Sleepless

It is the start of term so everything is incredibly busy. I guess I won't have anytime for deliberate German learning over the next two weeks but I do have to write maths questions for first year students this semester and am back going to German classes. I thought I was supposed to write the questions in German this time but today it was agreed that if it takes up too much of my time/stresses me out too much, K will translate them. Last night I hardly slept (I slept sometime between 6.30 and 7.49) because I was so worried about it. It turns out the one M hadn't proof read was almost totally correct (Germanwise, obviously (?) also mathswise). I was so close to tears in the meeting with my boss today, I really didn't want her to read it. The reason I find it so stressful is that everything has to be so correct and alot of the time, I just have no idea if I've phrased it right or not. Anywho, I'll continue to try to write the questions in German but if there is a particularly troublesome question, I'll send it to K in English and not spend a whole night worrying about it.    

I sent an email in German to the Hiwi's (students teaching the exercise clases) today. It was somehow terrorfying, even tho' it was only two sentences. I have no idea if it was correct. Perhaps someone will tell me, perhaps it doesn't matter.

Tonight, I think, as a treat I'll listen to English radio :). I think subjecting myself to German TV/Radio now would be a bad idea.

podcasts

Ok, not much to comment on right now. Marcus is here, which is lovely. Due to his visit most structured German learning has stopped but there has been lots of unstructured German learning (lots of films and TV and some chatting). In other news, the semester is beginning again next week which means every thing is going to get very busy for a few weeks but also means restarting German classes.

In lieu of any update, I thought I'd post a list of the podcast I listen to, in the hope that they might help someone else. If anyone has any other suggestions, I'd be really greatful, amazingly I am running out!

Beginner level:
All the beginner level podcasts I have found are from Deutsche Welle

Deutsch - warum nicht?

4 series of podcast - German/English

This podcast takes the learner right from knowing no German at all to understanding a small amount of German. It follows a (not very good) story which makes it slightly less boring. I used this just before I came to Germany and when I first arrived here.


Radio D

2 series - German/English

A lot like Deutsch -warum nicht?, it starts at the beginning and follows a story. I liked it less than Warum nicht?.


Audio Tutor

100 short lessons - German/English

Phrases on a topic said in German and then in English. I would only advise this is you are about to find yourself in Germany or are already in Germany and speak almost no German. If you are in a situation where you need instant phrases then this is actually quite useful but boring as hell.


Intermediate:

Deutsch - Wieso nicht?

20 short scenes (some running together to form a story of sorts) - German only

This is my favourite German podcast so far. I listened to it over and over again way before I could understand it. Then finally, I could understand some of the episodes. Now I understand them all (still not every word). So, why do I like them? First of all, even if you hardly understand any German they sound interesting (they have alot of helpful background noise). When you do finally understand something they are very funny (possibly not to a native German speaker!).

Typisch Helene

More or less a diary - German only

Helene talks about her life and current events in Switzerland and the world. Entertaining enough not hilarious but then it is not supposed to be. One podcast is released every two weeks. There is also a Swiss German version which is released once every month.

Zu Gast bei DagmarMore or less a diary - German only

This is the predecessor of Typisch Helene. It is pretty similar.

Sendung mit der Maus - zum Mitnehmen

Video podcast - German only (intended for children, not language learners)

I highly recommend this podcast to anyone. I find some of the episodes very very funny. It doesn't matter if you don't understand everything because the videos really help. If you try a one and don't like it, I really suggest you try some more until you find one you like.

Two of my favourites:
Suprise!
Suprise!



Das Treffende Wort

In the style of a radio show - German only

5 episodes


Langsam Gesprochene Nachrichten

German only.

Does what it says on the tin. Daily news podcast with slow speech. I find it a bit slow now but I still don't understand most of it (if that makes any sense).


Jojo sucht das Glueck

Video podcast - German only.

I tried to use the podcast very early on. I didn't find the story particularly interesting but it's certainly worth a look.

Gruesse aus Deutschland

60 episodes - German only
More or less lessons

A conversation between two people with interviews. About 3 episodes on average per topic. Important words are explained. I enjoyed this the first time through. I'm now listening to it again to find all the words that I don't know and finding it less enjoyable.

Deutsche im Alltag

Weekly podcast new topic each week - German only

Top-Thema mit VokabelnWeekly podcast new topic each week - German only
This podcast has a transcript and a list of vocabulary. Would be great if I could persuade myself to use the vocab lists. I personally find it a bit dull.

German GrammarPod
English - explains grammar.
Slow German

Podcasts on different topics - German only.

Pukka German Podcast

37 episodes -Lovely mix of German and English.

Fun podcast on German slang. Enjoyable to listen to. It's possibly a bit early for me to bother learning German slang but I don't think it hurts.

Freestyle German

6 episodes - German only.

From the same people as Pukka German. Enjoyable to listen to.

German Words Explained

Huge number of episodes - German only.

This podcast explains a commonly used german word or abbreviation per episode. Typically these are not words found in most language courses.

LED Podcast

13 podcasts - Short German Stories from German literature (also translated literature from other languages)

I don't have a link for this. I downloaded it by searching in i-tunes. I'm currently working on ein Traum by Kafka.

This post is a week late but it is here. Better late than never. I managed to complete some of the goals I set for myself. That is, I met my tandem partner, I only transfered 11 lessons worth of words I didn't know from Gruesse aus Deutschland (the episodes are quite dull the second time round), I did Anki every day, I transfer some but not all the words I didn't know from my last German class to Anki (there weren't many but again, the second time round, things are dull), I did some exercises on relative clauses, I spoke alot of German to my boyfreind last weekend :) and I battled my way through der Kristallkugel. Beyond this, I've watched lots and lots of German TV.

I also did the listerning and reading section of a A2 exam (with full marks) and the listerning section of a B1 exam (with full marks) . This causes me angst. I will be taking an A2 part 1 course next term and I really think it is the wrong level but I'm not sure because much as I understand loads, I can't produce much. Unfortuately, I'm not allowed to progress onto the next level until I've complete the level I am supposedly at. Perhaps completing the A2 course will improve my ability to speak and write but I'm not sure. I've covered alot of grammar topics on my own and my vocabulary is patchy but certainly better than A2. Oh well. We'll see.

In other news, I have finally started cycling in Germany and it is wonderful. Much much much calmer and quieter than Manchester. I really love it.

So, this weeks goals: Transfer the unknown words from lessons 12-20 of Gruesse aus Deutschland to Anki, clearly continue doing Anki everyday, try the writing sections for the practise A2 exam on the Goethe institute website and ask M to mark them, meet with my tandem partner and open one of my German grammar books and complete a section including all exercises.

I really feel optimistic that if I can improve my writing and speaking then I will be able to easily pass the B1 exam in the summer.

Crno Srce at "Yet Another Language Blog" asked me where my language blog was, so I thought perhaps I would start one. As you can see if you look at my cooking blog, I am not very good at keeping a blog. So it's possible that this will indeed be my first and only post!

Anywho, to German. Currently my German learning is frequent but disorganised. My German classes ended in February and since then I have listerned to the whole of Gruesse aus Deutschland, writen a few emails in German, listerned to some episodes of Alltags Deutsch and slow german, listerned again to Wieso nicht? (or more honestly to my favourite episodes, of which there are many), seen my tandem partner once, talked to a friend in German for 2 and a half hours, done 40 pages of very boring German grammar exercises, listerned to the 12 episodes of the podcast Typische Helene from Club Migros, started an anki deck and regularly studied it, watched various episodes of die Sendung mit der Maus and watched an episode of Das Perfekte Dinner. Alltags Deutsch and slow german are both a little too hard for me at the moment but most of the time I understand something and hear lots of words that I half know, which then increases my knowledge of them, so I think it's probably still useful.

I am lucky (?) that I currently live in Germany so I speak at least some German every day. This week I helped organise the exam for the course I am writing the exercises for. I had originally planned not to speak to any of the students during the exam and instead to ask one of the HIWIs or the PhD student that is also supporting this course to translate but somehow it felt stupid because I understood their questions. So in the end, I answered their questions during the exam and mostly it worked very well. I also argued with them in German about thier marks in the Einsicht (4 hours when students can look at their exams after they've been marked), tho' alot of the time I had to ask them if they spoke English. Anyway, this whole experience has spurred me on to improve my German faster. My job was advertised as not needing previous German knowledge but I still seem to need to speak German quite alot. This makes me feel really uncomfortable because I can't express myself properly and reguarly have to rely on other people, which makes me feel stupid and like I'm not doing my job properly. But hey, so it goes.
Next semester I have to write the questions in German and then have them checked by K (name not included for her anonimity) instead of her translating them, this is terrifying.

Ok. I will now set a goal for this week: meet my tandem partner once, transfer all the words I don't know from the first 30 lessons of Greusse aus Deutschland to Anki, do some Anki every day, transfer all the words I don't know from my last german course to Anki, try to read a Brother's Grimm story and do some grammar exercises about relative clauses. Perhaps I won't achieve all of this. Also, perhaps at the weekend (when I go to Manchester to see my boyfreind :D) , I will persuade my boyfreind to speak to me in German for half an hour (probably this won't happen).

Goals for the year: take and pass a B1 exam. For this it is clear I need to actively improve my writting skills. This will be hard because I hate writing. Everything else is somehow easy to practice and enjoyable but writing scares the hell out of me (strangely also in English which is my native language).

At some point I will write a post about all the free German resources I have found and which I have found useful.

Before I go, incase anyone actually reads this, I appologise for my spelling and grammar, I would normally use a spell checker but somehow it is set to German and I can't figure out how to change it.

Bis zum nächsten mal,
Lorna