Hot answers tagged learning
16
I took the Zertifikat Deutsch two years ago at the Goethe Institut Berlin. It was pretty tough for me since I was just starting out, but did manage to pass with a good grade with some work.
Since Takkat already provided some resources for you, let me give you some advice which is specifically tailored to the Zertifikat Deutsch.
The following advice is ...
13
Try the Deutsche Welle resources. There's a free 30-lection course going from A1 to B1. In addition, there's a ton of resources for all levels up to C1.
11
Well, what do you mean by fluent? :-)
I've been learning German for eleven months and has become fluent, but I have been living in Germany the whole time. I have also met loads of German learners during my stay there. This answer is my highly subjective guess at where you'll be in eight months based on this experience.
Reading
You'll be able to read books ...
10
First, one should note that bei is in general not used with verb such like gehen, kommen, or other word which would express an idea of movement. One say:
Ich bin beim Arzt.
but:
Ich gehe zum Arzt.
Now for a few guideline about the other preposition:
Nach is used when you go to a city, a country, or any other named inhabited settlement of region.
...
10
From the Goethe Institut there are some ressources for the B1 exams free for download from here:
http://www.goethe.de/lrn/prj/pba/bes/gzd/mat/deindex.htm
There you will find
A sample exam for candidates
Samples for examiners
MP3 audio file for listening comprehension tests
Various regulations, other informations and a manual
9
For nouns:
gender and plural
strong/weak noun declension (1)
For verbs:
past stem, complete spoken past phrase,
geben, gab, habe gegeben.
Furthermore, if a specific preposition is required, then it makes
sense to put it there. But not so much for gehen as it could be
almost anything. And then, note if there is a self reference.
...
8
I've used what I call the Maria Braun method. In the film "The Marriage of Maria Braun," the hero ask Maria, "Where did you learn English so well?" The gist of her answer was "By dating." I've dated one or two native speakers, and any number of German-Americans whose German was better than mine.
This advice is not suitable for a married person unless your ...
8
Die Verwendung dieser Fragen ist in den ersten Schuljahren üblich und für Muttersprachler auch hilfreich (interessanterweise war es aber in meiner Schule keineswegs üblich, dass die Lehrerin die richtige und falsche Version zur Auswahl gestellt hat, sondern sie hätte im Eingangsgespräch gesagt: Nicht so schnell. WEM gehört der Ball?).
Als Gründe sehe ich:
...
7
I just used such a website for an answer here: it doesn't quite offer what you're after, but it's close. In Linguee you can type in a German or an English word; then it gives translations and also sentences from various external sources that provide both a German and an English version of the sentence. The word you're after is marked in yellow so that you ...
7
Just some suggestions from my side:
Listen to German radio, there are tons of radiostations that broadcast online. My personal favorite here is MDR, but feel free to find your own channel/station.
Go to YouTube and watch some short clips from German popular TV-shows like "Wer wird Millionär?", "TV Total", "Genial daneben" etc. If you are lucky you can find ...
7
Deutsche Welle is the best possible page for German language learners, I know no other news agency that would do so much for teaching German worldwide.
On the same page you are referencing in your question there is also a video section called "Deutsch Lernen mit Videos" (s. picture) where you can find 161 different short video clips tailored for beginners.
...
7
That's how I (try to) improve my English:
Read online news paper daily
Watch TV (news, series) as well as movies
Read books
Listen to audio books.
Work through severals online pages (like stackexchange) daily, where you find interesting new words, idioms, etc. and learn them by heart
and finally
Speak as much as possible with native speakers
6
I cannot answer definitely, since I'm a native German (and also not a German teacher), but this is my experience:
Yes, you will be able to form basic German sentences and, more important, they will likely be understood, even if not immediately. No, you will not be able to form correct German sentences after a week unless you are a language wunderkind. But ...
6
Are you looking for something about idiomatic language, or mistakes in general? If the latter, I think you'd enjoy 50 Ways to Improve Your German, it's very light and easy to read (alas, not many cartoons).
For something more comprehensive, 1001 Pitfalls in German is pretty well-known.
Hope that helps!
6
I think the courses offered by "Deutsche Welle" are what you are looking for.
For example this course is quite interesting.
All possibilities are listed here below the course finder.
6
The two verbs
ansehen
and
anschauen
are near-identical synonyms. They are, in fact, identical as to their denotations. People may disagree, however, as to the equivalence of their connotations. For example, when we hear or read anschauen we simultaneously hear or read a faint echo of the noun Anschauung in the back of our mind. There is ...
5
The German part of about.com has a selection of dual-language texts. You will find them on this page. Note that not all of the texts are available in two languages, look for the ones marked dual-language.
However, they are not all elementary, but for example Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten should fit the bill. It even comes with German audio.
5
Es ist (vermutlich auch in anderen Sprachen) einfacher, über einen Anwendungsfall das Sprachgefühl zu aktivieren, als eine grammatikalische Regel abzurufen. Würde mich jemand fragen: "Steht gehören mit Dativ oder Akkusativ?", würde ich auch spontan einen Beispielsatz bilden und daraus die grammatikalische Regel ableiten: "Mit Dativ". Ein Muttersprachler wird ...
5
I think you can use the forms of jemand anyway. Duden has
sich an etwas oder jemanden gewöhnen
as example for gewöhnen.
Du kannst dich auch an jemanden erinnern oder dich von jemandem erholen.
It may not make sense for certain verbs, but does that matter? Just personify etwas ;)
5
Since most phrases in youth language are very temporary, you won't find an up-to-date resource (even online). Also the well-established publisher Langenscheidt already failed to collect such phrases.
Therefore, I would recommend that you just ask if someone uses such phrases. If you insist on hearing some phrases before you travel abroad, try to get in ...
5
Go to a German-speaking country
Talk (don't just study, don't just passively listen)
Drink alcohol (relieves your natural inhibition about your bad accent, grammatical mistakes, and limited vocabulary, and it's what people do when they socialize)
Buy a pocket dictionary. Has to be small enough to take everywhere and pull out for reading signs and ...
5
I suggest watching German films. You can watch with translated subtitles first, and then try watching with the original German subtitles. (They are usually prepared for the hearing impaired - and the accuracy varies widely.) I find that helps me to connect the spoken with the written language. And you can also often find the subtitles in a simple text format ...
5
It also highly depends on which foreign languages you already know and what your mother tongue is. Since you specified Vancouver, I assume it's English. Knowledge of a Scandinavian or the Dutch language would obviously help a lot. Same goes for any language with genders and noun declension. For instance, Russian native speakers also tend to pick up German a ...
5
I'd suggest listening to daily radio on the internet. Simply listen to delta radio or NDR2 or something online.
Another good Idea is to talk to people from Germany on IRC, for instance. I know this is old and all, but this is how I had my first steps with Finnish.
5
I don't think there is, which is probably because the close relation between Standard Dutch and Standard German is superficial at best. While Dutch as a language of the group of West German languages is closely related to Frisian and Low German, Standard German is heavily inluenced by all German dialects except Frisian, Low German and Swiss German. Standard ...
5
Unfortunately I can't really recommend any German tv shows, as I am not satisfied with the program on German tv. But I could point you to Deutschlandfunk, which has transcripts for some shows (see this answer).
On the other hand I don't believe in the need for a text to read along if you have already some knowledge of a language. I don't really have any ...
5
Yes the two verbs are synonyms which mean exactly the same. I can't think of an example in which one of the verbs would mean different things.
Perhaps the activity of watching a movie can be expressed better with anschauen instead of ansehen, but it's not a mistake to use ansehen either.
4
Da keiner bisher meine Frage richtig beantworten konnte, erzähle ich über die Erweiterungen, die ich selber verwende, um mein Deutsch zu verbessern:
Artikel Trainer: Alle Artikeln im Text werden durch Dropdowns erstellt und man muss die richtigen Artikeln erraten.
(endlich gefundene) FireLang: hat viele Funktionen, inkluzive die farbliche Markierung von ...
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