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.
Saturday, 17 March 2012
Saturday, 3 March 2012
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
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
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