by Laura Lai/ Uncategorized
Today, I eagerly started studying the Academic and Business Writing course material for week two. And I came across an article that asked the following question: If there was one method for learning vocabulary that you’d recommend to the world, which one would that be? I am not in a position to recommend anybody anything, especially to the world. But I can share my German language experience and the experiment I took.
The readers who
regularly read this Writing Blog know
that I mentioned, at some point, that I was looking for a sponsor to publish an
original piece of work in German with the Swiss Literature Society (Die
Schweitzer Literaturgesellschaft) and that I had difficulties in finding a
sponsor – I still do. I think I have never told the story behind this
manuscript in German because the story happened before this blog was created.
The German language is as beautiful as any other foreign language. Indeed, it has the reputation to be more complicated than other languages, but all arguments about German being complicated pales in comparison to Chinese, Hindi, Russian, etc. – languages whose alphabet is also different than the Latin alphabet most of us are used with. What makes German look complicated are the long words in its vocabulary and its complex grammar. These did not scare me because they were both logical: I understood German grammar logically and the long words in German can be fun because they are two or three words put together to form a new one. To me, it was great because I could not wait to put together any word I wanted to create my words… eventually a new German language! J
A few years ago
I started to learn German by myself on an old laptop, with an excellent
Internet connection and free language websites. The experiment consisted of not
learning anything by heart, but by practice. French, English, and Italian are all
languages that I speak fluently as foreign languages whose words and grammar I
learned. German, I wanted to learn it my way! I cannot tell if there is anything
I learned by heart in German – maybe verbs’ endings – but I can tell that I
practiced daily, I practiced long and I practiced committed to getting to the
advanced level.
The websites I used were grammar and
vocabulary language websites. Their exercises were those that ask to fill up
the blanks with the right form. I also used video websites with short videos followed
by questions. After a couple of months of constant practice, of copying from
screen to copybook the correct sentences in German, I got the confidence to
start practicing German in writing. But what to write about? And in German!
The organization (in my mind) of a
so-called ‘journal’ took me some time, but I was seeing it coming with the
progress I was making daily with my language practice. Taking randomly a quote
from my exercises I was developing it into a short text about myself as a former
political science student, a film and coffee lover, a museum visitor, and a conference organizer, about writing and learning German.
After half a year of writing this journal, I had the opportunity of a German summer
school in Vienna (Austria). It was July 2017, and there were hundreds of
students in the yard of the University of Vienna – Foreign Languages Center. An
examination was taking place so that the specialists to divide us into classes
according to our level of German. I was scheduled for the afternoon. I still
remember how nervous I was that day because that day was the first time I spoke
to somebody in German. And this first time had to be to an experienced language
professor, a German native speaker, and at the university level. It could not look scarier
to me who improved listening comprehension by watching movies in German but had
practiced speaking German only by reading out loud the texts and by commenting in
German to the computer screen to whatever sentence in German I had the words to
comment upon. The exam went fine, and I got to an advanced class. Then I was hoping
to be in a class with others much better than me so that I can learn by
interacting with them. All other courses I did in Vienna were for the advanced level
and my journal continued.
When
I stopped writing at it, I began editing it the way I was having in mind at the
beginning when I could not do much because my vocabulary was limited. Then,
there were lots of things that were put there for the sake of practicing the
language and the time was to remove all the redundant things and gave it a
shape. The shape of a manuscript.
It was a great honor to have been accepted to the advanced level. And it was a great honor to receive positive feedback from the Swiss Literature Society to publish this manuscript. The fact that I cannot afford it is not a surprise for me. I hope I will … one day. Nowadays, I practice becoming a writer, and once in a while, I return to German through the websites I used on my laptop or to the mobile phone app to practice it as one of my favorite puzzles.
#cwp2x #writing
#amblogging #English #German
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