German – why not?
Posted by shashi on May 4, 2006
Deutsch-Warum nicht?
I have been studying German since four days. (Ops! For so long?) No! It's not that I have stopped learning English. I will continue my English learning and I think I will give some time for German also.
It's just a beginning. I am following the principles of our guru vie guru Steve. I am not concentrating on grammar rules but I am trying to listen to over and over again (and testing my patience. Ya! I have good patience). It is not like that I am totally ignoring grammar. I am just trying to understand the basic grammar rules. I've just looked up German alphabets and now I am listening some beginner level contents. It is hard to remember new words and really wishing to have linguist for German. I will try to continue my German while waiting for linguist's German version.
Right now I am facing problem of dictionary. I didn't find proper online dictionary that helps me find meaning of the word as well as its pronunciation. In German, even though alphabets are quite similar, their pronunciation is totally different from English. There are some additional alphabets called as umlauts(like this ü but I can't write down all as keyboard doesnt support for such characters). It's difficult to remember their pronunciation.Sometime you will find totally different spelling for word. It's hard to pronounce word just by looking at its spelling. So, I am just trying to listen to it and to imitate it. I will try to find some authentic content over the net.
Tony said
Wow!!! Shashi!!!
You’ve started followed our gurus’ (Steve and Max) tips on language learning and experience a whole new language.
I think that we are on our way to becoming real linguist since we know how to learn a language the right way!!!
Good luck with your study, my Lingusit keen friend!!
shashi said
Yes Tony!!
It’s become really interesting and intertaining to learn language since I have joined the Linguist. I think if I didn’t get an apportunity to deal with linguist, I might have not become keen learner. Now, I’ve become more confident and know that I can do learn other languages as I know the proper way how to deal with it.
Navin Dhanuka said
Hi, Shashi,
I too have started learning German. Choose German cause wanted to read Mein Kampf in the language it was written.
My German classes begin this Sunday.
Will it possible for you to share your notes with me.
shashi said
Hi Navin!
I have started learning German ‘cos I just wanted to test Steve’s method. Steve is our linguist Guru and he has mastered 9 languages by using his special methods of language learning. Right now I am concentrating more on my English and simultaneously try to study German.
I didn’t join any class. Steve emphasises that we can learn a language without learning grammar. More you read and listen to authentic contents, you can learn language fast. I just read and listen to some online German contents over and over again. The problem for me is that there aren’t too many authentic contents available in German on the Internet. And that’s the reason my German study is dawdled for a while.
I read contents from these two sites
1. http://german.about.com/
2. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,2142,2547,00.html
Navin said
Thanks !!!
Mike said