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Hinweise und Tips
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Einführung
Learning
German means different things to different people. For the rank
beginner it is pronunciation, a few words and some set phrases to just
get by. For some that is the end but for others the goals are to expand
vocabulary, learn the basics of grammar, to begin to think in German
and develop the ability to form basic ideas into sentences as
well as understand both the written and spoken word. Even those already
fluent in German may wish to expand their vocabulary understand complex
written and spoken German as well as express complex abstract ideas in
idiomatic German.
In this sense learning German is like acquiring a skill. It is like
learning to tie your shoes. It takes time and repetition, like throwing
free shots in basketball. The trick is to make the process fun, to be
like a child. Don’t try to do everything at once. Think small and
simple. For each aspect of this skill of knowing German one passes
through 4 stages:
1. Unconscious Incompetence
2. Conscious Incompetence
3. Conscious Competence
4. Unconscious Competence
As an example let us onsider how this applies to the use of adjectival
endings. In the beginning (1) the
student is not aware that adjectives are declined. He may understand
but not be able to construct correct grammatical endings for adjectives
in sentences. Later (2) he realizes that adjectives are declined and
may more or less recognize that fact when hearing or reading German but
does not know how that is done. As he learns the grammar of adjectival
endings (3) he can construct correct sentences if he consciously thinks
about it. Finally at the stage of fluency (4) he uses the correct
endings without thinking about it.
Set aside some time each day, preferable the
The three areas to be mastered are:
* Lesen—Leseverständnis
* Hören—Hörverständnis
* Sprechen—fliesend sprechen
• Schreiben—fehlerfrei schreiben
To develop reading skills the best texts are those that contain a few,
but not too many new unknown words. Read the sentence several times. It
it does not make sense, break it into parts, rephrasing into shorter
sentences, and reread it until it make sense in German without
translating into a language in which you are fluent.
To develop listening skills, listen to as much German as you can. At
first work on items spoken slowly, sometimes reading the text before
listening to the spoken word. Later work with things spoken at a normal
speed. Don’t try to focus on every word, but rather grasp as much of
the meaning as you can without any attempt at translation. Don’t be
hung up by a word or phrase you don’t understand and try to stop to
translate or think about it. Go with the flow. Fortunately today the
are many things on the Internet that you can use for this purpose, e.g
on the DW website Nachrichten langsam gesprochen and other pieces.
Podcasts are another rich source of material, e.g. Slow German by the
podcaster better known as “Schlaflos in München”.
To develop speaking skills, say what you can, not what you want to say
because you have thought of it first in another language. Stick with
simple things, stay on the “kid” level and leave discussions of Kant,
existentialism, or modern physics until much later. Practice talking to
yourself, repeat, rephrase. Think in German not some other language
with which you are more familiar.
To develop writing skills, keep a simple diary, make notes in German,
but think in German and make minimal use of a dictionary. Even if you
make errors, you will gradually improve if you also work on the
reading, listening and speaking skills. As you gradually learn what is
correct you will recognize your errors in writing and be able to
correct them.
The computer today is another rich source of materials, e.g. German
Internet Sites in general, de.wikipidea.org in particular. Many
computer programs that you use can be had in German, e.g. the Firefox
browser is free and available in most languages including German. This
adds to the German immersion experience. If you use a Mac computer the
OS-X operating system in use now for many years can be switched into
many languages, including German, so that the entire operating system
including menus etc are all in German. German-German and German-English
computerized dictionaries on you computer are invaluable in saving time
compared to using printed dictionaries.
DVDs with German subtitles (DfHg) are readily available from amazon.de
and very helpful in following rapidly spoken German. The ability to
repetitively play selected sections (short or longer) also helps
developing the ability to understand normally spoken German.
In
reading and understand spoken German your passive vocabulary comes into
play. The passive vocabulary consists of those words you recognize and
understand when you see or hear them, whereas the active vocabulary
conists of those words which come to your mind when you use them
without the aid of first seeing or hearing them. In general both for
learning of German and native speakers the passive vocabulary is much
larger than the active vocabulary.
Dictionaries are a vital aid in expanding your vocabulary. You should
have both a good bilingual dictionary, e.g. aGerman-English/English
German dictionary and a monolingual German-German dictionary. The value
of the German-German dictionary is that you see the full description of
the word, not just some of the English translations that are
appropriate in various contexts. After all the goal is to understand in
German, not just to translate. A good German-German dictionary will
also provide synonyms which can be very helpful in understanding a word.
As always the key to reading and listening comprehension is to read a
listen to as much as possible. In a full immersion experience in German
or Austria this comes with the territory. But even in a country where
German is not the universal language you want to expose yourself to as
much German as possible. It is always best to learn a new word in a
sentence, In that way you grasp the context and in many cases the
gender.
When
you see:
der
Ball or ein guter Ball or den Ball, etc
you
see that this noun is masculine
When you see:
die
Frau ist alt or eine Frau ist schön or lch gebe der Frau den Ball,
etc
you
see that Frau is feminlne
When you see:
das
Fest or ein großes Fest,
you
see that Fest is neuter.
A basic active vocabulary is about 3500 words. Learn words in context
in
sentences using a good German-German dictionary as the source of
example sentences or phrases for each of the various meanings and
colorations. In a sentence the gender of the nouns is best seen in the
nominative and accusative cases because in the genitive and dative
cases the gender is not usually uniquely determinable. Practice a new
word by making up new sentences lusing different cases, and different
tenses in both active and passive voices. Play games, have fun with
others, with self alone or with a computer. Say what you can rather
that trying to say something complicated. lf you can’t think how to say
something, use a work around and try to say it another way. Practice as
much as you can every day.
Always
learn nouns with gender, verbs with principle parts, prepositions with
case required and then practice using what you have learned in as many
different ways and contexts you can imagine.
The goal of practice and repetition is to build patterns in the brain.
Much repetition with constant variation, just like a game. Learn to
recognize gender and verb forms in what you read and hear. Practice
reinforces the memory of vocabulary, gender of nouns, principal parts
and forms of verbs, case to be used for prepositions, word order, etc.
Practice making sentences with a noun as subject, object, indirect
object, in the genitive and dative cases and with various prepositions.
Practice saying something using various tense and word order. Practice
using proper nouns and pronouns.
Short simple example: Ich gebe dem Mädchen den Ball. Er gab ihr
den Ball. Sie hat ihn dem Mädchen gegeben. Wir werden ihn ihr
geben. Hatten sie dem Mädchen den Ball gegeben. Der Ball
wurde ihr von ihm gegeben. usw. usw. Mix it up, constant variation with
variation. Think in German as you are saying (reciting) it in different
ways. Its like singing a refrain. It is not boring practice. It is a
game to build correct automatic patterns in your brain.
Every student of German should have at least one bilingual dictionary
and one monolingual German-German dictionary. The Oxford Duden is an
excellent resource, but Langenscheidt also has good bilingual
dictionaries. A pictorial dictionary is also helpful in associating
images of objects and and the various parts of objects with the German
words. If you want to select a electronic pocket dictionary, choose one
that includes the gender and plural of nouns and principle parts of
verbs.
The
gold standard of German-German dictionaries is the Duden from the Duden
Verlag, but the Wahrig is also useful. The advantage of a monolingual
German dictionary is that it provides definitions in German with
multiple examples of proper usage, standard expressions, idioms. If one
of the big exhaustive monolingual dictionaries is too difficult for you
to understand, get on of the various children's dictionaries or a
Deutsch als Fremdsprache dictionary.
Practice explaining German words in German. Practice something you have
learned at increasing intervals, e.g. repeat after several seconds,
after several minutes,after one, two, 4 hours, then next several days,
the next month, the next year.
You
can use paper flashcards or electronic versions like Pauker or if you
use a Mac “iFlash”.
An important part of learning German is to recognize the difference in
coloration of German words and their English counterpart. This includes:
• the different fields of reference (different meanings a
connotations) of a German word the its various English equivalents,
• differences in cultural context, e.g Americans have many friends
whereas German many acquaintances, but few friends. “Mein Freund” is
different than “A Freund von mir”
• what is standard German, what is colloquial, what is slang, what is
age or social group acceptible?
e.g Salongfähig; freundlich vs scheißfreundlich
e.f. scheiß (derb); fiken (vulgar); vögeln (salopp)
e.g. Altersniveau; geil is merely großartig or horny
The goal for many students of German is to be able to speak fluently.
On the stages of skill competency that is stage 4, Unconscious
Competence, i.e. to speak and write German without thinking of the
German language. Words, gender, inflections, verb conjugations, word
order, etc. are all used correctly and naturally. To develop this skill
much practice is needed. A good practice book can be helplful, e.g.
Deutsche Sprachlehre für Ausländer by Schulz and Sundermeyer
was excellelnet for the purpose but is now out of print, although
copies appear on eBay. The first edition was 1929 and went through many
editions until sometime in the 70s. It great advantage is it provides
an abundance of exercises that modern text book writers consider boring
and repetitive, but do provide the user with just the practice
necessary to burn into memory the various forms and make them automatic
as they are for native speakers. The Neue Deutsche Grammatik by
Heinz Griesbach is a an excellent more modern reference, more
exhaustive in grammar but with many fewer practice exercises.
The road from Hope to the Reality being able to use German fluently is
a long and rocky one, filled with frustration but for many students
manageable if they are diligent and constant in their practice.
Mastering intonation is a must to be able to speak fluently and the
recognized as a fluent speaker, e.g übersetzen vs übersetzen.
With separable verbs the accent is on the prefix; with inseparable
verbs on the stem. The native speaker distinguished separable from
inseparable by hearing the accent but uually for the DaF student
the knowledge of where to place the accent comes from the knowlege of
the
separability
of the verb.
Ich setze ihn ans andere Ufer über.
ich
übersetze den Satz.
To become fluent requires practice, practice, practice, expanding your
active vocabulary, a firm knowledge of and correct usage of grammar,
word order, pronunciation and intonation.
Two good sources of books and resources are:
www.amazon.de Postage to the US is a standard 14-15 Euro, but if
you order many items as once the cost per item is low.
www.ibiservice.com Barbara Patten owns and operates the
International Book Import Service Inc (IBIS) now at 161 Main Street,
Lynchburg,TN 37352-8300. (931)759-7400. Here you pay only US postage
and get tlhe same prices as in Germany.
German-German dictionaries are usually not found in American bookstores
but are available from the above two sources. For the beginning
student a simple German-German dictionary is advisable. Three good ones
are:
Wahrig Wörderbuch für die Grundschule - Das erste
Wörterbuch zur innovativen Sprachförderung 240 Seiten, ISBN
978-3-577-07565-7 9.95 Euro
Duden-Huber - Wörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache - Deutsch
für die Grund- und Mittelstufe 11.000 Stichwörter, 30.000
Beispiele, 300 Illustrationen. ISBN 978-3-411-70511-5 14.90 Euro.
Langenscheidt Grundschulwörterbuch Deutsch which includes readings
ISBN 978-3-468-20408-1 192 Seiten, 1100 Stichwörter mit einfachen
Erklärungen in ganzen Sätzen. 12,95 Euro.
The serious student ought to also have a comprehensive German-German
dictionary. Two excellent ones are:
Wahrig Deutsches Wörterbuch 1462 Seiten Über 250.000
Stichwörter ISBN 3-577-10079-6 34,- Euro
Duden - Deutsches Universalwörterbuch mehr als 500 000
Anwendungsbeispiele und 150 000l Stichwörterd, Angaben zu
Rechtschreibung, Aussprache, Herkunft, Grammatik und Stil ISBN
978-3-411-71423-0 49,95 Euro; This dictionary is also available
in an electronic digital format for Windows, Linux and Mac. It is used
inside the free Office-Bibliotek which comes with the dictionary and in
which also other dictionaries and encyclopedias of the Duden, Brockhaus
and Langenscheidt publishers can be incorporated.
These pages are still under
construction.
Please
be patient.
