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ISR 8: Separable Verbs (Trennbare Verben)

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ISR 8: Separable Verbs (Trennbare Verben)

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'aufstehen' - to stand
'abfahren' - depart
'zuruckfahren'* - to go back
'losgehen' - to set off
'

I watched two YouTube video on separable verbs. 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEizjiqBrbI, 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj_L8uAffG8
The videos taught me new separable verbs and described the meanings behind their prefixes. I attempted to take a Quiz on separable verbs before I decided to watch this video. However, I was not able to complete the exercise since I wasn't familiar with a lot of the verbs in the quiz. https://german.net/exercises/verbs/separable/

I faced a similar problem with the placement of the second conjugated verb used along with a modal verb.  complex sentences, with more than one noun/piece of information, I did not know where the prefix of the separable word would go. For instance, in the sentence:

Wir können Bratwurst essen und trinkt Glühwein im der Markt

Here, I was unsure about the placement of the verb 'trinkt' where it is in the above sentence or at the very end of the sentence, after 'Markt'.

I watched this video to help me with modal verbs to clarify my doubts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD4vSw6AWps

Watching these videos, have made me more confident about the conjugation and use of separable verbs in complex sentence. I made a list of all the new verbs I learnt through the videos and have practices their conjugations in my notebook and I will attempt the quiz again once I am confident about them.

*u as a replacement for umlaut

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I practiced my listening skills using a YouTube video for German Beginners from Germanpod101.com There were 3 sets of audio files played, each describing different situations. Along with each audio, there were three pictures on the screen. At the end of the listening exercise, I had to pick the correct photograph based on what was said in the audio track.

In the beginning, I was able to pick up on easy nouns like, 'Das Auto', and 'ein Hamburger'. I listened for prominent nouns that might give me a hint of what was being said/ the pictures in front of me and drew conclusions on the basis of it. However, in certain cases, I was unable to understand crucial information. For eg, there were 4 pictures on the screen, 2 of these were pictures of a kids football team. The first one had all kids of the same height, while the other has one slightly taller than the rest. While the audio file was being played, I caught on to the word, "Fussball"* but I wasn't able to make out the word, 'Grosste'* (i.e taller) which led me to choose the wrong answer.

My takeaway from this exercise is to not be dependent on a certain detail to make assumptions about the entire situation. I will look to listen to the audio more closely in the future to gather as much information as possible.

Apart from this, I also struggled with the audio on reading time as I wasn't able to understand the pronunciation clearly. I hope to practice more listening exercises on this topic.

*I was unable to find the extension for umlaut on the browser. The 'ss' in these words are replacements for the umlaut.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAUKYGhMuOI

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I took a quiz on Quizlet today to test my knowledge of telling time in German.
https://quizlet.com/50384238/test

I scored 80% on the test. The questions asked were mainly German-English/English-German translations of words and phrases to do with time and the days of the week. One of the questions I got wrong was 'halb'. Despite answering with the correct term for 'half', I lost a mark there because I capitalized the first letter of the word. This was a good lesson to ensure I don't make a similar mistake in the future.

Another confusion I had was with the German word for 'night'. Referring to the greeting 'Gute Nacht', I guessed the right answer to be 'nacht'. I lost a mark for this, however. The quiz used the word 'abends' for night. There is often some disparity in words and synonyms in all languages and I'm glad I came across it in this quiz, so as to not get confused if I ever come across them being used interchangeably in the future. Overall, I enjoyed the test and hope to take more in the future - especially in reading time from the clock.

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Having enjoyed the first German movie thoroughly, I decided to try watching one again. However, this time I decided to watch something that was not solely targeted towards the German Beginners' audience. I attended a screening of a movie called 'The Lives of Others', directed by F. H von Donnersmarck.

The movie captured the life of the people of East Germany during the Cold War. It was a commentary on the surveillance and censorship measures taken on the media and literature of the time. The protagonist of the story was a very efficient state security officer that had been delegated an operation to monitor a German writer and his girlfriend, and actress, to ensure they were not publishing material/conspiring to revolt against the interest of the state.
However, as time went on, the state security officer grew to understand and relate to the worries and concerns of the writer and the actress, and the humanity behind their struggle as artists in East Germany. In the end, the officer went to great lengths to protect them - even if at the cost of his career.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Not only because wonderfully directed and enacted - but also because it was based on a topic of my interest. I am a Politics student and have spent most of my time learning about European history - during the time of the Cold War in specific. It was wonderful being able to understand certain dialogues solely based on my basic knowledge of the subject and the context of the scene - without having to depend entirely on the subtitles. I learnt a lot about German culture and social norms during the period as well. I also enjoyed my tryst with German Cinema thoroughly, and I hope to be able to explore more of it.

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ISR 4: Brushing up on my vocabulary with Quizlet

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ISR 4: Brushing up on my vocabulary with Quizlet

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I did the 'Kapitel 3: In Hamburg' quiz today. It was primarily a vocabulary quiz that also brushed up on my articles. I had a lot of fun doing the quiz, primarily because the pattern of the quiz was quite different than other ones I have taken before. There was a combination of flashcards, multiple-choice questions, German-English translations, and English-German translations. I did, however, take longer than I expected to learn 40 German words and phrases. I really liked the way the quiz was set up - new words were not introduced unless previous ones had been thoroughly revised. I.e, I had to answer all types of questions for a specific word/phrase in order to move on to newer words. By the end of the session, I had been also been able to revise the articles for some words that I had been confused about before.

Some of the words and phrases I learnt were new to me. However, the difficulty level was not very high and they were all in relation to the same topic we had previously covered in class, travel. Overall, I was able to retain and revise my vocabulary effectively with this exercise.

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Today, I attempted to learn more about the types and conjugations of German verbs. Using the resources provided on MOLE, I learnt about the types of verbs from the MLTC Wordpress website. It was a rewarding experience as it taught me the differences between certain verbs - and a possible hack to anticipate what their conjugations might be, depending on the type of verb. I then went on to make a list of all the verbs we learnt in class (a total of 16) and wrote down their conjugations. I referred to 'Linguee', an online English-German dictionary for the meanings of German words I did not know. Interestingly, after the first few attempts, I found myself not needing to refer to the textbook for conjugations of certain verbs such as kaufen (to buy), brauchen (to need) and arbeiten (to work).

This exercise was particularly helpful as it introduced me to new complexities of verbs that we had not encountered in class. For instance, the various tenses and the way the change the conjugations of verbs. I also went on to use these conjugated verbs in simple sentences to practice what I'd learnt, without referring to the textbook. I have decided to add a minimum of 10 new verbs to my vocabulary list every week, and I hope to reach a total of 50 by the end of the semester.

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I went to the Peak District for a weekend trip with my friends. I decided to play the German kindergarten game,'Was ist in miene Tasche' and make a concise packing list for this trip in German.

1) Eine Flasche
2) Ein Apfel
3) Das Geld
4) Vier Sandwichen
5) Der Kase
6) Ein Kartoffelchips
7) Einen Schirm
8) Die Handschuhe
9) Einen Regenmantel

I referred to an online English-German dictionary for the words I did not know already, at wwww.linguee.com. I was surprised to some across the article 'dem' for Schirm (umbrella). It was also interesting to try and understand the articles associated with certain nouns. For instance, I was unsure about how to specify the quantity of cheese. It seemed grammatically incorrect to say 'a' (ein) thus I stuck with 'der' (the). I was not able to find much help with this on online sources.

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ISR 2: Watching a German Movie (without subtitles!)

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ISR 2: Watching a German Movie (without subtitles!)

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I watched a 2 hour long German film on the Deutsch lernen mit der DW channel on YouTube today. It followed the simply story line of a young Spanish man in Germany for the first time. It describes the journey of this young man and the hurdles he faces as a non-German speaker. Early on in the film, he loses his bag at the airport, and along with it most of his belongings, including his phone and his passport. He meets a little girl, Emma, and her babysitter, Lisa, who are kind enough to help him out. Over time, Nico - our young Spanish hero - grows to understand the German language and German culture, making new friends along the way.

I really enjoyed the film, especially because it gave me the opportunity to hear what we have been taught in class in action. I was surprised at how much of the conversation I understood, especially without subtitles. The language used was really simple, with sentence structures we had learnt previously. At times when I was not able to understand the new words used, I was able to draw ample information from context. Overall, it was an enriching experience and I'm looking forward to watching more German films!