Aokoye's Journey Through German (and other languages?)

[aokoye]

I got into the C1 class!!!!!!

After class I attempted to find a store that carries one of the pens I want (I really want a Lamy Safari ballpoint because they're good enough that I generally like how the write more than their Lamy Safari fountain pens) but I got totally turned around multiple times.

Congrats! That's awesome news! Hope you have lots of fun in the coming weeks.

And yay for Lamy, my fountain pen gateway drug. What color/finish are you thinking about for the Safari ballpoint?

Thanks! Yeah I think the Lamy Vista was mine but in reality that's essentially a demonstrator version of the Safari. If I can find the Safari in petrol I'd be happy (though I'm not a fan of the actual ink color). For better or worse the only fountain pen i brought with me is my yellow Safari. It was one of the two that I wouldn't be distraught over if I lost it and thus it came with. Yesterday I bought a really really inexpensiveOnline fountain pen when I was out getting a notebook and searching for a Lamy Safari. I think it was around 7 euro. It writes pretty well for the price and would be a really good entry level pen.

Amusingly there is at least one other person who writes with fountain pens in my class. I think he and I, and maybe another person from my class, might end up going on an adventure for pens and ink through Berlin.

My class seems really good - I like our teacher, her corrections on our written assignments make sense, she seems like she doesn't like to accidently make people feel embarrassed, and she corrects our pronunciation - down to the fine nuances. The other six people in my class also seem really nice and it seems like we've made an unwritten rule to only speak German with each other (or almost only) both inside the classroom during our breaks and when we're in the mensa for lunch.

[aokoye]

Ich bin echt gestresst, weil ich für die Anmeldung für TestDaF fast vergessen hat. Ich merkte um 17 Uhr, dass ich vergessen hat und es gab nur ein paar Plätze für TestDaF Teilnehmern in Deutschland. Es gab ungefähr 15 Plätze in Magdeburg und ich habe da angemeldet, weil es nur 1:30 Stunden mit dem Zug weit von Berlin ist. Also das ist gut. Früher hatte ich so viel Angst, dass ich bebte. Ich weiß auch nicht wo ich TELC C1 Hochschule nehmen werde. Dafür bin ich auch sehr gestresst. Also es gibt einige Testzentrums in Berlin, aber ich muss die morgen oder Freitag anrufen. Man kann Online bei Speakeasy Berlin anmelden aber ich habe seine Bedingungen gelesen und Speakeasy Berlin schickt das Prüfungsergebnis nur zur Adressen in Deutschland. Ich will meine Gastfamilie fragen, ob dieses Testzentrum das Ergebnis zu seine Adress schicken kann und dann, ob sie das zu mir schicken kann. Es ist wirklich zu kompliziert.

In bessere Themen, ich mag meine Deutschkurs. Die Lehrerin ist sehr nett und die Teilnehmern sind auch nett. Wir reden nur auf Deutsch miteinander und wir haben ähnlicher Interessen. Ich glaube wir alle sind wirklich ernst über lernen. Wir sind nur sechs, weil die siebte zu dem B2 Kurse wechselte. Es ist schade, denn sie ist auch nett.

Ich ging auch zum Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus. Das ist echt geil! Es gibt so viele DaF-Bücher! Es ist wie eine Goldgrube. Ich glaube Powells hat mehr Bücher, aber Dussmann ist schöner. Es gibt auch viel mehr DaF-Bücher bei Dussmann als Englisch als Fremdsprach Bücher bei Powells. Ich habe nie so viele Sprachtraining Bücher gesehen (oder wirklich so viele DaF Bücher gesehen).
Man kann zeigen, dass es auch viele Bücher vom Reclam gibt. Ich habe zwei Wortschatz Bücher gekauft - wirklich drei weil ein eine extern Lösung hat, aber es war nur 4,90 Euro.

[aokoye]

Dussmann is very dangerous for my wallet...and my suitcase. I've decided that I will only allow myself two more DaF books (and that's pushing it), and one non-German language book (or books if there's a workbook and/or answer key involved) from the language learning section. I am, very clearly, bumping up right up against my ability for self control. At least some of this stuff is going to be shipped back to Portland for a few reasons. A. I bought a few bottles of fountain pen ink that is more than 50% cheaper here than in the US (taking into account exchange rates) and I want don't want to check my bag on any of my flights thus I already need to ship stuff and B. I'd rather fill every nook and cranny of my suitcase and backpack with chocolate from Austria. Plus the friend who I'm visiting in Austria is well versed on how to ship stuff to the US so when I visit she can walk me through that.

This week it has become official that I and my friends in my class, have started using German as a way to talk about really painfully annoying Americans without them knowing. Really it's just one specific American who can be heard over everyone and thinks he know everything (though he is in the A1 level German course so that's a thing he doesn't know much of). It's a bit mean, I will admit, and he also makes all of us cringe multiple times a day which is shocking given how much time we spend in class. My class has very much formed it's own bubble within the program. As I mentioned, we speak German with each other 99% of the time (even outside of class), we sit together at lunch, and we hangout outside of class sometimes. Within the program we're like a little German bubble within an environment where everyone speaks English or Mandarin outside of class.

Pen wise I ended up getting a Lamy Studio when I went pen and ink shopping. There's also a newish German brand, out of I think Düsseldorf, that's been around for less than a year that I tried. It's an okay writer - actually given that it's only 24 euros it's really good for its price and you can't get it in the US.

Today I ended up relishing my time non-socializing time and went to the zoo and then to Freie Universitäts philologische Bibliothek. We have to write a 4-5 page paper for my German class and my topic is multilingualism in schools. I'll be looking primarily at children who are immigrants or children of immigrants (and whose L1 is not the language of the region they live in) but I'll take a tiny look at areas that are bilingual as well. I'll probably end up expanding this paper in the fall for the independent study I'm doing. The physical book selection in their multilingualism section was lacking but their online resources are amazing. I think I have access to the entire Springer library. I ended up with a bunch of book chapters and articles.

[blaurebell]

Ich hab selbst ein paar Jahre in Berlin gelebt und kenne ein paar nette Orte, die Du vielleicht noch nicht entdeckt hast. Also, Dussmann kennst Du, aber kaum ein paar Schritte von da ist ein richtig schönes Café: Café Chagall. Die haben sehr nettes russisches Essen und zumindest früher war's nicht sonderlich teuer. Bestell Pelmeni - mein absolutes Lieblingsessen, auf das ich leider allergisch bin ! Dann ist da natürlich das Cinestar Kino im Sony Center, mit der wohl größten Leinwand Deutschlands. Gut zum mal ein bisschen abschalten. Auch toll, Strandbar im Monbijoupark. Wenn Du an einem Mittwoch Abend nach 21 Uhr gehst, kannst Du ein paar tolle Tangotänzer da sehen, natürlich nur bei gutem Wetter, das ist draußen. Und Museen, da gibt's natürlich Unmengen, aber mein liebstes war immer der Martin Gropius Bau. Da gibt es immer zumindest eine tolle Ausstellung. Gerade wohl was über Kafka? Sonycenter und Martin Gropius Bau kann man auch sehr gut verbinden ist beides am Potsdamer Platz. Auch toll: Technikmuseum, zumindest wenn man Lokomotiven, Flugzeuge und alte Kameras mag. Ach, Berlin ist toll im Sommer. Da leben fand ich nicht so toll ... die Winter sind viel zu lang und machen die Leute viel zu einsiedlerisch und depressiv. Und überhaupt ist es inzwischen viel zu teuer. Ist aber wirklich eine tolle Stadt im Sommer. Viel Spaß noch!

[aokoye]

I'm too tired to write more German as I just wrote 344 words in German for an assignment that is due tomorrow (I didn't put it off - rather I had one evening to do it). It's essentially scaffolding for my longer paper. I need to proofread it later tonight but dear god - so tired. So so tired. That I didn't take a nap today is impressive but it's also the reason I got this thing done before 8pm. Plus there's the whole 4.5 hours of class, speaking German all day, and not getting enough sleep (my sleep schedule at night is a joke).

First, thanks blaurebell for the suggestions! I'll probably try to go to the Cafe next weekend and I was definitely planning to go to the Technikmuseum.

Class was hard to day. Prepositions - so many prepositions. Was definitely not my best day. I am really glad that I have the erste Fassung meines Aufsatz finished. Like I said, it still needs proofreading, but at least the hardest bits are done. I also have a 10 min presentation that is due on Thursday I want to say...
After I eat dinner I'll likely go downstairs and proofread, work on vocab, and then go to sleep.

[aokoye]

Ok, tonight and I suspect tomorrow are going to be light homework nights. That means I get to:

• Work on my list of verben mit festen präpositionen
• Verb-Nomen-Verbindung
• Work on passive
• Vocab (wie immer)

More or less in that order. Passive is easy enough to work on. The verb/verb-Nomen-Verbindung stuff is likely going to be an issue of writing sentences that use those verbs, and vocab is vocab.
Today was a hard day in class for me as was yesterday. This afternoon was ok but Yesterday and this morning we focused on grammar that I'm rather bad at. Looking at the syllabus I also need to make a point to work on Konjunktive I and II, but mainly I tonight and/or tomorrow. We'll be working on it on Thursday and I want a refresher. Tomorrow we're going to the Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen so there won't be any "quick grammar go!"

In better news, I'm getting so much better at adjective endings and it seems that I've finally started to get over the hump of intuiting/remembering the gender of nouns. FINALLY.

[schlaraffenland]

I bought a few bottles of fountain pen ink that is more than 50% cheaper here than in the US

(...)

There's also a newish German brand, out of I think Düsseldorf, that's been around for less than a year that I tried. It's an okay writer - actually given that it's only 24 euros it's really good for its price and you can't get it in the US.

When you get the chance, more details, please!

[Systematiker]

I bought a few bottles of fountain pen ink that is more than 50% cheaper here than in the US

(...)

There's also a newish German brand, out of I think Düsseldorf, that's been around for less than a year that I tried. It's an okay writer - actually given that it's only 24 euros it's really good for its price and you can't get it in the US.

When you get the chance, more details, please!

I'll second that request. (there are dozens of us! dozens!)

[aokoye]

I bought a few bottles of fountain pen ink that is more than 50% cheaper here than in the US

(...)

There's also a newish German brand, out of I think Düsseldorf, that's been around for less than a year that I tried. It's an okay writer - actually given that it's only 24 euros it's really good for its price and you can't get it in the US.

When you get the chance, more details, please!

I'll second that request. (there are dozens of us! dozens!)

If I get a chance I'll go back to Modulor this weekend. Of course the pen isn't on their website - of course. I asked the person who I went with and he also didn't remember the name.

[Systematiker]

A little more careful reading, and I catch that you bought a Lamy Studio - you'll like that. I do most of my writing with a Studio with an ultrafine nib on it. I think my entry pen was a Safari as well.