Sabotai Learns German

[sabotai]

1/2/2009 Wordlist
Berlitz German Vocabulary Handbook (Length and Shape)
der Winkel - angle
der Fläche - area
gebogen - curved
die Tiefe - depth
schraäg - diagonal
eng - narrow
breit - large, wide
das Lineal - ruler
niedrig - low
waagerecht - horizontal

[sabotai]

Been splitting my time between Mount and Blade and real life stuff. Still plugging away with the vocab, but no time for the audio lessons or reading the grammar book.

1/3/2009 Vocab
Der Spiegel - March 31st, 2008 issue ("Gewalt ohne Folgen")
der Schlag - swipe, blow, bash
zumen - besides, furthermore
der Täter - perpetrator, offender
die Tat - deed, action, feats
die Verschärfung - aggravation, intensification
vielmehr - rather, in reality, on the contrary
vorhanden - present, available
ausschöpfen - to bail out

Only 8 words today. The article is finished. Tomorrow, I'll post the article and try to translate it.

[sabotai]

Update

I started to translate the article, but there's still a lot of word usage that I don't quite get so I stopped after a few sentences. I'm still making daily vocab lists. I started writing them on flashcards and taking them to work to look at during my downtime and it's helped. Over the last few weeks, my daily routine has completely changed and I'm still trying to find the time to read and listen to the audio lessons.

[sabotai]

1/12/2009

Hammer's - I've reread the chapter on modal particles. I also took notes while I read, so I have a sheet filled with all of the important points so that I can look it over every day until I have them all down.

Tomorrow's Vocab List
From Mastering German Vocabulary (Chapter 2: The Human Body - Posture and Movements of the Body)
anlehnen - to lean
ausrutzschen - to slip and fall
treten - to step, to kick
betreten - to enter
stoßen - to push, to bang
die Bewegung - movement, exercise
bewegen - to move
drehen - to turn
umdrehen - to turn around
der Schritt - step, stride

[sabotai]

Time for an update

Hammer's - There were several chapters on verbs that I mostly skimmed through. I also mostly skimmed through the rest of the book. The topics were prepositions, word order and word formation. I'll probably reread the chapters on prepositions and word formation. Word order is one of the topics that Michel Thomas goes over in his audio series and I feel I have that down pretty good (as well as most of the verb topics, another thing Thomas goes over pretty well).

Michel Thomas - Finally got back to listening to this. I amd about 1/3rd of the way through section 4 (of 4) for the Adcance course.

Vocab - This is going well. I have been taking the words from the Mastering German Vocabulary book (since that's the one sitting next to my bed and I don't feel like chaning things up yet). The topics have been Daily Activities (waking up, going to sleep, etc.), Object-Related Activities (taking, placing, giving, losing, finding, etc.), Appearance (tall, short, pretty, ugly, fat, thin, etc.). The topic I just finished Cosmetics and Grooming (soap, showering, brushing teeth, makeup, etc.).

[sabotai]

Du Hast - Rammstein



Lyrics

[x4]
Du
Du hast
Du hast mich
Du hast mich

[x2]
Du hast mich Gefragt

Du hast mich gefragt und ich hab nichts gesagt

[x2]
Willst du bis der Tod euch scheide
Treu ihr sein fur alle Tage
Ah-h-h-h
Nein
Ah-h-h-h
Nein

[x3]
Du
Du hast
Du hast mich
Du hast mich

[x2]
Du hast mich gefragt

Du hast mich gefragt und ich hab nichts gesagt

Willst Du bis der Tod euch scheide
Treu ihr sein fur alle Tage
Ah-h-h-h
Nein
Ah-h-h-h
Nein

willst Du bis zum Tod der Scheide
Sie lieben auch in schlechten Tagen
Ah-h-h-h
Nein
Ah-h-h-h
Nein

willst Du bis der Tod euch scheide
Treu ihr sein
Ah-h-h-h
Nein
Ah-h-h-h
Nein

(Taken from: DU HAST Lyrics - RAMMSTEIN)

Translation (My attempt to translate anyway):

"Du hast mich gefragt und ich hab nichts gesagt"

Which means: You have asked me and I said nothing.

Du hast mich gefragt = "You have asked me", or simply "You asked me".
...ich hab nichts gesagt = "I have said nothing." or "I said nothing". "hab" is the same as "habe". Strictly, it should be "Ich habe nichts gesagt", but in certain regions of Germany, it is very common to drop the -e at the end of verbs when speaking (but this is never done in writing, except, of course, with writing dialogue, etc.).

Willst du bis der Tod euch scheide
Which means: "Do you want until death separates you"

Willst du = Do you want (The verb here is "wollen", which means "to want". In German, to ask a question, you frequently invert the verb and subject. "Du willst" = "You want" - "Willst du" = "Do you want?")
bis der Tod = until death
euch = you
scheide = separate

Treu ihr sein fur alle Tage
Which means: "Be loyal to her for all days"

Treu ihr sein = Be loyal to her
fur alle Tage = for all days

Together, the two lines form the question: "Will you, until death do you part, be loyal to her for all days?"

Nein!
No!

Simple answer.

willst Du bis zum Tod der Scheide

I had to look this up. I found this: http://www.6lyrics.com/music/rammste...anslation.aspx
On that page, it explains that this line could be a double meaning. "Tod, der scheide" would translate to "death, which separates". But written as it is in the lyrics, "Tod der Scheide" it would mean "death of the vagina." Since we english speakers like our "tee-hee" double entrendres to be implied rather than explicit, I'll go with the former translation.

- Do you want until death, which separates

Sie lieben auch in schlechten Tagen
Which means: Her also love in bad days

(The site I just linked to says "to love her, even in bad days")

Like with English, grammar rules kinda get thrown out when it comes to song lyrics. That last line trips me up a bit.

Anyway, there's the song translated. Hopefully I'll do better with the next one.

[sabotai]

Ich Will - Rammstein



Lyrics

Ich will

Ich will dass ihr mir vertraut
Ich will dass ihr mir glaubt
Ich will eure Blicke spüren
Ich will jeden Herzschlag kontrollieren

Ich will eure Stimmen hören
Ich will die Ruhe stören
Ich will dass ihr mich gut seht
Ich will dass ihr mich versteht

Ich will eure Phantasie
Ich will eure Energie
Ich will eure Hande sehen
Ich will in Beifall untergehen

Seht ihr mich?
Versteht ihr mich?
Fühlt ihr mich?
Hört ihr mich?
Könnt ihr mich hören?
Wir hören dich
Könnt ihr mich sehen?
Wir sehen dich
Könnt ihr mich fühlen?
Wir fühlen dich
Ich versteh euch nicht

Ich will

Wir wollen dass ihr uns vertraut
Wir wollen dass ihr uns alles glaubt
Wir wollen eure Hande sehen
Wir wollen in Beifall untergehen - ja

Könnt ihr mich hören?
Wir hören dich
Könnt ihr mich sehen?
Wir sehen dich
Könnt ihr mich fühlen?
Wir fühlen dich
Ich versteh euch nicht

Könnt ihr uns hören?
Wir hören euch
Könnt ihr uns sehen?
Wir sehen euch
Könnt ihr uns fühlen?
Wir fühlen euch
Wir verstehen euch nicht

Ich will


This one is pretty easy to translate. All lines are simple sentences and I already know most of the words.

Ich will = I want

Ich will dass ihr mir vertraut
- I want you to trust me ("dass" = "that", so a more literal - less English sounding - translation would be "I want that you trust me" . vertrauen is the verb "to trust")

Ich will dass ihr mir glaubt
- I want you to believe me

Ich will eure Blicke spüren
- I want to sense your sight (I found one translation that said "I want to feel your eyes". Well, not only does that not make sense, unless this is an idiomatic phrase, I did some searching and can't find "Blicke" to mean "eyes" anywhere. It's used in some compound words. "Scharfblicke" = "sharp eyes", for example, but never by itself to mean "eyes". So unless someone who knows German can clue me into some word usage that I'm missing, I think "sense your sight" is more inline with what the line means than "feel your eyes". spüren is the verb for "to sense, to experience, to feel")

Ich will jeden Herzschlag kontrollieren
- I want to control every heartbeat

Ich will eure Stimmen hören
- I want to hear your voices

Ich will die Ruhe stören
- I want to disturb the peace

Ich will dass ihr mich gut seht
- I want you to see me well (in German, "gut" = "good", but unlike in English, they use the word good as both an adjective and an adverb)

Ich will dass ihr mich versteht
- I want you to understand me

Ich will eure Phantasie
- I want your fantasy

Ich will eure Energie
- I want your energy

Ich will eure Hande sehen
- I want to see your hands

Ich will in Beifall untergehen
- I want to go down in applause (One translation I found used this as the line. Another meaning for "untergehen" is "to perish, to be destroyed". Given the substance of the video, "go down" as in "perish" is probably a more accurate meaning)

Seht ihr mich?
-Do you see me?

Versteht ihr mich?
-Do you understand me?

Fühlt ihr mich?
- Do you feel me?

Hört ihr mich?
- Do you hear me?

Könnt ihr mich hören?
- Can you hear me?

Wir hören dich
- We hear you! (This is what the crowd yells)

Könnt ihr mich sehen?
- Can you see me?

Wir sehen dich
- We see you!

Könnt ihr mich fühlen?
- Can you feel me?

Wir fühlen dich
- We feel you!

Ich versteh euch nicht
- I don't understand you (Literally: I understand you not. This is another example of the -e being left off a verb. Written, it would be "Ich verstehe")

Wir wollen dass ihr uns vertraut
- We want you to trust us

Wir wollen dass ihr uns alles glaubt
- We want you to believe us

Wir wollen eure Hande sehen
We want to see your hands

Wir wollen in Beifall untergehen - ja
- Want want to go down in applause - yeah


A pretty easy song to translate. I only had to look up a few words (Beifall, vertrauen, Blicke, spüren, Herzschlag, and stören). In the last verse, where "mich" is repleaced with "uns", the questions simply change to "Can you see us?", "Can you hear us?", etc.

[sabotai]

1/25/09

Michel Thomas - Finished listening to the Advanced course and will be moving onto the "Language Builder" course. It's only 2 hours total. This course seems to teach words and phrases that are common in everyday speech. After this comes the Vocabulary Course, a 5 CD course.

At the end of the Advanced course, Thomas suggested reading interviews from newspapers and magazines and trying not to look up any words. Instead, if you see a word once, skip it. If you see a word several times, you will know that it's a common word but that you should also be able to pick up its meaning based on context.

[sabotai]

January 27th

Michel Thomas - Spent about 40 minutes listening the the Language Builder course. Because of the constant pausing, I got through about 25 minutes of the recording. Since it's only 2 hours long, I should be done with it by the end of the week.

Vocab - I have been taking my vocab words from Mastering German Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach. I skip any word that looks similar to its English counterpart (or, of course, I already know from other sources). I finished up chapter 3, which is about medicine and health. Chapter 4 in on Eating.


Recently, I got my hands on a 1970s version of Linguaphone Deutsch. Professor Arguelles, a language professor who has a youtube channel, really likes Linguaphone. He has a bunch of videos on language learning stuff (YouTube - Broadcast Yourself). I'm hesitant to start fresh with a new system, but I figured if a professor who has tried just about everything rates this so highly, I'd be a fool not to give it a try. When I am done with the Michel Thomas Language Builder, I will start using this.

[sabotai]

January 28th

Michel Thomas - The weather was really crappy today, so my boss left work early, which means I got to leave work early. The extra time allowed me to listen through the rest of the Language Builder course from Michel Thomas. I didn't like this nearly as much as the Beginner and Advanced courses. One of the reasons I liked the first two was because of the two students with him. Not only do I get to work through what he teaches by pausing the recording, I get to learn from their mistakes as well. In the Language Builder course, it's just Michel Thomas. It allows him to put much more content in the recording per hour, but it loses a bit of the hook. It was pretty boring.

Tomorrow I begin Linguaphone Deutsch.

Vocab - The short workday did interrupt my flashcard routine. I didn't feel like I got enough time with my vocab today so I'll carry today's words to tomorrow.

[sabotai]

January 29th

Linguaphone - Worked through the first section. Didn't take long since I knew most of it already. I like how it has the 3 different phases (Listening & Understanding, Speaking and Writing). One problem I have with a lot of other systems, including the ones I like, Michel Thomas for example, is that they do get boring since it's just the same thing over and over again. The 3 different phases will be good at breaking the lesson up and keeping it from getting stale.

I did all three phases today. I think once I start getting into areas that I am far less familiar with, it may get to where I am doing just 1 or 2 of the 3 phases a day, even to where I am repeating sections to make sure I understand everything.

Also, I am going to add new words and phrases that I find in the Linguaphone lessons to my daily vocab list.

Vocab - New list for tomorrow:

Linguaphone
der Beamte - officer, government employee
verzollen - to declare
in Ordnung - in order, all right, ok

Mastering German Vocabulary (Eating)
der Blumenkohl - cauliflower
die Bohne - bean
die Erbse - pea
die Kartoffel - potato
die Zweibel - onion
die Johannisbeere - black current, red current
die Brombeere - blackberry
die Heidelbeere - blueberry
die Stachelbeere - gooseberry
die Zwetschge - plum
der Kohl - cabbage
der Pilz - mushroom
der Schnittlauch - chives
Prost! - Cheers!
Zum Wohl! - Cheers!
der Sekt - sparkling wine, champagne
der Sprudel - soft drink, mineral water

[sabotai]

January 30th

Linguaphone Deutsch - Only had time tonight to do phase 1 (Listening and Understanding) of Section 2. Section 1 started off with a family arriving at the airport. Section 2 has them checking into the hotel plus ordering drinks in the restaurant. Tomorrow I'll do phases 2 and 3 and also try to do all of Section 3.

Vocab - Vocab words for tomorrow

Linguaphone
die Empfangshef - reception clerk
mieten - to hire
erwarten - to expect
der Meldezettel - registration form
leider - unfortunately
lieber - rather, preferably

Mastering German Vocabulary (Eating)
der Most - cider, natural fruit juice
lieblich - sweet (for wine)
der Schwips - tipsy, slight drunkenness
süchtig - addicted
das Rauschgift - illegal drug
abhängig - dependent, addicted
der Metzger[-in] - butcher
der Sonderangebot - sale, special offer
die Dose - can
das Pfend - deposit
aufhaben - to be open
zuhaben - to be closed
die Konditorei - bakery, pastry shop
die Büsche - can

[Karlifornia]

I always wondered what the lyrics to "Du Hast" meant. Thanks!

[Nugget699]

Have you found any glaring errors with Rosetta Stone at all? I have heard many people complain of grammatical errors, but had never noticed it with my Swedish version until this morning. The word Skriva (write) is spelt Skriver on RS which is incorrect.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Nugget699

Have you found any glaring errors with Rosetta Stone at all? I have heard many people complain of grammatical errors, but had never noticed it with my Swedish version until this morning. The word Skriva (write) is spelt Skriver on RS which is incorrect.

No, but it's been awhile since I used RS. This is one reason to try to use more than one source for learning a language. You never know if something is a misspelling, a grammatical error, an outdated word or phrase, a colloquialism, etc.

[sabotai]

January 31st

Linguaphone Deutsch - Finished up Section 2 in the afternoon and did all of Section 3 in the evening. With the Super Bowl tomorrow, I doubt I'll have time to work on this so I wanted to spend a lot of time on it today.

Vocab - No new words from Linguaphone. These are all from the vocab book

tiefgekühlt - frozen
der Kassenzettel - receipt
satt - full
ernähren - to live on, to eat
decken - to cover, to set (the table)
das Messer - knife
der Gabel - fork
der Löffel - spoon
die Tasse - cup
die Mahlzeit - meal
der Imbiß - snack
das Besteck - cutlery
das Geschirr - dishes, china
die Kanne - pot
die Schale - bowl
die Schüssel - bowl (bigger than Schale)
die Kerze - candle
die Zutat - ingredient
das Gewürz - seasoning, herbs and spices
vorbereiten - to prepare

[sabotai]

February 2nd

Linguaphone - Did Phase 1 of Section 4 tonight. Wanted to do the other two phases, but had some things I needed to do.

Vocab - I forgot to write down my words on to flashcard for work today, so the words above will be my words for tomorrow plus the five I took from Linguaphone today.

höflich - politely, courteously
ziemlich - rather, fairly, quite
einsteigen - to board (a vehicle)
wechseln - change (money)
dauern - to take, to last

[sabotai]

February 3rd

Linguaphone Deutsch - Finished up Section 4.

Vocab - Switching things up, I took 20 random words from the back of one of my Dual-Language books. (First German Reader)

adlig - aristocratic
arglos - innocent
behend - swift
boshaft - malicious
die Einladung - invitation
der Erwerb - acquisition
die Gasse - lane, alley
der Gram - sorrow
keck - bold
knurren - to growl
munter - cheerful
die Qual - torment
sachlich - factual
der Schutz - protection
tragbar - tolerable
unfruchtbar - sterile
der Verrat - treason
wahrhaftig - truthful
winzig - tiny
der Zorn - anger

[sabotai]

February 4th

Linguaphone Deutsch - Did Section 5 today. So far, what I like most about Linguaphone is the listening part. My listening comprehension is still pretty bad, but I feel like this is really helping. I'm going to get through the whole program, but this will definitely be my last "commercial system". I tried out a lot of systems to see what works for me and what I like, and I've found my answers. Michel Thomas and Linguahone are the two I'll look into for when I learn other languages.

Vocab

Linguaphone
schiken - to send
der Schalter - counter. switch, ticket window
erklären - to explain
das Vergnügen - delight, pleasure

First German Reader
ausbreiten - to spread out
bedenklich - dubious
die Demut - humility
emsig - eager, zealous
erregen - excite, agitate
frech - insolent
getrost - confidently
die Hinsicht - respect
die Krawatte - necktie, cravat
merklich - audible, noticable
die Pracht - splendor
schleppen - to drag
seicht - shallow
streben - to strive
ungeduldig - impatient
verbreitet - widespread

[sabotai]

February 5th

Linguaphone Duetsch - Did section 6 today.

Vocab - back to the vocab book

Linguaphone
die Wohnung - flat, apartment
möbliert - furnished
schlimm - bad

Mastering German Vocabulary
der Topf - pot, saucepan
rühren - to stir
braten - to fry
die Pfanne - frying pan
gar - done
schlälen - to peel
ausdrücken - to squeeze the juice out of
würzen - to season
anbrennen - to burn
das Hähnchen - chicken
der Knödel - dumpling
die Pommes frites - french fries
die Soße - sauce, gravy
das Spiegelei - fried egg
der Eintopf - stew
zart - tender
zäh - tough

[sabotai]

Didn't do anything except sleep on Friday night (the 6th).

February 7th and 8th

Linguaphone - Completed Section 7 and Section 8.

Vocab

Linguaphone
die Verlobung - engagement
das Tuch - scarf
seiden - silk
sich entschließen - to make up one's mind
die Kollegmappe - briefcase

Mastering German Vocabulary
das Matjesfilet - young herring
die Forelle - trout
der Pfannkuchen - pancake
der Kellner - waitor
bedienen - to serve
bestellen - to order
aussuchen - to choose
das Gericht - dish
die Vorspeise - appetizer
empfehlen - recommend
lecker - tasty
probieren - try, have a taste
die Kneipe - bar
die Beilage - side dish
der Gasthof - inn

[sabotai]

Didn't feel well for most of the week, and on top of that, it's been a bad week at work so I didn't do much. Finally got back to it tonight.

February 12

Linguaphone - Did Section 9 tonight. I'm starting to see a lot of words I do not recognize.

Vocab - Here's tomorrow's list. Have 12 from Linguaphone, and finished it out with 8 from Mastering German Vocab. These 8 finish out Chapter 4: Eating. Chapter 5 is next, and it's on Clothing.

Linguaphone
begrußen - to welcome, to greet
während - during
Schwenswürdigkeit - sight (tourism)
berühmt - well-known, famous
überhaupt nicht - not at all
noch lange nicht - far from, not by a long shot
schwierig - difficult
die Geduld - patience
einladen - to invite
anderhalb - one and a half (used with time)
wählen - to dial (telephone)
Das heißt - that is, that means

Mastering German Vocabulary
reichlich - ample
die Bedienung - service, waitor or waitress
der Nachtisch - dessert
die Scheibe - slice
der Wirt[-in] - innkeeper, rest. manager
das Kännchen - pot
die Theke - bar
vorbestellen - order in advance

[sabotai]

Update (Feb 13th-20th)

I didn't do a good job at keeping up with this during the week. I completed Sections 10, 11 and 12 of Linguaphone, but I dropped the ball on the vocab. I'm going to get this back on track over the weekend. I think I need to find one or two other things to do to keep me focused and motivated. Doing the same thing every day wears me down a bit and can get boring. Each Section of Linguaphone has 3 phases, and I can do 1 or two phases one a day, and the remainder the next, but it's still not enough. I need to throw something else into the mix to keep things interesting and fun for me.

[samifan24]

Very cool dynasty thread. I took German for a year in college but don't remember much, mostly because the professor spent most of his time ranting about the US. Still it is an interesting language and I've thought about trying to pick it up (or any second language) again. I was interested to read your thoughts on the easiest way to start a new language with audio CDs or software. Good luck!

[sabotai]

February 21st and 22nd

Compeleted Section 13 of Linguaphone Deutsch.. Did phase 1 on Saturday and phases 2 and 3 on Sunday. I also sat down with one of my Dual-Language books (First German Reader). I didn't worry about taking down vocab or anything, I simply read the German side, and then the English side 2 or 3 times. To start off, there's some poems and some paragraph or 2 long short stories.

Tomorrow's Vocab, taken from the last several Linguaphone lessons
tätig sein - to work
versorgen - to provide
sich gedulden - to wait patiently
sich lohnen - to be worth it
die Überraschung - surprise
sich verarbschieden - to say good-bye, to take one's leave
drankommen - to have one's turn
gespannt sein - to wonder, be anxious to know
sich zanken - to quarrel
sich versöhnen - to patch up a quarrel
sich ärgern - to be annoyed, angry
zukünftig - future
sich erinnen - to remember
drehen - to curl
reinigen - to clean
anschließend - afterwards
wahrscheinlich - probably
beschäftigen - to occupy
eifersüchtig - jealous
entgegennehmen - to take an order

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by samifan24

Very cool dynasty thread. I took German for a year in college but don't remember much, mostly because the professor spent most of his time ranting about the US. Still it is an interesting language and I've thought about trying to pick it up (or any second language) again. I was interested to read your thoughts on the easiest way to start a new language with audio CDs or software. Good luck!

I have not used it yet, but I've seen an Assimil lesson (specifically, I've seen the Spanish version). I would give the German one a try, but I'm done with "starting over" with new systems. I'm not sure I'd get much out of it now. At some point, I plan to learn Spanish, and I'm going to start that off with using Assimil's "Spanish With Ease".

The best part is they are cheap. Very cheap, in fact, when you compare them to something like Rosetta Stone or Pimsluer.

This is the German one: Amazon.com: German with Ease (Assimil Language Learning Programs, English Base): Hilde Schneider: Books

You just have to be careful with Amazon when ordering Assimil products. They have several versions of each product with wildly different prices (which is why I linked to the specific one you'd want - If you spend more than $40 on a "With Ease" Assimil product off of Amazon, you're looking at the wrong product). The price may make it seem like a cheap product that you'll be done with in a week or two, but it isn't. It's 109 lessons, 480 page book and 4 CDs with audio for the lessons. I wish I had known about this when I started German.

So anyway, if you are going to start learning a new language, I'd start with an Assimil "With Ease" product.

[sabotai]

February 23rd - 28th

I completed a few more Linguaphone lessons. I am now half done with it, but I have been slowly transitioning away from it and more to spending time with a dual-language book, so I'm not sure I will actually finish it completely. Still helpful with working on my listening ability, but I feel I get a bit more out of dual-language books, as well as other methods, now. Linguaphone being the 4th or 5th system I have worked through by now, I think doing things that are more active help me out more.

The problem I have now with doing a system is that I know some, or in most cases most, of what is intended to be taught by the lesson. So it makes me lazy. I quickly go through the stuff I know and my thinking and work-ethic are just not fully committed.

So, I have spent more time with books and I also listen to the videos on spiegel.de (even though I still don't understand much of it).

Another thing I have started to try to do is to take movie scripts and translate them into German. I wanted to start with something simple, something aimed at kids as well, so I picked The Incredibles. Still working on the first scene now. It's pretty slow going since I have to look things up (sometimes because I don't know something, sometimes to reassure my pessimistic mind). It's helped me practice sentence structure, but sometimes the characters talk in sentence fragments and trip me up a bit.

[sabotai]

March 1st - March 8th

Not much to report here. I've spent about 30-60 minutes each night with a dual-language book. I am putting First German Reader to the side for now, though. It's supposed to be a "beginner's" book, but it's far from. The entries are all short, but still have a lot of vocab that a beginner wouldn't know and the writing is pretty complex. I think they call it "beginner" just because of the short entries (1-2 paragraph long stories at first).

I moved on to Parallel Text: German Short Stories 1. It's no more "beginner" than the previous book, but the stories are longer (typical short story length), and will keep my attention and interest far better than what was in First German Reader. Right now I am reading "Die Blasse Anna" by Heinrich Böll.

For this week's vocab, I am going to take words from 501 German Verbs.

[sabotai]

March 9th - March 18th

Been awhile since an update, and I've changed how I am studying (again). After a week or two of solely using a dual-language book, I've learned I don't do well without a game plan. I think I did fine and learned/reinforced from the dual-language book, but I only spent maybe half of the days actually putting a lot of effort into it. I got lazy. Again.

I'm aiming to spend 2 hours a day on it now, and I am going to use a few different things each day.

For one, I still have Pimsleur German II and III. I'll listen to a lesson each day (~30 minutes). It's 60 lessons, so it should take 2 months to get through them.

I really coasted through Michel Thomas Advanced German. I rarely used the pause button and was just trying to get through it quickly. So I am going to redo Advanced German with Michel Thomas, and spend ~30 minutes on it a day. It should take maybe 2 weeks to really work my way through them. It's only 4 CDs (not counting the review), so take about 1 hour each CD, but add an hour or two for total time I have it paused.

I also bought a few Grammar workbooks. German Grammar Drills, Practice Makes Perfect Vocabulary and Practive Makes Perfect Pronouns and Prepositions. I'm starting with German Grammar Drills. Each day, I will do the exercises for 1 chapter, and look forward to the next chapter. I'll spend time reading up (1001 Pitfalls of German and Hammer's Grammar and Usage) about the topic. Also, if I do poorly on the drills, I will make sure to review what I got wrong. I've also stopped using flash cards each day for vocabulary and will use them, for now, on grammar rules or notes.

So the plan is
1) 1 Pimsleur Lesson (~30 minutes)
2) Michel Thomas Advanced German (~30 minutes)
3) Grammar Drills and Reading (30-60 minutes)
4) If time left over, dual-language book.

When I am done with the Michel Thomas Advanced German, I will either go back to Linguaphone and restart that (probably at a much earlier point from where I left off) or move on to his Vocabulary CDs.

I am going to try to update this daily again, even if it's just a line or two of what I did.

March 18th
1) Pimsleur German II - Lesson 1 (30 minutes)
2) Michel Thomas Advanced German Disc 1 (30 minuites)
3) German Grammar Drills Chapter 1: Determining Gender.
- Tomorrow's Topic: Plurals. Spent about 10 minutes on the drills, and about 30 minutes reading about plurals, writing up a few flash cards for work tomorrow.
4) Read 2 pages of the short story "Story In Reverse" by Ilse Aichinger (dual-language book) (~20 minutes). With dual-language books, I like to read aloud, and usually read each line twice as I first try to determine what it means on my own, and then the second time, I compare it to the English side.

Total Time: 2 hours

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March 19th

1) Pimsleur German II - Unit 2 (30 Minutes)
2) Michel Thomas Advanced German - Lessons 6-11 (30 minutes)
3) German Grammar Drills Chapter 2: Plurals. Did pretty well on these drills. The few I got wrong were words I was unfamiliar with. I also read about Pronouns, which will be tomorrow's drills (20 minutes)
4) Read 1 1/2 pages of "Story In Reverse". I read "Pale Anna" last week and found it to be a pretty easy read. "Story In Reverse" is a more difficult read for me and it's taking longer to work through (~20 minutes)

Total Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

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March 20th

1) Pimsleur German II - Unit 3 (30 minutes)
2) Michel Thomas Advanced German - Lessons 12-16 (30 minutes)

Total Time: 1 hour

March 21st

1) German Grammar Drills: Pronouns. Read about Nominative Case (20 minutes)
2) Pimsleur German II - Unit 4 (30 minutes)
3) Michel Thomas Advanced German - Lessons 17-23 (30 minutes)
4) German Grammar Drills: Nominative Case Drills, Read about Accusative Case (40 minutes)

Did #1 early in the day and #4 late.

Total Time: 2 hours

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2-3 days a month, I have to get up extra early for work. Unfortunately this month, it's 4 days and all 4 are this week. Mon-Wed and tomorrow, Friday, were/will be very long days for me so it didn't leave much time for anything. Managed to get some work in tonight. Good news is I have a few days off next week, so I'll spend a lot of time catching up.

March 26th
1) Pimsleur German II - Unit 5 (30 minutes)
2) Michel Thomas Advanced German - Disc 2, Lessons 1-7 (25 minutes)
3) German Grammar Drills: Accusative Case (20 minutes)

Total Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

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March 27th
1) Pimsleur German II - Unit 6 (30 minutes)
2) Michel Thomas Advanced German - Disc 2, Lessons 8-13 (30 minutes)

Total Time: 1 hour

March 28th
1) Spent a long time reading about the accusative and dative cases in Hammer's. Also did some exercises from German Grammar Drills on the dative case (60 minutes)
2) Pimsleur German II - Unit 7 (30 minutes)
3) Read a few more pages of "Story in Reverse" (30 minutes)

Total Time: 2 hours

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March 29th
1) Pimsleur German II - Unit 8 (30 minutes)
2) Michel Thomas Advanced German - Disc 2 Lessons 14-18 (30 minutes)
3) Read up on the gentative case and did some drills (30 minutes)

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

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Got caught up in other things the last few days. I did occasionally pick up a grammar book but didn't really get much time in.

I also got a few more things tot help with my German. I bought Der Kleine Prinz (and the English version "The Little Prince"). It's a book meant for 4-8 year olds so I think it'll be a good book to use a dual-language "book". I also bought Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen, but not the English version. After I'm done with all the "systems" that I'm using, I'll use this as my first real test. Just the book and possibly an online dictionary that's German (IOW, try to read through it without any help in English).

April 3rd
1) Pimsluer German II - Unit 10 (30 minutes)
2) Read about prepositions in the accusative and dative in Hammer's (45 minutes)

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

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April 4th
1) Pimsleur German II - Unit 11 (30 minutes)
2) Michel Thomas Advanced German - Disc 3 Lessons 1-7 (30 minutes)
3) Did some drills on accusative-dative prepositions and read about Der- and Ein- words (20 minutes)

Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes


April 5th
1) Pimsleur German II - Unit 12 (30 minutes)
2) Michel Thomas Advanced German - Disc 3 Lessons 8-12 (30 minutes)
3) Read about adjectives in 1001 Pitfalls and Hammer's (30 minutes)

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

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Not much done the last few days. I research my family tree semi-often and found a really good lead that led to some good info. Sometimes with I get into my genealogist mode, it's almost like an obsession and I lose hours upon hours digging into everything I can find.

April 6th
1) Pimsleur German II - Unit 13 (30 minutes)
2) Practice Makes Perfect: Vocabulary (40 minutes)

April 8th
1) Pimsleur German II - Unit 14 (30 minutes)
2) Practice Makes perfect: Vocabulary (20 minutes)

Total Time: 2 hours (over the last 3 days)

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April 9th - April 12th
Pimsleur German II Units 15 and 16. (Total 60 minutes)
Michel Thomas Advanced German Disc 3 Lessons 16-18 and Disc 4 Lessons 1-5 (Total 60 minutes)
Reviewed Adjectives and did some drills (30 minutes)

Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

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April 13th
1) Pimsleur German II Unit 17 (30 minutes)
2) Michel Thomas Disc 4 Lessons 6-9 (30 minutes)
Total Time: 1 hour

April 14th
1) Pimsleur German II Unit 18 (30 minutes)
2) Michel Thomas Disc 4 Lessons 10-18 (30 minutes)
The last several lessons of Michel Thomas were only a few minutes each. I'm done with Michel Thomas Advanced German (again). I think i got more out of it this time around.
Total Time: 1 hour

April 15th
1) Pimsleur German II Unit 19 (30 minutes)
2) Read (Hammer's) about verb tenses (30 minutes)
Total Time: 1 hour

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Just a quick update. All I have done the last week have been Pimsleur units.

April 16th - April 23rd

Pimsluer German II Units 20-26 (30 minutes per = 3.5 hours total)

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April 24th - April 26th

Pimsluer German II Units 27 and 28 (60 minutes total)

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April 27th
Pimsleur German II Units 29 and 30 (60 minutes)

Apirl 28th
Pimsleur German III - Unit 1 (30 minutes)
Michel Thomas Vocabulary Builder - Disc 1 Tracks 1-3 (20 minutes)
Total Time: 50 minutes

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Update

Have slacked off a bit, but still making sure to try to get at least a Pimsleur lesson in. I am up to Unit 7 of Pimsluer (so I've listened to 5 Units since the last update). I have not moved on with Michel Thomas. I have to make sure to get back to that.

I've also started reading Der Kleine Prinz (The Little Prince). I also have the English version so I use it like a dual-language book. I compare the grammar of the sentences, word usage, etc. What I do is read the same several pages over and over again. That way not only do I see words used in context, I also get the repetition. So far I've done this twice with the first 8 pages. I'll do it 2 or 3 more times, and then any words I am still having trouble with, I'll start using a vocab program to drill them.

It takes about an hour to get through those 8 pages since I am reading it out loud, but also I am studying and repeating the sentences. I usually read each sentence at least twice, and work out what it means in English. Unless I just instantly understand the sentence and move on, which happened a bit more often the second time I read it.

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May 10, 2009
1) Pimsleur German III - Unit 7 (30 minutes)
2) Michel Thomas Vocab Builder - Disc I - Tracks 4-6 (30 minutes)
Total Time: 1 hour

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May 11, 2009
1) Pimsleur German III - Unit 8 (30 minutes)
2) Michel Thomas Vocab Builder - Disc 1 - Tracks 7-11 (30 Minutes)
Total Time: 1 hour

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May 12, 2009
1) Read pages 1-8 of Der Kleine Prinz for the third time. Tomorrow, I will read them one last time and make a list of words I'm still having problems with. So far, it's only about 4-5 words that I'm still not quite clear on, mainly since they only appear once. I did take far less time to read the pages this time. Some of it may be that I'm learning the words, some is probably that I am just memorizing the meaning of the sentence. Time will tell how much is the former and how much is the latter. (30 minutes)
2) Pimsleur German III -Unit 9 (30 minutes)
Total Time: 1 hour

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Update

The reason I stopped updating the thread was because I stopped doing the commercial systems, plus it served its purpose in helping me to focus. Studying German has become a standard part of my day now, like eating or sleeping. I moved onto my own ways of maintaining what I have learned and learning what I need to know. (AKA - the intermediate stage)

Here are some of the things I do.

1) Sentence Method - Simply, this is using partial or full sentences instead of just single words. I have been using a program called Anki. it's an SRS (Spaced Repetition System) flash card program. You grade yourself on how you do, and the better you do on a card, the more time it'll take for you to see it again. Grade your answer poorly, and you'll see it again shortly. There are several other SRS programs out there, both freeware and commercial, but I like Anki (freeware) the best.

The idea behind the "Sentence Method" is to input good sentences that are grammatically correct (obviously). This way you learn both grammar and vocab at the same time. Not only that, but you'll see how to properly use the words. A very simple example of this would be: "A construction place" and "A construction site"...one sounds wrong and one sounds right, but they would both look right if all you did was study vocab words because place and site both mean the same thing, but they're used differently. You don't get that subtely when you just study vocab lists.

I inputed the vast majority (~95%) of the sentences from 1001 Pitfalls In German into Anki. A few others from some other books gives me 935 sentences total in Anki right now (in the end, I'd like to get in to the 5 figures, 10,000+ sentences). I started off with the grammar book so that I would populate Anki with examples of just about every important grammar rule.

I do this at least twice a day. In the afternoon, I'm usually doing 50+ sentences that are up for reviews. Around 11pm I'll do more, and I take however many are up for review and minus that from 50 to get how many new sentences to do. So if 21 more are up fro review at 11pm, I'll do 29 new ones. According to Anki, I averaged 117 cards a day last week, and I spend anywhere from 20 minutes to 35 minutes a day doing this.

Next, I'll probably start going through my vocab books and googling/searching texts for sentences to use. I think my weakest point right now is verbs. Whenever I start to read a news article or a story, it's usually the verb that trips me up. So I want to get a ton of sentences in there to learn a lot of verbs. Also, a bit of wisdom I've read more than once is "Learn a noun with the verb(s) that act(s) on it." So if I learn a bunch of verbs, it should make learning the nouns a bit easier.

ok, enough about the damn Sentence Method....You can read more about it at these websites
Antimoon.com: How to learn English effectively
All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency.

2) Background Noise - I will usually have Downfall, The Lives of Others or Run Lola Run playing in the background every night. What I really need, though, is a region free DVD player so that I can order DVDs, especially TV shows, from Germany. The US market for German DVDs is just not there. A few movies, no TV shows...and what few DVDs we do have, they don't have German subtitles, and on some you can't turn off the English subtitles.

3) German TV - Speaking German TV, several German TV station do have video online much like American TV stations do. ARD.de - Homepage , and ZDF.de - Startseite are the two sites I go to. The problem is I don't know which shows are good, and when I do watch, I still have a hard time understanding them. My vocab is still limited, and I have not spent nearly enough time listening to German. I will usually watch 30 minutes a night, but neither site really has that much available to watch. (I wonder if there is a German Hulu......)

4) Books / Audiobooks - I'm still reading, slowly, through Der Kleine Prinz. One of these nights, I'm going to input the sentences from Der Kleine Prinz that have words in them that I'm still having trouble remembering. My reading is slowly getting better, though.

I have a few of Franz Kafka's books/short stories in audiobook form, and what I'd like to do is to read through them while listening to the audio. This probably won't happen for a bit, though. Kafka is a little advanced, I would imagine, for me right now.

There are audiobooks of Grimm's Fariy Tales in German on Project Gutenburg, but not the text. I know I can get the text, but the websites where I've seen it, I would have to copy and paste each individual story....I think someone on the MobileRead forum is working on converting the text into the Sony format, so I'm waiting for that. Or one day I'll just say "fuck it" and go copy and paste all of the stories into one large text file and put it on my Sony Reader.



Other Languages

I have started learning Spanish and Japanese, and there are more languages I would like to learn as well. In reading what linguists and poliglots have to say, learning more than one language at a time is not only more common than you'd think, but for someone wanting to learn multiple languages (like me), studying and learning more than one at a time is pretty much a necessity. Especially someone like me who is starting something like this in his 30s.

So, now that my German learning is mostly just me taking in as much input as possible and doing German sentence flash cards, I thought now would be a good time to start a few more.

With Spanish, I am using a product called Assimil (which I mentioned earlier). It is a bit outdated (for instance, they use "telefonear" as the verb to call someone, which would be like me saying "I telephoned him." No one says that anymore, in the US or in Spain (from what I've read)). However, just about every commercial product out there has parts of it that are outdated. It's almost unavoidable. The point of these lessons (despite some claims of fluency) is to get a good foundation for the grammar, sentence construction, vocab, etc. Short of going to the country and living there, every system is going to give you some outdated terms.

Today, I did lesson 12. I really like Assimil. You get a dual-language book that has over 100 lessons in it. Each lesson has about a dozen or so sentences, and it'll point out any major grammar notes. Plus, every 7th lesson is a grammar review. You also get audio CDs that have speakers saying all of the target language text. Assimil is less a "system" and more a collection of raw material.

For a full review of Assimil, watch Professor Arguelles' youtube review: YouTube - Assimil: Foreign Language Learning Series Reviews
He also reviews a lot of other products, and has a lot of videos about other languages on youtube.

After I do a lesson, I input all of the sentances that appear into Anki. There's the 12 or so sentences that make up the main lesson, another 8-9 in exercises and several more in fill in the blank exercises. I usally get 20-30 sentences per lesson. So my Spanish "class" for the day is: 1) Assimil Lesson. 2) Do sentences in Anki from previous lessons. 3) Input sentences from today's lesson into Anki.

As for Japanese, I have not really started learning it yet. What I am doing right now is going through Heisig's Remembering the Kanji (vol 1). He assigns each Kanji a "keyword" (which is its basic meaning, or one of them) and creates a story for it to help you remember it. When a knaji (or a primitive) shows up in another kanji, he incorperates the keyword into the story for the new kanji. My pace right now is doing a lesson every other day while reviewing previous lessons in Anki every day.

- Both Spanish and Japanese get their share of "background noise" as well. A lot of DVDs have Spanish dubs, I have several Spanish movies, and I have a ton of Japanese stuff to play (Anime series and several movies).


So that's where I am, and this post is much longer than I intended. I'll probably update more from time to time.