WildGinger's Deutsch log

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
Wurstmann
Yellow Belt
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:32 pm
Location: Germany
Languages: German (N), Mandarin (intermediate?), Spanish (beginner)
x 37

Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby Wurstmann » Sat Apr 13, 2019 3:04 pm

WildGinger10 wrote:I'm trying to line up some German movies/TV shows to really build a familiarity with fluent speech.


https://www.ardmediathek.de
https://www.zdf.de/sendung-verpasst
are great for that.
0 x

User avatar
WildGinger10
Yellow Belt
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:47 am
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Languages: English (N), German (B2 - active study), Russian (A1 - dabbling), French (A2ish - hibernating)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 89#p128527
x 138

Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Sun Apr 14, 2019 7:40 pm

Wurstmann wrote:
WildGinger10 wrote:I'm trying to line up some German movies/TV shows to really build a familiarity with fluent speech.


https://www.ardmediathek.de
https://www.zdf.de/sendung-verpasst
are great for that.


Thank you for these!

I'm currently watching Berlin Babylon on Netflix, I'm going to also try to take advantage of having Netflix in Germany and watching some regionally-restricted material (I have a VPN I could theoretically use from anywhere but I know Netflix is cracking down on that stuff more).
0 x

User avatar
WildGinger10
Yellow Belt
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:47 am
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Languages: English (N), German (B2 - active study), Russian (A1 - dabbling), French (A2ish - hibernating)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 89#p128527
x 138

Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Mon Apr 15, 2019 6:58 am

I've officially finished the entire Dino lernt Deutsch series, going to be going back and rereading many of them again to really help learn the vocab. Thinking about actually moving on to Bird Box now, but I might hold off until I'm more confident on a few reviews of the last few readers as they just now have barely moved into casual everyday language instead of beginner language.
2 x

User avatar
WildGinger10
Yellow Belt
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:47 am
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Languages: English (N), German (B2 - active study), Russian (A1 - dabbling), French (A2ish - hibernating)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 89#p128527
x 138

Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Tue May 07, 2019 10:58 pm

Wooooo no update for a while! Been busy as hell for the last few weeks!

But being back in Germany has been great for my German. I'm taking a German class with my company which is also wonderful. The teacher is great and we spend a good majority of our time immersed in German instead of discussing things in English. Many of my coworkers are also supportively talking with me in German the majority of the time, even if it can be a struggle to get a waiter/waitress to do the same.

Taking some time off this week to see München and Schloss Neuschwanstein, which should be a wonderful experience as well.

Wish I had more time to update! I'll try to post more when I can now that I've pretty much fully adjusted to my new schedule
4 x

User avatar
WildGinger10
Yellow Belt
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:47 am
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Languages: English (N), German (B2 - active study), Russian (A1 - dabbling), French (A2ish - hibernating)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 89#p128527
x 138

Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:06 pm

Wow. The last 6 months have been crazy. I wish I could have kept up with this while I was away but it simply wasn't possible. But now I have a few months vacation and can focus here a little more. Current project is reading Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen, as well as actively conversing with my German-native friends (though that it harder now that I am back in the States). More to come soon!
2 x

User avatar
WildGinger10
Yellow Belt
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:47 am
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Languages: English (N), German (B2 - active study), Russian (A1 - dabbling), French (A2ish - hibernating)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 89#p128527
x 138

Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Thu Feb 04, 2021 9:37 am

So obviously I dropped off the face of the earth for a while, it's been almost a year and a half since I posted here. I've had a lot going on in my life in this time (who hasn't?) and I can only keep so many plates spinning at once so the journaling took a backseat. I'd like to get back into it a little bit so here we go.

Well I've been keeping up the German journey. In May my (German) company certified me at a B1.2 level of fluency. Since my industry is shut down due to COVID, I've been stuck at home and have taken a German course with my local community college - went into third semester German and it seemed to be about my level. I'm currently taking the fourth semester course and trying to switch up my Anki game a little because I'm at a vocab level where picture cards aren't always effective. I'm also really bad with certain grammar rules (yes, I know everybody struggles to decline German adjectives and articles but still) and would really like to work on those specifically. Trying to start learning to use Cloze cards properly so I can drill case and tense declensions better.

I have a semi-regular standing Zoom date with a German friend of mine also, so we can have a little Sprechstunde and it is nice, though we somehow always end up discussing world politics or some similarly specialized topic where my vocabulary has big gaps. But we make do and it is helping.

I'm also gearing up to put some effort into Russian again. It's been a while since I've even looked at Russian because I've been so focused on German and so busy but I have an idea to hybridize Duolingo and my current Anki programming to create a kind of hyper-Duolingo that might be efficient at building the basics of Russian in a way I couldn't do before. I will journal about that in another thread when I get there.

Otherwise, I would say that despite another year of learning, I'm probably not much better in my German than when I was tested, which is a bit frustrating. But I guess it just takes much more work to move through CEFR levels than I expected, and this is my first language I'm learning to this level of fluency so it's all a learning curve. Each new level of fluency presents new challenges that must be tackled. Kind of excited to apply my knew knowledge to Russian and see how quickly I can progress there - though I don't expect to give it a huge amount of time and energy in the beginning so it may be slow to start as well.

That's all for now, hopefully I can shake the dust off this log and join back in the fray!
8 x

User avatar
WildGinger10
Yellow Belt
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:47 am
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Languages: English (N), German (B2 - active study), Russian (A1 - dabbling), French (A2ish - hibernating)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 89#p128527
x 138

Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Thu Feb 04, 2021 10:11 am

Vielleicht es macht etwas Sinn, hier auch auf Deutsch zu schreiben. Ich spreche und schreibe oft (aber vielleicht nicht so oft wie ich möchte), aber übe ist immer hilfriech. Ich werde hier mein Schreiben nicht vorkorrigieren, wenn ich mich helfen kann, aber ich habe schon nach ein paar Worte und Grammatik sieht, also ist es vielleicht etwas poliert. Hoffentlich ich kann für meinen Schreiben Vertrauen finden. Und hoffentlich auch kann ich hier meiner Schreiben verbessern.
2 x

User avatar
WildGinger10
Yellow Belt
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:47 am
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Languages: English (N), German (B2 - active study), Russian (A1 - dabbling), French (A2ish - hibernating)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 89#p128527
x 138

Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Fri Feb 05, 2021 9:57 am

Between last semester and this semester, I slacked really hard on my Anki cards. I was frustrated because I couldn't seem to remember my cards even though many of them had been cycling through for weeks. I guess I got a bit overwhelmed with life and let it slide but for the last few days now I've been plowing through getting the backlog unclogged and I'm surprised at how much better I am retaining the cards. I guess what they say about needing to be relaxed and not anxious is true. I've also found some time earlier in my day to do my Anki cards, in the past I was waiting until bedtime and I think by then I was simply too tired to retain them much. So this is much better all around.

I'm pretty pleased with the way my Cloze cards are working in my full deck, going to add a lot more cards this week so hopefully I can get a variety of those going too. Tomorrow morning I have a Sprechstunde and I am very much looking forward to it.
2 x

User avatar
WildGinger10
Yellow Belt
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:47 am
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Languages: English (N), German (B2 - active study), Russian (A1 - dabbling), French (A2ish - hibernating)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 89#p128527
x 138

Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Sat Feb 06, 2021 9:58 am

Added 25 or so cards today, I still have lots of vocabulary from class this week but this is a start. Not sure what I'll have time for tomorrow but I'll try to keep plugging away. Review was a lot more relaxed today than the last few days, I'm expecting a lot to show up again tomorrow but I think I've unclogged the backlog for now.
1 x

User avatar
WildGinger10
Yellow Belt
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:47 am
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Languages: English (N), German (B2 - active study), Russian (A1 - dabbling), French (A2ish - hibernating)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 89#p128527
x 138

Re: WildGinger's Deutsch log

Postby WildGinger10 » Tue Feb 16, 2021 11:38 am

Man this week has been a slog, and I'm paying for it now. Somehow I ended up with a lot more homework than normal and a lot less time in the week to complete it so now it's a late night. I would say this reminds me of ten years ago when I was actually in school but I never put this much effort in when I was actually in school so it's even stranger :lol: But I'm really spending time with my German, even if I have to force myself sometimes, and I have to admit it sometimes seems like I do actually improve when I do that.

I need to give myself more input. I have a lot of English language television and film I am desperately trying to catch up on so it is hard to dedicate time to watch shows in German but I plan to begin working that into my schedule regularly. I need the input.
2 x


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests