WildGinger's Deutsch log

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WildGinger10
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Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:03 am

SGP wrote:And about that imperative example: this is something rather minor ;). "Schließe" sounds a bit more like written or especially eloquent speech. And "schließ" is a bit more of an everyday casual word. But they really don't differ too much from each other.

Sometimes you also could find written verbs (no matter if imperative or not) that end with an apostrophe, because the ending -e simply is being dropped.


But... but... but... isn't the declension of verbs and adjectives in relation to their nouns and cases super important??

I mean, you couldn't do this to, say, deine because Augen is plural which makes it feminine (and die Auge is feminine anyway). You can't say Schleiße dein' Augen... can you??
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Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby eido » Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:16 am

Haha. As they say, "I'm just here for the comments."

The learner meets a new challenge - let's see if they can beat the boss and level up!
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Kat
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Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby Kat » Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:54 am

WildGinger10 wrote:But... but... but... isn't the declension of verbs and adjectives in relation to their nouns and cases super important??


Yes, definitely. :D

It doesn't mean that the declension rules suddenly don't apply anymore. You just have two correct forms in this case. I guess you could compare it to "you are/you're" in English. Of course that's an entirely different grammar point but it's comparable in the sense that you have two options and both are correct.

WildGinger10 wrote:I mean, you couldn't do this to, say, deine because Augen is plural which makes it feminine (and die Auge is feminine anyway). You can't say Schleiße dein' Augen... can you??


No, you can't say "Schließe dein' Augen". You can, however, say "Schließe deine Augen" or "Schließ deine Augen". As SGP mentioned, the version without -e sounds a bit less formal and tends to be used more in spoken language.
BTW, das Auge is neutral not feminine.

In normal everyday language you can only do this to verbs and it doesn't work for all of them:

Bei einer Reihe von Verben ist das Endungs-e allerdings verbindlich, etwa, wenn der Verbstamm auf d/t oder Konsonant plus m/n endet: Atme gleichmäßig! Rechne gefälligst sorgfältiger! Arbeite nicht so viel! Auch bei den Verben, die auf -ern und -eln enden, sind die Formen mit Endungs-e obligatorisch, wobei das e der Bildungssilbe auch wegfallen kann: Hand[e]le endlich einmal selbstständig! Trau[e]re doch nicht um ihn, das war er nicht wert!


Source: https://www.duden.de/sprachwissen/sprac ... Imperativs

If I were you, I wouldn't worry about it too much at this point. It's a minor grammar issue and there is no need to learn all the rules and exceptions for this at the beginning. It's just not worth the effort.

Later on, after you've read a couple more books and seen enough examples, you'll probably get it right instinctively.
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WildGinger10
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Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Wed Jan 23, 2019 7:37 am

1-22-19

Well, in keeping with my progress, I spent many hours yesterday inputting all my graded readers into LingQ so I can track my vocabulary building. Been rereading them in order to run them through the LingQ system, and I'm surprised both at how much more I understand them now from my first read-throughs as well as how much vocabulary HASN'T stuck with me. I guess that's just the name of the game at this point. I'm also surprised at how advanced these readers get, looking at the last 3 or so I haven't gotten to yet. I guess these should really get me up to a pretty useful reading standard if I can master these readers.

Tried to import Bird Box as well but I'm having trouble finding the ereader file on my iPad. I'll probably just use my Kindle for it. If I do decide to read Metro 2033, I'll probably do the same.
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Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby SGP » Thu Jan 24, 2019 3:29 pm

eido wrote:Haha. As they say, "I'm just here for the comments."
The learner meets a new challenge - let's see if they can beat the boss and level up!
Kaum zu glauben. Jetzt taucht auch noch eido hier auf :). In einem Deutsch-Log. Möglicherweise wird das hier sogar eine kleine Party, wer weiß...

Some bosses are very easy to beat in reality, even if one needs a bit of practice. Real-life game example: King Kong Rool from Donkey Kong Country (Super Nintendo).



WildGinger10 wrote:Well, in keeping with my progress, I spent many hours yesterday inputting all my graded readers into LingQ so I can track my vocabulary building. Been rereading them in order to run them through the LingQ system, and I'm surprised both at how much more I understand them now from my first read-throughs as well as how much vocabulary HASN'T stuck with me. I guess that's just the name of the game at this point. I'm also surprised at how advanced these readers get, looking at the last 3 or so I haven't gotten to yet. I guess these should really get me up to a pretty useful reading standard if I can master these readers.
This happened to me with Spanish: I already had been learning it for some time. But then I still didn't manage to read a certain book about a captain and the sea or anything like that. Because it contains many words that are very "jargon", i.e. they are about a specialized subset of the language. There are some ways to be able to communicate in any language without learning too many of them. Also, there are some workarounds when one is speaking to someone in person / in real-time through a text-based medium. But of course listening to / reading something pre-made is a different story...

Related: the general language learning suggestions in a post about Esperanto.
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WildGinger10
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Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Mon Jan 28, 2019 9:54 pm

1-28-19

Really buckled down a few days ago and read through the reader that was giving me trouble. It was surprisingly difficult but I managed to get through it. But that seemed to have been exactly what I needed to do, because rereading it was significantly easier and I am pretty much fluently reading through the next (more advanced) reader without much trouble. Just one of those stepping stones I guess.

Pretty soon here I should be in good shape to tackle Bird Box. I'm hoping to get through the rest of my readers in the next week or two (all depends on how much time I spend with it), maybe give the more advanced readers a few reviews, then start. It's kind of crazy to actually be reading/listening relatively fluently to a foreign language. Not quite so foreign anymore, I guess. I'm almost certainly more fluent in German now than I ever was in French (definitely by reading standards) so from here everything is very unknown territory for me, progress-wise. Still, progress is slow and challenging. I can't wait for it to eventually pay off.
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WildGinger10
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Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Mon Feb 11, 2019 2:23 am

Been working on my readers, I'm about to start the last one in the series (it doesn't even have an audiobook option yet) and I'm both encouraged and discouraged by my progress at the same time. On one hand, I'm reading at a level where the vocabulary is at a conversational, natural level (meaning, it's not being "dumbed down" for a learner) - but my reading speed is still very slow, and my audio comprehension is still rather slow, and my German-native friends still post things on social media that I don't understand at all that turn out to be rather simple sentences. I know that this progress is naturally slow and incremental, and that all the exposure is helpful, but it's still frustrating to feel like I'm putting in all this effort and getting peanuts back.

But keeping at it is the only way for it to get better, so I'm keeping on. Going to get through this final reader, maybe review them again, and then see if I can make some headway into Bird Box.
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Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby jonm » Mon Feb 11, 2019 6:18 am

WildGinger10 wrote:Been working on my readers, I'm about to start the last one in the series (it doesn't even have an audiobook option yet) and I'm both encouraged and discouraged by my progress at the same time. On one hand, I'm reading at a level where the vocabulary is at a conversational, natural level (meaning, it's not being "dumbed down" for a learner) - but my reading speed is still very slow, and my audio comprehension is still rather slow, and my German-native friends still post things on social media that I don't understand at all that turn out to be rather simple sentences. I know that this progress is naturally slow and incremental, and that all the exposure is helpful, but it's still frustrating to feel like I'm putting in all this effort and getting peanuts back.

But keeping at it is the only way for it to get better, so I'm keeping on. Going to get through this final reader, maybe review them again, and then see if I can make some headway into Bird Box.

So you're on the last book of the Dino lernt Deutsch series? Very cool! You've passed me, I'm in the middle of book 7, Walzer in Wien. As you mentioned, they do gradually ramp up, and I think that can make it a little harder to notice that you're also gradually improving.

For what it's worth, the other day I listened to a few minutes of the first audiobook in the series and found that relative to the one I'm on now, it was quite a bit slower and easier to understand than I remembered. I'm pretty sure that when I first listened to it, I could catch a little something here and there, but a lot of it went right past me, and now I can pretty much keep up with it.

So I mention that as one way you could get some confirmation that you are in fact making progress. I think one reason it gets hard to see gains day to day or even week to week is that the same amount of progress that counted for a lot when starting out now seems smaller relative to everything you've already learned. Sometimes a glance back at an earlier stage of the journey can give a little perspective.

Anyway, congratulations on nearing the end of the series. Enjoy the last book and also getting into Bird Box!
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WildGinger10
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Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Wed Mar 20, 2019 7:04 am

Wow, been a while since I've updated.

Mostly I think that's because I haven't been focusing on my German as much, I started writing a screenplay which has been time and energy consuming, and I've had a lot of life stuff distracting me.

But in terms of life stuff, I actually got a return contract for my Germany-based company, so I'll be returning to Hamburg on April 10th. I'm currently restructuring my language learning materials to prepare, so I'm getting back to it. Mostly I've spent a lot of time since my last update listening to my graded readers on audiobook while at the gym and in the car, which is something I've neglected a little in the past.

Not sure exactly what I'm going to do in Germany for learning (aside from the obvious) but I'm trying to line up some German movies/TV shows to really build a familiarity with fluent speech.
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WildGinger10
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Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Sat Apr 13, 2019 1:06 pm

Hallo aus Deutschland!

Made it to Hamburg safely, already LOVING being immersed in the language. Last time I was here, my ability and knowledge was pitiful, but now I can read most advertisements and signs and converse with servers/hosts in restaurants and cafés, at least enough to order and ask simple questions without resorting to English.

Started working with LingQ again today to start reviewing new/unfamiliar vocabulary. I am very excited to be here and cannot wait to practice the hell out of my German!
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