Das Faultier der Deutschen Sprache

[WalkingAlone13]

My book list

Beginner
Cafe Berlin - André Klein (Read)
Ferien in Frankfurt - André Klein (Read)
Karneval in Köln -André Klein (Read)
Momente in München - André Klein (Read)
Ahoi aus Hamburg - André Klein (Read)

Intermediate
Mord am Morgen - André Klein
Die Dritte Hand - André Klein
Des Spielers Tod - André Klein
Zum Bärenhaus - André Klein
Heidis Frühstück - André Klein

Grenzverkehr am Bodensee - Langenscheidt
Die Neue - Langenscheidt


I'll be using this to log what I have read as well as what I plan to read next. Needless to say, this list will be growing shortly once I've added the other books I've read.

[WalkingAlone13]

Now that I've caught up on my reviews...finally, I have now begun to add 15-30 new words per day, so that I'll hopefully reach the 5k mark in the not so distant future. As of right now, my words in long term memory for the 5000 word frequency, according to Memrise, stands at 2,200. I'm hoping that I can get this to around 2,500 within two weeks.

My reading has been going reasonably well as of late, however, yesterday I took a bit of a knock to my confidence. I had a look through the newer readers available for my Kindle, and I quickly stumbled upon an interesting Alice in Wonderland dual language reader. I was set on buying it (it's only £1.99) but I was curious about the layout of the book as it's for my Kindle. I decided to try the sample to get an idea of the layout, which was okay but could probably take a bit of getting used to. To my horror, I struggled with the very first set of sentences.

"Alice fing an sich zu langweilen; sie saß schon lange bei ihrer Schwester am Ufer und hatte nichts zu tun." - I understood the end of it but the start threw me.

"Das Buch, das ihre Schwester las, gefiel ihr nicht; denn es waren weder Bilder noch Gespräche darin. "Und was nützen Bücher," dachte Alice "ohne Bilder und Gespräche?" - I understood bits, mostly the start and the end, but I figure if I'm going to have this much trouble with understanding and it's only the first two sentences, perhaps it's best for me to carry on with easier books.

So, I decided to go back to Mord am Morgen. Weirdly, despite the fact this is supposed to be a step up from the first five in the previous serious, I have found the first 3 chapters substantially easier than them, not that I found them to be difficult, just that I am finding this easier. I'm quite liking it so far as well, and I'll probably read them all back - to - back a few times before attempting to read anything else for a while. I find these help with my confidence.

I haven't been as diligent with my Menschen textbook, and I've not really got going with Assimil just yet, but now that I've got my Dutch With Ease, I can look at the instructions and ensure I am using my German one correctly.

I've been making a habit of revisiting Michel Thomas and Pimsleur as of late, usually consisting of completing a full cd in Michel Thomas, which consists of ten lessons, and then one lesson from Pimsleur 2 which is just 30 minutes a lesson.

In other news, as mentioned above, my Dutch with Ease arrived today. Dutch is on my hit list for the future, up there with Swedish, so I usually am on the lookout for bargains that I might be able to put to use later on. I managed to pick up Dutch with Ease for £10.50 including postage for the book and four cds. I don't go much on the enormous plastic case they come in, it doesn't make for good storing.

The instructions are great, they give a detailed description for using with and without audio. I took a brief look throughout the book and was a little taken aback. This is the most downbeat Assimil I've encountered thus far...by a long shot. The first lesson consisting of three family members being ill, followed by homelessness and debt, and some very sarcastic comments. So, yeah, it definitely looks like it'll be interesting when I do finally tackle Dutch.

[WalkingAlone13]

Today has been strangely produktive despite my lack of audio lessons, though I am going to count a Skype session this morning as an equivalent so as not to feel too guilty about it. I hit my Memrise target, got some reading in, and, as mentioned, I also had quite a nice Skype lesson. I even picked up the name of the second highest mountain in Germany(Brocken) - it's amazing the things you can learn through random conversation.

We did have a slight communication problem, I think this was purely just a case of mishearing what I had said due to my habit of switching topics quite sporadically. We started off talking about how I travelled, then I decided to talk about where I visited, so there was a misunderstanding of me saying that I had seen an Eisbär and it being heard as Eisbahn (As in a train service), so when I was asked whether we drove together, or that I'd prefer to drive instead of it, I was ever so slightly confused. I quickly asked what was meant by that and explained that to the best of my knowledge a Polar bear would not be permitted to drive as I seriously doubt it would hold a license, the misunderstanding was quickly resolved and we both laughed for a while before continuing with different topics. I seem to have a knack for finding the best Skype partners

I also reviewed some of my very neglected Finnish. Memrise seems to have introduced a new feature called "quick review" or something like that, where you basically review as many words/phrases as you can before the red fills up the screen. You get three chances for mistakes but I quite like it as it definitely keeps you focused on what you are doing. It's so fast that if you looked away for a moment you'd have a lost a life, which is great.
I am not sure what other people think of this new feature yet but I am definitely quite pleased with it so far. I don't use it everyday as I still like to type out my answers, but I feel this new feature tests you in a different way that's still quite intensive. You still have to know the word, in most cases, better than purely passively as otherwise you end up spending too much time and therefore cutting it quite fine, meaning you have less time for every word/phrase that appears after it.

[WalkingAlone13]

I've been going through Michel Thomas again recently and I am now on the sixth cd, so only four more to go before the vocab builders, and then I'll probably concentrate purely on Pimsleur for the time being. For the time being I have been doing Michel Thomas and Pimsleur concurrently and hope to finish Pimsleur German 2 at the same time as I complete Michel Thomas.
I have completed Michel Thomas previously but after going through it again I am definitely picking up little bits that I didn't quite grasp the first time.

My current reader seems to be quite hit and miss in terms of comprehension. The chapters are only about 5 or 6 pages long and usually I get through a chapter without having to look anything up, however, seeing as this is a "krimi" there is sometimes vocab that I do not understand.
Zum bespiel (These are what I either didn't know or what I found interesting in the last si chapters)
auf etw. hinweisen - to point to something
Gerichtsmediziner - forensic pathologist
Eingriff von außen - external intrusion
Hautabschürfung - abrasion
Druckstellen - pressure marks
Herzstillstand - cardiac arrest
Todesursache - cause of death
Leiche - corpse
Untersuchung - analysis
jmd. festnageln - to pin somebody down
Beweismaterial - evidence
hupen - to honk
ein Händchen für etw. - haben to have a knack for something
Karre - (inf) car (Not heard this before and not really sure of when to use this)
Dreimal darfst du raten - you have three guesses
Immobilienhai - property shark
Köter - (inf) derogative for dog (I had never heard of this and I'm still not entirely sure of how it's used)
Baupläne - blue prints
mit einem Blick streifen - to gaze fleetingly
Mordkommision - homicide squad
Kripo - klipping
etwas ist faul - something is roten
Danke für die Blumen - Thanks for nothing
eine große Sache aus etw. machen - to make a big deal out of something
jmndn. etw. angehen - to concern somebody
mit den Schulttern zucken - to shrug
in Tränen ausbrechen - to break out into tears
die Nase putzen - blow one's nose

I also found this interesting: "Einmal Currywurst mit Pommes" - A sausage with chips
"Mit oder ohne Darm?" - with or without intestines?
"Mit und die Pommes rot weiß, bitte" - with and the chips with mayonnaise and ketchup, please


I have also been meeting my targets on Memrise, which is great and I am finding it is helping with the current reader as well as a lot of the words I am currently learning happen to be in this book.

[WalkingAlone13]

This will be a short one I think.

Quick summary of my activities

I've almost finished season 8 of Stargate SG1 now, so that means I only have two seasons left. I was originally going to watch Charmed in German after finishing Stargate but I managed to negotiate with a seller on ebay and he agreed to post Ghost Whisperer to me, and with even further luck I didn't seem to have anyone bidding against me. So I'm quite happy now as it's one of my favourite tv series

I finished the intermediate reader on my Kindle which was both good and bad for my confidence. I could do a chapter or two without having many problems and understanding everything that's going on, then I'd hit a chapter where I'd not have a clue what was supposed to have happened. However, I remember when I finished the very first reader in the beginner bracket and having the same troubles. I can now read all of the beginner readers without any trouble at all after re-reading them several times each. I'm sure the same will happen if I repeat this with the intermediate readers. Here's to hoping!

Regarding my vocab, I've generally been adding about 30 words per day but I took a bit of a setback after being a little ill for a few days. I would estimate my vocab between 2.5 and 3k in total. I'm reasonably pleased with this and hope to finally hit the 5k mark soon. It would be interesting to see how much my reading comprehension and my understanding of tv will have risen by once I hit this milestone.

I am very close to finishing Michel Thomas now, this took a bit of a knock due to headaches and really not feeling like listening to him while in this situation. I don't know if it's the audio but sometimes it sounds like he is constantly chewing gum and sometimes this just bugs me and I decide to do some Pimsleur instead. Still, I'm almost finished anyway.
Once I finish MT I'll probably push on and finish Pimsleur German 2 and then start German 3. I'm a little apprehensive about starting it as I'd imagine the jump in difficulty will definitely ramp up a lot and I'd imagine it's going to be a quick jump.

[daegga]

I've almost finished season 8 of Stargate SG1 now, so that means I only have two seasons left. I was originally going to watch Charmed in German after finishing Stargate but I managed to negotiate with a seller on ebay and he agreed to post Ghost Whisperer to me, and with even further luck I didn't seem to have anyone bidding against me. So I'm quite happy now as it's one of my favourite tv series :)

But what's with Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe? They want to be watched too :P

[WalkingAlone13]

Se on torstai tänään, että tarkoittaa syomme hernekeittö ja sitten: jälkiruoka, pannukakku! Minulla ei ole käytetty minun suomen kieli kauan aikan mutta pidän Suomi ja Suomen kieltä, se on koska minun on surullinen muistot ja se on vaikea opiskella nyt.

Niin, ajattelin yrittää jotain helppo. Jos haluat yrittää minun lempiresepti

Quick summary. I basically sometimes miss Finland and realise it'd be a shame to forget everything (I think I have already judging by my Finnish in this) because of very bad experiences with the country. After reminiscing I thought it'd be nice to do a bit of translating at the very least, and as it happens to be Thursday which is very commonly pea soup day in Finland - yes, that's right...the day you look forward to all week! I kid, of course, but others seemed to genuinely look forward to it - I did, in part, but this was purely because it's also pancake day!
Traditionally after you eat your pea soup you'd have pancakes. Saving grace for me! In Finland you have three main types of pancake but this was my favourite and it was also very novel to me as I'd not heard of an oven pancake prior to this. I've not shared my personal recipe for this as I like the idea of keeping it a secret, so I shared a generic recipe instead. You're welcome.


Valmistusaineet:

8 dl maitoa  - 8 dl milk
2-3 munaa  - 2-3 eggs
n. 1 tl suolaa  - ts salt
1 dl sokeria  - 1 dl sugar
2 tl vaniljasokeria  - 2 ts vanilla essence (it's vanilla sugar but you can't get it in the UK)
4 dl vehnäjauhoja  - 4 dl flour
1 tl leivinjauhetta  - 1 ts baking powder
50-100 gr sulatettua margariinia - 50 -100gr margarine ( microwave for 10 seconds)

sekoita maito ja munat. - stir milk and eggs

vispilöi joukkoon kuivat aineet ja viimeiseksi sulatettu margariini. - whisk the rest of the ingredients and then the melted margarine

kaada syvälle uunipellille leivinpaperin päälle. - pour the mixture into a deep baking tray lined with baking paper

paista 225 asteessa noin 30 minuuttia. - bake for 30 minutes at 225 degrees


*Disclaimer. If you attempt this and happen to be less than adept in the kitchen resulting in you burning down your house or something less catastrophic but also disturbing, it is in no way my fault.

^On that happy note: Onnea! pidä hauskaa

[WalkingAlone13]

I've almost finished season 8 of Stargate SG1 now, so that means I only have two seasons left. I was originally going to watch Charmed in German after finishing Stargate but I managed to negotiate with a seller on ebay and he agreed to post Ghost Whisperer to me, and with even further luck I didn't seem to have anyone bidding against me. So I'm quite happy now as it's one of my favourite tv series

But what's with Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe? They want to be watched too

Very true! I might have to watch them after Ghost whisperer now, but that's not going to take too long and then I can conclude the awesomeness that is Stargate. Though, looking at these it seems like it could be pricey at the moment so I'm glad for the extra time to track them down a little cheaper than currently.

I hope you don't mind my asking, do you know of a series called Nikita? It's one of my favourites but I do not own it on dvd yet despite it being very cheap here now, because I've been waiting for the German releases. The problem is there still seems to only be a German release for the first season. The series has finished now and all four have been out a long time now. I'm starting to think the other three won't have a German release but I don't really know where to look to find this information out. I don't suppose you happen to know?

[kelbelle]

Hello WalkingAlone13, I've been following ur blog! Also random side note. Nikita is one of my favorite shows! But I'm afraid I don't know about about them making any more seasons of the German dub.

But I did want to ask you if you have still been using Glossika? I had bought and tried them for Korean but then I kinda faded out on using them. But I was curious on what you thought about the method and how you were using them.

But anyway, I like reading your blog and seeing everything you're doing and your progress.

I hope you don't mind my asking, do you know of a series called Nikita? It's one of my favourites but I do not own it on dvd yet despite it being very cheap here now, because I've been waiting for the German releases. The problem is there still seems to only be a German release for the first season. The series has finished now and all four have been out a long time now. I'm starting to think the other three won't have a German release but I don't really know where to look to find this information out. I don't suppose you happen to know?

[WalkingAlone13]

Thanks, Kelbelle It's great to know that my random ramblings are not falling into the ether once I've written them down. It's always great finding a fellow Nikita fan, by the way! Daegga very kindly answered the Nikita dub question for me. Apparently Nikita wasn't very popular in Germany so it's likely season 2,3 and 4 won't get dubbed, or at least not for a very long time if they do. This is quite sad news for me but I recently had the idea of buying Spooks to tire me over on the spy/assassin front, and that's almost ten seasons so it should definitely kill some time. I'm not sure if you've seen it, but it's a very good series.

"But I did want to ask you if you have still been using Glossika? I had bought and tried them for Korean but then I kinda faded out on using them. But I was curious on what you thought about the method and how you were using them?"

I'd love to be able to offer advice on this however I doubt my response will prove to be of much use to you. I basically purely use the GMS files, and I usually just listen to say file 1A once, unless I couldn't entirely grasp everything that had been said, then 1B followed by 1C. I don't do more than 1 different lesson per day anymore but will repeat the same file a couple of times per day if necessary , just until I really feel I can say everything with a reasonable pronunciation. Then I do the same the following day with the next file.
I'm still quite new to Glossika myself, though, so it might be worth checking out how someone like Basica uses it, I believe he has been using Glossika for a while and he certainly has a better knowledge of how best to use it than me.


.....--------------......
I've been rather busy as of late, finalising a few stressful things and such. I have managed to keep up with language study so I haven't really missed out on anything but I must admit my Memrise time has decreased. I finished Michel Thomas German once again, this time I got a lot more out of it but to be fair, the first time I used it I had only been studying German for around a week and didn't even know much vocab, so following it was a little tricky. I do have mixed feelings about the course, I'm not sure I've ever come away after completing a lesson without feeling both pleased with myself and a little disappointed. I sometimes feel that, despite the fact that I got whatever was being asked correct, that I was being moaned at for the mistakes of the students!

I had a quick look at the Michel Thomas German advanced course (it's probably going to be too difficult for me but I'll soon find out) mind, it was only the first few lessons. I didn't notice any shouting at the students, though you can tell the students have far more experience than in the first course. It still seemed to be quite easy to follow along, maybe a little quicker paced but on the whole, I think I might be able to give the course a little go. I'm imagining it getting very tricky mid way in, though.

I also finished Pimsleur German 2 a few days ago. I am very apprehensive about starting Pimsleur German 3 as I found the German 2 course quite difficult, especially near the end of the course. It was definitely harder than Michel Thomas, for example, despite the repetition of phrases and gradual build up.

The Fit für Goethe textbook, though I guess it's really a textbook as such as it's mostly testing knowledge instead of teaching anything, is quite fun at the moment as I can so far manage every task. Granted, I have made a few silly mistakes now and then but once I checked the answers and compared against what I had put, it was quickly apparent that it was an obvious mistake and I'd remedy it for future reference. I am still in search of a decent textbook, I swear there must be a book similar to "Nya Mål" but obviously for German. I find most textbooks incredibly boring and though I usually stick with them it starts to feel like a chore whereas with the aforementioned textbook, it's fun, I could probably go through the whole textbook in a week - I'm resisting as I have heard Swedish would interfere with German.

The readers are going as expected, the more I read them, the more familiar I become with the stories and therefore the better my comprehension, reading speed, and also, the more vocab I remember and can use elsewhere. I'll probably complete the first in the intermediate series a few more times and then I'll buy the other four and read a new one while re-reading the previous.

Recently I've started reviewing old vocab courses on Memrise for my Finnish, it's been so long I wasn't sure how terrible I'd do, but to my surprise all of my former knowledge is still there it just sometimes takes a little longer to come to the surface. I'm debating whether to do a couple of pages of Hyvin Menee a few times per week, just as extra review. I wouldn't be learning anything new but I figure it might help my previous knowledge surface a little quicker than it would through Memrise alone.

I'm also experiencing massive wanderlust with Swedish and Polish. Reviewing Finnish doesn't interfere with my German at all, obviously they aren't exactly similar so that's one reason, but my level in Finnish was higher than that of my German so I'd imagine that's also something to do with it. The same, however, could not be said with Swedish. I haven't spoken Swedish in a very long time, though I did continue to write the odd message to a Swedish friend now and then so as not to totally neglect it. I never really studied Swedish as such but I had a lot of passive input through television, other people talking and the occasional conversation with acquaintances when living in Finland - I often got mocked for speaking Swedish and not Finnish Swedish, unfortunately a lot of Finnish people do not get on with Swedish people, and despite it all apparently being in jest, once you live there for a while you seriously begin to doubt this. It got on my nerves a bit as I don't have anything against anyone. I got a little frustrated with Finnish at one point and only read in Swedish, despite the fact I'd speak mostly Finnish, listen to mostly Finnish and watch mostly Finnish programes. I started borrowing the Jack Sparrow books written by Rob Kidd, from my local kirjasto and soon found (after maybe book 4) that I could read in Swedish almost as quickly as I can in English, as well as my comprehension being reasonably good.
I have always wanted to study Swedish properly because of the above as I feel like I could make quite good progress but I'm a bit cautious at the moment as if I do go ahead with university, I'll have to study another language alongside German, and I'm not fond of the choices, so it'll probably take all my willpower to study these. The distraction of studying a language I enjoy will probably be too much of a distraction.
And then there's Polish...I've never studied Polish, but I have done the odd holiday Polish before visiting Krakow, which Is the city I fell in love with. It's because of this, and that I would seriously consider moving here after university, that I'd quite like to finally learn some Polish. The good news is it seems ridiculously easy to find a Polish Skype partner, most of the time a serious exchange partner, too.

Dilemmas and all.