Scogar's German Log

[Scogar]

I'm not sure there's going to be anything here to see folks but feel free. This log might actually get longer than a post or three. My point to using it is to meet my goals and to give myself some form of weekly goal that I hope to achieve. Not sure this is the best way to handle this or not but since it is on the web I can access it from anywhere to see what I expected to work on.

So my goal is to sit for the A2 exam in November. Since I only have two chapters to complete in my book for A2 that should be easy however I am not really at A2. The system allows one to progress without the skills. The tutoring with Michael is definitely showing my flaws. Our plan is to finish A2 and back fill what's needed to get solid with the A2 exam. I am stoked!

So my goals for the week ending 2. August 2017 are:

Complete this week's homework
Read ahead for vocabulary & comprehension of next week's class
Print out the vocabulary for Kapitel 11
Start a German Journal
Complete 2 more chapters of vocabulary
Finish reading Die Wäschklammer
Read and understand two blog posts, make vocab list as needed
Transcribe a paragraph or so
Study the grammar pertaining to tonight's lesson
Clean up my Notebook...at least a bit

[Scogar]

So as of now I have about 4 months until the test but with a real difficult trajectory ahead. Anki was killing me so I'll have to figure out how best to handle that because it may be a necessary evil. But it's such a freaking nag - always more to do!!! So if I focus my written journal along the test subjects that might help add vocab and be a bit different. Looking at the CEFR guidelines gives me some insights. This is what they want so make my journal reflect these topics...that will build familiarity and perhaps some ease toward fluency at least in these topics:

• initiate, maintain and close simple, restricted face-to-face conversation;
• understand enough to manage simple, routine exchanges without undue effort;
• make myself understood and exchange ideas and information on familiar topics in predictable everyday situations, provided the other person helps if necessary;
• communicate successfully on basic themes if I ask for help to express what I want to say;
• deal with everyday situations with predictable content, though I generally have to compromise the message and search for words;
• interact with reasonable ease in structured situations, given some help, but participation in open discussion is fairly restricted; plus
• significantly more ability to sustain monologues, for example: express how I feel in simple terms;
• give an extended description of everyday aspects of my environment e.g. people, places, a job or study experience;
• describe past activities and personal experiences;
• describe habits and routines;
• describe plans and arrangements;
• explain what I like or dislike about something;
• give short, basic descriptions of events and activities;
• describe pets and possessions; and
• use simple descriptive language to make brief statements about and compare objects and possessions.

[Scogar]

So it's the end of the first week and tutoring is tonight. I have one hour left so I am signing up for another 11 hours, which will give me 12 hours total or 8 more sessions.

So how did I do?

Complete this week's homework
Read ahead for vocabulary & comprehension of next week's class
Print out the vocabulary for Kapitel 11
Start a German Journal
Complete 2 more chapters of vocabulary
Finish reading Die Wäschklammer
Read and understand two blog posts, make vocab list as needed
Transcribe a paragraph or so
Study the grammar pertaining to tonight's lesson
Clean up my Notebook...at least a bit

In the grand scheme of things it wasn't too bad. I am not reading enough and I am certainly not writing in my journal...need to start that! I have a little bit of time left and definitely some energy to see if I can't move ahead further on something before class.

[Scogar]

Last night's session was one of the first ones where I felt less than utterly stupid. I don't know if it was the subject matter or we simply kept it dumbed down or what. I just felt that i understood the gist of a lot of it. So for that reason alone it was a great session. Additionally Michael and I seem tuned in better. The redirection to focus on prepping for the A2 exam seems to have aligned us. I got a lot out of the sentence structure changes, him making me rephrase each sentence in multiple ways. I am still trying to write sentences that are more advanced than my current position. Many times I am writing (more accurately butchering) subjunctive. Since I don't need that yet I need to simplify things more. Lastly I think Michael's decision to haveme recite and correct my own homework was far more helpful than him scribbling a/the correct answer. At the very least I can read my writing better than his. So what now?

The A2 Test is on Saturday November 18th and I now have 15 weeks left for studying. So the goals for the week ending 09. August 2017 are:

Complete this week's homework
Read ahead for vocabulary & comprehension of next week's class
Write at least three entries in my German Journal
Add 4 more chapters of vocabulary to spreadsheet
Reread Die Wäschklammer with vocabulary list for comprehension
Look at at least one more blog post
Listen to two Slow German or equivalent podcasts
Create a Notebook page on the hauptsätze and nebensätze I need for A2
Look @ Goethe website for A2 materials - know what you need to know now!

[Scogar]

OK so it's Monday and I only have two days to go until class. So far I have completed my homework and added a chapter of vocab. I still have three to go. I have listened to one podcast, Deutsche Welle's "Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten". A lot of vocabulary was needed here although in the grand scheme I knew "what" they were talking about. I just might get the wrong idea or lose nuance. so probably not too bad! I have also looked at what's needed for the A2 test including a great breakdown of vocabulary. So completing my vocabulary is really important at this juncture.

It's infuriating- I don't feel like I am really getting anywhere and certainly don't see how the heck I am going to be as up-to-speed as I think I need to be for this test in 15 weeks time. How the hell do these other folks study 2 and 3 languages simultaneously? Common sense tells me they're lying, but I know I'm mistaken because why write a log claiming to be learning multiple languages simultaneously when you are not...that would be ridiculous. Who has that kind of time and why show off to such a small crowd who can easily call your bluff? So what the hell are they doing that I'm not? And are they really learning the language or just how to ape back Duolingo vocabulary? Unless I actually become friends with someone who I can see progress simultaneously in multiple languages I guess I'll never know. For now I just need to plug the leaks in my brain that don't allow for me to "keep" the information in there that I study.....argggh so frustrating!

[smallwhite]

How the hell do these other folks study 2 and 3 languages simultaneously? Common sense tells me they're lying, but I know I'm mistaken because why write a log claiming to be learning multiple languages simultaneously when you are not...that would be ridiculous. Who has that kind of time and why show off to such a small crowd who can easily call your bluff? So what the hell are they doing that I'm not? And are they really learning the language or just how to ape back Duolingo vocabulary? Unless I actually become friends with someone who I can see progress simultaneously in multiple languages I guess I'll never know. For now I just need to plug the leaks in my brain that don't allow for me to "keep" the information in there that I study.....argggh so frustrating!

My experience tells me...
... that studying is not hard. It's knowing that's hard. And studying doesn't necessarily lead to knowing.
... to ignore self-assessments of levels and trust only official exam results or at least mock test results.
... that reading is dead easy most of the time. No need to envy people who can only read their target languages.
... that producing ungrammatical output is easy as well. Don't envy people until you can judge the quality of their output.

For example, most people don't have a fixed vocabulary list they have to memorise before the next class, so they don't keep testing and scoring themselves, so they probably only actually know half as many words as you do. Or they can't write what you can. I have yet to see anyone here who makes exceptional progress worth envying. Some may appear to make good progress in one or two areas, but a language is not just one or two areas, and if you look more carefully, everyone's progress is actually more or less the same as a whole.

That said, one does not have to learn every single aspect of a language, and I admire people for putting in time and effort into their hobbies, especially those who juggle with all sorts of real-life commitments, so I admire them nonetheless.

[Scogar]

good info smallwhite...for me I'll just keep plugging away at my one foreign language. Maybe I'll get to where I want to be...or maybe where I'll want to be will shift to where I get to

In any event the frustration lies with me and until I go hard core like this for (let's say) a year - I won't give up. If in that year I feel like I don't know anything then its time to move on. However, I say this knowing that I have made substantial progress in the seven weeks I have been tutored compared to the 8-10 levels, i.e., A1.1 - A2.3 in groups over multiple years. Heck, now I even know how to better study. So in 40 plus more weeks I think I'll be OK - just frustrating looking at the daily grind when the only way to really tell is to look at how far you have come. And no - in case anybody thinks that I believed this was going to be easy - I don't. But based on my experience I cannot imagine someone trying to learn two or more languages at the same time unless one of them had so much in common with a native language. Man that is insane! My head's not big enough to keep a German section, a Japanese section, et al.

[Scogar]

Just finished Session # 8 and have some thoughts but before that here's what I was able to accomplish over the last week:

Complete this week's homework
Read ahead for vocabulary & comprehension of next week's class
Write at least three entries in my German Journal
Add 4 more chapters of vocabulary to spreadsheet
Reread Die Wäschklammer with vocabulary list for comprehension
Look at at least one more blog post
Listen to two Slow German or equivalent podcasts
Create a Notebook page on the hauptsätze and nebensätze I need for A2
Look @ Goethe website for A2 materials - know what you need to know now!

So Michael is dinging me on the stupid mistakes that I am making, spelling, forgetting my plural "n" ending for dative, and myriad other stupid mistakes. I have to read my sentences after writing them with an eye toward simplification when possible (as opposed to oversimplification) and using the structures that I know. Consider the words used, i.e., Americans are the only people who "go" somewhere - most "drive", "walk", etc.

He also pushed on how come I haven't started a journal - so I really have to get that going...the journal meaning a written German something or other practicing paragraphs pertaining to something. This journal and the other writings I do in English don't count for that. So yes I have to kick that into gear. The good news is I don't have an awful lot of terribly hard homework so I should really try to move this forward. So what should I shoot for next week having only 14 weeks to go now? Let's try:

Complete this week's homework
Read ahead for vocabulary & comprehension of next week's class
Write my absentee letter in German for the two week vacation in September
5 Exercises from Sentence Builder
Finish Studio 21 A2 Vocab list
Reread Die Wäschklammer with vocabulary list for comprehension
Read and understand a Learning German blog post
Listen to two Slow German or equivalent podcasts
Practice A2 vocabulary
Write in a journal about the vocabulary I am studying

This should be plenty enough to keep me busy!

[Scogar]

Finally done with putting in the vocabulary from Studio 21 A2...probably a lot of silly things from that that aren't in the A2 exam. So now it's time to begin memorization. Not so sure how that's going to go over 14 weeks so I'll likely want to refocus on the A2 exam glossary that the Goethe Institut keeps. But then again I should be able to spot the Studio 21-centric terms too. Somewhat of a combination should work but in any event I'm done for now just filling spreadsheets instead of studying the words.

Also began my journal...I do wish to write in it on a daily basis. At this point it likely will be divided by subject matter, meaning a paragraph on a topic will be a journal post. So it is feasible that in a given day I'll have three topics; beer gardens, meals, hiking...for now they'll be listed as if I wrote them on separate days. At the point where my writing is more free-flowing and I actually do write about my life I may keep a non-daily journal in German and discuss what's going on, etc. Who knows?

What next? Today - likely the journal writing and perhaps get the homework out of the way before the weekend that way I have more actual study/concentration time. I reckon now's the time to start on the vocab - the folded paper column is the plan for now. Just tired of Anki at the moment and don't want to add another deck, but I should look for an A2 deck there just to reduce my typing.

Oh also I need to add the vocab from the Slow German that I have done...maybe I'll never actually finish with this vocab spreadsheet after all.

[Scogar]

Woohoo I finally got LWT to work. So many problems!!! After four or five attempts of loading and correcting bugs I finally switched it to the older version of the PHPDev Server... Version 17 likely works but I don't know what to tweak. Needless to say the version 14 or so referred to in the LWT site is the one that works.

After more hassles I was able to get the dictionaries loaded too. Man that was quite the coup! Already loaded one text and marked it. Hopefully later tonight I can do another. Never got a chance to do the homework. Hopefully tonight I'll also have a better shot at that too. But after being in the shop all day I'm not sure I'll have the energy