practice my German

i have been traveling a ton this week so limited practice. my feed reader is down this morning, but i will be back in the translation zone tomorrow.

shortly, i am going to start writing all of my update on this goal auf Deutsch as well.

Jeder Tag diese Woche habe ich ein Zeitungsartikel von Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung übersetzen. Diese Arbeit macht viel spaß und hilft ganz viel, meine Deutsch zu uben.

my german skills have atrophied so bad and it is a real shame. i really want to bring them back.

first step, working on translating one article out of the faz every day. today i picked a tough one about swine flu.

OK, so I was really bad – really really bad. I didn’t practice at all before I left for my trip to Germany. The amazing part was that it all came back though. I carried on all these great political conversations entirely in German (aren’t they great at that). By the end of the second day, I was already thinking in German. When I tried to call my husband, I couldn’t even speak English anymore. My goal now is to continue using it, although after 16 years of barely speaking it, I think if I remembered this time, then I don’t need to worry about the next time!

I couldn’t remember the German for “good luck,” So I had to go with French. Off to a good start, clearly.

I did this a couple of years ago—I got some German books out of the library (Rilke and Hesse, I think) and tried to translate as much as I could with a pocket dictionary for reference. That didn’t last very long. It was kind of tedious, but a good brain exercise. I might just do that again.

Think I’ll also listen to more German opera. The only recordings I have are Die Zauberflote and Die Fledermaus (operas I’ve actually performed in), and those don’t help anymore because I don’t have to pay too much attention to the text to know what’s going on. I think I’ll go to the library and get some R. Strauss or something. Yeah. : )

I downloaded Rosetta Stone and I’m starting to be able to pick up things in music or watching tv!

I downloaded Rosetta Stone and I’m starting to be able to pick up things in music or watching tv!

I’ve started practicing on this website
Once I’ve gone through all the 10 lessons and 10 exercise pages, I will tick this goal as completed.

I forgot I’d requested this, but I just got a packet in the mail from letternet yesterday with addresses of willing snail mail German penpals.

I’ll totally do this.

But what does one say to a penpal, especially in another language, one I’m not all that great at? I’ve never had a penpal before.

At the moment I am practicing my spanish… One thing at a time!!