For week four I have continued to focus on learning more German through the game MindSnacks. I am now able to recognize 402 German words and phrases! Another aspect I have been working on this week is understanding the culture of Germany. Because my husband is from Germany and his family is still living there, I have a great resource to help answer some of my initial questions about the culture, the proper use of German and the rules to the language. One thing that I have found very interesting is the way that German words build on each other. For example, the word badezimmer. Zimmer means room, so any word that ends in zimmer you can assume will be a room of some sort. Bade is bath, so together it builds in to bathroom. This is how the German words begin to get so long, because they are building ideas on to it. I have also learned that there is a proper way to speak German, and a relaxed way. You must, culturally speaking, speak the proper German until the person you are with gives you permission to speak in improper German. If you don't wait until you are given permission, then you will appear rude. Another cultural difference that is noted, is that Germans will correct you if you say something wrong. They correct each other all the time, and it is just a customary reaction for them to correct your speech. This week I have built up my learning to lesson 21 on Mindsnacks! I am very comfortable using the game to listen and choose the words, but I need to work on speaking and being comfortable with discussing in German.
For week 3, I have been working with Ian to help me become more surrounded and emerged in the German language. We have one hour a day where he solely speaks in German to me, which forces me to understand and become accostomed to the sounds and meanings of the words. He also has covered our house with Postit notes! These have the German name for the object that it is attached to. Like "Kleinertische" for bedside table, or "Kühlschrank" for refridgerator. Having the postits with the object has really been helping me associate each word with its use and function. I think that this is the best way to learn German, through the use of emersion. Also, I am continuing to use apps on the Ipad such as MindSnacks and Rosetta Stone to help enforce my use and understanding of simple German words. I have also been using websites online to help me learn more words.
I find that playing the mindsnacks game is the most helpful tool I have for research. I have mastered 15 of the lessons so far! The video above is me playing a review game for some of the units I have studied. Lesson 1: counting to 20 Lesson 2: days of the week Lesson 3: Colors Lesson 4:Seasons/days/months Lesson 5: Counting by tens Lesson 6: Simple phrases Lesson 7: Family Lesson 8: Body Parts Lesson 9:Household items Lesson 10: Descriptions Lesson 11: Weather Lesson 12:Professions Lesson 13:Feelings Lesson 14: Food/Animals Lesson 15:Clothing For my second week of learning German, I have been mainly focusing on learning pronouns and proper greetings. I have mainly been using the Mind Snacks Application on my Ipad, which incorporates games and fun into learning a new language. I also used a Rosetta Stone Application, but this one was not very good and didn't explain the new words as well as Mind Snacks did. So I have mainly stuck to just learning through the application. I have been practicing reading, spelling, and memorization of words along with speaking and listening. All of these combined have helped me to become comfortable with learning these words and using them properly. I have also learned to count to 100! These are brief milestones in a basic underlying understanding of the German language, but I feel accomplished. I like to speak in my broken German to my husband, who helps to correct my grammar and pronunciation as needed. One of the most important things is for me to use the language, which I have had my husband, Ian, help me with. For one hour every night, I am going to have him speak only German to me, which I think will help me better understand and use the language more comfortably. Below are some pictures of the games I have been playing on Mind Snacks to help me learn German!
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2015
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