ShawnP's German Adventure

[ShawnP]

On 1 Jan 2024, the battle with the German language begins. This week, I was notified that I was selected for a position in Germany. I should depart Florida sometime in March/April. Although Spanish has been my only goal as I hope to live in Latin America someday, I cannot pass up the opportunity to learn German since I'll be living in Germany for up to five years.

Just looking at the German language seems a bit overwhelming right now but I'm sure it will all make sense as time goes on. I'm going to start off easy and try not to get too overwhelmed. Let the game begin.

[ShawnP]

My D-Day invasion against the German language did not go as planned. I thought I had a decent plan, and for the most part I did. All I did this week was lessons from Book2, some Mango German, and some Anki. However, I've decided to make some changes that I feel will be more beneficial as a language learner with a little experience under his belt.

I also completed the first 10 lessons of Book2 for beginners. The audio is free but the book will have to be purchased off Amazon. It's a cheap little coursebook but I think it gives the beginner student bite-sized pieces of the target language. Each lesson consists of 18 sentences based on a topic, such as sports, at the airport, asking directions, etc. The course come with the sentence spoken in English and then a man and woman says it twice in German. The course also comes with the sentences spoken only in German. Right now I'm only doing the English-German-German mp3's. Later I'll go back and do the lessons only in German. It's easy to listen to and each lesson is under three minutes each for English-German-German mp3's and around 1.5 minutes for the German-only mp3's.

I also have Mango languages free from my library and the German course has 773 short lessons. I will go at my own pace with these lessons and not have a set amount per day. If I feel amped up, I'll do more. If not, do less. Do I expect to get through all 773 lessons before moving on? Probably not. But time will tell.

My plan is to stick with Book2 and Mango German before jumping over to my Assimil German.

[Cavesa]

Sounds like a good start to me! I wish you all the best in this long battle and plan to keep reading and cheering for you. German is a formidable opponent, but you can do this!

[Le Baron]

Crikey, was the offer of the German position unexpected? I wouldn't want to move from having been immersed in a romance language right into a Germanic language and with the prospect of being there so soon. Or perhaps maybe that immersion will help.

I admire your gusto jumping into it. And I wish you the best of luck on it.

[ShawnP]

A below-average week in my German adventure has come to an end. I can say that I am not a fan of the German language right now. Of course, I've only been dabbling in German for two weeks. I salute those that tackle Category 4 languages.

I still haven't found my groove yet regarding a study process. The majority of my study has been the first ten lessons of Book2 and Mango German. For Book2, I've just been trying to listen/read them over and over while speaking the sentences out loud. I am also a fan of Mango and would recommend if someone were to ask. I will continue at lesson 19. I will not go back to any previous lessons.

I tried using Anki but have scrapped it for the time being. I kept getting frustrated at not remembering the easiest things. I'm sure I'll pick it back up as I get further along. I keep staring at my Assimil German book because it keeps staring back at me.

I am in no way giving up. I realize I may never have such a great opportunity to learn a different language while actually living in the country so I need to just buckle down and get through the basics. I'm sure once I get a foothold and things make more sense, then my impression of German will improve.

[ShawnP]

Crikey, was the offer of the German position unexpected? I wouldn't want to move from having been immersed in a romance language right into a Germanic language and with the prospect of being there so soon. Or perhaps maybe that immersion will help.

Le Baron, it was not unexpected. I did apply, competed against others for the job, and was selected. German is not something I "have" to do for my job so there is not a lot of pressure on me to be at a certain level by the time I arrive.

[ShawnP]

Gonna update this log on a Saturday morning as I plan on doing an early spring cleaning today, getting rid of a bunch of old clothes and stuff/junk I don't need for my upcoming move to Germany. The temperature here in North Florida is below freezing in the early mornings and no higher than 45 this weekend and I'm not going out and doing the things I enjoy, so an early cleanout just sounds like a smart idea to me. Also considering I have to pay tax on the shipment of my stuff to Europe, I'm going to lighten the load a bit. The heavier the shipment, the bigger the cost to my wallet. As of now, I should be in Germany around March 25th or April 7th. No official date yet but that's the dates I provided to HR.

This week consisted of Book2 (50Languages) and Mango German. For Book2, all I have been doing is listening/reading/speaking the short sentences over and over trying to get the pronunciation down and a little vocabulary. My comprehension of words has improved just a little but my understanding of how things are pronounced has went up quite a bit. The word order of sentences throws me off a bit but I know that will change shortly. Just going to keep plugging away. I'm currently focused on the first 50 lessons. I do 10 lessons a day. You may think this is overkill, but there are 18 sentences per lessons so I'm only listening/reading/repeating 180 sentences a day or 900 sentences each week. Trust me when I say these sentences aren't complex sentences. Some are even just words like January, February, or other simple things like 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, etc. Perfect for a brand-new beginner, quick, and easy to pick up.

For Mango, I'm up to lesson 29. I am a fan. It's not flashy nor makes crazy noises if you get something right or wrong but it's interesting enough to keep me engaged. After a lesson, there are reviews of previous lessons so I think that helps reinforce some old stuff. I try and get in 2-3 lessons each day. It probably takes me no more than 10 minutes per lesson so not hard work or anything.

[ShawnP]

A pretty good week in my German adventure has come to an end. Not much has changed in my plan this week. For Assimil, I completed the first seven lessons. I didn't find them very difficult but I know Assimil likes to give us a couple teaser lessons before smacking us upside the head.

For Book2, I did the first 50 lessons Monday through Friday, or 10 lessons per day. I'm not treating it like Assimil, but I'm listening/reading 10 lessons per day which is only 180 sentences each day. This coming week, I will listen/read lessons 51-100. Then the next week, go back and do lessons 1-50 and just keep doing it this way on a continuous loop and not worry too much about trying to memorize anything. Just listen/read and let the language start working itself into my brain.

For Mango German, I'm up to lesson 43. Not the most interesting thing to do but not too bad overall. I think I enjoy listening/reading a little better. I'm going to keep at it though.

For this coming week, it will be Assimil, Book2, a little Mango, and a book. I picked up my first A1 book in German called Cafe in Berlin. Its the first book in a 12-book series. I forgot that not only can i read a book on my Ipad and highlight areas for translation, but i can also hit the sound button and I can hear the material in the target language. Not as good as the actual audiobook but it will suffice until I get further along.

[ShawnP]

A decent week in my German adventure has come to an end. All I've done this week was L/R/S from Assimil, some Mango German, Book2, and reading from the book Cafe in Berlin. I got up this morning and took a serious look at my last two weeks progress. I've decided I'm none too happy with my retention of the German language so far. I get it, I'm a noob so I shouldn't take it too seriously. I've got pronunciation down pretty good so far, which is a plus, but my retention of words is demotivating. I know it will come in time.

On a side note, I got my boat back from the boat repair place yesterday and I'm going to go fishing in a bit. Tomorrow I'm going to clean the boat up good and put it up for sale.

Also, I received my reporting instructions for my move to Germany yesterday. I will fly to Germany on 24 March 2024. It will be here before I know it.

[ShawnP]

This week is par for the course so far. Good intentions but not the best execution. I'm not exactly sure what my problem is at the moment. I keep fighting with myself with the German language. My motivation to sit down and try and study this new language is low when it should be much higher. Time is ticking. Movers should be coming to my home this week and packing up the stuff I plan to ship to Germany. The majority of my stuff that I plan to stick in storage will be picked up next month.

This week was not a total loss though. I'm up to Lesson 15 of Pimsleur 1. I resurrected my old LingQ account and got it going again. When I was in the early stages of Spanish, I opened a LingQ account and found it to be a goldmine and I could find very easy lessons for beginners. I did five simple lessons this week and downloaded the audio for my Ipod. For reading, I keep reading the first two chapters from the book Cafe in Berlin, from the Dino Lernt Deutch series. I need to move on, finish the book, then come back and read each chapter again and again and again. Right now though, I have to highlight each sentence to understand the meaning. Its slow-going but will get better. Lastly, I did good bit of Pimsleur sentence reviews on Anki.

I just thought of the Rocky Balboa speech, but I decided to change "life" to "new language." I'm sure it can pertain to all of us language learners.

“A new language ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty thing, and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as a new language. But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!” ~ Rocky Balboa, but with a twist.