June 16, 2010

I'm always curious about what happened during the time of the Holocaust in World War II. I had watched some documentaries and read a lot of online posts about this topic. My engagement on this topic came back after our discussion today. I don't remember how we came to this topic, but Frau Arroyo told us about this "National Guilt" the Germans had about this issue. Due to this National Guilt, Germans became less nationalistic and they were not proud of their country. They don't even sing their national anthem. Well this issue had seriously affected the Germans. I knew that what happened was a great horror, I can't even imagine that it really happened, that people do actually experienced those things. But it was a long time ago, and the Germans living today don't have anything to do with what happened in the past. But again, I can't blame them from being guilty of what happened. It's just sad that the guilt they had affected their attitude towards their country. Being a Filipino, I was raised to be proud of my country, so I really don't know why they were not proud of being a citizen of the country they were born into.

It's just now that I realized how serious Germans take this issue. I promise not to joke about this, or even to mention it in front of a German. It's something I don't know, something I don't want to know further.

Zahlen

I'm a bit nervous for our math quiz bee this coming Wednesday. I'm used to joining a math quiz bee, but this time it's different. It's a German math quiz bee! German numbers were quite hard because they are so loooong, like when you say 121 in English, it's one hundred twenty one, but in German it's einhunderteinundzwanzig, quite long right? I easily memorized the numbers, but it's recognizing them when it is already being said is the hard part for me. Zwei(2) and Drei(3) were confusing for I could not distinguish the difference when it is already being said. It's better to use Zwo for 2. Well, I think I find it hard because I still need to translate the words in English so I will be able to understand it. I'm still looking for a better way to understand the numbers.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier, Fünf, Sechs, Sieben, Acht, Neun, Zehn!

Reflections

In class, we have done a lot of listening and speaking exercises for the introduction part. These activities helped me a lot in learning German and I continued doing these outside class. Honestly, I need to listen to the audio clips over and over just to understand a few words. I continued doing these at home. It really helped that the audio clips were posted in uvle so I can listen to it more. I also tried reading articles written in German. I've tried visiting the links posted in our uvle and the articles written were quite hard to understand. But I still recognized a lot of words and parts of certain articles, especially biographies because it contains general information that we already studied in the introduction part, so I'm familiar to a lot of words. During class, I list words that I just encountered, and try memorizing it at home or to use it in a sentence.

As I said, I tried to read a lot of German articles. It really helped me because it's a kind of practice for me so I can remember what I learned from the class. Trying to find familiar words helped me to understand or at least get what the text means. Though a lot of words were still unfamiliar, the words I know served as context clues for the rest of the article.

I still don't understand German when it is already spoken. Our listening exercises were quite hard for me. If it is written, I easily understand certain words but when it is already spoken, I find it hard to recognize them. I learned that reading and writing were not enough, listening is still the most important. I need to talk to people to practice my German and also to understand it when it is already spoken. I don't know any German, so the audio clips served as my partner. I listen to these clips a lot of times, and it's fun that I'm slowly recognizing words and understanding what is being said.

I think practice is still the best thing to do. To build on my reading and writing skills, I need to practice. I need to read articles written in German without the help of dictionaries or translators, so that I may know how many words were retained on my mind. To be able to be a better listener, I must also practice my listening skills. I won't limit myself in simple audio clips. I'll also try listening to a German song and watching a German movie without a subtitle. In that way, I will also know how many words am I really familiar with and I'll focus to those I don't know.

The German class served as a challenge for me. It's very hard to learn a language that I had a very little idea of, but it's very interesting. It's like an accomplishment for me to be able to learn another foreign language. It may help me in my employment, because it's a unique thing. Not all people know German and it may be my edge when I'm looking for a job. It also gave me a lot of confidence, especially in class because all of us were "virgins" to the German language. I'm not afraid to commit mistakes and I learned that it is necessary to commit mistakes so I can correct it. I also learn not to rush things. Learning German is a step by step process, so is learning other things.

June 17, 2010

We read German articles today. Well the articles were kinda short, but we find it difficult to understand. For me, there were a lot of words I do not know. If it's all about introducing a person, I easily understand it but if it's a little complicated, I'm lost. My classmates understood about 50-90% of the articles, but for me, it was just about 70% of the articles. But I think I'm learning slowly. These simple exercises we do helped us recognize words.

There's no easy way in learning anything. So does in learning German :)

Understanding a German article

We had an assignment/activity with a partner. We have to read a German article, without any help from an online dictionary or the likes, and write what we had understood. Since we need to have an article that we're both interested with, we picked an article about J.D. Salinger. Salinger is a famous writer and he is my partner's favorite. I knew him since I also like reading. I found an article on him in this page:

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5181140,00.html

It was pretty hard. I couldn't understand that article. Some words seemed familiar. At first I thought it was like an online biography of him. But reading the first part, I had the idea that it was about his death. The first and second paragraph was introducing him. Giving personal information about him. And I couldn't understand the rest.

I hope my partner understood a lot from that article. haha :)

Well, I still had to learn a lot of German words. :)

June 11, 2010

I learned a lot of new words. The German alphabet is really complicated. They use Sie for you,she and they, depending on the sentence. It's fun that we got a chance to ask each other in German. I found out that we really need to interact with each other in order to learn.

Mein Name ist Crissy. Ich komme aus den Philippinen. Ich wohne in Cainta.

Deutsch lernen macht mich glücklich!

June 10, 2010

This was the first day we had our discussion so I will start my diary entries today. I'm quite pressured this day. German was hard for me. Well it's my first day and it's alien for me. I learned a lot of German words today, which I keep on repeating so that I will remember :) I was so pressured I couldn't recognize the words when it's already in a sentence. We've listened to audio clips today. I downloaded the audio clips posted in our uvle page and kept on playing it. I recognize some words now. I think repeating those audios helped me a lot.

Tomorrow we'll be introducing ourselves. We need to practice by communicating to each other. Well I'm still afraid to commit mistakes but I hope committing mistakes will help me learn a lot.
It's going to be fun!

Auf Wiedersehen! :)

mein plan (my plan)

I've already experienced the German language these past few days of my German 10-11 class. It's quite hard, so I think just listening to our discussions wouldn't be enough. I have to do a plan. Having a plan makes me organized and I won't be lost.

Mein plan is to:
1. Practice at home. Starting today, I will practice.
2. I'll listen to a lot of German conversations. I've already listened to some, and playing it over and over again made me recognize some words.
3. I also plan to watch a German movie, but that is after I get to learn some more German words.
4. As Frau Arroyo said, we need to communicate. Starting tomorrow I will greet my classmates in German. We all need practice, and we should start it in class. After all, we're neophytes and we'll all be committing mistakes. We shouldn't be afraid to talk to each other. I think it's fun correcting each other and asking if we are saying the right thing.
5. Be serious. Though learning German is a lot of fun, it is still a serious thing. If I would just have fun, I might learn nothing at the end. I still consider this class as a challenge for me. I should be serious in learning German.
6. Listen in class. This is my first class, so my mind should be in focus. I will concentrate and listen to every discussion.

I'm excited. That's all i can say. Learning German brought a new challenge to my life. And I'm serious about this one :)

als Fremdsprachenlerner (as a language learner).

Als Fremdsprachenlerner or as a language learner, I'm very dedicated. I really wanted to learn foreign languages, especially European, so I enrolled to German 10-11. I think my curiosity and dedication makes me eager to practice and try my best to learn how to speak German. At first, I think it would be easy. German came from the same family as the English language, so there were a lot of similarities. But as I've read our book, I couldn't understand a thing. I don't know how I will be able to learn the language in just one semester.

I'm a bit afraid that I might be left out. I don't want to see myself at the end of the semester lost and haven't gain a thing. A lot of my classmates were European Language majors, or at least some of them already enrolled to a foreign language class. As our professor called us, I am a virgin to foreign languages.

As a language learner, I will try my best. I have lots of insecurities. these insecurities were my weaknesses. I try to overcome these by believing in myself. If some of my classmates can already speak other foreign languages, why can't I? I think dedication is the key. I just need to believe, practice, listen, speak, communicate and never give up. If I can do these things, I'm assuring myself that at the end of the semester, I will be able to speak German :)