German speaking folk . . .

[skieur]

You haven't lived until you have studied Nietzche in the original German. As the sentences get longer in German, the structure becomes more bizarre for an anglo or francophone.

skieur

 

[Corry]

I'll come back to this thread in 4 months and try and decipher it.

 

[Alex_B]

You haven't lived until you have studied Nietzche in the original German. As the sentences get longer in German, the structure becomes more bizarre for an anglo or francophone.

skieur

Yes, you can do very interesting things in German°

At school, my biology lab partner and I really pushed this to the extreme when writing lab reports. We tried to construct longer and longer sentences within sentences within sentences ... but all totally correct in German. After a while our teacher started to hate us for that

The funny thing is, with these complicated constructions you can get very subtle tones into your message, very hard to catch for the non native speaker. Sometimes even hard for the native speaker if he is not used to it.

 

[tim.bennett]

Didn't read the whole post. I have a few german friend that I understand since i speak Dutch. But speaking it myself other than a few simple things. It's not easy!!!

I use the google translator for Swedish which has worked so far. It's better with spanish and french as well.

 

[Corry]

Ok, whoever invented the German language needs to come tell me HOW IN THE HELL to remember WHAT verb ending goes with WHAT subject!

I'm trying and trying and TRYING to get the verb conjugation thing to click, but it is making my brain HURT!

First test is tomorrow. Yay.

I suck.

 

[spiffybeth]

just memorize it. its not tough.

 

[Corry]

I'm trying to memorize it. It is tough for me. At least, in the way it's taught in my book it is.

I'm starting to search online to see if there is a website that will help make it click for me.

 

[spiffybeth]

i dont know what you mean "click"

 

[Corry]

by 'click' I mean for it all to make sense in my head.

 

[spiffybeth]

save yourself a lot of time now and just memorize them

 

[Corry]

I'd rather understand them. There are too many different rules for me to memorize well enough in a short time that I will be able to recall them correctly when called upon tomorrow morning in class. By understanding them rather than just rote memorization, I will be able to use them correctly more often, and they will stick in my mind better.

It's more than just learning the endings . . . it's understanding why things are the way they are . . . why the sentences are structured the way they are.

 

[Dmitri]

German is one of the easier ones. Languages like Russian, all the words change and not just the verbs Imagine having to remember how to say someones name in a sentence based on function and gender

 

[Corry]

German is one of the easier ones. Languages like Russian, all the words change and not just the verbs Imagine having to remember how to say someones name in a sentence based on function and gender

That does sound difficult!

I did just find a little chart thingy that helps me understand it a bit better. I think mostly I'm having trouble because the chart in my book is somewhat difficult to understand with the way it's set up.

*sigh*

I'm getting there. I'm more than a little nervous about my test tommorrow, though.

 

[Slaphead]

By understanding them rather than just rote memorization, I will be able to use them correctly more often, and they will stick in my mind better.

It's more than just learning the endings . . . it's understanding why things are the way they are . . . why the sentences are structured the way they are.

You've only been at this for what, 4 weeks now. After my first 4 weeks of german (every day for 3 hours - intensive course) I came away understanding only the word "Pause" - in english "Break" as in take a break. The only reason I knew this was because I managed to associate this word with everybody else getting up and going for a coffee. Having said that, the course I took was taught totally in german - no english explanations for me.

Consider this analogy - At the moment you're sitting in front of a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle of which you have only 5 or so pieces available and they don't fit together - add to this the fact that you can't even see the picture on the front of the box. I'm afraid that until you get some pieces linked together and can see a bit of the big picture you'll have to simply accept and memorise rather than understand.

After a while you'll start seeing the whys, the wherefores and the logic - and everything will suddenly become lot easier.

I've been at this a lot longer than you and I still can't remember reliably which nouns take der, die or das. I rely on a set of rules to do this but they don't always work.

Good luck on the test. :thumbup:

 

[Corry]

Thanks, slaphead. I'm hoping it won't be as bad as I think it's gonna be.