MLTC06 Gisela by Gisela Martínez Andrade https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0 German Beginner 2 en-us 2020-04-16 09:40:26 UTC 2020-05-20 10:52:10 UTC hello@padlet.com Short animated movie trailers gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/510297072 I found a 32-minutes long series of animated movie trailers designed for kids under 12 years old, that are learning German. Sometimes I get frustrated because I still struggle a lot doing listening exercises, it is difficult to catch every word. 
This video does not have the option for subtitles in any language, thus it represents a good way to practice and focus only on listening. Also, it was great because they give a lot of grammar tips in some of the trailers. 
The first trailer was about a guy named Andreas, who used to have a lot of problems including losing his job, getting depressed, and into alcoholism, but then he got helped and got involved in an organization that helps people in necessity. 
Other trailer was about a president who wants to improve the world, he promotes recycling for next generations and the use of bicycles and public transport, but apparently he has an image to protect because the media published some articles against him. 
Another of the trailers was about a kid who received a robot with a lot of gadgets as a birthday present, but then the robot did not seem so good for him, as he starts to supervise him by giving commands about doing his homework.
My favorite trailer is the one title "the Astronaut", that was about a guy that has been dreaming to be an astronaut since he was a kid and when he finally becomes one, he does not know how to fix some errors in the ship.
I enjoyed the whole video, it was fun and a bit silly to watch, but it really help me practicing listening the language in several settings. I even learned new vocabulary (e.g. Verschwunden-disappeared, das wecker- the alarm clock, die Flucht-the escape), however, I still need to keep practicing more listening activities, since it is one of my weaknesses.]]> 2020-04-16 09:46:19 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/510297072 Goldlöckchen und die drei Bären gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/510326095 Listening to this simple audiobook was an excellent way of practicing, because it allowed the possibility of looking at the text in both languages German and English, while paying attention to the pronunciation of each word.
It was interesting to identify sentences in present perfect (e.g. Jemand hat von meinem Brei gegessen), in past tense (e.g. Er war zu heiß ) or even in future tense (e.g. Ich werde nie wieder Brei essen!) that we have not seen in class yet.

I also learned several new words from the story including:
Waldes - forest
Brei - porridge
Schale - bowl
abkühlte - cooled down
zuletzt - last
eigene - own
hinein - inside

And identified conjugated verbs such as:
- klopfte - knocked (past of klopfen - knock)
-brummte - growled (past of brummen -growl)
- probierte- tried (past of probieren), which explains the changing of the "en" to "t", in past perfect, as is a verb with ieren ending (e.g. Zuerst hat Goldlöckchen den Brei aus der Schale des Bärenvaters probiert).

I enjoyed playing the audio several times, getting more familiar with all the vocabulary and pausing to repeat out loud. The next step will be to listening to more audiobooks in the future.
]]> 2020-04-16 10:02:44 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/510326095 Perfect Perfect gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/510328844 2020-04-16 10:04:24 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/510328844 Österreich gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/510329031 I love the podcasts from slowgerman.com because, as their slogan states, they speak in a slower pace than usual, which allows me to clearly understand the pronunciation of every word and enables to focus on improving my listening skills. In addition, they have interesting podcast's topics.
The podcast I listened today was about Austria. The first thing I noticed is that in the beginning of the recording, they apply the use of the word "man" that we just learned in the session of week 10 (e.g. In vier Stunden kann man von München mit dem Zug nach Wien reisen).
I listened to the podcast several times, first just by hearing and then following the text in German. I also practice pausing and repeating a loud the text to practice pronunciation. Then I try to detect new vocabulary like the verb gezogen - drawn or the word Aussprache - pronunciation.
I found really interesting how several words varied from German in Germany and in Austria such as tomatoes which in Germany is
Tomaten and in Austria is Paradeiser; or the word taxi driver that is Taxifahrer, but in Austria is Taxilenker.]]> 2020-04-16 10:04:31 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/510329031 Artikeltraining app gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/530189095 As now we are going to be applying more the accusative and dative cases to articles, I need to increase my capacity to recognize the gender of any word, which is not only reduced to considerate the ending of each word (e.g. to use der with words ending in ismus, ist, er, ig). I think it is more about practicing and memorizing the association of the word with the gender.  It can seem something really easy, but I always struggle with this. So I selected this online site which is quite simple, but practical to get familiar with the gender of German words and hence the appropriate use of nominative articles. The Artikeltraining consists in a list of random words that you have to assign the correct article (der, die, das). Investing around 5 to 10 minutes in a day is enough to do the tests. It is important to learn which nominative article to use in order to further use the other cases correctly. 

]]> 2020-04-25 16:20:19 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/530189095 gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/562498879 2020-05-10 11:11:31 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/562498879 gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/562502738 2020-05-10 11:15:06 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/562502738 30 verbs with Dative case gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/562515376 Today, I watched two of the recommended videos in session 9. On them, Anja made two lists of verbs that have the Dative case in German and explained their meaning, as well as examples for each one. It is quite useful for someone who is learning the Dative case, because you develop an automatic association of the verbs and the Dative case.
Some tricky grammar structures to bear in mind with these verbs, apart from their correct conjugation, are: a) the use of the personal pronouns in dative (mir, dir, ihm, ihr, uns, euch, ihnen, Ihnen).
b) the use of articles in dative (masc-dem, fem-der, neutral-dem, plural-den)
c) Or if it is the case, the use of possesive pronouns (e.g. masc/neutral-meinem, fem-meiner, plural-meinen).

At the end of the videos, Anja suggested to practice these verbs by writing one sentence for each one. I found it really practical! Here, I leave you the sentences of the exercise that I made:
 
1. Wir antworten dem Lehrer.
2. Sie gefällt dem Rock.
3. Das T-shirt gehört ihm.
4. Du glaubst meiner Tochter.
5. Mein Vater gratuliert ihr.
6. Ich helfe dir bei deinen Hausaufgaben.
7. Die Hose passt mir so perfekt.
8. Das passiert ihr immer.
9. Das Frühstück schmeckt uns köstlich.
10. Mein Handgelenk tut mir weh.
11. Mein Sohn ähnelt mir.
12. Die Leute applaudiert den NHS.
13. Er weicht dem Ball aus.
14. Susan befiehlt ihr, das Projekt zu recherchieren.
15. Wir begegnen meinen Nachbarn im Kaufhaus.
16. Er tritt der Firma bei.
17. Wir danken ihm für seine Mühe.
18. Der Mann droht den Kleinen
19. Er fehlt mir viel.
20. Sie folgen mir ins Kino.
21. Ich gehorche meinen Eltern.
22. Du gelingt mir in die Prüfung
23. Zwei Biere genügt mir
24. Das Werkzeug nützt mir für den Job.
25. Wir raten dir über gesund einkaufen
26. Ich schade dir mit meinen Fehlern
27. Wir vertrauen Ihrem Urteil
28. Ich verzeihe dir für deine Fehler
29. Wir widersprechen mit deinem Idee
30. Stimmst du mir zu?

Even though it is going to take me more time to memorize all of these verbs, I really enjoyed the exercise.  Hopefully, most of the sentences of the exercise that I wrote are right! It was tough to apply the use of some of the verbs, mainly the separable ones. 
Anja is always full of energy in her videos and her explanations are really easy to understand.]]> 2020-05-10 11:26:30 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/562515376 Kleiderkauf gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/563401884 I decided to practice what we have seen in the online sessions, by doing the exercise of pretending to  to shop clothes in an H&M store in Germany. 
At the moment of practicing similar exercises in the German lab sessions, I always got blocked and took a long period of time to answer and to elaborate the structure of sentences or even struggle to remember some of the new vocabulary and verbs. Thus, this exercise will help me to improve shopping conversations.
I did the following dialogue as an example:

-Entschuldigung, Ich suche Frauenkleider.
-Kein Problem. Im erste Stock gibt es Damenmode. Gehe geradeaus zur Treppe.
- Danke für Ihre Hilfe.
- Tut mir leid.
- Oh, dieses Kleid im lila gefällt mir sehr gut! Es hat Streifen und es sieht bequem aus, aber er ist teuer! Es kostet 59,99 Euro.
- Auch, dieses Kleid mit Puffärmeln gefällt mir. Es ist billig und einfach. Es kostet 12.05 Euro.
- Kann, ich Ihnen helfen?
- Ja, bitte! Ich suche weite Hosen im schwarz und lange Cardigan mit Kapuze?
- Kein Problem. Welche Größe brauchen Sie?
- Ich habe meistens M, manchmal auch nur L. 
-Einen Moment, bitte. Hier sind sie in beiden Größen.
- Danke.
-Passt Ihnen die Cardigan?
-Ja! Die Cardigan mit Kapuze passt mir sehr gut. Aber, haben sie der Cardigan in braun?
- Ja. Hier, bitte.
-Perfekt, danke!
-Passt Inhnen die Hosen?
- Die Hose in M passt mir gut. Die weite Hose ist zu schön!

I think that it is really challenging to get the correct articles when applying dative or accusative case in speaking exercises. I need to practice them more. 
]]> 2020-05-10 20:47:56 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/563401884 Duolingo Practice gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/563406171 I have been practicing, not in a daily basis, but as often as I can with Duolingo. I believe this app is great to reinforce and learn new  vocabulary. But, it also allows to practice a bit of listening, speaking, writing and grammar. In particular, these semester I had use the app to practice and memorize the colours and clothes vocabulary in German. But, I also use it to practice old vocabulary, such as question words (e.g wo, woher, wie, was, warum), food vocabulary, adjectives (e.g. langsam, schwer, stark, nützlich), plurals and general vocabulary. The trick to improve in Duolingo is to be constant in practicing!]]> 2020-05-10 20:51:17 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/563406171 General Practice gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/563457198 I noticed that I had forgotten a lot of vocabulary from last semester, as well as the correct way of writing certain words. Thus, I decided to invest time practicing common verbs, vocabulary and articles in order to apply them to the new theory. Besides from reviewing from my old notes and workbook, I choose to use Duolingo and to give it a go to an article training for additional review and practice.]]> 2020-05-10 21:30:32 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/563457198 Die drei kleinen Schweinchen gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/564481863 I repeated the same process as with the first audiobook. First, I listened to the story trying to understand it without the text, then I listened again and tried to identify grammar structures in the text and new vocabulary to learn, and finally I listened again the story but pausing it section by section to repeat it a loud.
Even though these audiobooks are children stories, and easy to understand at some extent, it is useful to have the guiding text and the translation to support the words I do not know yet, including:
- Bauer-farmer
- baute-built
- Strohwände-straw wall
- Holzwände- wood wall
- rannte-ran
- Nickerchen-nap
- böse-angry/mad
- roch-smelled (from riechen-to smell/sniff)
- Speck-bacon
- Schlüsselloch-keyhole
- beschloss- decided
- Ziegelsteine -bricks
- Ziegelhauses-brick house
- lachte-laughed
or even frases such as:
- Lass mich herein-Let me in

Both of these e-books help me to boost my listening and speaking abilities.]]> 2020-05-11 10:40:34 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/564481863 Present perfect practice gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/567178994 I watched the explanation of the perfect tense in the bbc site to reinforce the theory and took the quiz at the end.
Moreover, I did some present perfect exercises in germansteps.com, which help me to recognize which are my common mistakes when applying the perfect tense. For example, I often get wrong the perfect tense of verbs which have to had a vowel change such as fliegen to geflogen or sprechen to gesprochen or wissen to gewusst.
Also, it was useful to practice when to use bin or haben in present perfect. The only one that I got wrong was using haben with geblieben, which it goes with the verb to be (Ihr seid geblieben).
In general, I found easy to apply the rules of the perfect tense structure, but I just have to memorize the verbs that change vowels in the perfect tense.
These exercises benefit me to consolidate better the theory.]]> 2020-05-12 10:48:11 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/567178994 Toni Erdmann film gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/567252537 I watched (on Prime video) a German film called Toni Erdmann with English subtitles. I wanted to watch it with German subtitles instead but it was not available. I also tried without any subtitles but I got lost easily. 
The movie's genre is between comedy and drama and is mainly about the relationship of a father with his adult daughter. I am not going to explain more about what happens in the movie, as I do not want to spoil it, but I do think that watching movies in the language you are learning is an excellent way of practicing. Some of the characters had a strong German accent which make me realize that is more difficult to recognize certain words just because of the way, accent or tone they used. I could understand and followed some of the dialogues and recognized a lot of vocabulary (e.g when they were talking about birthday-Geburstag), but I did struggle a lot in understanding several scenes, I tried to focus in not reading the subtitles all the time. 
Watching movies in German permit to experience phrases and sentences in different context. I was not expecting to be able to understand the whole movie in German, but I am glad that I am improving my listening skills little by little.]]> 2020-05-12 11:30:52 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/567252537 Thomas Mann podcast gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/581971973 Another podcast that I listened and that I really liked, is one about Thomas Mann. He was a recognized writer who won the Nobel price for his book named "Buddenbrooks", 28 years after he wrote it. I did know him before but I did not realized the important figure he played when Hitler was in the power in Germany. I ignored that he used to call germans to resist against the nazis  every month in the BBC. And that Hitler took away his family assets and German citizenship because of it. This podcasts was really informative and interesting! It was really easy to follow and understand. From it, I learned new words including: heiraten - marry, Weltliteratur - world literature, nannte - called, emigrierte - emigrated and Schriftsteller - writer.
I believe that podcasts represent a great tool to learn new things from different perspectives, and I definitely want to continue practicing by listening to more podcasts in German.]]> 2020-05-19 09:25:23 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/581971973 gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/584468467 2020-05-20 09:47:43 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/584468467 gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/584470780 2020-05-20 09:48:57 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/584470780 gmartinezandrade1 https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/584474720 2020-05-20 09:51:01 UTC https://padlet.com/gmartinezandrade1/rcgqkw7ohnpemtx0/wish/584474720