Warum nicht?

When I tell friends I'm learning German the most common question is Warum?? (But for why?? Why???) the answer- ich weiß nicht. I'm not planning to move there, I don't have a German boyfriend or even know any Germans. So really no logical reason. Maybe because it's there.

I started, as I've said before, with Duolingo- just planning to learn a few useful phrases for a holiday (like "the woman is wearing the jackets" for instance) but then I just couldn't stop. I wanted to know more and the more i learned the more i liked it. I love the way German sounds and the way they squish all the words together to make new words. And the way so many of their words are related to English but in odd and unexpected ways. Like i read that wesentlich meaning essential has the same w as was and were, it came from the same original root. And "Tier"(animal) is from an ancient word that in English became "deer"

The question that usually follows warum? is wie? (Can you tell I've been doing question words?) as in -have you enrolled in a class or are you doing a course online or what? Nein. Keine Klasse, keine Bücher, keine Lehrer - I'm just using free online tools and I'm just doing it for fun.

And so far, it's going well. So i thought I'd share my course, how to learn German for free, the Judy way, purely for fun and entertainment-

 

Every day

get up, maybe if time run through a bit of vocab on quizlet or memrise.

On the way to work stick a podcast on (currently the bonkers but wonderful "deutsch:warum nicht?" )

Lunchtime - vocab or read German websites (gutefrage, Wikipedia.de, news, pictures of cats, whatever you fancy at the time.)

You can always find somewhere to practise your German on the Internet

Drive back from work and if Eddie Mair is on radio 4 put a german podcast on

Evening- do vocab in the ad breaks whilst watching tv.

Watch a YouTube video.

Before bed read a chapter of a German book. Bore partner with tales of the German words you have learnt today. (Two reasons for this -1. it helps you remember new words, 2. it annoys him)

Every week

Watch a German film. Try not to use the subtitles. (Get annoyed when you almost understand but not quite and the subtitles disappear before you can read them)

Spend some time reading up on a grammar topic that's been bugging you (recent grammer lessons include- exactly what is the German word for "it", how come sometimes there's s's on the end of words and how many words for "the" does one language need anyway)

And that's about it. It's difficult without any kind of assessment but I feel like I've learnt more in two months doing this than I did in four years of school. I should say however- I'm mainly learning for reading and understanding, rather than speaking. My ultimate goal is to read a book without having to go to a dictionary every 10 words, or watch a film without subtitles. I am investigating some ways I can get some practice speaking, it would be good to have a simple conversation and not sound like a total idiot, but it's not my main goal.

Also, bin ich glücklich; jede Tag, vermehrt mein Vokabeln, verbessert mein verstehen und übersetzte ich ein bißchen mehr vor ich die Wörterbuch zu gehen muss.

 

 

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Where it began- duolingo

One of the things I want to do on this blog is talk about my experience with the various tools and apps available for language learning. So it seems right to start with the one that got me started -Duolingo.

Duolingo's very own nag bot -the nameless "owl who must be kept happy" - emails you every day reminding you there's German to be learnt.

Duolingo is a popular iPhone app and was named Apple's "App of the year" last year. It's very simple and colourful and makes ppl like me, nervous about embarking on a complex subject, feel welcome and supported. It also has all the usual "gamification" tricks to make you feel like you're making progress and give you a nudge to keep going. Hey you only need 10 more made up things to reach the next made up thing! -now I am human (and worse a gamer) so it works, but that kind of motivation is only going to take you so far.

After a few weeks I stopped using Duolingo. It was great to get me going but as I started actually wanting to learn rather than earn made up things the appeal started to wear off. It was all a bit simple and repetitive and I didn't feel like I was learning anything. Also the example sentences are not very useful and some are down right odd-

"die Ente ist ein Haustier" says the strange dead voice of the Duolingo woman
What? Hit repeat
"Die Ente ist ein Haustier "
Eh? The duck is.. something... hit repeat again
"Die Ente ist ein Haustier"
The duck is a ...pet? Really??

I can't see this being useful, unless I buy a duck and invite some Germans round...But maybe that's what duolingo wants me to do?

Other great examples include " the fly is eating the bread" and " the woman is wearing the jackets".

Also you can't really get an understanding of grammar from apps like this- I got up to the "dative" section and there's not much explanation just suddenly there's a lot of dems flying around and it's not really clear why.

But that said, it has become a bit of an easy target for ppl who think apps are all just whizzy nonsense and you can't be learning unless you're sat in a classroom. Which I really, really disagree with, so I feel the need to stick up for it.

Good things about Duolingo -

It got me started- without it wouldn't have got anywhere.

It's completely free. Which is amazing when you think about it.

And it did teach me a fair bit of vocab, like "duck" for example.

 

Im die Haustier Geschäft

 

Guten Tag ich möchte ein Ente kaufen.

Wir sind ein Haustier Geschäft , wir haben keine Ente.

Oh ich glaubte die ein sehr beliebte Haustier in Deutschland

Nein. Sie sind verrückt. Auf Wiedersehen

 

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