Tristano's log 2017: Wanderland in the Netherlusts

[Tristano]

If you like the approach but don't like the execution you could try with Paul Noble. I would move away from English-based resources altogether. Pimsleur 1-3 + MT = 50 hours and less than 50 pages of text in the target tanguage.

I'm actually not that much of a fan of the approach. With an "easy" language like German it's way too slow for me. Maybe with a more opaque language will be more helpful. The tuple MT and Pimsleur have the only characteristic to be convenient to use in the car while driving, since I spend quite a good time on the road.

Somehow, I feel like I did a mistake with Romanian - sort of: I can live with only passive skills in this language, but there are other languages, like German, which I actually want to also produce and not only to acquire. I built my comprehension skills very fast at the point that I can get a lot out of native resources, but couldn't memorize the structures and I'm still not able to write or speak very simple sentences. For the very little work I have done with German so far, having drilled basic constructions, I had quite a boost.

Ich weiß jetzt das ich etwas auf Detusch kan sagen oder schreiben, das natürlich kein Wunder ist, aber sicher viel mehr das ich auf Romanische tun kan. Ich glaube mein Duits ist eigentlich Niederlandisch mit etwas deutsche Wörter, aber es ist auch nicht so schlecht, nicht wahr?

I can't do that in Romanian, and that's why I never wrote anything in it. This was my first attempt ever (if I remember correctly). Maybe it is a good idea to start writing in German on Lang-8.

In the meanwhile, started to do the Germanpod101 absolute beginner serie, going only through dialogues and exercises without listening to the full lessons (which contain too much fillers). I already did the first 13 episodes effortlessly. I don't care about very specific vocabulary that I can learn in a second moment and which are low frequency words. That is for later. Then I will move to the Warum nicht first season, then to the beginner seasons of Germanpod101, and so on. I look forward to the Intermediate seasons of Germanpod101 because contain much less English and much more German.

[Tristano]

So, I went through the whole absolute beginner season 1 and 2 of Germanpod101. Too easy.
I'm going now through the Warum nicht season 1. Not much to say about the Methode 90 (the 50 and the 90 lessons) and Clozemaster, I'm going through, the difficulty is light in both cases and it is good in this way. I'm trying to set a habit of writing on lang-8 at 3 times a week.

[reineke]

I'll park this here:

"Standard Dutch and Standard German show a limited degree of mutual intelligibility when written. One study concluded that when concerning written language, Dutch speakers could translate 50.2% of the provided German words correctly, while the German test subjects were able to translate 41.9% of the Dutch equivalents correctly. In terms of orthography, 22% of the vocabulary of Dutch and German is identical or near identical. The Levenshtein distance between written Dutch and German is 50.4% as opposed to 61.7% between English and Dutch.[42][43] The spoken languages are much more difficult to understand for both with studies showing Dutch speakers having slightly less difficulty in understanding German speakers than vice versa, though it remains unclear whether this asymmetry has to do with prior knowledge of the language (German and French being obligatory foreign languages for two years in Dutch secondary education), better knowledge of another related language (English) or any other non-linguistic reasons. "

Wikip.

Kinda motivating.

[Tristano]

Well knowing Dutch I have half of the work to the basic fluency done, both for vocabulary and grammar. What I really missed when studying Dutch were the fantastic resources that are available for German. My estimation is that the two languages will mutually reinforce.

[Tristano]

This week my baby has been operated and we are spending the whole week at the hospital, so languages haven't been my priority.
The very little exposure to German I got anyway (watching an interview with Dutch subtitles during a news cast) got me some ego boost on the fact that my passive skills are getting better.

[Tristano]

Everything is going as it is supposed to go with my baby's recovery. The operation was successful and she is now the same wonderful happy baby that she was before. That also means that Monday I will restart my routine going to work, with the consequent commuting/study time that will allow me to progress with my German.

--

The desire to "graduate", bringing all my language at a literary level, is becoming stronger, alongside with the one of finding an exit strategy - a point where I say "I know enough languages". Every time I add a new language to my repertoire has a double side effect of leaving me with less time for the other languages and putting a limit of how deep I can go with each language. To my utmost displeasure, I'm not consuming any classic literature, leaving my understanding of the world limited by the sole overview of the pop culture, without alas having the keys to fully understand it. That is the means, in my opinion, to turn myself from a decently smart person to a well grounded literate man. That requires me to adjust, and to define my highest priorities in a realistic way.

--

I started the read of the novel "The kite runner" from the writer Khaled Husseini, in its Dutch translation ("De vliegeraar"). Hopefully I will be constant in it. So far I'm enjoying the book and the level isn't too difficult. There are words I don't know but it comes out most of the times that either I don't use such a word in my native language either or that is a lesser used synonym for a more common word. I really like the vocabulary and constructions used, which makes me think that the translation is of a very high quality. Mostly Dutch translation cut sentences in the middle to make them easy to follow - which ruins the beauty of the original constructions and appears bland and boring but here seems not to be the case, albeit I can't compare it with the original to be confident about it.

[Tristano]

Being back to work equates to being able to devolve significant time to German.
Yesterday I could listen to the whole series "mission Berlin". According to the website it's targeted to an A1 audience, though the German characters speak at a full speed. The main character repeats slowly parts of what is being said and translate it, but in 95% of the times I just understood everything the first time at a full speed. That confirms that I'm at least at a A2 level of comprehension.

Until now I completed two levels of German pod 101, two levels of warum nicht and Mission Berlin. I'm moving to the two level of radio D, targeted at A1/A2. No problem at all so far, I'm at the 11th episode. It will be followed by the third season of Warum Nicht. That will be a breakthrough. The fourth season is said to be significantly more difficult so I will most likely put more listening hours under my umbrella before to face it.

I'm doing way too less with Clozemaster, must be said.

My Dutch reading is proceeding smoothly. "The kite runner" is keeping my attention and my pleasure high.

[Tristano]

I'm at episode 32 of radio D. This series uses a lot of over the top emotional short exchanges with suboptimal listening conditions and dialect, that doesn't prevent learning but can be sometimes annoying.

[Tristano]

So,
It's a while I don't post. Finished the whole radio D course, I moved on listening to slow German. I already listened to the first 108 episodes. Sometimes I can understand very well what is said, sometimes happens the episode full of vocabulary I am not familiar with. Anyway, the most unexpected effect is that such big exposure to extensive listening improved my reading as well. It works for me mostly in the opposite direction. The listening is also effortless, it doesn't make my head spinning like I often had with Dutch. My clozemaster abilities leveled up.

[neuroascetic]

Nice that you are getting that much out of Slow German. Do you do anything else while listening? For instance, are you driving or doing the dishes? Or do you sit and listen intently?