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wayward_zombie

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wayward_zombie

Hey! I'm starting german classes next week! I was wondering if anyone here has some tips and tricks to learn the language from a complete beginner and to start to familiarize with it? Thanks!

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No idea, but I recently started trying to teach myself German. It's going ok, except that I have no one to tell me if I'm pronouncing things right and pronunciation guides online can only get you so far. :o 

 

But anyway, good luck! :) 

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Native German speaker here! Which means that I have no idea what it's like to learn German as a foreigner BUT in case of pronounciation issues, ask away :D

 

Bonus: I'm a northerner, so no silly accents involved

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Hi! I'm a native German speaker and a trained teacher for German as a foreign language, but I have very little teaching experience. I hope to change that, though.

If you have any specific question or just want to chat in German, feel free to ask me here or send me a message! I'll see if I can find some easily accessible learning material for beginners.

 

41 minutes ago, Homer said:

Bonus: I'm a northerner, so no silly accents involved

Are you insinuating that the rest of us have silly accents? I feel offended, ya know.

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Another native speaker here.

I'd be glad to help. If you are native English speakers, maybe we can help each other.

 

57 minutes ago, Homer said:

I'm a northerner, so no silly accents involved

Don't listen to elephants. For some reason northernes think their language is purer and better than in the South - bollocks. There are some differences in vocabulary, spelling and grammar but the standard version down here is not that different. Dialects are, of course, but that doesn't make them "silly"...

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What always helps me learning languages are songs and poems. Even if you don't understand all of it they are great for getting used to the sound of a language and trying to imitate it.

A bit further down the road you could start watching films you know in English with German dubbing or even German films with English subtitles. There's a list of good ones here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuLa82EizOQ

 

Youtube Channels:

Easy German: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbxb2fqe9oNgglAoYqsYOtQ

Deutsch für Euch: https://www.youtube.com/user/DeutschFuerEuch

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Jona said:

A bit further down the road you could start watching films you know in English with German dubbing or even German films with English subtitles. There's a list of good ones here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuLa82EizOQ

Something that helped me greatly with pronounciation was watching the target language dubbing with target language subtitles. That's probably something for later down the road, but still. Also, newspapers are great for learning languages.

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9 minutes ago, Jona said:

What always helps me learning languages are songs and poems. Even if you don't understand all of it they are great for getting used to the sound of a language and trying to imitate it.

A bit further down the road you could start watching films you know in English with German dubbing or even German films with English subtitles.

 

 

Yeah, I have a couple of songs in German that I listen to, but it doesn't mean anything. I might take them word-for-word to google translate and see if I can give the sounds any meaning. 

 

I was excited to find the German version of Inside Out - it's one of my favorite movies and I practically know every line by heart, so that was fun.

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wayward_zombie

Thank you everyone!! 

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Squirrel?

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39 minutes ago, Lonely Mudkip said:

Squirrel?

Eichhörnchen!

 

(also don't mention squirrels on AVEN. It's bad luck)

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There's a ridiculous video of Germans trying to pronounce 'squirrel' on YT :D

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hopeisnotlost
4 minutes ago, Jona said:

Eichhörnchen!

 

(also don't mention squirrels on AVEN. It's bad luck)

Why is it bad luck?

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wayward_zombie

I'm confused? 

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1 minute ago, hopeisnotlost said:

Why is it bad luck?

Shush!

 

:P It's what we used to call the SQL errors the server used to have problems with.

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hopeisnotlost
Just now, Jona said:

Shush!

 

:P It's what we used to call the SQL errors the server used to have problems with.

Got it so no mentioning the cute furry animals...

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Rainer M. Rilke, Der Panther: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRuWSRjioos

This is a quite decent translation:

 

The Panther

His gaze, from bars endlessly passing by,

has grown so weary nothing more to hold,

to him there seem to be a thousand bars so high

and behind a thousand bars - no world.

 

The supple gait pacing in crampéd round,

the movement of his powerful soft strides,

is like a dance of strength, and, centre bound,

a great dazed will amidst stands paralyzed.

 

Only at times, the pupils' blind would part,

then, to an image give entrance silently:

't goes through the limbs' calm tenseness to the heart,

and, in the heart - would cease to be.

(transl. by A.W. Tüting)

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3 hours ago, Homer said:

There's a ridiculous video of Germans trying to pronounce 'squirrel' on YT :D

That's what I was referring too!

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  • 4 months later...
MercyIsVictory

Hey! I'm late to the conversation, but I started learning German when I was 14, then I went on to live in Germany for three years, so hopefully I can give you some good advice. :)
Read, read, read. Find some easy books in German, grab a dictionary and a pen, and just go through it. 

Expose yourself to German music and movies (I know that's already been said, but I second it.) 

Once you've weaned yourself off German subtitles, find something you can watch on a regular basis to keep your language skills. Personally, there are a couple of German soap operas that I watch daily, just to be exposed to 25 minutes of the German language. It's silly, I know, but soap operas post episodes regularly, they speak real, conversational German, and the language is very repetitive. :P I personally watch "Alles was zählt" and "Unter uns," and you can find the most recent episodes for free if you Google "RTLnow." 

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40 minutes ago, MercyIsVictory said:

and you can find the most recent episodes for free if you Google "RTLnow." 

You could also search for "RTL nau". No joke.

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MercyIsVictory
1 minute ago, Homer said:

You could also search for "RTL nau". No joke.

Vielleicht soll ich mich schämen, dass ich solche Serien gucke? :P 

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MercyIsVictory
On 10/4/2018 at 4:05 AM, kiaroskuro said:

Hi! I'm a native German speaker and a trained teacher for German as a foreign language, but I have very little teaching experience. I hope to change that, though.

If you have any specific question or just want to chat in German, feel free to ask me here or send me a message! I'll see if I can find some easily accessible learning material for beginners.

 

Are you insinuating that the rest of us have silly accents? I feel offended, ya know.

Woher kommen Sie denn? Ich hab drei Jahre in Erfurt verbracht, was eine sehr schöne Zeit war. Mir fehlt die Sprache total...

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9 minutes ago, MercyIsVictory said:

Vielleicht soll ich mich schämen, dass ich solche Serien gucke? :P 

Mußt Du nicht. Ich halte nix davon, aber jeder wie er/sie/es mag :D meine Oma guckt sowas auch... und steigert sich dann voll rein :lol:

 

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1 hour ago, MercyIsVictory said:

Woher kommen Sie denn? Ich hab drei Jahre in Erfurt verbracht, was eine sehr schöne Zeit war. Mir fehlt die Sprache total...

Kann ich mir gut vorstellen. Erfurt soll ganz schön sein, hab ich gehört.

Ich habe auch einige Zeit in den neuen Bundesländern gelebt, bin aber kein echter Ossi. Ursprünglich komme ich aus NRW.

Where are you from originally? (Um das du/Sie-Problem elegant zu vermeiden :D)

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MercyIsVictory
21 minutes ago, kiaroskuro said:

Kann ich mir gut vorstellen. Erfurt soll ganz schön sein, hab ich gehört.

Ich habe auch einige Zeit in den neuen Bundesländern gelebt, bin aber kein echter Ossi. Ursprünglich komme ich aus NRW.

Where are you from originally? (Um das du/Sie-Problem elegant zu vermeiden :D)

Hah! Können uns gerne duzen. Ich bin in Arizona geboren und aufgewachsen, wo ich momentan lebe, aber als ich an der Uni Germanistik studierte, machte ich ein Auslandsjahr in Erfurt und habe mich kopfüber in die Stadt verliebt. Bin dann später zurückgegangen, um dort 'nen Master zu machen. Ich studierte DDR-Geschichte, denn warum nicht, also kann ich behaupten, ich sei ein "Ami-Ossi." :P

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Können sicher nicht viele von sich behaupten, Ami-Ossi zu sein 😄

DDR-Geschichte ist wahnsinnig interessant, find ich auch. Fahr mal nach Leipzig, falls du nicht schon dort warst. Ein Besuch in der Stadt ist eigentlich ein Muss für jeden, den dieses Thema beschäftigt. 

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MercyIsVictory
51 minutes ago, kiaroskuro said:

Können sicher nicht viele von sich behaupten, Ami-Ossi zu sein 😄

DDR-Geschichte ist wahnsinnig interessant, find ich auch. Fahr mal nach Leipzig, falls du nicht schon dort warst. Ein Besuch in der Stadt ist eigentlich ein Muss für jeden, den dieses Thema beschäftigt. 

Ich war ja öfters in Leipzig! Das Zeitgeschichtliche Forum ist, meiner Meinung nach, das beste Museum auf der Welt. Da habe ich etliche Stunden verbracht, und das könnte ich immer wieder tun!

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Für Erfurt und Leipzig muß ich mir auch endlich einmal mehr Zeit nehmen... :blush: wenn Ihr schon grob auf der Ecke seid, empfehle ich einen Besuch in Pirna :)

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