Ah, makes sense. I have been there! We went skiing in St. Anton and then went to Innsbruck. So so beautiful. I'd like to go back someday.
― (✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Friday, 19 October 2012 15:30 (eleven years ago) link
my recommendation is pretty much always the pimsleur course, although it depends on what level you're brushing up from
it's not free but it can be found for kostenlos on certain websites
― caek, Friday, 19 October 2012 17:11 (eleven years ago) link
so apparently i've completed B1, which means i've reached the standard required for german citizenship. tbh it's not a very high level, but that intensive course this summer, and i'm so much better than i was before the summer.
i have two "tandem partners" now, they are germans i will meet for an hour who want to learn my muttersprache. i think the idea is like 30m in english, 30m auf deutsch.
― caek, Friday, 19 October 2012 17:14 (eleven years ago) link
Does Pimsleur have Our Hero rescuing his cute Turkish girlfriend from evil Neo-Nazis with hilarious results, though?
― Three Word Username, Friday, 19 October 2012 17:21 (eleven years ago) link
crucial quesion!
― (✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Friday, 19 October 2012 17:40 (eleven years ago) link
Thanks Caek! I mostly just need practice.
― (✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Friday, 19 October 2012 17:41 (eleven years ago) link
langsam gesprochene nachrichten is good for a daily dase of spoken german if your level is up there, but it's always, always about the crisis in the eurozone for obv reasons, so it can get a bit samey.
― caek, Friday, 19 October 2012 18:04 (eleven years ago) link
slowly spoken news
― (✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Friday, 19 October 2012 18:05 (eleven years ago) link
See, I get it! I mean not that that was difficult but I think my comprehension is good. I guess I could watch some news online. That's a good tip though. Maybe tv shows too! Any good German TV shows I could find online?
― (✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Friday, 19 October 2012 18:06 (eleven years ago) link
bauer sucht frau
― groovemaaan, Friday, 19 October 2012 18:07 (eleven years ago) link
The summer I lived in Germany, I bought a bunch of Asterix comics and read those to help improve my reading comprehension, which was good because of the various pun names; I also read a book by the dude who wrote The Neverending Story that I can't remember the name of (maybe Momo?)
― The Owls of Ja Rule (DJP), Friday, 19 October 2012 18:08 (eleven years ago) link
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauer_sucht_Frau
Doku-Soaps!
― (✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Friday, 19 October 2012 18:17 (eleven years ago) link
link to langsam gesprochene nachrichten upthread iirc
― caek, Friday, 19 October 2012 19:24 (eleven years ago) link
DW has lots of lessons. i found them a bit slow for learning, but i think they're useful once you've reached say B1 to kick on with just listening to lots and lots of german at an appropriate level.
http://www.dw.de/learn-german/german-courses/s-2547
― caek, Friday, 19 October 2012 19:26 (eleven years ago) link
Who knew that "Farmer Wants A Wife" was a successful export of British TV?
― fish frosch (seandalai), Friday, 19 October 2012 23:36 (eleven years ago) link
Huh so the neverending story is german, that kind of explains why some germans love to say say 'neverending story', in english, when something goes on and on.
― Vasco da Gama, Saturday, 20 October 2012 00:09 (eleven years ago) link
The movie was also directed by the same guy who did Das Boot.
― (✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Saturday, 20 October 2012 00:36 (eleven years ago) link
http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/mitt.png
― Tuomas, Thursday, 8 November 2012 13:51 (eleven years ago) link
okay lol
― I loves you, PORGI (DJP), Thursday, 8 November 2012 15:49 (eleven years ago) link
learnt some weird german watching the master in OmU
"das Versuchskaninchen"
ha
― caek, Wednesday, 27 February 2013 10:20 (eleven years ago) link
Did anyone else learn German using suspense thriller audio/books "Gefahrliche Wege" and "Geheime Mission?" I can still remember parts many years later.
― Nataly Dawn's echoey swamp sound (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 27 February 2013 15:41 (eleven years ago) link
fremdschämen
― conrad, Wednesday, 27 February 2013 15:46 (eleven years ago) link
Wait, is Versuchskaninchen rabbit hunt?
― Nataly Dawn's echoey swamp sound (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 27 February 2013 15:49 (eleven years ago) link
ha. almost. der Versuch = attempt/trial
― caek, Wednesday, 27 February 2013 15:51 (eleven years ago) link
Ah, just looked it up. hahahaha!
― Nataly Dawn's echoey swamp sound (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 27 February 2013 15:56 (eleven years ago) link
what a beautifully literal language
― my super interesting Kant story (DJP), Wednesday, 27 February 2013 16:35 (eleven years ago) link
lol ... no wonder that the German equivalent of "scaredy cat" is "Angsthase"!!
― darf ich bitte mit Poppage spielen?!? (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 27 February 2013 20:05 (eleven years ago) link
come to think of it -- since the best use that Germans apparently have for rabbits is to use them as Versuchskaninchen and as the main ingredient in Hasenpfeffer, it's only right for Germans to have a LOT of Angst.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4QlZmS5gO7s/SnptC75rgSI/AAAAAAAAAaE/r3Q3cNE8BM4/s320/Hasenpfeffer05.jpg
― darf ich bitte mit Poppage spielen?!? (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 27 February 2013 20:08 (eleven years ago) link
German RABBITS, that is.
― darf ich bitte mit Poppage spielen?!? (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 27 February 2013 20:12 (eleven years ago) link
Fremdschämen is a bullshit word for a bullshit concept, and fuck everyone who uses it.
― Three Word Username, Wednesday, 27 February 2013 22:31 (eleven years ago) link
native german speakers: please tell me "blackbeat" doesn't mean what i think it means
― caek, Thursday, 28 February 2013 23:24 (eleven years ago) link
Non-native, but fluent -- it does mean that. "Black Music" gets said without flinching and almost always in English. But German's not alone there (have heard this in Swedish, Dutch, and French as well).
― Three Word Username, Friday, 1 March 2013 07:52 (eleven years ago) link
oh je
― caek, Friday, 1 March 2013 09:21 (eleven years ago) link
The expression 'you are what you eat' is much better in German: man ist was man isst
― Daniel Giraffe, Monday, 18 March 2013 20:26 (eleven years ago) link
yeah -- it's even better w/t the ess-tset.
― darf ich bitte mit Poppage spielen?!? (Eisbaer), Monday, 18 March 2013 21:24 (eleven years ago) link
you get marked down on language tests if you put a ß in isst.
― caek, Monday, 18 March 2013 21:28 (eleven years ago) link
i miss ß
;_;
― darf ich bitte mit Poppage spielen?!? (Eisbaer), Monday, 18 March 2013 21:31 (eleven years ago) link
ripß
― caek, Monday, 18 March 2013 21:40 (eleven years ago) link
The expression 'you are what you eat' is much better in German: man ist was man isst― Daniel Giraffe, Monday, March 18, 2013 4:26 PM (1 month ago
― Daniel Giraffe, Monday, March 18, 2013 4:26 PM (1 month ago
― Retreat from the Sunship (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 14 May 2013 18:10 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22490560
die Kuh ist über die Fence gejumpt!
― caek, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 23:21 (eleven years ago) link
"Kopfball"
― caek, Sunday, 26 May 2013 13:40 (eleven years ago) link
how's the class going, caek?!?
― عليك ارتداء ماكياج من مهرج مثلي الجنس المتداول مائة عميق في سيارة مصغر (Eisbaer), Sunday, 26 May 2013 16:06 (eleven years ago) link
Abgeschlossen! That was an intensive thing at the Goethe inst last summer. Had a couple of tandem partners this year too. Much improved imho. But I'm moving to the US next month tho. I'm still doing my vocab flashcards but I've given away the text books :(
― caek, Sunday, 26 May 2013 19:59 (eleven years ago) link
Don't give up! Deutsche Welle has a ton of stuff here you can use: http://www.dw.de/deutsch-lernen/s-2055 (or http://www.dw.de/learn-german/s-2469), especially the daily Langsam gesprochene Nachtrichten and the various weekly podcasts such as Sprachbar, Alltagsdeutsch, Wort der Woche, Top-Thema. OK, I see a Video-Thema as well, let's see what that is about.
― Oulipo Traces (on a Cigarette) (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 27 May 2013 03:54 (eleven years ago) link
yeah the problem isn't opportunities to hear/read german, but obligations to hear/read and especially speak it when i have to start a new job.
i do like langsam gesprochene nachtrichten tho (linked it upthead i think)
― caek, Monday, 27 May 2013 08:55 (eleven years ago) link
That Texas German report is kind of pathetic -- if there was a Texas German dialect, it's long dead -- what's left is old Texans who kinda remember how their grandparents spoke.
― Three Word Username, Monday, 27 May 2013 09:15 (eleven years ago) link
Fwiw I've spoken German in Hill country and been understood.
True the ppl in that report in their 60s were v basic, but that old lady the professor was recording sounded pretty fluent.
― caek, Monday, 27 May 2013 09:41 (eleven years ago) link
Oh, sure -- but I think it's total German academic self-parody to say "one aspect of this dialect is that it's highly individual" rather than admit that he's at least 10 years too late.
― Three Word Username, Monday, 27 May 2013 09:53 (eleven years ago) link
tbf to him, i assume he's talking to more ppl than that old lady, and it was the bbc person who found those good old boys in their back yard claiming to speak german it sounds like they got from a michel thomas tape. maybe it's the bbc that's 10 years too.
― caek, Monday, 27 May 2013 09:58 (eleven years ago) link
the longest german conversation i ever had in texas was in a mall in el paso but that was girl who was basically fluent from school, but had never left juarez/el paso.
― caek, Monday, 27 May 2013 09:59 (eleven years ago) link