohl, natürlich habe ich eine Interesse für die Bücher, die ich lese, aber ich sorge mich noch dafür, alle Feinheiten der Geschichte richtig zu begreifen, bevor ich die Sprache zum Lesen entscheide.

Hier ist meine Liste des Jahres. Nummer 11 lese ich noch, aber ich wird es mit Sicherheit vor dem Ende des Jahres vollenden. Zwei davon sind Gedichte, Nummer 7 ist eine kurze Sammlung von Erzählungen, Nummer 8 geht um Erzählungen über das Thema Reisen und die übrige sieben Bücher sind Romane.

1. "Im Bann der Schlange"; James McClure
2. "Die Vermessung der Welt"; Daniel Kehlmann
3. "Der Richter und sein Henker"; Friedrich Dürrenmatt
4. "Unsterblich sind die Liebenden"; Klaus Kühl
5. "Ein fliehendes Pferd";  Martin Walser
6. "Koala"; Lukas Bärfuss
7. "Erzählungen"; Heinrich Böll
8. "Wunderbare Jahre"; Sibylle Berg
9. "Gedichte"; Novalis
10. "Vom Land"; Dominik Barta
11. "Was Liebe ist"; Ulrich Woelk
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