Elliot Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 1 hour ago, gingerjon said: A forum friend recommended these books and they're pretty decent for picking up new words and contexts. The same author has also done some more intermediate level crime ones. ARD and ZDF both have decent websites with a fair amount of content, a lot of which is both non-geoblocked and available with German subtitles. I now know how to inquire after someone's parentage and imply that they only have that opinion because the girl in question is a good lay. (There are other TV sites - Arte, for example - but levels of interest will probably depend on topics available.) Radio is widely available. ardaudiothek.de is a good place to start or there's the Radio Garden app. Actually speaking it in a supportive context in on my horizon but I'm not quite sure where/when/how that will happen yet. Fantastic, thanks for all those resources, i will take a look later. I am improving in my reading of various media pieces. For example I have been following Hertha Berlin so I try to read a lot of their output. I am still at beginner stages so a lot I have to look up but getting better. Also I have tried listening to press conferences etc and player interviews, that is a lot harder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerjon Posted March 14, 2021 Author Share Posted March 14, 2021 1 hour ago, Elliot said: Fantastic, thanks for all those resources, i will take a look later. I am improving in my reading of various media pieces. For example I have been following Hertha Berlin so I try to read a lot of their output. I am still at beginner stages so a lot I have to look up but getting better. Also I have tried listening to press conferences etc and player interviews, that is a lot harder Good stuff. I'm still only following Werder Bremen's English language feeds because, frankly, I don't need to hear the German for "disappointing 1-1 draw" too often. That said, because I redefine the word 'sad', I have watched a couple of Werder's women's handball team (they don't have a men's side as far as I'm aware) via the Sport Deutschland website. Said website has a tonne of non-football sport livestreamed with German commentary. I looked just now and there was fencing on. Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marauder Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 On 12/03/2021 at 19:32, distantdog said: Was that the one further north from Fally? Munster Oertze? Yes, where the artillery ranges are, between Soltau and Uelzen. Carlsberg don't do Soldiers, but if they did, they would probably be Brits. http://www.pitchero....hornemarauders/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
distantdog Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 1 hour ago, Marauder said: Yes, where the artillery ranges are, between Soltau and Uelzen. Know it well, used to play golf at the small course they had and my wife taught at the school there. They had a link to a listening post at Dannenberg. Also, as with any decent German town, they had a great Argentinian Steak House. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marauder Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 6 hours ago, distantdog said: Know it well, used to play golf at the small course they had and my wife taught at the school there. They had a link to a listening post at Dannenberg. Also, as with any decent German town, they had a great Argentinian Steak House. The golf course not far from the main gates was built by my Regt at the time around 1974 Carlsberg don't do Soldiers, but if they did, they would probably be Brits. http://www.pitchero....hornemarauders/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
distantdog Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 Just now, Marauder said: The golf course not far from the main gates was built by my Regt at the time around 1974 Small world! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerjon Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 Day 90 odd on my Duolingo streak. This morning I learnt how to say that the Penguin dreams of flying. All useful stuff. Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Frying Scotsman Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 On 14/03/2021 at 09:25, gingerjon said: ARD and ZDF both have decent websites with a fair amount of content, a lot of which is both non-geoblocked and available with German subtitles. I now know how to inquire after someone's parentage and imply that they only have that opinion because the girl in question is a good lay. (There are other TV sites - Arte, for example - but levels of interest will probably depend on topics available.) Radio is widely available. ardaudiothek.de is a good place to start or there's the Radio Garden app. I would second this as an approach. My French improved massively by watching Belgian TV with the audio and subtitles both in French. The fact you can also see what's going on makes it easier to understand and if you stick at it, it is a very good approach for certain learners. If I was you, I would watch some German news every day with German subtitles. You can try to understand what is being said, but constantly glance down for reinforcement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glemiln Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 Anyone old enough to remember these? Liane Rudolph and Petra Schroeder the presenters of Kontakte, a BBC German language tv and radio programme in 1977! The ladies certainly held my attention, especially when explaining mit Sahne! The tuition helped for my business visits to Hannover, but I hate cream! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCO Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 I remember Kontakte from 1977ish. My formal German lessons finished in 1975 when I took my O-levels but, due to the interest my teachers had cultivated, I was still an enthusiastic watcher of the programme 2 years on. (Also Liane was very adept at getting me to pay attention!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnM Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 On 25/03/2021 at 09:31, gingerjon said: Day 90 odd on my Duolingo streak. This morning I learnt how to say that the Penguin dreams of flying. All useful stuff. Hmm. My owl is still painting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCO Posted April 9, 2021 Share Posted April 9, 2021 Gents/Ladies, I am late in finding and reading this topic but it is of interest to me as it deals with a couples of issues I’ve been thinking about and I would appreciate thoughts from other contributors. At school my German teaching was very good, as a result of which enough knowledge stuck with me that years later working in South Africa I found Afrikaans very familiar. As a result I can now improvise enough to make myself understood when on holiday in Flanders or the Netherlands. I am now trying to find a motive and a use for either re-learning German or starting to learn Dutch properly. What do others think? Similarly, having spent university and early career time in Wales, I picked up a familiarity with Welsh. At a push I can order and pay for the groceries on a N Welsh campsite. I’d like to have go at learning it properly after all theses years but, apart from being able to watch S4C, what could I usefully do with it? So, German or Dutch - which and why? Welsh as well? Thanks, JCO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerjon Posted April 9, 2021 Author Share Posted April 9, 2021 25 minutes ago, JCO said: Gents/Ladies, I am late in finding and reading this topic but it is of interest to me as it deals with a couples of issues I’ve been thinking about and I would appreciate thoughts from other contributors. At school my German teaching was very good, as a result of which enough knowledge stuck with me that years later working in South Africa I found Afrikaans very familiar. As a result I can now improvise enough to make myself understood when on holiday in Flanders or the Netherlands. I am now trying to find a motive and a use for either re-learning German or starting to learn Dutch properly. What do others think? Similarly, having spent university and early career time in Wales, I picked up a familiarity with Welsh. At a push I can order and pay for the groceries on a N Welsh campsite. I’d like to have go at learning it properly after all theses years but, apart from being able to watch S4C, what could I usefully do with it? So, German or Dutch - which and why? Welsh as well? Thanks, JCO. I did Dutch on Babbel prior to going to Flanders on holiday primarily because I remembered from a previous time how it's variable whether the person you're speaking to will be happy/comfortable speaking English with you. It did actually come in handy but the course only goes up to a very low level. What I did find was that I couldn't easily find a huge number of resources that were useful to anyone outside Belgium/Netherlands in learning Dutch - primarily, I think, because across that area most people are basically fluent in English or another language so they just don't create a lot of learner content. I'm doing German primarily on Duolingo which, I believe, when done, claims you should be B2 standard (good A-level). I'm enjoying it but I'd accept it's not for everyone. I'm backing that up with German films, TV and radio. Of which, and this is the difference, there are a huge number. And there's a lot that is directly done to aid learning. I've also now found that the Goethe Insitute online library has tonnes of e-books and audiobooks for free as well. It's up to you and if you're doing it for fun then go for which one you'd actually like to do. Welsh? I half follow a learners' group and they all either do Say Something in Welsh (SSIW) or Duolingo. In day to day life, you won't be able to do much more than watch S4C but S4C is a pretty decent channel. Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCKonstantine Posted April 9, 2021 Share Posted April 9, 2021 Among other things I found the whole "Coffee Break.." series to be quite useful, and it's now on spotify. Always helpful to listen to actual humans having conversations instead of just talking to an owl! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerjon Posted April 9, 2021 Author Share Posted April 9, 2021 1 hour ago, YCKonstantine said: Among other things I found the whole "Coffee Break.." series to be quite useful, and it's now on spotify. Always helpful to listen to actual humans having conversations instead of just talking to an owl! Thanks for that. Added to the list. Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Decimus Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 It's not strictly German but I thought this'd be a good place to put it. Until about 4 months ago I was learning French on Duolingo and had a streak of about 500 days. I did enjoy it and certainly learnt much more than I knew previously. It was however becoming a chore, and I felt like I was hitting a bit of a wall. After a few months, I fancy giving it another go but trying something else like Rosetta Stone or Babbel. Initial indications of these are that they seem to make you start really easy and with RS it only seems to go up to quite an easy bit. Anyone got any experience of any of these or what else might be worth trying? A Widnesian in Ireland blog What is the best system for Super League? An honest appraisal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerjon Posted August 19, 2021 Author Share Posted August 19, 2021 12 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said: It's not strictly German but I thought this'd be a good place to put it. Until about 4 months ago I was learning French on Duolingo and had a streak of about 500 days. I did enjoy it and certainly learnt much more than I knew previously. It was however becoming a chore, and I felt like I was hitting a bit of a wall. After a few months, I fancy giving it another go but trying something else like Rosetta Stone or Babbel. Initial indications of these are that they seem to make you start really easy and with RS it only seems to go up to quite an easy bit. Anyone got any experience of any of these or what else might be worth trying? I can't remember - are you in Northern Ireland? If so: maybe contact these guys https://www.cerclefrancaisdebelfast.org/p/bienvenue.html If not, these ones: https://www.afmanchester.org/ (Other cities are available ... ) Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob8 Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 On 11/03/2021 at 14:50, gingerjon said: There's a rather lovely YouTube account called Easy German who basically walk around Berlin (and a few other places) asking people cheerful questions. That's a nice balancer. You're right that Duolingo does get very repetitive at times. The only other real issue - and I don't know if I can fix in settings because I keep forgetting to look - is that it functions on German-American English translations. Mostly not a problem but when, as just now, it translates a specific German school level into its American equivalent then I'm actually none the wiser because that term doesn't exist here. There was a study I fear that showed emotional impact helped you learn languages better. Unfortunately, the Danish language services seemed well aware of this. There was a dialogue that involved a man asking a woman out and her saying no and him not getting the message, so she kept spelling out how much she did not want to see him in her life. In any way. Ever. Then there were the story books: An older lady starts to struggle and it turns out it is dementia. Everything is getting worse and will continue to do so. An immigrant man brings his wife to Denmark, but she is struggling to settle, he goes to buy her a gift and is wrongly arrested for shop lefting. A girl is cruelly bullied. And that is it. The problem when you are struggling with the language is you would have to pour hours into this sort of thing. "You clearly have never met Bob8 then, he's like a veritable Bryan Ferry of RL." - Johnoco 19 Jul 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herness Posted September 7, 2021 Share Posted September 7, 2021 Duolingo is the best. I was learning Spanish for about 15 minutes every day for 1,5 years. When we went on vacation to Mexico i was able to have a basic conversation in Spanish, ask for the directions, ask for help in the supermarket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerjon Posted February 3, 2022 Author Share Posted February 3, 2022 Had a go at the Deutsche Welle placement test and scored 75% on their A2 exercises. Pleased with that - especially given that a fair few of the dropped marks were genuine typos or lack of concentration mis-clicks. Pretty much exhausted Duolingo and am now using my language learning for the things it was always intended for: listening to German adaptations of Narnia on the ARD website. Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumby Magic Posted February 3, 2022 Share Posted February 3, 2022 Love random things. This get rebooted the day I put on 3 1970s learn with BBC radio German Language books on my Etsy shop. Not that I'm advertising or owt lol. Like poor jokes? Thejoketeller@mullymessiah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowes Posted February 3, 2022 Share Posted February 3, 2022 The hardest thing I find in German is just how many synonyms there are for different things. Sometimes they have very subtly different meanings, but it means that whenever I read something in German there are always a lot of new words. I've been learning German a year longer than I have been learning Italian, but come across far more unfamiliar words in the former than the latter (though that's partly because of Italian's similarities to French and Spanish). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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