How can I prepare for my German class (after so long without practice)
Asked by
Sarcasm (
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)
November 5th, 2010
I’m planning to take German 3 next semester, after having a two-year break after finishing German 2.
I still have my German book (which was designed to last through German 3), but I don’t believe I’ve got any of my old notes laying around.
German 2 was just the second semester of beginner’s German, so I was never highly fluent in it, and it’s not like I could just crack open an old German novel to brush up.
What kind of things should I do to unlock/unlose the cornucopia of German knowledge that’s locked away somewhere in my brain?
I was thinking about reactivating my LiveMocha account, but it was only ever a good system for vocabulary, not really for sentence structure or anything of the nature.
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10 Answers
Abgesehen von Wiederlesen Ihre Lehrbuch?...
Wer spricht Deutsch ohne eine on-line-Übersetzer? Es hat jemand zu sein. Die zwei von Ihnen sollte ein Gespräch Streik! : )
Reviewing some of the grammar would be great. Like the articles for nouns and all their crazy cases. Then some vocab etc. But the best way is immersion, if you don’t have anyone to talk to – immerse yourself in German media. Note down unknown expressions/words, and look them up. Keep at that… thankfully Germany has plenty of shows, movies, books – all of great quality. Have fun! :)
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Something that may help…change the language of websites that you are familiar with, to German (either with Google’s ‘translate this page’ button, or by using, .de instead of .com for the more popular sites). Open up two browser windows & have the English version in one, German in the other. You can compare the two & get an understanding of both vocabulary & sentence structure.
If you are a member of popular social sites, see if they have a German counterpart. If you have a Facebook account, log-on into Facebook.de for a day.
If you are feeling confident/daring, add the German language pack to your operating system.
When I was learning Mandarin, I was utilizing everything I could. Language learning programs, literature, changing the language of websites, added Mandarin as a second language on my computer, listening to Mandarin music. It sounds like overkill, but really – aside from moving out of the country, this was the best way I could immerse myself into the language.
Oh, almost forgot… buy German children’s books. German kids need their drei kleinen Schweinchen too. I was able to find children’s books that had simple, 1 or 2 sentences on each page. Each sentence was written in Mandarin, with pinyin underneath each word & then the English translation at the bottom. The books were fantastic learning tools.
I hope some of my ideas can be of some help to you. Viel Glueck.
You might try sending a PM to @mattbrowne and see if he’d be willing to help you, too.
The public library may have language program CDs that you could check out. There’s also several online programs that would help you brush up.
Not too drop any names but a friend of mine was doing a movie with Antonio Banderas, and he had some people, like a few different people, call him on his phone a couple times every hour and speak spanish to him. I thought that was pretty clever.
I used and still use movies in French. I first watch it for the story line. Then I watch it again for the language and try not to peek at the subtitles.
You could start MSN and chat with me, Sarcy-kun.
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