Fifth week: review
12/9/2011It’s been a difficult three weeks in terms of focussing on German. My father died suddenly and unexpectedly. This obviously threw everything into turmoil, not just my German learning. Not an easy time to focus on anything, to be honest.
Still… I’m back at work now, which has brought a bit more rhythm back into my daily life. More than this, I’m starting to develop a morning habit of doing my SRS reviews: LWT, sentences and computer terms (I’ve switched my computer interface to German at home and work).
Problems encountered
- Distractions. See above.
- Lack of a goal. Still an issue I haven’t dealt with. I’m pretty sure I could pass the Goethe B2 exam so the C1 exam would be more of a challenge. Plus, if I book it, the fact that I would be wasting money if I didn’t study properly would be a good incentive to focus.
Discoveries
- “Easy” books. I’ve started reading “Hallo, Mr Gott, hier spricht Anna.” (Reading the Wikipedia entry I just realised that the book is set in the East End of London, where I currently live!) What I’ve found whilst reading this book is that I understand enough of the text to allow for a flow whilst reading. This really gives me a lot of self-confidence and makes it much easier to tolerate any feelings of being stuck when I talk with people or try and read the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
- Revisiting LWT audio items. This is something I realised this morning on the way into work. There are a few Deutsche Welle news mp3 files on my phone. These are all over a month old now but the text within them is what I’ve been using with my LWT lessons. I found it interesting to realise that even though I may have remembered the meaning within my SRS tests, when I hear the same words spoken in context that I don’t necessarily remember the meaning of the words. This makes me feel that a combination of doing my daily tests and listening to the same texts could help to reinforce the meanings
- Speaking “Zeitungsdeutsch” to my wife. This made me laugh. I use the phrase “meines Erachtens” whilst talking to my wife this morning. She mentioned that I sounded like a newspaper. Brilliant.
Plan for the coming week
- Continue to translate items within LWT and get the vocabulary/phrases across into Anki
- Continue with German book ”Hallo, Mr Gott, hier spricht Anna.“
- Download requirements for Goethe C1 exam. Begin assessing what I need to learn.