Learning German

[Marvolo]

Hey, I was bored so I thought I would start a thread on this language. I have recently began studying German. Well, I wanted to learn French, but my heritage is Germanic so I am heavily drawn to learning German. Plus, it fits me better. I don't know when I get mad or want to be stern I just can't imagine getting the point across in French, but there is something about German that makes it very stern and commanding. I guess its the heritage instilled in the language. It's a very beautiful language if spoken properly and with care, and I just love what you can do with it. I love using my vocabulary to its fullest. I am always incorporating new and even foreign words, and something I've noticed about German is that its vocabulary is very versatile. There seems to be no end to what you can do with it. You can break down a word and rearrange it into a new word, and I love that.

So does anyone on here know it or speak it? I know this seems like a goofy topic, but I just want to discuss this wonderful language, and maybe even others if anyone wants to.

 

[Captain_BluTac]

I took German in Highschool and got a B on my oral GCSE ( exam you take before you leave school in the UK) I liked it quite a lot, but realised how useless Highschool German is when I went to Austria.

 

[bullets]

I was stationed in baumholder , deustchland for three years. I learned to speak alot of the language for my girlfriend . i would stay at her house and be immersed so it wasn't difficult .
we aren't together anymore so it actually depresses me to think about it . actually , when i get really drunk , i'll speak it sometimes unknowingly.

 

[Tyrinus]

I took a year of German in high school. I thought it was a really fun language to learn, and I had a great teacher. I was better at German in one year of study than I was at Spanish with three years.

 

[Johann Krauss]

I took it in junior high and the only words I remember are dick/fat and aldehex/old witch

 

[Marvolo]

I took a year of German in high school. I thought it was a really fun language to learn, and I had a great teacher. I was better at German in one year of study than I was at Spanish with three years.

I took 2 years of spanish, and I just couldn't get into it. I think its got a pretty sound if spoken by a native, and I can do accents good, but I just couldn't get into it. Two things were an issue: my teacher was a joke, and I had no interest in spanish at the time.

 

[Captain_BluTac]

I took 2 years of spanish, and I just couldn't get into it. I think its got a pretty sound if spoken by a native, and I can do accents good, but I just couldn't get into it. Two things were an issue: my teacher was a joke, and I had no interest in spanish at the time.

You might wanna learn to speak a first language before you try for a second.

 

[Captain_BluTac]

I took it in junior high and the only words I remember are dick/fat and aldehex/old witch

I gotta admit I can't remember that much, however I vividly remember Schwartzbrot (a type of bread) it tasted like mould.

 

[Marvolo]

I took German in Highschool and got a B on my oral GCSE ( exam you take before you leave school in the UK) I liked it quite a lot, but realised how useless Highschool German is when I went to Austria.

LOL care to elaborate?

 

[Captain_BluTac]

LOL care to elaborate?

Well, being able to tell people your name, age, likes and interests doesn't really help when you're trying to tell a receptionist you lost the key to your room.

 

[Marvolo]

Well, being able to tell people your name, age, likes and interests doesn't really help when you're trying to tell a receptionist you lost the key to your room.

LOL yeah I can imagine that it wouldn't help.So how was Austria? I really want to move to a German speaking country.

 

[Hobgoblin]

Yeah, I took four years of German in high school. Its a convoluted language, imo, but I much prefer it over French or Spanish. I'm far from fluent but the little I remembered helped me a lot when visiting Frankfurt am Main last year.

BTW, what other languages does everyone's school offer? It was only German, Spanish and French in my day but now my high school offers Chinese. In my mom's day there was also Latin and Russian.

 

[Marvolo]

Yeah, I took four years of German in high school. Its a convoluted language, imo, but I much prefer it over French or Spanish. I'm far from fluent but the little I remembered helped me a lot when visiting Frankfurt am Main last year.

BTW, what other languages does everyone's school offer? It was only German, Spanish and French in my day but now my high school offers Chinese. In my mom's day there was also Latin and Russian.

I'm just curious what you mean by convoluted?

 

[Hobgoblin]

I'm just curious what you mean by convoluted?

The word order always screwed me up. "Kicking verbs" and such. Nomitiv, Akkusativ, Dativ. Der. Die. Das. Den. Dem. Dem + m.

WTF?

 

[Marvolo]

The word order always screwed me up. "Kicking verbs" and such. Nomitiv, Akkusativ, Dativ. Der. Die. Das. Den. Dem. Dem + m.

WTF?

LOL yeah I've heard the grammar is difficult.

 

[Hobgoblin]

LOL yeah I've heard the grammar is difficult.

I wish I had studied harder. Maybe I'll take community college German class and try harder.

 

[Marvolo]

I wish I had studied harder. Maybe I'll take community college German class and try harder.

That's what I am planning on doing.

 

[Lemon]

I spent all last year learning German at the Goethe Institut in Wellington NZ. I spent a year at Uni doing German but then just stopped, and a few years later got back into it.

 

[Finlandman]

I have studied german for a year. I haven't learned anything, but I still got 10 in my report card.

 

[JayCaz]

Learning German is pointless, here's the eqation;

'English speakers are naturally lazy bastards when it comes to learning languages'
+
'Most Germans speak English'
=
If you visit Germany, just speak slower & louder. They're bound to understand you.

If all else fails, smash the place up.​

 

[ferret]

So how was Austria? I really want to move to a German speaking country.

I guess I can answer that one (Austrian represent). We moved here in 2000 or 2001 (before that, my family lived in Germany, and before THAT, we lived in Estonia), and by here I mean Upperaustria. So, here are some things you should know before coming here: There is a handful of different dialects in Austria, basically no one speaks "Hochdeutsch" ("Wienerisch" -what the folks in Vienna speak - comes close I guess, BUT they have some words and phrases that only they use) and they often "misuse" the German orthography (i.e. the month would be "das Monat" and not "der Monat" or a the word "lernen" which means to learn could be used as to teach). Mind you, I could hardly understand anything when I moved here but compared to the western and southern dialects the easiest ones would be found in Upperaustria (like, a Bavarian wouldn't have any problems).

So, if you want to learn proper "Hochdeutsch" better move to Germany, even though that might be tricky as well...um, in really big cities like Cologne and Berlin they'll most likely speak in "Kölsch" and "Berliner Dialekt". Even though Bavaria is kind of "infamous" (much like the US southern stereotype) I found it easy to lear "Hochdeutsch" there, only very few actually spoke Bavarian but of course that, again, depends on where you are in Bavaria.

I hope that was confusing enough

 

[Frizzo the Clown]

I was stationed in Heidelberg, GE for a couple of years about 10 years ago, and I learned a little bit of the language while I was there. Problem is, all of my German friends preferred to speak English to me, so they could practice. So, I rarely got to use any of the German I knew, and rarely got to practice it. So, I've pretty much forgotten any German that I knew.

 

[Marvolo]

Learning German is pointless, here's the eqation;

'English speakers are naturally lazy bastards when it comes to learning languages'
+
'Most Germans speak English'
=
If you visit Germany, just speak slower & louder. They're bound to understand you.

If all else fails, smash the place up.​

Well, I am not lazy, and I love learning languages. I don't care if they speak English. By me knowing their language it shows respect, because I took the time to learn their language since they took the time to learn mine.

 

[Logan's Runt]

All I remember from four years of it in high school are dirty words/phrases, colors, and a few animals.

 

[Marvolo]

All I remember from four years of it in high school are dirty words/phrases, colors, and a few animals.

That sucks, but I find high-school foreign language classes to be jokes anyway. My experence of learning Spanish in high-school taught me that. They set it up so that you dont' really get into the language until years 3 and 4 which is stupid, because you only take 2 years. I guess they expect you to carry on in college, but if a language hasn't grabbed my interest in 2 years I lose interest, as does most people I think.