https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp German Beginners Autumn Term en-us 2016-10-26 08:57:23 UTC 2025-12-15 17:18:04 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Alarmclock.png tlgidlow https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/133254301 I have a friend who is in his fourth year of a German language degree at the University of Birmingham. I  spent about 30 minutes having basic conversations with him about my day, and asking him what he was doing. This was good for me because it gave me some one on one practice in a comfortable space. I also had to deal with vocab that I had not come across before. After this I feel a little more confident describing my day]]> 2016-10-26 08:58:08 UTC https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/133254301 tlgidlow https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/134154952 I have now downloaded Duolingo. Although it's no substitute for classes etc. I think it is helping me. I try and use it for 10 minutes every day. It allows me to be presented with sentences and words that I'm not totally familiar with so I can apply what I have learned in class. In addition it is helping me learn new vocab and practice things I already have learned]]> 2016-10-31 08:48:07 UTC https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/134154952 tlgidlow https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/134164937 I was finding that I was struggling with formulating questions, both in remembering the question words and sentence structure. To help with this a watched a series of Youtube videos on the topic and made notes on what they said. I found it helpful to have it explained in multiple different way and with different examples. I think I am now more confident in creating questions]]> 2016-10-31 10:11:37 UTC https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/134164937 tlgidlow https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/140008738 I have found that although I'm not too bad with vocab I find that sentence structure is something that is letting me down. I found a series of videos on youtube that re-emphasised what we learned in class and also added to it. I now try and think of sentence structure in terms of two (admittedly imperfect) rules. Conjugated verb in the second place and Time-Manner-Place. I am now more confident, however plan to use some practice sentences at a later date to solidify this]]> 2016-11-27 10:28:03 UTC https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/140008738 tlgidlow https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/141552538 As I progress through I find the German cases confuse me more, although I can at least why they are useful!

I've had a look at a series of  Youtube videos, and some example sentences from the internet. From this I've made a table of the definite articles in all the cases, and got summaries and examples of the cases together in one place.

I think this is really helping me understand the Nominativ and Akkusativ cases, however I'm still finding Dativ confusing. I think more practice should help with this]]> 2016-12-03 16:07:28 UTC https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/141552538 tlgidlow https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/141696774 I think that the mock oral showed that one of my weaker points was spelling, in particular not knowing das Alphabet.

I took the time to write down the alphabet with phonetics. I then used my list of friends on Facebook to practice spelling each name out.

Using Facebook was a lot easier because it gave me a random set of letters but with context of names.

I now feel more confident spelling things out in German.]]> 2016-12-05 11:19:17 UTC https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/141696774 tlgidlow https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/142444750 I'm realising that it was in fact very important to learn the gender of nouns along with the actual noun.

I've made some flashcards and have been using quizlet to try and relearn the nouns with genders.

I think this is helping me but it's tough to do this retrospectively and I've got a long way to go.

From now on I'm going to try and work harder to learn genders at the same time!]]> 2016-12-07 23:36:37 UTC https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/142444750 tlgidlow https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/142444898 In order to practice my German ordering I skyped my friend that studies German at university.

This let me practice how to order in a restaurant, with us taking it in turns to be ordering or serving. It was also a good practice for numbers.

I think this is a good way of practising, because he has never sat this course so uses different vocab. This makes it more realistic and is more challenging. ]]> 2016-12-07 23:39:01 UTC https://padlet.com/tlgidlow/132ebxp9r4sp/wish/142444898