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12.02.20
Practising the Dative Case

Having looked at the dative case in our first lesson, i thought it would be important to solidify and also test my knowledge on this case. The dative case is where the noun is receiving a direct object of the sentence. The dative is used to indicate the indirect object of the verb. I did an exercise which got me to learn the top ten common verbs that require the dative. Such as antworten, gefallen, glauben and schmeken. What was important in getting the grasp of the dative case was remembering that all articles change. Another learning point that i took away from the exercise was learning remembering some exceptions to German Dative Plurals. For example, one exception is that most masculine and neuter nouns the plural, will end in -ern. Usually the plural will result in -er. This activity was useful in solidifying my current knowledge of the dative case and ensuring that i was able to use and apply it confidently.

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20.02.20
Possessive articles

Possessive articles are crucial in grasping whether something belongs to his or hers, their and ours. This key to understand particularly when having a conversation with someone as to not be socially embarrassed. In order to get to grasps with possessive articles i found a website that gave a step by step guide on how to learn possessive articles and exercise to test my knowledge. Two key elements i had to remember was to know the gender of the noun you are showing possession of and to also know the case which is being used.  At times i struggled with this and distinguishing between the four different cases used including the nominative, genitive, dative and accusative. For example, in the genitive case possessive articles,  have an ending in 'es' (masculine and neuter endings ) and 'er' ending for the feminine and plural. This is demonstrated in 'Ist er der Freund deiner Schwester?' meaning 'Is he your sister's boyfriend?' The er on the end of deiner marks the possessive pronoun in the sentence. With more practice, i hopefully will be able to understand and speak and use with confidence possessive articles.
Link for Website:  https://germanwithlaura.com/possessive-adjectives/

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25.02.20
Cultural Reading

One of the most effective way for me to learn a language is to read media in that language such as newspapers. I read an article from Deutsche Welle about 70 years of the Berlin film festival. The grammar was particularly testing for me as i was not familiar with words associated with film. One word i learn was 'Auftritte' which means 'appearances'.  Not only did i expand my knowledge of words i was also educated on the history of Berlin and its strong links with film.  This was interesting  to learn and understand German culture Having in the past ISR's looked at possessive articles at the dative case, i was able to spot when they were used during the article. This was useful and rewarding.

Link for article: https://www.dw.com/de/70-jahre-berliner-filmfestspiele-dokumentiert-in-fotos/av-52402896

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5.03.20
Listening exercises

Listening to a language proves to be a very useful way to get to grasps with a language. The past week, i have been listening to a podcast on Spotify called 'Coffee Break German' by Radio Lingua Network. I enjoyed listening to these podcasts as they discuss a topic but at a pace which is perfect for a learner like me to understand and follow along. One of the presenters is a native German speaker and the other is a student. In the podcast, the presenters will listen to a piece of text and then have a discussion about what was said. The most recent one that i listened to was a biography of a famous German music composer. Often there were phrases or words that i did not understand. However, i kept note of these words so that i could later found out their meaning and also note them down for future reference. Each episode varies from 30-40 minutes which is perfect for when i'm walking to lectures and back. I often have the podcasts on as background noise when working. So even if i'm not paying my full attention then at least it can hopefully go in subconsciously! Overall, this activity has been very useful and also an entertaining way to learn a language.

Link for Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3QiX0ZkjILyGWmpemackWB?si=3Ey8sBUUSJusrAyjH3OAsQ

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11.03.20
Personal Pronouns

Having struggled with personal pronouns in the main classes i thought it would be useful to watch a video on YouTube to help solidify my knowledge. This video proved useful as it explored the use of personal pronouns in the first person through the singular and plural forms. One thing that i learnt was that when using the second person (informal) is that you must use 'Ihr' when applying the plural for you all. For example, 'Lucy, wo wohnst du?' is the informal and when referring to more than one person e.g. 'Lucy und Cameron, wo wohnst ihr' you use 'ihr'. The video reiterated the use of 'Sie' in the second person formal and then third person using 'er, sie,es' in the singular and 'sie' in the plural. This was useful to me when working through activities on personal pronouns in the Kursbuch and has made me feel more confident when applying personal pronouns in my work. Watching videos have also proven effective in practising my pronunciation.

Link for video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hy9_tDhgtc

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26.03.20
Practising my Oral German

One thing that i am often not able to do when learning German is to practise speaking the language and getting to grips with the pronunciation. Pronunciation isn't always the easiest with some German words being so long! To start of i watched a simple video on how to pronounce the German alphabet just to refresh myself. After each letter i repeated it just to make sure it stuck with me. My favourite letter to say is Y just because its sounds so different to the English pronunciation of Y. Having practised the alphabet, i pronounced my full name a few times.

Link for pronunciation video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-e4cXgmEy4

I then watched a different video that was more advanced than the last one and focused on a conversation between two friends on the subject of the environment. This tested me on my existing grammar on the umwelt and i did have to pause and replay the video a few times in order to understand what was being said due to the quick pace of the conversation. I found this task extremely useful as my pronunciation has improved!

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18.03.20
Using the Imperative

The imperative form is extremely useful when using instructions or commands.  The imperative can only be applied to the second person in the informal singular (du), informal  plural (ihr) and formal singular and plural (sie). This makes it slightly easier to learn! The part that i struggled with was learning how to conjugate the imperative form of German verbs. The infinitive 'Kommen' meaning to  'come'  in the du form is 'Komm!' and in the ihr form 'Kommt!' and the Sie form 'Kommen Sie!'. It does feel  odd  to use an explanation mark as it feels direct and rude but this is only a cultural difference. When using separable verbs i needed to remind myself to send the prefix to the end of the sentence e.g. ausräumen, the aus is sent to the end of the sentence and räumt to the beginning. I have enjoyed using the imperative form in my work now i have understood the different forms it takes. This has helped me to be able to construct sentences using the imperative.

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1.04.20
Verb Conjugation and separable verbs exercises

I decided that it would be useful to refresh my memory on how to conjugate verbs. I started off with a simple exercise of conjugating verbs like 'to wish' and 'to come'. This i found relatively easy to do. One thing that i forgot to do was to capitalise nouns and names so i wasn't able to get the best score. I then repeated the exercise to correct my mistakes. The next exercises were harder as i had to construct sentences by using suitable verbs. This tested my knowledge and range on verbs whilst also testing my word order and tenses.

Link for verb conjugation https://mein-deutschbuch.de/grammatikuebungen-verbkonjugation.html

The second activity that i looked at was separable verbs. This is something that i wanted to practice, particularity as it was something that i could show off in my Essential Homework's. I found this activity relatively easy as i was having to conjugate the verb as usual but just remembering to deal with the prefix by putting it at the end of the sentence rather than the start. Some new separable verbs i learnt are 'zurückkommen' meaning to come back and and 'anrufen' to call.  But not all prefixes are separable for example prefixes that begin with be-, ent-, emp- er-, ge-,  -miss, -ver and zer-. I got confused over einkaufen and kaufen. As with 'einkaufen' the 'ein' is sent to the end. This is something i need to remember for the future. Overall, i found this activity very productive and rewarding now that i feel confident applying separable  verbs to my work.

Link for separable verbs:
https://mein-deutschbuch.de/grammatikuebungen-trennbare-verben.html