Mostly German and some Japanese log

[tacerto1018]

I have always been fond of those who have taken the time out to make this logs and quite jealous, to be honest. I have myself decided to make one for a few reasons:

1. I think it will help me direct my learning. The more I write here, the more I can see where my progress is going
2. Similarly, I will be able to track my studying as well as my what I have learned over the course of my learning
3. It is a good place to write down tangible goals that can be referred back to at later dates
4. I will be able to make temporal plans about when I should like to achieve my goals.

After having attended the Polyglot Gathering Online in May, I was inspiring to direct my learning, something I have struggled with over the past few years. Since 2016, I have spent around 10 months studying Norwegian, about a year studying Russian, about 6 month studying Portuguese, and about 5 months or so on and off with Japanese. Unfortunately, apart from my French in which I am doing my Master's degree now and teach professionally, I have let all other languages that I have studied fall by the way side. I still retain passive knowledge of them, but they need to be refreshed, and that takes time. My initial motivation for them is months or years gone and I am left with the remnants of once good levels.

My aim here is mostly to learn German (goals will be defined later). I have dabbled in Japanese here and there, though am consistently doing Wanikani, which I love, so just kanji learning actively. I think I would like to learn to read Japanese for now before learning to speak it. At any rate, after having attended the Polyglot Gathering, I was tempted to try out a technique that I had seen which was reading and listening. German had been speaking to me, as the next language you learn seems to do (starting as an idea and then you start to see it everywhere), and so I said what the heck, I want to reach a good level in another language that has the potential to be used during trips to Europe.

Over the course of the last 30 days (having started on May 31th), I have been listening and reading along with Harry Potter 5. Hermine Kludue on Youtube has made a series of videos during which she reads the German books. I followed these videos until chapter 18, 30 minutes (give or take) for 30 days. In total, this got me to around page 420 or so in the book and gave me a total of 15 hours of exposure. Now, in 2015 I undertook around 3 weeks of German learning, finishing Michel Thomas' tapes, and in 2019 I took a few classes in German with Berlitz, but very few, 4 or 5. I also watched Deutsch Plus from the 80s or 90s on Youtube in 2015. Since then, German hasn't been much on my radar. Having done this month long exercise, I began to see how some things that I thought were strange and that could pose difficulties in the language were no longer, and I had become so much more used to hearing the language. I took 1 video each week of me reading the first page of the first book as a formal assessment of my progress, and what I noticed was how much more fluidly I could pronounce the words at first glance. This experiment was not aimed at fluency nor 100% understanding, but more so to see where I would end up after having done 15 hours of input. I knew the story well so I could navigate the book with relative ease, but the finer points were lost on me. All in all, I am happy with the experiment.

Getting started:


Resources
Having officially declared my undertaking in this post I need to set myself some goals.

For all of my other languages, I have used Assimil. It is by far my favorite method and I know its efficacy. I have not yet started the Assimil German yet, but I do have it. I plan to start this week and plan on using this as my grammar / shadowing tool. I plan to do at least 4 chapters a week (no more than 6). The reason being to not overwhelm myself and to not make it a chore, which has been a problem in the past for me. The way I use the books is http://www.shorturl.at/gu689.

Pimsleur is going to be a great source as well. The combo of Assimil and Pimsleur is a knock-out for me, despite some complaints of the slow speed at which it goes. I plan do at least 3 (max 6) Pimsleurs a week, on alternating days of Assimil.

I found the new Deutsch Welle website with a killer course that talks about Nicos Weg. I have done the placement test and first few lessons in A2. I plan to do 3 of these a week as they take about 30-40 minutes each.

I may continue to read Harry Potter, but I haven't decided yet. To be determined!

Eventually I want to start Dark on Netflix, I've heard good things. But for now I think this is enough.

What the week will look like - Subject to change!!

M - Assimil = 30-40 minutes
T - Pimsleur / Deutsch Welle = 70 minutes total
W - Assimil / Deutsch Welle = 70 minutes total
R - Pimsleur / Deutsch Welle = 60 minutes
F - Assimil = 30-40 minutes
S - Assimil / Pimsleur 70 minutes
Su - Misc / Rest day

Weekly total: ~5-7 hours

Goals

For now, I want to see where I can get with these resources. After I have finished them, I will reassess what I want to do with the language. I think that iTalki will be the next step.


As for Japanese, I will continue with Wanikani for now. I want to be done with level 10 around September, I am now on level 7.

[golyplot]

Eventually I want to start Dark on Netflix, I've heard good things. But for now I think this is enough.

I would not recommend trying to use Dark for listening practice. Just watch it with subtitles and/or dub and be done with it. I actually happen to currently be watching Dark in German (without subs). My level of German is high enough that I can effortlessly understand most of the dialog, and I still have no idea what's going on plot-wise half the time. Dark has an incredibly convoluted plot with loads and loads of characters that are impossible to keep track of, even with a reference chart. You'll probably struggle to follow the show even in your native language.

[tacerto1018]

Eventually I want to start Dark on Netflix, I've heard good things. But for now I think this is enough.

I would not recommend trying to use Dark for listening practice. Just watch it with subtitles and/or dub and be done with it. I actually happen to currently be watching Dark in German (without subs). My level of German is high enough that I can effortlessly understand most of the dialog, and I still have no idea what's going on plot-wise half the time. Dark has an incredibly convoluted plot with loads and loads of characters that are impossible to keep track of, even with a reference chart. You'll probably struggle to follow the show even in your native language.

Great advice. I heard that it's a bit like Stranger Things, and if it's anything like that I'm sure I'll be lost. Do you have any recommendations of shows I could use for some native practice that might be more practical in the beginning stages?

[tacerto1018]

Short update this week:

As it's still the beginning stages, and as I have only been learning for a week or so for real, I have just a small update. Tonight, I mapped out a very basic excel sheet where I'll keep track of my hours logged in German. My weekly plan seems to be good as far as work load, and I even did 60 extra minutes of Pimsleur. I have a lot of free time this month to dedicate to my leaning so I think that I'll advance quite a bit in the resources that I have. I am keeping track of all of my daily stuff on a white board, adding the sums for the week and then adding it to the excel sheet. This way, I can watch my progress grow and see how much time I am giving to each skill, which ones are the most enjoyable and can stay motivated and on top of my learning.

This week was a short one since I started to track my days only on Thursday, so this data is only Thursday-Sunday.

Deutsch.png

[golyplot]

Great advice. I heard that it's a bit like Stranger Things, and if it's anything like that I'm sure I'll be lost. Do you have any recommendations of shows I could use for some native practice that might be more practical in the beginning stages?

Dark and Stranger Things have pretty much nothing in common, apart from the fact that they're both popular shows on Netflix and their first episodes both involve a child missing. I recall seeing the comparisons when the show first came out based on the first episode, and they completely led me astray, since Dark ended up being very different from what I was expecting. For example, in Dark, the child missing in the first episode quickly ends up dead and is unimportant to the main story, while in Stranger Things, the missing child is one of the main characters and his disappearance drives the entire plot of season 1. Any comparison of the shows misleads more than it illuminates.

As far as show suggestions go, I don't know how helpful it will be, since I didn't start watching German TV to practice my listening skills until after five years of classes in high school. But here are some of the shows I watched to practice my listening skills, or at least the ones that are still available:

* Tiere bis unters Dach - Long running show set in a small town in southern Germany with kids that get in various animal related adventures every episode.

* Abenteur Wilder Westen - Documentary about six German teens who go to live on a ranch in Montana for the summer and learn about various cowboy activities like horse riding, lassoing, herding cattle, etc. The first half is no longer officially available, but it looks like someone uploaded it to Youtube.

* Anna/Paula und die Wilden Tiere - nature documentary series. You can find the most recent episode or two available each week on Das Erste's website

* Die Pfefferkörner - long running kid detective series set in Hamburg. A rotation of episodes from the most recent seasons is usually available on Das Erste's website or similar places.

Anyway, I hope that helps.

[tacerto1018]

Anyway, I hope that helps.

It definitely does. Thanks a lot for your suggestions !

[tacerto1018]

This week was a little busy too; between my wife being pregnant, her birthday, and my grad school work I managed to find a little time for my German, but only about 4 or so hours. This week I decided to add a little Anki to the mix to get some straight up vocabulary practice. I have logged everything into my Google Sheets and rounded out to about 7,5 hours.

Pimsleur was the least of my activities I did this week, and Deutsche Welle was the most. I really enjoy this website, they touch on quite a bit of grammar while maintaining concentration on both reading and listening comprehension. Assimil is chugging along, I have used Audacity this week to in order to speed up the audios by 30-50% so the beginning 20-30 lessons are at mostly conversational speed instead of the slow initial beginning speeds, a technique that I have read much about but have never used. I have been shadowing as needed, going back to the last 7 lessons and repeating while listening.

This week, I should be able to stick more to the schedule I have set out for myself. Overall, I feel that I have been understanding more and more and that the language is less "German" and more thoughts and meanings.

Wanikani is done mostly every day. The amount of reviews is overwhelming to be honest that it's hard to chip away at the new words. I'm on level 7 and working through slowly but surely.

[golyplot]

Wanikani is done mostly every day. The amount of reviews is overwhelming to be honest that it's hard to chip away at the new words. I'm on level 7 and working through slowly but surely.

Haha, just you wait. I'm at level 29, and you haven't seen anything yet. Over the last two weeks, I've averaged 290 reviews per day. I came pretty close to just giving up at points. I expect that the 40s and 50s are going to be pure hell. 頑張って, 頑張って, 頑張って

[tacerto1018]

Wanikani is done mostly every day. The amount of reviews is overwhelming to be honest that it's hard to chip away at the new words. I'm on level 7 and working through slowly but surely.

Haha, just you wait. I'm at level 29, and you haven't seen anything yet. Over the last two weeks, I've averaged 290 reviews per day. I came pretty close to just giving up at points. I expect that the 40s and 50s are going to be pure hell. 頑張って, 頑張って, 頑張って

Boy oh boy, I can't even imagine! I can't believe that some people actually finish all 100 levels in about a year. You'd have to dedicate so much time just on Wanikani every day. It's almost cruel that the reality level is the last one. How many kanji you need to know is dizzying!

[golyplot]

Boy oh boy, I can't even imagine! I can't believe that some people actually finish all 100 levels in about a year. You'd have to dedicate so much time just on Wanikani every day. It's almost cruel that the reality level is the last one. How many kanji you need to know is dizzying!

There's 60 levels, not 100. But yes, it does take considerable time and effort.