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sabotai · 10-29-2008, 01:34 AM

So what am I doing now to learn Geramn? What's my regular routine?

1) Currently, I am listening to Michel Thomas beginner's course. I just finished the 6th CD (out of 8 - if you look on Amazon and other places, it says 10 CDs, but the last 2 CDs go over what was learned in the first 8).

2) Reading 1001 Pitfalls in German (German Grammar Book)

3) I have several Dual-Language books in German (on one side, English on the other). I try to read through a paragraph of a story on the German side and highlight the words I do not understand. For now, I'm just focusing on big words. Nouns, verbs, some adjectives and adverbs. The smaller words I'm just leaving alone for now.

If you read my FTB answers, you may remember me saying that I was working on a program of my own for German vocabulary. Well, I stopped doing that when I found a program called Stackz! It's mainly for learning Japanese, so a lot of the features in it are mainly for Kana and Kanji learning, but it can easily be used for any other language. It's a pretty good flashcard program. Better than using real flashcards, IMO.

What I do is create a simple spreadsheet of the words I highlight and their meanings. I use the English side of the books to get a better understanding of how the word is used, idiomatic uses for words, etc. I then import the spreadsheet into Stackz! and then use the program the same way you would use flashcards. The program keeps track of who well you know the words.

And the short story I am currently working through is "Das Erdbeben in Chili" by Heinrich Von Kleist ("The Earthquake in Chili"). out of this book: http://www.amazon.com/Five-Great-Ger...5262141&sr=1-1

The five stories in it are the one above, "Der Sandmann" by E.T.A. Hoffman, "Leutnant Gustl" by Arthur Schnitzler ("Lieutenant Gustl"), "Tristan" by Thomas Mann and "Das Urtail" by Franz Kafka ("The Judgement").

My goal is to try and do each of the above everyday. Listen to some of a CD, read some of the grammar book and do a paragraph or two from the dual-language book, add the unknown words into Stackz! and spend sometime going over all of the words (the newly added ones plus all of the ones I still don't know).

I think spending a half hour on each thing is realistic for most nights, but I know some days I'm going to not be able to put an hour and a half towards it. So my goal is to do all 3 of the above, but the minimum would be to do at least 1 of the above every day.

10-29-2008, 01:34 AM	#2
sabotai General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: The Satellite of Love	So what am I doing now to learn Geramn? What's my regular routine? 1) Currently, I am listening to Michel Thomas beginner's course. I just finished the 6th CD (out of 8 - if you look on Amazon and other places, it says 10 CDs, but the last 2 CDs go over what was learned in the first 8). 2) Reading 1001 Pitfalls in German (German Grammar Book) 3) I have several Dual-Language books in German (on one side, English on the other). I try to read through a paragraph of a story on the German side and highlight the words I do not understand. For now, I'm just focusing on big words. Nouns, verbs, some adjectives and adverbs. The smaller words I'm just leaving alone for now. If you read my FTB answers, you may remember me saying that I was working on a program of my own for German vocabulary. Well, I stopped doing that when I found a program called Stackz! It's mainly for learning Japanese, so a lot of the features in it are mainly for Kana and Kanji learning, but it can easily be used for any other language. It's a pretty good flashcard program. Better than using real flashcards, IMO. What I do is create a simple spreadsheet of the words I highlight and their meanings. I use the English side of the books to get a better understanding of how the word is used, idiomatic uses for words, etc. I then import the spreadsheet into Stackz! and then use the program the same way you would use flashcards. The program keeps track of who well you know the words. And the short story I am currently working through is "Das Erdbeben in Chili" by Heinrich Von Kleist ("The Earthquake in Chili"). out of this book: http://www.amazon.com/Five-Great-Ger...5262141&sr=1-1 The five stories in it are the one above, "Der Sandmann" by E.T.A. Hoffman, "Leutnant Gustl" by Arthur Schnitzler ("Lieutenant Gustl"), "Tristan" by Thomas Mann and "Das Urtail" by Franz Kafka ("The Judgement"). My goal is to try and do each of the above everyday. Listen to some of a CD, read some of the grammar book and do a paragraph or two from the dual-language book, add the unknown words into Stackz! and spend sometime going over all of the words (the newly added ones plus all of the ones I still don't know). I think spending a half hour on each thing is realistic for most nights, but I know some days I'm going to not be able to put an hour and a half towards it. So my goal is to do all 3 of the above, but the minimum would be to do at least 1 of the above every day. Last edited by sabotai : 10-29-2008 at 01:39 AM.