learn german

A year plus into my self-study program and it’s still sticking. I’ve been working on a TESOL certification course and I’ve already learned a lot about how second languages are acquired. I don’t feel so thick now. ;-) I’ve gone back to that first textbook Neue Freunde to reinforce the parts of the language that are easily acquired through everyday examples. That’s what Neue Freunde was structured to do. It got me off the ground last year, so now it should give me another push.

Language acquisition is recursive. Helps to remember that when it seems like one’s brain is full.

Edit: I’m now punctuating English as if it were German. Nice. :-D

I’ve been away from my German chat partners for a couple of weeks (I got tired of the way some kinds of guys were approaching me). I signed on to MSN today to see if a friend was on, and I replied to a few IMs in German. It’s still feeling smooth. I guess I worry too much about intellectual erosion.

German is getting easier and easier. I’ve been away from the textbook for a little while, and even away from the chatting, but I find that I’m thinking in German. Considering that I’m doing this on my own, sans instruction, sans classes, I’m pleased to see it happening. I’d still like to have a tutor or something, but this is cool so far.

Wow, been a long time since I posted on this. German is going swimmingly. I joined a couple of German singles sites and have been chatting on MSN in German. I use Google Translation and LEO for sentences I can’t yet construct. It is totally rockin.

Chatting real-time has made a huge difference for me. I knew I needed it, and I guess that I got into it when I was ready. So cool.

Taking time to review is helping more than I anticipated. I am retaining a lot more than I thought I was. Small bites and baby steps are working for me.

A couple of cool things that have happened…

I stopped moving forward in the German textbook and started reviewing instead. I made myself a chart of pronoun declensions, etc. I can tell that it’s sticking.

Rammstein lyrics are clearer to me now than ever. When I first started on this venture, they sounded like linguistic mush to me. That’s completely changed.

Yesterday I read an email from my pen pal, and I got about 90% through it without assistance. Maybe things aren’t as dim as I thought!

I’ve got to find someone to chat with IRL. I am not making as much progress now and I know it’s because I don’t have that final component in place.

This morning, I got some vocabulary help from mein Deutscher in Ireland. (He’s the one who bought me the ticket to Dublin for New Year’s…nothing like a little f2f Deutsch practice.) It was good to have a native speaker explain some things to me. It really made me see how this might’ve been easier if I’d had a tutor or if I’d taken it in a class. My progress might have been slower, but my retention would have been higher. I hope that this stuff starts to gel with him.

The dative case and reflexive verbs are still easier than the accusative case was. WTF?