Learn to read German

I’ve been floolowing the study plan in German Quickly. Some lessons are harder than others, and sometimes a little lazy, but mostly I think I’m getting it. After next week I guess I’ll set off on my own with a dictionary and Wilson’s text for reference.

Friday I read five or so paragraphs about German Proverbs. Today I made my own translation of Wanderers Nachtslied by Goethe. It was fun. Things seem to be falling into place, and, although I still make mistakes, the reading is coming pretty easily.

This weekend I’m going to go browse dictionaries at Borders.

Now that I’m finally settled and have my very own copy of German Quickly, I am back on track with this goal. I am following the study plan in the book, and if I study faithfully, I should be done in six weeks. Monday will be my second week.

Next week I’m going to start working my way through a bilingual anthology of German poetry with patience and a dictionary.

I’m enjoying the Complete Idot’s Guide to Learning German, and I’ve also found a website I like www.deutsch-lernen.com. I think I am getting the hang of how the language works and am beginning to really enjoy it.

I’ve been studying German for Reading Knowledge. Everything was going well until the big chapter on prepositions, followed by readings with lots of clauses. I got throgh half the sentences, then I was struggling so hard, I got frustrated.

So I’ve taken a step back: leaving off with the German for Reading Knowledge book and reapproaching with some other study aids: www.deutsch-lernen.com and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Learning German which I also have in audio. If I could afford it, I’d love to use Rosetta Stone.

I’m still very excited and motivated about working toward this goal.

Ich las kleine Versuche auf deutscher Geographie, Geschichte und Kultur. Es geht gut.

I have always wanted to learn to read German as it is the language of philosophy, lieder, and much fine poetry. I have owned several German instruction books (as well as some computer software) for years now, and I have set out to learn German a couple of times before, but have let the project fall by the wayside.

Recently I came across a group of poems by Rilke that relate to a project I am working on. The poems really spoke to me and for the first time in my life I really wanted to work on my own translations of those poems, so now I am finally learning German in order to carry out these translations. I hope that this concrete motivation will make all the difference in accomplishing this goal.

I am studying a German for Reading book. I studied two days during the past week. In the coming week I intend to complete a chapter a day.