[bobthecockroach]

Originally Posted by zedman

Ach Ja, du bist Kaufman
Grossvater ist mude
Hier ist zum Chokolade, fur die Kinder.

just three phrase I remember from school.

One day I may just re-learn German.
It can be a cool sounding language.

I love the sound of German, and the long words. It's fascinating when you realize that it's almost impossible to read a long piece of German writing without encountering a "made up" word due to the way they form compounds.

[dogfood]

All my german came from reading war comics from when I was little.

[bobthecockroach]

Here's another good link for native materials (not learner-oriented):

vorleser.net | mp3-Hörbuch-Download

[Ax]

Originally Posted by bobthecockroach

Here's another good link for native materials (not learner-oriented):

vorleser.net | mp3-Hörbuch-Download

Sweet, as soon as I feel refreshed and skilled enough, I'm gonna start looking into these more advanced resources. I like the Slow German podcast. I have trouble following along still, but it's cool. When I get sufficiently brushed up again, I think it will be invaluable. Really wish I had these in high school when I took 3 years of this. Of course, I was nowhere near as serious about wanting to learn new languages then.

[Ax]

So, a tip I saw on learning things in general, but was supposed to be particularly useful in learning languages, is that after studying a source material, close your eyes and try to recall as much of it as possible. It's more effective than taking notes, highlighting, learning maps, etc. Also, try to apply it to your every day life, so try to think in your new language as you go about the day.

For example, try to think, "Ich brauche mehr kaffee" instead of "I need more coffee", oder, "Ich habe Hunger", oder, "Ich musste zur Toilette", instead of 'I am Hungry' or 'I need to go to the rest room'.

[athanatos]

Originally Posted by Ax

So, a tip I saw on learning things in general, but was supposed to be particularly useful in learning languages, is that after studying a source material, close your eyes and try to recall as much of it as possible. It's more effective than taking notes, highlighting, learning maps, etc. Also, try to apply it to your every day life, so try to think in your new language as you go about the day.

For example, try to think, "Ich brauche mehr kaffee" instead of "I need more coffee", oder, "Ich habe Hunger", oder, "Ich musste zur Toilette", instead of 'I am Hungry' or 'I need to go to the rest room'.

I used to do this all the time. I would think in German or have short phrases that keep me familiar with it.

The phrases annoyed people though. My wife has been very patient with me.

[Ax]

btw... https://www.duolingo.com/AXington

I'm stopping French and Spanish for now so I don't confuse all of these.

[bobthecockroach]

Originally Posted by athanatos

I used to do this all the time. I would think in German or have short phrases that keep me familiar with it.

The phrases annoyed people though. My wife has been very patient with me.

My wife and I have certain words we pretty much only say in German.

I will suggest though... if you do this, be absolutely certain the word or phrase you are using is correct, lest you create a habit of incorrect usage. See: The role of mistakes in language learning | Antimoon

[athanatos]

Originally Posted by bobthecockroach

My wife and I have certain words we pretty much only say in German.

I will suggest though... if you do this, be absolutely certain the word or phrase you are using is correct, lest you create a habit of incorrect usage. See: The role of mistakes in language learning | Antimoon

Interesting!

Just read the entire article, and geeze. Now I wonder what sentences I correctly picked up from german classes vs ones I translated myself and have isolated from natural German.

[zedman]

Originally Posted by bobthecockroach

I love the sound of German, and the long words. It's fascinating when you realize that it's almost impossible to read a long piece of German writing without encountering a "made up" word due to the way they form compounds.

Their language is full of compound words--which can help--My teacher (From Switzerland--German was her mother tongue) told us that if were ever speaking to someone German and trying to describe an object to them to remember "Zeug" which is like "Thing" and is used in some compound words--so for example we knew a related verb we could put it together with Zeug to describe it and they might get it (For example the German for airplane translates roughly as "Flying thing", although just as we often say "plane" instead of the longer "Airplane" they have a shorter version as well--but they should get it if we sue something like that.
And if all esle fails if we see the object we want to mention we can point & say "dass Zeug" or "that thing"

The words we learned included Fussboden--or floor--which translates as "Foot bottom" and "Staubzucher" or vacuum cleaner--which translates as "Dust Sucker"
(My apologies if nay of my German is misspelled, it's been a little while.)