Good morning!😃🌸☀️Have you taken any language classes outside of school? What’s been your experience with it? And teachers out there: what has teaching taught you?😊
I took a month long semi-intensive course of Dutch when I lived in Belgium. Because I needed it on a decent level for my job. It went pretty smooth, though the relationship with the teacher was rather distant. I learned French with a private teacher for about a year. Because I would like to be able to speak French (its like an indicator of status to me XD) It was very nice, friendly and I felt welcome. Till the relationship took a hard break for the worse and I thus stopped the course.
There was something in cologne called "english conversation", it was an english prof. and some students from the us living here; they met once a week to talk in english and you could join und practise ... that's what I did a few time. the rest was just school english ... it helps me to get along ;-)
My school english was really crap. My current knowledge of english is practically self thought. Thanks to the internet being in english, in the beginning.
i'm studying Mandarin on my own. with online material and various apps. having a teacher is definitely a better idea for me, as they would keep me on track. but i do this because i want to and i'm really fascinated by the language and especially by the writing system. i was never a teacher, but i did have to explain some terms to people from other countries who were studying the language we were talking in. this is a good thing because it also forces me to find new ways of saying the same thing, thus improving my own vocabulary for that language and my creativity.
Interesting. Even as a fellow American, I would say you're confusing cul de sac with a homeowner's association. To me a cul de sac is just a dead-end street with a circular end, surrounded with houses.
Cul de sac is a dead end street with no turning around. You have to manoeuvre your car to get out. I know because i"am Belgian and have made a lot of holidays in France( our neighbour). This is an enblematic European roadsign just like the one you see in Italy around Lake Garda : "Cadudi Sassi" meaning Falling Stones;
I doubt that really counts but I've been learning English mostly through UA-cam and it helped me improve my grades in school a lot. Before I started watching UA-cam I had a 5 or an E in English and now I got a 2 or B in my finals (I was pretty close to getting an A too). My English pronunciation is almost perfect and my vocabulary is sometimes even better than my parent's.
That works, but just be a little careful because most UA-camrs don't have the best grammar. For example, I often hear people use "is" when they should use "are". It definitely helps with pronunciation though.
Same. There weren't enough german UA-camrs talking about topics I like, so I went to the american side if UA-cam. And now I get good grades constantly. 😃 UA-cam: 1 School: 0
@Niklas Universe Becausse school lacks the content you like in combination with the language. You learn better when you are immersed more or at least interested in the topic. You probably can imagine it is tough to match the interests of all 20-30 pupils at the same time.
@Zercor you can not convert the german 5 to an English E, neither can you do that for a 2 and B. There are cultural differences in the school system. If you are German you might have experienced that with the introduction of the Bachelor's degree and even some years before... well maybe you haven't because you are younger and did not experience that time. In German you can google for the word "Noteninflation" if you are interested
My wife and I are starting German School this fall. We will be talking language and culture classes weekly with our two sons (9 and 11). The plan is to be good tourists next year for the Christmas season.
Hopefully, it will come back quickly. I lived in Germany for four years when I was a child. The same age my kids are now. Hopefully, a two week visit will make them great memories.
Plan is to start in Berlin then Frankfort the Berchtesgaden. Take day trips from the main city where we are staying. For instance head to Darmstadt to see Burg Frankenstein when in Frankfort. In Berchtesgaden want to visit the Eagles Nest. Berlin I'm not so sure where to go. Last time I was there the wall was still up. My wife would like to visit Neuschwanstein Castle so we will definitely have to make a side trip to see Ludwigs Castle. I know these are very touristy. Feel free to make suggestions and thank you!
Well that is an ambitious plan. There is a lot to see in Berlin alone. I once made a 3 Day Vacation there and i feel i haven't even seen half of the sights there. For Berlin i would definitly recommend the Berlin WelcomeCard. It includes Entrance Fee to many attractions and (if i remember correctly) public transportation. For Frankfurt (am Main i assume, there are 2 in Germany ^^) i can't realy recommend anything haven't been there yet. Closest i was to Frankfurt was Koblenz when i visited many of the Rhein Castles. There are a loot of castles at the Rhein so maybe that could be worth a day trip. Berchtesgaden i have been too. Sadly besides Eagles Nest there isn't that much there. Maybe the Saltmine, if i remember correctly there was a nice Guide through there. Though one thing to remember when on German Highways: There are always construction sites and there is always traffic jam. So do remember that when driving from A to B :)
when I studied english in school, my grades were usually mediocre. My english began to improve when I started playing video games and watching movies in english, first with subtitles and then without.
Same here, but more by reading books than by playing video games (played them in German). I'm not very talented, so I needed to use English in my daily life to actually become somewhat fluent.
Movies, games, books etc. are really a great way to improve your vocabulary and to really get those grammar bits deeply rooted into your head. From my experience they won't really help you much when it comes to speaking though, that can only be trained by speaking.
+Ninchennase, I agree, that listening to things in a foreign language does help a lot. However, I don't really agree with the way it may help you. For me personally, watching movies in English and listening to English broadcasts and stuff, has improved my English massively. It helped me to improve my vocabulary, but also helped me a lot in conversation. I picked up a lot of phrases and expression just by listening, that were incredibly useful in speaking, and that I would probably never have learned any other way. For me, it was quite a lot easier to respond to things other people said, because I could "relate" the situations I was in to situations I saw in movies or something. For me, this "learning how to phrase things" was, at that point, a lot more important than learning grammar or vocabulary. Im my opinion, the point, where you stop thinking about grammar and vocabulary, when you speak a foreign language, is the point when you have (sort of) "mastered" that language. Personally, I reached that point by watching movies in English. But then again, everybody is different and learns in different ways, so it may just be like this for me ;)
Same with me! I never really did do well with english in school. And then slowly started to wath Movies (and TV-Shows) in english. Now i watch everything in english (if it's originally english) ^^
The thing is, you don't learn a language by just studying it in school. The best way of learning a language is using it a lot. Here in Finland we have mandatory Swedish classes, but even though everybody should technically know Swedish, few people can speak it fluently because nobody really has to use Swedish in a real life situation (well, that of course depends on where you live - in some areas the majority of people speak Swedish as their first language, but there are also areas where there are basically no native Swedish speakers). And I'm not saying that school is not helpful. You learn some useful things about grammar and vocabulary and all that in school, and there's also somebody to give you instant feedback so that you know what you are doing right/wrong and can improve your skills much more efficiently. But what you learn in school will only be useful if that's what you want to learn. You won't really learn much if you really aren't that interested in learning the language. Learning is a lot about your own attitude. I would say school gives you tools for learning. But you need to do the learning part yourself - nobody can learn anything for you. And the tools that you learn in school will only be useful if you are interested in using them.
I've found, learning a new language is not just a great way to learn about new people and cultures, but it forces you to think about your own native tongue in new insightful ways as well. So many times (I can't count) I've been asked by foreign speakers learning English, why a certain word is used instead of another, why a particular idiomatic expression works in some situations but not others, or what underlying rules there are to help them remember a tricky phrase. And almost as many times, my answer has been.. "Gosh, why _do_ we say it like that? I'm sorry. I don't know. But now I want to know!" Plus, for me, learning Spanish made learning French all the easier, which in turn has given me a leg up on German! Well, at least a slight one. German is definitely a new ballgame compared to the Romance languages. Why any language needs half a dozen ways to say "the" is beyond me. Hey, Dana, have you ever had a whole classroom burst out with relief and enthusiasm (perhaps even applause?) upon hearing that "The" applies to everything, everywhere, at all times, and there are no genders to memorize for nouns? Boy, I remember having the opposite response when we delved into German articles. Jesus! German really forces you to think before you speak. Hey, maybe that's why they hate smalltalk! It's just not worth the effort! LOL! Anyway, I digress. You know what they say, Dana. You never _truly_ know a thing until you teach it to someone else. That makes you one savvy chick! -Phill, Las Vegas
"maybe that's why they hate small talk"... Ha! Love it. So true. The German articles are so difficult to learn. Even Germans get them wrong occasionally.
WhiteSpatula, you have totally right with German language. I´m actually from Croatia and start to learn German when I was seven years old and learnt it till my 19.But when i came to live in Austria I thought that I speak and understand German quite good but then I realised that "Danke" in German could also means "No". You see in schools they do not teaching you somthing like that. You have to come to the country and listen to the native speakers
I guess that only applies to Austria, where the usual saying is that a person will talk to you in friendly words but in fact violate you with the words. ;) It's rather sarcistic and common for Austria.
SamWinchester000 no the person above probably means how when somebody is i.e. offering you food and you say "Danke" as to No, but thank you for offering.
Ich hab für 6 Monate in den USA gelebt und hatte dann für 3 Monate einen englisch "Sprachkurs" direkt vor Ort. Das war eine super Erfahrung und die Lehrerin war sehr nett und sehr amerikanisch^^ also sehr freundlich und offen und hat viele Sachen über uns erfahren wollen usw. Wie du schon sagtest: wir deutschen sind da am Anfang ja eher verschlossener und brauchen unsere Zeit um mit Leuten warm zu werden.
As an English teacher to children - I have learned that no matter where in the world they are from, children will always go crazy for the movie Frozen. And that singing 'Let it go' is always the perfect warm up for any lesson! :P
Hallo, Dana, es ist noch nicht sooooo lange her, dass du deinen 100.000sten Abonnenten gefeiert hast und nun sind es schon fast 200.000! Ich finde, du hast dir jeden einzelnen verdient. Deine Videos sind super. Viel Erfolg weiterhin!!
I'm currently taking German lessons in my Spanish speaking country and although it was a little bit of a shock at first, I somehow managed to understand it. It might be frustrating at first, because your brain is used to the logics of your own language and no matter how you see it, it doesn't make sense. But when you get to make an idea of what you're exactly doing and how does the language works, everything gets better. 😊
Ahh, this got me excited for school again (starting next Wednesday) because I really miss my English and my Spanish class, two classes that I actually enjoy because I love languages. So thanks, Dana. :)
Although my English has always been very good I took a language trip to England in early 2016. Some of my friends came along and I would say that that class with a native teacher gave me a lot more security and confidence with speaking the language. I had been to an exchange to Australia the year before and had gotten good feedback on my skills but hearing it again from a real language teacher was incredibly empowering.
I've taken French, Chinese and Japanese classes outside of school. I learned, that it's way more relaxed when you're learning in a group of people who are all learning it out of their own free will, but that it sometimes can end up being less efficient.
For a year I was part of a language academy. It was all about business English for teenagers and elders. I'm German so I made an internship there with B1 knowledge and ended up with C1 after a year :) It was a great experience and I cannot recommend it enough.
I learned English in school for 8 years and in five years of it, I never really get into it. I had a bad teacher. When I finally went to High School, I had a really good teacher. He was very nice and most of the time we watched english movies and series together with Subtitles in English. That helped me a lot! In three High School years I learned more English than in five years on the other school. I know, there are many germans around me who are even better than me when it comes to talk English with Natives. But I'm always proud of me, because even I cannot answer perfectly, I understand everything the english person says to me.
I am learning Spanish, German, French, and Italian off of a website called Duolingo. I love it so much! Like you said in the video some words can't be translated so for German, I watch language videos to help me.
I teach German to foreigners at a Volkshochschule and I can definetly confirm that there are different reasons why people want to learn a foreign language. The majority of my students are refugees meaning for example people from Syria, Eritrea, Afghanistan or Iraq. It's quite unusual for me because before I started to work there I didn't know one person from these countries although I was raised in a bicultural family. I have also students from Asian countries, the USA and many more. Basically almost from every continent (no Australian so far). What I also learned is that the educational background and the motivation of the student also play important roles. It's always great to see when the German skills of students improve over time while being a part of this process.
my grandma never learned english in school but she took english classes in order to help my mom and my uncle with school homework. by now she barely remembers anything but every once in a while i try to teach her some vocabs and now she always says "see you later" or ask me "are you hungry?" which is the cutest thing i swear 😂
I'm still studying to become a teacher for English and History. I already did my first school internship and it taught me a lot. I specifically chose a school in a poorer area of the city because I wanted to make it as hard as I could to test if I were really up for that job. It was a funny time and I agree with you that it takes some time to warm them up to you but once they have, most of them are really friendly. I know I still have to work on my didactic skills but after teaching a 6th and a 12th grade for nearly 2 weeks (my instructor was on a school trip for one week and decided to throw me into the cold water and having me teach her classes in these two grades. Of course, she gave me a lot of advice.) It was a weird feeling at first but I knew after each session that this is the job that I want to do my whole life. I sadly did not have the chance to teach an English class yet (I did not really got into contact with the English teachers at the school) but History was a lot of fun. I hope in my second internship to gain some more experience for English. But first of all, I will study the required semester abroad from september to december/january.
I struggled with english during my school time but when I joined the German Navy I got better. Most of communication is in english and most publication, too. I also did a three month intensive course at a language school for the military.
I am learning German using DuoLingo, and I am learning a lot from it. I feel that I am learning more with it than I did in American public school trying to learn Spanish for almost 8 years.
I don't know if that counts, but I took English lessons together with other kids in kindergarten and grade school separate from school (I think it's called "Spiel-sprach-schule"). It was really fun and good to start learning English at a young age!
I have taken a czech class when I was 19 and 20 years old to learn the language of my czech part of the Family :) my teacher was really nice, besides the basics of the language she taught us about the czech culture as well. But I realized that it takes such a long time to learn the language, I'm still not there yet. But I am still motivated to eventually be able to understand my relatives :) greetings from Frankfurt, Germany!
Glowing these day Dana - have a nice holiday. In Norway we learn English from our first year in school, so we are all fluint. German is another matter.....
We also learn English from the first year (or kids now do, I started in grade 3), but that doesn't make everyone fluent ;) The way languages are taught in schools is usually not overly modern/useful and some people don't really learn with it. Plus we're not so exposed to the English language as most things (video games, films, books) are translated into German and in most topics, there's quite a big German community aswell. Ofc, gamers that know English prefer playing internationally, but you're def not forced into it. Same with most topics
My experience learning first Spanish and now Thai is that learning the culture is equally important as learning how to pronounce the words and understanding the grammar. It's been very interesting. I think my favorite experience so far has been with a native Thai speaker I'm friends with whom I wrote a letter to in Thai. She read it, corrected a couple spelling mistakes, and then told me I was "Ready to visit Thailand!" She thought I was much more literate than I am.
I learned it at school and at some point it opened an entirely new world to me. In fact I even have a lot of friends with whom I can only talk in English, because neither of us can speak the other's native language. Quite fascinating, imho.
I taught English as a second language for a little bit too, and one of the hardest challenges was just constantly encountering instinctive "rules" of English and having to try to understand and explain why my native language worked that way. I'm a grammar nerd, so I loved it, but it could be surprisingly confusing! 😅
I'm currently learning Swedish with Duolingo (website/app) and with a Swedish friend :) that's also a good experience. I learn some things on my own and whenever we Skype, I can try whatever I've learned and we have much fun communicating then haha. It's a good way to learn. so if you ever have the chance to do something like that, I can highly recommend it!
Taking Japanese and it is really hard learning another language. It is so true some word just cannot be translated into an language without a lot of added word or there no direct translation.
I haven't taken any language outside of school, but I started 'teaching' myself English before I learned it in school. From around the age of 8 Y/o, and immediately loved it. 😇 I do want to learn Spanish and catch up on my French as well.
I've been tutoring kids for some years now and I can say that teaching taught me, that everyone learns differently. One method of teaching might work for one student, but not for another. Which makes teaching more than one student at a time quite difficult. However, what almost always works for me is admitting mistakes. Students need to see that the teacher can make mistakes to or that it also took him or her some time and effort to learn the things he or she knows.
I started learning English outside of school in a course when i was 4 or 5 years old until 4th grade when i was around 10 years old. Today is the first day of my last school year and going to do my "Abitur" this year and my plan is to become a English (and also chemistry and history) teacher🙈
There is something similar to those developments. In Germany you often have Bebauungspläne( Bebauungsplan in Singular) they set rules for how far a house must be away from the street or sidewalk, if they have to have a flat or angled roof, sometimes the maximum size of windows. But I did not get why a Cul-de-Sac is different from an Einbahnstrasse tbh
I learned Oxford English at school. After that I do not have the need to take further language classes. I am developing my English "by doing/speaking". I use English every day since I am a computer scientist with internet access :-) For me English is a language simpler than German. Grammar is way simpler. But recognising a new word can be difficult because of many other languages which influenced the english language and which I do not always know. Guessing how to pronounce unknown english words is a lottery game :-D BTW: I learned a new word by watching this video: "oftentimes".
XLV750RD01 ich wohne in London und obwohl die da auch cul-de-sacs haben, habe ich glaube ich da noch nie einen Wendehammer in so einer Straße gesehen. Also für mich passt Sackgasse besser!
Though a Sackgasse is more commonly known as a dead end in the UK rather than a cul de sac. You don't hear cul-de-sac very often in England, Scotland however is different, but then the Scots have historically more close ties to France than England.
That’s most of developed Europe and Scandinavia for you. They have a much healthier concept of a social safety net than the crumbling, underfunded institutions we’re still fighting over in the states.
I have been taking Spanish classes at the Instituto Cervantes (so the equivalent of the Cambridge Institute or the Goethe Institute I guess) and I've had two different teachers there. They were both Spanish and I'd say they were both exactly whom you would picture when you were picturing a typical Spanish woman. First it really took me some time to be able to catch up with them especially since my Spanish back then was just a really basic Spanish I had learned in school but after some time I loved going there because they were so eager to not only teach us their language but also their culture so it was kind of like a tiny vacation in Spain every Monday night. We sometimes even went out for tapas after class together.
Oh, reasons why to “learn” English. I studies in Germany and the exam regulations of my program dictated everybody to learn 8 semester weekly hours of English. Of course, the degree program was taught in German, so this makes sense for Germans, but for US citizens? Long story short: “You are from the US? How fotunate for you. Should allow you to pass the English courses with flying colors.“ Hence, I spent two semesters “learning English.” Nevertheless, the whole thing with the English classes was a good experience. There were proficiency classes like “professional writing” or “job interview training,” which I did not have at my school before that. So I did actually learn something in the English classes, but not English. ;-)
Tenshi Hara Whatever, anyway, German totally ROCKS and blows English off the planet. Auf geht's Deutschland. This Dana woman should be teaching everyone around the world German.
i have taken a japanese Class at the "Volkshochschule" and sadly i could attend only 6/12 times, cause i have to work or like you said fill in for someone who was sick. anyway... the teacher makes it all... and i can 100%agree that teaching and learning a language is definitly combiened with learning something about the culture
I don't really think additional English classes apart from school are needed anymore since the Internet took of the way it did. you have an virtually unlimited amount of native speakers you can learn from when they write comments/make UA-cam videos and so on. I had a few courses in university though
so, if i understand this correctly, a cul de sac can be compared to a "wohnanlage"? my grandmother, for example, lives in one. it seems to be a bit more community-based than a cul de sac but overall a very similar thing. the wohnanlage where my grandma lives consists of three houses with maybe 5 or 6 floors each. she can decide how to decorate her place on the inside, which kinds of curtains, which kind of floor, etc. and she can also decide which kinds of plants she wants on her balcony, if any. however, she cannot do much else about the outside. she cannot paint her balcony in a different color or use different kinds of windows, or change her front door for example. those things are managed by the hausverwaltung. for example, if many of the windows start to become old and need replacement, then the hausverwaltung will decide which kinds of windows will be used for replacement and then those windows will be installed everywhere, even if the person who lives there doesn't like it. there will also be a sonderumlage, which means that everyone who owns a place in the wohnanlage is required to pay a certain amount of money on top of the regular residence-fees in order to make up for the additional costs. so, i think this is rather similar to a cul de sac. or is that wrong? if it is wrong, what are the differences?
No, you misunderstood because she is explaining something completely different there but she didn't make it very clear. She was explaining what a neighborhood association is, which might make rules for living in that neighborhood. To be honest, I'm not sure why she brought that up because the type of street called a cul-de-sac can be found in any type of neighborhood, not just the type with special rules. A cul-de-sac is just a dead-end street that ends in a big circle that has houses around it. We had several cul-de-sacs in our neighborhood when I was growing up and we had no special rules where we lived. Here is a picture and short discussion of a cul-de-sac www.houstontomorrow.org/livability/story/the-cul-de-sac/
ah, thanks for the info. so, a cul de sac is just a certain kind of dead end road which looks like the grove street from gta san andreas? (vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/gtawiki/images/f/fd/GroveStreet.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080607212907)
Yes, in British English, cul de sac just means a no through road, which can be anything from an alleyway that ends in a brick wall to a nice road in the suburbs that ends in a circle with houses around the end, rather like you described.
After studying English hier ( in Switzerland ) I decided to go to US ! After 3 months in Santa Barbara ( CA ).I was better then than studying English in school here in country! The American teachers were the best + my host mother!
I've never taken language classes outside of school since my secundairy school already taught me (apart from my native language Dutch) French, English and German.
My English teacher outside of school was UA-cam ^^' I learned so much out of Videos from nativ English speakers. For example pronouncing certain phrases. Unfortunately you don't learn the orthography part and when I write my grammar isn't that well ... But I understand English nearly perfect ^^
Hey Dana in Greece learning a foreign language at school doesn't work that well so in order for us to learn a new language we have to attend private language school classes . My long experience in language schools has taught me that no matter how experienced and good a teacher might be, it is up to the student to really learn to understand and speak any language through everyday contact with the language . That is the case with me to, even after I had just got my C2 English Michigan certificate I wasn't able to produce speech of the level I currently do and the fact that I got improved at actually using english is because I have been watching you tube ever since.
I am going to language school here in iceland starting in September :) and i will learn icelandic there ;) yet after living here one month i understand some words :D
My grandma's neighborhood (just the road she lives on) has a cul-de-sac at the end of it. It isn't really like what you described. A cul-de-sac is just a road or neighborhood where the road goes in a circle maybe with grass or trees in the middle where I'm from. We do have what you described but it may or may not have a cul-de-sac.
I didn't have english in School, but I learned english from my Parents, by growing up with 2 Languages, because my Father is an american and my Mother is german! And while I learned how to read in german at the first Grade in School, I also tought myself how to read and write in english at Home by reading english Children Books, which where sent to me as a Kid back then!
Im living in Germany and have been taking German. My first sprachkurs was okay. The class was only a couple days a week and it wasnt the greatest start to the language. Then I couldnt find an affordable class for a while so I self taught myself for a bit. Then I found an intensive course at a good price and took that weekdays for 4 hours a day and that was a 2 month course. It was good and helped me more, plus I had a patient teacher who didnt speak too fast. Next week ill start Deutsch für Foreigners at the local university and many people have said good things. Im upset cause Ive been here a year now and havent learned as much as I should have. I will practice speaking with my boyfriend, but sometimes I just get too nervous and blank out :´( Its something I need to get over.
i learned english on the internet. i used to have bad to average grades in english back in school, once my parents got their first pc and i started using it, within a year my understanding of teh neglish language was so good that i would consistently catch myself thinking in english, especially when listening to or reading english, i can not translate at all, because i have to be thinking in english to understand it and i can'T do german while thinking in english, i have to explain this everytime someone comes to me to translate stuff (mostly my parents) because i'm really not that good at it.
i learnt english after i finished school. my teachers never really got me excited about this language and i just thought i was bad with languages in general. i learnt most of it through gaming, reading, series, youtube and for the most part from "dungeons and dragons". since all rule-books are in english and there are even discussions about rules in denglish i just had to get through it and understand it to take part. in school i just rejected it for some reason. and now, a few years later, i cannot imagine how stupid i have been. i didn't even understand most of my favorite songs! wow.. i also cannot imagine to play a game on german anymore, if there is an english version of it. for the most part its because these games were designed in english and - unlike very well synchonized german movies and series - don't have a good german translation. (thank you DnD :) )
My English teachers in school were interchanged regularly for... different reasons, so the quality of teaching was very shifting and each teacher had to gauge the class' level and everything every time we got a new one (and also, we were horrible students XD) I learned English through gaming. Nothing quite like hobby to make you pick up a relevant language.
I've taught ESL in the US. I always took each class to a spelling bee to help them understand that native speakers find the sitting hard also, it wasn't just them as new learners.
i started relatively early with watching movies/series and playing videogames in their original the language (95% englisch) and german subtitles, and i gotta say i learned from that easily 4x more than from my english lessons. that said back when i was in school you only got english lessons in 5th grade and the teachers couldnt even speak it very well themselfs.
There was a time when I had CNN/BBC/Sky etc. running in the background. At first I would only pick up maybe 70% of all the words and phrases. I've looked-up the words and idioms. Over time my ears got used to the way the words and sentences are phrased etc. It is more a subconscious thing. I think that helped a lot.
i'm an english teacher in germany for grades 5-12 (ages 10-18) and i've noticed that the fact that i'm a native german speaker can help a lot though i always used to think it's all bad and that i wouldn't be good enough as a non-native english speaker... but i feel like it makes me approachable and it helps me relate to most of the mistakes they make... i've also noticed that some students often believe that they'll just never be able to do something and that it takes a lot of work to help them stay positive and motivated! btw do you still teach english dana? have a lovely time :)
That's cool! I thought about becoming an english teacher a few years ago and decided against it. Sorry if I'm being blunt, but is it OK to ask you something? I've never found the courage to ask my own teachers, but how do you handle making mistakes? I mean, as you're not a native speaker you have probably made mistakes at times, be it during class or while correcting students' work. I've had quite some discussions with a few of my teachers at the Gymnasium about the meaning of words, or sometimes when I wanted to know the translation of a german expression they answerd they needed to look it up. In my eyes it wasn't a big thing and just made my teachers look more human. Of course it's normal not to be an all knowing demigod, but it must be terrifying to be confronted with something like that. (I'm still feeling pretty guilty about some those situations. Please tell me that things like that are normal and don't bother teachers. Otherwise I'll probably have to go back to my old school and hand out apology-cupcakes or something) Also: Do you sometimes grade people more strictly because of their over all language skills? My junior and senior year teacher used to downgrade me because of little things while not minding other students using less formal language (Her favorite thing to do with my work would have probably been underlining certaing phrasings or whole paragaphs of my essays and simply commenting on them with the word "clumsy" (Thx for the feedback...) ) She was otherwise awesome but that still bugs me to day as it probably cost me the 1 before the comma in the Abitur
it's SO interesting that you ask that (of course you can ask)! idk if my answer is the same your teachers would have given you back when you were their student but i can give you mine :) maybe some "facts" first. i've been teaching english for 3 years (only?) now and i'm (only) 28 and some people think i look even younger ;-) one other thing is that personally i've never been abroad or lived in an english-speaking country for a longer period of time (i mean 5-day-trips to the UK don't count i guess haha), so in many people's eyes, i lack experience i guess. and this used to bother me A LOT in some situations... but when i think about your question, i've actually become quite relaxed with making mistakes or not knowing stuff... it's so cool to hear it from a student's perspective (tho idk how old you are now and when you got your abitur) cause i think i used to think the same as a student... it's easy to think "well my teacher studied english so he/she should just know stuff" until i realized for myself, that studying sth. doesn't automatically make you perfect AT ALL. so in my classes i always bring my dictionary with me and tell my students that i'm not a walking dictionary haha and i don't even wanna be cause it's normal to not know all the words that i might've never had to use in any context... and after a while they get it... sometimes my grade 7 kids even try to make it a game to find words in their english text book that i do not know :D they don't succeed too often, but it happens and i'm fine with it and i can laugh about it. and like you've said, i've definitely made mistakes in class (which i usually correct as soon as i make or sometimes even a student notices it and tells me) and when correcting/grading class tests... and they usually come to me and ask me... most "mistakes" happen due to being rushed cause i have so many corrections to get through sometimes (bad excuse, i know) and then i just give them more points if they deserve it ;-) so all in all i can say: it's not terrifying anymore... so i don't think you have to feel guilty at all... i mean sometimes i feel like i should know something and when i don't i feel bad but i can live with it! it doesn't make me feel super shitty or anything like that:) and your questions about grading more strictly because of the overall language style: yes and no... i don't do it cause of my "feeling"...it depends on the grade and i haven't taught english in abitur-relevant courses yet (only in grade 10 so far) and in the "Erwartungshorizont" for grade 10 (and also for Q1 and Q2) for example, 60% of the points are language points... not only correctness in terms of grammar, vocabulary or spelling, but also your style, your overall ability to express yourself etc., e.g.: good sentence structure for a specific task/text, being able to express a thought complexly and with fitting words etc. ... so i guess it could count in this area, though it sounds like in your case it wasn't such a "big thing" ... do you know what she meant with "clumsy"? i've never heard it in the context of writing style, only to describe a person's behaviour... mhhh ... so idk how she was as a person, but i wouldn't mind being approached and asked, what i mean with it... i hope this answers your questions =) btw your english seems really (!!!) great!!
First of all: Thanks for the compliment! I try to improve my english skills whenever possible, be it through reading books or watching movies in their original version. Glad that it seems to work ;) About the "clumsy"... I actually asked my teacher what she wanted to say with it after she wrote it a few times as I had also never heard the word used in that context before. (I always thought about snowwhite and the seven dwarfs when reading it, which confused me even more...) She said that whenever she wrote that it meant the wording or sentence structure wasn't technically wrong but could still be improved/adapted (sometimes more formal or just simplified). Overall she was a pretty good teacher. She had it hard as our course consisted of a few horrendous students a good midfield and a three of us who were mostly bored (especially on grammar days). I was already one of the best in my course along with two others who were basically native speakers. One had spent 3 years in chicago, the other grew up bilingual and had a british mother. I on the other hand have never been on an exchange. It probably was her way of pushing me to get even better. It just sucked that she obviously put higher expectations on me (and the two others) than on the rest of the class and marked us according to her expectations. In the end it only made me better. And I guess in some way we learned from each other (One time we got into a discussion about the usage of the word rifle and whether it was just a "Flinte" or if it could be used to describe the weapons uk police started to carry around a few years back. I had used the word in a picture description and she had underlined it. I actually won that one... Amongst others we also discussed the usage of pseudo curse words like dang or gosh after i used dang in a creative writing exercise.)
It's a word they adapted from french and redefined, much like "Doppelgänger" or "Angst". It still means a similar thing as it did in the original language but not quite. A cul-de-sac in english is indeed a dead-end (or Sackgasse) but with a circular end for u-turning. (Sackgasse mit Wendemöglichkeit?)
In English (American) the cul-de-sac is a medical term for an anatomical location in the abdomen of females (also known as the pouch of Douglas). I'll leave it at that.
"Cul-de-sac" is rather pretentious in Australian English (and likely British English as well). More common term is "dead end", or "no through road". Signs at the entrance to dead-end streets will actually state "No Through Road".
I have been learning English at work for some years now. Once a week a teacher comes to our offices to teach us some lessons. Mainly, this was meant by our bosses to improve our skills in communication with customers from all over the world. Weird fact: The teacher was not a native speaker but she came from Chile. ;o) Nevertheless, most of the time, we also learned tons and tons about English and American culture as well. And Chilenean, of course.
I never took any English class outside of school. All my experience comes from online gaming and making international friends back in high school and going on vacation with those. Then watching a lot of movies and series in OV and being responsible for international students at University. There I learned that even though I knew a lot about the English language I knew nothing. There is no way knowing the full amount without actually living it where it is native. And even then there is a huge difference in regions, dialects, Aussie, UK and US.
Dana, are English and German the only languages you know? If not, you would know that these kind of things apply to the learning process of every language. Learning languages will always teach you about the culture behind it. That's why it's so interesting. ;)
Hi! I teach English at a language school in Russia)) Russians are like Germans in that respect - it takes time for them to open up, but once they do - they are like your best friends)) Especialy it can be felt at individual classes - sometimes you feel like the people really want to be listened to or have a conversatiion or even get some advice rather than learn English:):):):):)
My parents generation only had English in their last year of school back in the day, sadly. A bit more could've been useful as I live in Ireland and when they visited me and my landlady invited us over for a cuppa tea, my parents couldn't talk much or understand, I had to translate. Meanwhile I had 5 years of English in school. well it teaches you the basics here, but still if you go out there into the world, you will have problems. I was good in English in school, although I never spoke a word, but always interested in languages. Then in 2003 I did some volunteering in Ireland for over 4 months which really helped getting fluent plus It even got me secure in my wish wanting to live in Ireland, which I made come true in 2006 eventually. Despite being fluent, there's always new things one can learn. Sometimes I just have problems remembering German words now an have to translate backwards from English to German. And as I am currently learning Hungarian all these three languages mix up in my head sometimes and I think a sentence with words of all three languages mixed....lost in translation really exists lol
I haven't taken classes outside of school yet but have recently taken the IELTS test and I am really curious what my score will be. Maybe, when I don't get my needed score I will take a course.
Do you know wattpad? If not: it's a plattform where people can write storys and if they want to they can publish them so that other users can vote and comment. I'm writing a story on wattpad and it's just so complicated 'cause this story plays in the USA and aaargh I just don't know how college works there, how all the places look like or how people act there. I feel so insecure about it, but your videos help me to kinda understand how things work there so thank you :)
when i was in gymnasium i had always an 5 in english (like E) or even a 6. i sucked so hard i quit school it was horrible. years later after years of computergames and movies i had english in my buissness class again, and even my gramar is horrible, i never had an easier 1 xD
hey Dana, can you do a looooong video about vocabulary that can't be translated directly into German please?! like the cul-de-sac..... and vice versa :-)
I think I have learned more about english by watching movies and TV Shows in english, listening to english music and UA-cam videos and reading english books and fanfiktions than I ever learned at school.
Huh. Where I live in Canada we certainly have housing developments and cul-de-sacs, but as far as I know no housing associations. You have to follow municipal laws, some of which could get silly for things like house colours, but nothing really smaller than that unless your house is a condo.
Also, Ich muss sagen das ich für meine Ausbildung nun mal englisch brauche. In der Prüfung wird z.b. ein englischer Text( Anleitung/ Tech.Dikumentation) die übersetzt werden soll, bzw. Inhaltlich übersetzt werden. Im grunde geht es noch weiter für meine Tätigkeit muss ich verschiedene Sprachen wiedergeben. Ich denke es ist sicher besser eine kulturelle hintergründe versteht, es ist besser gewisse Zusammenhänge versteht. Es wird auch einfacher eine Sprache zu lernen.
I would like to do an English class. I got a very bad rating at school... Learned English after school because of programming computers. Now I can understand English quite well, but grammar and vocabulary are not as well. until now I just didn't manage to do it.
Wow, the fact that German students were somewhat distant in the very beginning of your classes is something I would've never guessed was a cultural difference /German thing in the first place, but kinda makes sense if you have a general idea about German people's way of thinking. In that sense I just assumed that this is what people would be doing all around the world when meeting new teachers or people of such positions, but hearing that you encountered such a behavior only in Germany was such an eye-opener. :D AND reminds me of all the the language classes I took during university, where they "imported" language teachers to teach us and we never answered when they asked us questions... :D But when I went to their country as an exchange student the other students there just happily answered starting from the very first minutes of a new class... Such a mind-blowing information!! Once again I learned more about German culture! Thank you very much!! Makes me also kinda feel bad for the teachers that came to Germany just for us... :D
I wish I knew German. I'm taking it this year in school, and I already know some simple words, but I really want to be fluent and I'm hoping to be able to have a conversation in German someday.
I'd suggest you to watch some videos here on youtube from german youtubers, for example watch let's plays of games that you know and are interested in. Also (I sadly don't know how common it is) try to find someone who has german subtitles (not auto generated) and is talking slowly enough. Reading the German words will make it so you can understand it better and focus on the words and not having to try to hear which wordd they are saying in the first place. It also helps with grammar since you'll be reading the words correctly written (for the most part). I don't know whether he has subtitles but I'd recommend you the youtuber Gronkh (possibly the biggest let's player of Germany?) as he has a calm voice , talks not too fast and has a wide variety of games to choose from.
All English I know is from school. I have no problem to understand the language but for conversation I'd really like to have a native speaker I can talk to and improve myself. Otherwise I will forget more and more which would be very sad.
A someone who is trying to learn German and is an native English speaker who also speaks Spanish. I find German hard as you always put the second verb at the end of the sentence.
I've always wanted to study abroad, prefferably in an english speaking country or just somewhere i could study in english so i spent a lot of money and made a real effort to get my english proficiency recognized (i took the ielts exam).... but somehow, i ended up in rural north Germany. My english is pretty much useless and now i struggle with german. It's kind of scary, starting all over again with a new language.
I know a little bit about Germans, and I can imagine, you with your ebullience might have scared the sp*t out of em. Love your stuff, keep up the good work!
I took a French course a few years ago and it was kinda weird. I was in between 2 much older people who had spoken French for years and I really wondered why there wasn't another class for the beginners and younger people. I was just like 11 that time. I left the course after a few months because it became a weird time. it had like no structure because of the knowledge differences
Good morning!😃🌸☀️Have you taken any language classes outside of school? What’s been your experience with it? And teachers out there: what has teaching taught you?😊
Wanted Adventure Im learning polish and dutch (im dutch)
I took a month long semi-intensive course of Dutch when I lived in Belgium. Because I needed it on a decent level for my job.
It went pretty smooth, though the relationship with the teacher was rather distant.
I learned French with a private teacher for about a year. Because I would like to be able to speak French (its like an indicator of status to me XD)
It was very nice, friendly and I felt welcome. Till the relationship took a hard break for the worse and I thus stopped the course.
There was something in cologne called "english conversation", it was an english prof. and some students from the us living here; they met once a week to talk in english and you could join und practise ... that's what I did a few time. the rest was just school english ... it helps me to get along ;-)
My school english was really crap. My current knowledge of english is practically self thought.
Thanks to the internet being in english, in the beginning.
i'm studying Mandarin on my own. with online material and various apps. having a teacher is definitely a better idea for me, as they would keep me on track. but i do this because i want to and i'm really fascinated by the language and especially by the writing system.
i was never a teacher, but i did have to explain some terms to people from other countries who were studying the language we were talking in. this is a good thing because it also forces me to find new ways of saying the same thing, thus improving my own vocabulary for that language and my creativity.
Interesting. Even as a fellow American, I would say you're confusing cul de sac with a homeowner's association. To me a cul de sac is just a dead-end street with a circular end, surrounded with houses.
Trifler500 same here
Agreed
Cul de sac is a dead end street with no turning around. You have to manoeuvre your car to get out. I know because i"am Belgian and have made a lot of holidays in France( our neighbour). This is an enblematic European roadsign just like the one you see in Italy around Lake Garda : "Cadudi Sassi" meaning Falling Stones;
I doubt that really counts but I've been learning English mostly through UA-cam and it helped me improve my grades in school a lot. Before I started watching UA-cam I had a 5 or an E in English and now I got a 2 or B in my finals (I was pretty close to getting an A too). My English pronunciation is almost perfect and my vocabulary is sometimes even better than my parent's.
Yeah! My kids watch a lot of UA-cam too and they have a 2 and a 1. :) They are 10 and 12 years old.
That works, but just be a little careful because most UA-camrs don't have the best grammar. For example, I often hear people use "is" when they should use "are". It definitely helps with pronunciation though.
Same. There weren't enough german UA-camrs talking about topics I like, so I went to the american side if UA-cam. And now I get good grades constantly. 😃
UA-cam: 1
School: 0
@Niklas Universe Becausse school lacks the content you like in combination with the language. You learn better when you are immersed more or at least interested in the topic.
You probably can imagine it is tough to match the interests of all 20-30 pupils at the same time.
@Zercor you can not convert the german 5 to an English E, neither can you do that for a 2 and B. There are cultural differences in the school system. If you are German you might have experienced that with the introduction of the Bachelor's degree and even some years before... well maybe you haven't because you are younger and did not experience that time. In German you can google for the word "Noteninflation" if you are interested
My wife and I are starting German School this fall. We will be talking language and culture classes weekly with our two sons (9 and 11). The plan is to be good tourists next year for the Christmas season.
blue ferral The German basics are pretty easy so you'll definitely be ready :)
Hopefully, it will come back quickly. I lived in Germany for four years when I was a child. The same age my kids are now. Hopefully, a two week visit will make them great memories.
Already an idea where exactly in Germany you want to go? There are a looot of options ^^ (maybe i can give you a few tips i am german :) )
Plan is to start in Berlin then Frankfort the Berchtesgaden. Take day trips from the main city where we are staying. For instance head to Darmstadt to see Burg Frankenstein when in Frankfort. In Berchtesgaden want to visit the Eagles Nest. Berlin I'm not so sure where to go. Last time I was there the wall was still up.
My wife would like to visit Neuschwanstein Castle so we will definitely have to make a side trip to see Ludwigs Castle.
I know these are very touristy. Feel free to make suggestions and thank you!
Well that is an ambitious plan. There is a lot to see in Berlin alone. I once made a 3 Day Vacation there and i feel i haven't even seen half of the sights there. For Berlin i would definitly recommend the Berlin WelcomeCard. It includes Entrance Fee to many attractions and (if i remember correctly) public transportation. For Frankfurt (am Main i assume, there are 2 in Germany ^^) i can't realy recommend anything haven't been there yet. Closest i was to Frankfurt was Koblenz when i visited many of the Rhein Castles. There are a loot of castles at the Rhein so maybe that could be worth a day trip. Berchtesgaden i have been too. Sadly besides Eagles Nest there isn't that much there. Maybe the Saltmine, if i remember correctly there was a nice Guide through there. Though one thing to remember when on German Highways: There are always construction sites and there is always traffic jam. So do remember that when driving from A to B :)
when I studied english in school, my grades were usually mediocre. My english began to improve when I started playing video games and watching movies in english, first with subtitles and then without.
Same here, but more by reading books than by playing video games (played them in German). I'm not very talented, so I needed to use English in my daily life to actually become somewhat fluent.
Movies, games, books etc. are really a great way to improve your vocabulary and to really get those grammar bits deeply rooted into your head. From my experience they won't really help you much when it comes to speaking though, that can only be trained by speaking.
+Ninchennase, I agree, that listening to things in a foreign language does help a lot. However, I don't really agree with the way it may help you. For me personally, watching movies in English and listening to English broadcasts and stuff, has improved my English massively. It helped me to improve my vocabulary, but also helped me a lot in conversation. I picked up a lot of phrases and expression just by listening, that were incredibly useful in speaking, and that I would probably never have learned any other way. For me, it was quite a lot easier to respond to things other people said, because I could "relate" the situations I was in to situations I saw in movies or something. For me, this "learning how to phrase things" was, at that point, a lot more important than learning grammar or vocabulary. Im my opinion, the point, where you stop thinking about grammar and vocabulary, when you speak a foreign language, is the point when you have (sort of) "mastered" that language. Personally, I reached that point by watching movies in English. But then again, everybody is different and learns in different ways, so it may just be like this for me ;)
Same with me! I never really did do well with english in school. And then slowly started to wath Movies (and TV-Shows) in english. Now i watch everything in english (if it's originally english) ^^
The thing is, you don't learn a language by just studying it in school. The best way of learning a language is using it a lot. Here in Finland we have mandatory Swedish classes, but even though everybody should technically know Swedish, few people can speak it fluently because nobody really has to use Swedish in a real life situation (well, that of course depends on where you live - in some areas the majority of people speak Swedish as their first language, but there are also areas where there are basically no native Swedish speakers).
And I'm not saying that school is not helpful. You learn some useful things about grammar and vocabulary and all that in school, and there's also somebody to give you instant feedback so that you know what you are doing right/wrong and can improve your skills much more efficiently. But what you learn in school will only be useful if that's what you want to learn. You won't really learn much if you really aren't that interested in learning the language. Learning is a lot about your own attitude. I would say school gives you tools for learning. But you need to do the learning part yourself - nobody can learn anything for you. And the tools that you learn in school will only be useful if you are interested in using them.
I've found, learning a new language is not just a great way to learn about new people and cultures, but it forces you to think about your own native tongue in new insightful ways as well. So many times (I can't count) I've been asked by foreign speakers learning English, why a certain word is used instead of another, why a particular idiomatic expression works in some situations but not others, or what underlying rules there are to help them remember a tricky phrase. And almost as many times, my answer has been.. "Gosh, why _do_ we say it like that? I'm sorry. I don't know. But now I want to know!" Plus, for me, learning Spanish made learning French all the easier, which in turn has given me a leg up on German! Well, at least a slight one. German is definitely a new ballgame compared to the Romance languages. Why any language needs half a dozen ways to say "the" is beyond me. Hey, Dana, have you ever had a whole classroom burst out with relief and enthusiasm (perhaps even applause?) upon hearing that "The" applies to everything, everywhere, at all times, and there are no genders to memorize for nouns? Boy, I remember having the opposite response when we delved into German articles. Jesus! German really forces you to think before you speak. Hey, maybe that's why they hate smalltalk! It's just not worth the effort! LOL! Anyway, I digress. You know what they say, Dana. You never _truly_ know a thing until you teach it to someone else. That makes you one savvy chick! -Phill, Las Vegas
"maybe that's why they hate small talk"... Ha! Love it. So true. The German articles are so difficult to learn. Even Germans get them wrong occasionally.
WhiteSpatula, you have totally right with German language. I´m actually from Croatia and start to learn German when I was seven years old and learnt it till my 19.But when i came to live in Austria I thought that I speak and understand German quite good but then I realised that "Danke" in German could also means "No". You see in schools they do not teaching you somthing like that. You have to come to the country and listen to the native speakers
I guess that only applies to Austria, where the usual saying is that a person will talk to you in friendly words but in fact violate you with the words. ;) It's rather sarcistic and common for Austria.
SamWinchester000 no the person above probably means how when somebody is i.e. offering you food and you say "Danke" as to No, but thank you for offering.
Stella W you are right.
Ich hab für 6 Monate in den USA gelebt und hatte dann für 3 Monate einen englisch "Sprachkurs" direkt vor Ort.
Das war eine super Erfahrung und die Lehrerin war sehr nett und sehr amerikanisch^^ also sehr freundlich und offen und hat viele Sachen über uns erfahren wollen usw.
Wie du schon sagtest: wir deutschen sind da am Anfang ja eher verschlossener und brauchen unsere Zeit um mit Leuten warm zu werden.
As an English teacher to children - I have learned that no matter where in the world they are from, children will always go crazy for the movie Frozen.
And that singing 'Let it go' is always the perfect warm up for any lesson! :P
Hallo, Dana,
es ist noch nicht sooooo lange her, dass du deinen 100.000sten Abonnenten gefeiert hast und nun sind es schon fast 200.000! Ich finde, du hast dir jeden einzelnen verdient. Deine Videos sind super. Viel Erfolg weiterhin!!
Hey Dana! Watching your vlogs is Like admiring the bright sunshine - congrats!
I'm currently taking German lessons in my Spanish speaking country and although it was a little bit of a shock at first, I somehow managed to understand it. It might be frustrating at first, because your brain is used to the logics of your own language and no matter how you see it, it doesn't make sense. But when you get to make an idea of what you're exactly doing and how does the language works, everything gets better. 😊
Ahh, this got me excited for school again (starting next Wednesday) because I really miss my English and my Spanish class, two classes that I actually enjoy because I love languages. So thanks, Dana. :)
I just LOVE the outtakes.
Make a whole video with outtakes every little while - please!
Although my English has always been very good I took a language trip to England in early 2016. Some of my friends came along and I would say that that class with a native teacher gave me a lot more security and confidence with speaking the language. I had been to an exchange to Australia the year before and had gotten good feedback on my skills but hearing it again from a real language teacher was incredibly empowering.
I've taken French, Chinese and Japanese classes outside of school. I learned, that it's way more relaxed when you're learning in a group of people who are all learning it out of their own free will, but that it sometimes can end up being less efficient.
Leina can you help to leran i want to practice with you
5:57 Oh, you have an upload schedule; I like totally knew that and wasn't just happy to see a new video without expecting it.
For a year I was part of a language academy. It was all about business English for teenagers and elders. I'm German so I made an internship there with B1 knowledge and ended up with C1 after a year :) It was a great experience and I cannot recommend it enough.
I learned English in school for 8 years and in five years of it, I never really get into it. I had a bad teacher. When I finally went to High School, I had a really good teacher. He was very nice and most of the time we watched english movies and series together with Subtitles in English. That helped me a lot! In three High School years I learned more English than in five years on the other school. I know, there are many germans around me who are even better than me when it comes to talk English with Natives. But I'm always proud of me, because even I cannot answer perfectly, I understand everything the english person says to me.
franzi_stories it’s “but I’m always proud of myself” not “me” just to help u out a little bit :P
Hey Dana. I really love the pattern of your shirt! Looks great on you.
Such a beautiful, smart, talented, humble, friendly teacher 👏❤️ (Said this as a German teacher 😊 )
I'm born in Bavaria but life north in Germany ... and ure videos are very interesting.. i like it (: don't stop :P
Lina Can you help me to leran english
I am learning Spanish, German, French, and Italian off of a website called Duolingo. I love it so much! Like you said in the video some words can't be translated so for German, I watch language videos to help me.
I'm do the same Duolingo help
I teach German to foreigners at a Volkshochschule and I can definetly confirm that there are different reasons why people want to learn a foreign language. The majority of my students are refugees meaning for example people from Syria, Eritrea, Afghanistan or Iraq. It's quite unusual for me because before I started to work there I didn't know one person from these countries although I was raised in a bicultural family. I have also students from Asian countries, the USA and many more. Basically almost from every continent (no Australian so far). What I also learned is that the educational background and the motivation of the student also play important roles. It's always great to see when the German skills of students improve over time while being a part of this process.
Btw, did you know cul-de-sac literaly translated means "arse of the bag"?
Yeah, but it's easy to figure out it actually means "bottom of the bag"
Trifler500 i'm well aware of that. But the image is still funny.
...and it's French!
Paul SJ Bien sur mon ami ☺
just a guy
Bonjour! Monsieur est baguette :)
my grandma never learned english in school but she took english classes in order to help my mom and my uncle with school homework. by now she barely remembers anything but every once in a while i try to teach her some vocabs and now she always says "see you later" or ask me "are you hungry?" which is the cutest thing i swear 😂
Sarina can i practice with you
I'm still studying to become a teacher for English and History. I already did my first school internship and it taught me a lot. I specifically chose a school in a poorer area of the city because I wanted to make it as hard as I could to test if I were really up for that job. It was a funny time and I agree with you that it takes some time to warm them up to you but once they have, most of them are really friendly. I know I still have to work on my didactic skills but after teaching a 6th and a 12th grade for nearly 2 weeks (my instructor was on a school trip for one week and decided to throw me into the cold water and having me teach her classes in these two grades. Of course, she gave me a lot of advice.) It was a weird feeling at first but I knew after each session that this is the job that I want to do my whole life. I sadly did not have the chance to teach an English class yet (I did not really got into contact with the English teachers at the school) but History was a lot of fun. I hope in my second internship to gain some more experience for English. But first of all, I will study the required semester abroad from september to december/january.
I struggled with english during my school time but when I joined the German Navy I got better. Most of communication is in english and most publication, too. I also did a three month intensive course at a language school for the military.
I am learning German using DuoLingo, and I am learning a lot from it. I feel that I am learning more with it than I did in American public school trying to learn Spanish for almost 8 years.
I don't know if that counts, but I took English lessons together with other kids in kindergarten and grade school separate from school (I think it's called "Spiel-sprach-schule"). It was really fun and good to start learning English at a young age!
I have taken a czech class when I was 19 and 20 years old to learn the language of my czech part of the Family :) my teacher was really nice, besides the basics of the language she taught us about the czech culture as well. But I realized that it takes such a long time to learn the language, I'm still not there yet. But I am still motivated to eventually be able to understand my relatives :) greetings from Frankfurt, Germany!
Glowing these day Dana - have a nice holiday. In Norway we learn English from our first year in school, so we are all fluint. German is another matter.....
eirik løvhaug Huh....she IS glowing, isn't she.
We also learn English from the first year (or kids now do, I started in grade 3), but that doesn't make everyone fluent ;) The way languages are taught in schools is usually not overly modern/useful and some people don't really learn with it. Plus we're not so exposed to the English language as most things (video games, films, books) are translated into German and in most topics, there's quite a big German community aswell. Ofc, gamers that know English prefer playing internationally, but you're def not forced into it. Same with most topics
My experience learning first Spanish and now Thai is that learning the culture is equally important as learning how to pronounce the words and understanding the grammar. It's been very interesting. I think my favorite experience so far has been with a native Thai speaker I'm friends with whom I wrote a letter to in Thai. She read it, corrected a couple spelling mistakes, and then told me I was "Ready to visit Thailand!" She thought I was much more literate than I am.
I learned it at school and at some point it opened an entirely new world to me. In fact I even have a lot of friends with whom I can only talk in English, because neither of us can speak the other's native language. Quite fascinating, imho.
I taught English as a second language for a little bit too, and one of the hardest challenges was just constantly encountering instinctive "rules" of English and having to try to understand and explain why my native language worked that way. I'm a grammar nerd, so I loved it, but it could be surprisingly confusing! 😅
That's part of our job to be patient and work day by day to improve the relationship with our students!
I'm currently learning Swedish with Duolingo (website/app) and with a Swedish friend :) that's also a good experience. I learn some things on my own and whenever we Skype, I can try whatever I've learned and we have much fun communicating then haha. It's a good way to learn.
so if you ever have the chance to do something like that, I can highly recommend it!
Taking Japanese and it is really hard learning another language. It is so true some word just cannot be translated into an language without a lot of added word or there no direct translation.
I haven't taken any language outside of school, but I started 'teaching' myself English before I learned it in school. From around the age of 8 Y/o, and immediately loved it. 😇
I do want to learn Spanish and catch up on my French as well.
I've been tutoring kids for some years now and I can say that teaching taught me, that everyone learns differently. One method of teaching might work for one student, but not for another. Which makes teaching more than one student at a time quite difficult. However, what almost always works for me is admitting mistakes. Students need to see that the teacher can make mistakes to or that it also took him or her some time and effort to learn the things he or she knows.
I started learning English outside of school in a course when i was 4 or 5 years old until 4th grade when i was around 10 years old. Today is the first day of my last school year and going to do my "Abitur" this year and my plan is to become a English (and also chemistry and history) teacher🙈
I never took language classes outside the school yet but I plan to improve my english skills and learn the German Sign Language some day :)
There is something similar to those developments. In Germany you often have Bebauungspläne( Bebauungsplan in Singular) they set rules for how far a house must be away from the street or sidewalk, if they have to have a flat or angled roof, sometimes the maximum size of windows. But I did not get why a Cul-de-Sac is different from an Einbahnstrasse tbh
Ily guys!
A very good reason to learn English:
A very sympatic teacher: You! :o)
I learned Oxford English at school. After that I do not have the need to take further language classes. I am developing my English "by doing/speaking". I use English every day since I am a computer scientist with internet access :-)
For me English is a language simpler than German. Grammar is way simpler. But recognising a new word can be difficult because of many other languages which influenced the english language and which I do not always know. Guessing how to pronounce unknown english words is a lottery game :-D
BTW: I learned a new word by watching this video: "oftentimes".
Cul-de-sac ist besser übersetzt mit 'Wendehammer', als mit 'Sackgasse'.
XLV750RD01 ich wohne in London und obwohl die da auch cul-de-sacs haben, habe ich glaube ich da noch nie einen Wendehammer in so einer Straße gesehen. Also für mich passt Sackgasse besser!
Depends. Cul-de-sac in British English is often just a Sackgasse. American English is different.
Though a Sackgasse is more commonly known as a dead end in the UK rather than a cul de sac. You don't hear cul-de-sac very often in England, Scotland however is different, but then the Scots have historically more close ties to France than England.
Did anybody else just hear that there is a government that invest in those who are unemployed? holy shitze that's amazing.
That’s most of developed Europe and Scandinavia for you. They have a much healthier concept of a social safety net than the crumbling, underfunded institutions we’re still fighting over in the states.
I have been taking Spanish classes at the Instituto Cervantes (so the equivalent of the Cambridge Institute or the Goethe Institute I guess) and I've had two different teachers there. They were both Spanish and I'd say they were both exactly whom you would picture when you were picturing a typical Spanish woman. First it really took me some time to be able to catch up with them especially since my Spanish back then was just a really basic Spanish I had learned in school but after some time I loved going there because they were so eager to not only teach us their language but also their culture so it was kind of like a tiny vacation in Spain every Monday night. We sometimes even went out for tapas after class together.
Have a happy vacation
Oh, reasons why to “learn” English. I studies in Germany and the exam regulations of my program dictated everybody to learn 8 semester weekly hours of English. Of course, the degree program was taught in German, so this makes sense for Germans, but for US citizens?
Long story short: “You are from the US? How fotunate for you. Should allow you to pass the English courses with flying colors.“ Hence, I spent two semesters “learning English.”
Nevertheless, the whole thing with the English classes was a good experience. There were proficiency classes like “professional writing” or “job interview training,” which I did not have at my school before that. So I did actually learn something in the English classes, but not English. ;-)
Tenshi Hara Whatever, anyway, German totally ROCKS and blows English off the planet. Auf geht's Deutschland. This Dana woman should be teaching everyone around the world German.
tf
There's a saying: Einem geschenkten Gaul, schaut man nicht ins Maul.
british or american ENGLISH?
I did the IELTS test and was in the UK for some years. Yeah it's quite different from school English
i have taken a japanese Class at the "Volkshochschule" and sadly i could attend only 6/12 times, cause i have to work or like you said fill in for someone who was sick. anyway... the teacher makes it all... and i can 100%agree that teaching and learning a language is definitly combiened with learning something about the culture
i did two arabic courses als adult: i liked it very much. 😃🍀😍
Im native language it's arbic i can help you ans help me to leran english it's good for me and you
I don't really think additional English classes apart from school are needed anymore since the Internet took of the way it did. you have an virtually unlimited amount of native speakers you can learn from when they write comments/make UA-cam videos and so on. I had a few courses in university though
so, if i understand this correctly, a cul de sac can be compared to a "wohnanlage"?
my grandmother, for example, lives in one. it seems to be a bit more community-based than a cul de sac but overall a very similar thing. the wohnanlage where my grandma lives consists of three houses with maybe 5 or 6 floors each. she can decide how to decorate her place on the inside, which kinds of curtains, which kind of floor, etc. and she can also decide which kinds of plants she wants on her balcony, if any. however, she cannot do much else about the outside. she cannot paint her balcony in a different color or use different kinds of windows, or change her front door for example. those things are managed by the hausverwaltung. for example, if many of the windows start to become old and need replacement, then the hausverwaltung will decide which kinds of windows will be used for replacement and then those windows will be installed everywhere, even if the person who lives there doesn't like it. there will also be a sonderumlage, which means that everyone who owns a place in the wohnanlage is required to pay a certain amount of money on top of the regular residence-fees in order to make up for the additional costs.
so, i think this is rather similar to a cul de sac. or is that wrong? if it is wrong, what are the differences?
No, you misunderstood because she is explaining something completely different there but she didn't make it very clear. She was explaining what a neighborhood association is, which might make rules for living in that neighborhood. To be honest, I'm not sure why she brought that up because the type of street called a cul-de-sac can be found in any type of neighborhood, not just the type with special rules. A cul-de-sac is just a dead-end street that ends in a big circle that has houses around it. We had several cul-de-sacs in our neighborhood when I was growing up and we had no special rules where we lived.
Here is a picture and short discussion of a cul-de-sac
www.houstontomorrow.org/livability/story/the-cul-de-sac/
ah, thanks for the info. so, a cul de sac is just a certain kind of dead end road which looks like the grove street from gta san andreas? (vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/gtawiki/images/f/fd/GroveStreet.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080607212907)
A cul-de-sac is a street with no opening at one end.
Yes, in British English, cul de sac just means a no through road, which can be anything from an alleyway that ends in a brick wall to a nice road in the suburbs that ends in a circle with houses around the end, rather like you described.
jerry2357 In the U.S. it's always a street with a circular end in a residential area.
After studying English hier ( in Switzerland ) I decided to go to US ! After 3 months in Santa Barbara ( CA ).I was better then than studying English in school here in country! The American teachers were the best + my host mother!
I've never taken language classes outside of school since my secundairy school already taught me (apart from my native language Dutch) French, English and German.
My English teacher outside of school was UA-cam ^^' I learned so much out of Videos from nativ English speakers. For example pronouncing certain phrases. Unfortunately you don't learn the orthography part and when I write my grammar isn't that well ... But I understand English nearly perfect ^^
Hey Dana in Greece learning a foreign language at school doesn't work that well so in order for us to learn a new language we have to attend private language school classes . My long experience in language schools has taught me that no matter how experienced and good a teacher might be, it is up to the student to really learn to understand and speak any language through everyday contact with the language . That is the case with me to, even after I had just got my C2 English Michigan certificate I wasn't able to produce speech of the level I currently do and the fact that I got improved at actually using english is because I have been watching you tube ever since.
Cul de sac simply means "dead end street" in French. Just as "Sack Gasse" in German or "Doodlopende Straat" in Dutch
I am going to language school here in iceland starting in September :) and i will learn icelandic there ;) yet after living here one month i understand some words :D
My grandma's neighborhood (just the road she lives on) has a cul-de-sac at the end of it. It isn't really like what you described. A cul-de-sac is just a road or neighborhood where the road goes in a circle maybe with grass or trees in the middle where I'm from. We do have what you described but it may or may not have a cul-de-sac.
I didn't have english in School, but I learned english from my Parents, by growing up with 2 Languages, because my Father is an american and my Mother is german! And while I learned how to read in german at the first Grade in School, I also tought myself how to read and write in english at Home by reading english Children Books, which where sent to me as a Kid back then!
Im living in Germany and have been taking German. My first sprachkurs was okay. The class was only a couple days a week and it wasnt the greatest start to the language. Then I couldnt find an affordable class for a while so I self taught myself for a bit. Then I found an intensive course at a good price and took that weekdays for 4 hours a day and that was a 2 month course. It was good and helped me more, plus I had a patient teacher who didnt speak too fast. Next week ill start Deutsch für Foreigners at the local university and many people have said good things. Im upset cause Ive been here a year now and havent learned as much as I should have. I will practice speaking with my boyfriend, but sometimes I just get too nervous and blank out :´( Its something I need to get over.
i learned english on the internet.
i used to have bad to average grades in english back in school, once my parents got their first pc and i started using it, within a year my understanding of teh neglish language was so good that i would consistently catch myself thinking in english, especially when listening to or reading english, i can not translate at all, because i have to be thinking in english to understand it and i can'T do german while thinking in english, i have to explain this everytime someone comes to me to translate stuff (mostly my parents) because i'm really not that good at it.
Isn't everyone technically an organ carrier? B-)
Why does this not have all the likes?
Carrier implies you are going to put the organ down at some point. To be pedantic I would say, "Isn't everyone technically an organ holder".
@InsertTruthHere Yes. Where is my paycheck!
courier not carrier
@sudheshnam Dit not see this tiny difference. So since we carry organs about and couriers carry stuff about we are organ couriers then.
I take Japanese classes outside from school and i did learn some things about the culture ^^
i learnt english after i finished school. my teachers never really got me excited about this language and i just thought i was bad with languages in general. i learnt most of it through gaming, reading, series, youtube and for the most part from "dungeons and dragons". since all rule-books are in english and there are even discussions about rules in denglish i just had to get through it and understand it to take part. in school i just rejected it for some reason.
and now, a few years later, i cannot imagine how stupid i have been. i didn't even understand most of my favorite songs! wow..
i also cannot imagine to play a game on german anymore, if there is an english version of it. for the most part its because these games were designed in english and - unlike very well synchonized german movies and series - don't have a good german translation.
(thank you DnD :) )
My English teachers in school were interchanged regularly for... different reasons, so the quality of teaching was very shifting and each teacher had to gauge the class' level and everything every time we got a new one (and also, we were horrible students XD) I learned English through gaming. Nothing quite like hobby to make you pick up a relevant language.
I've taught ESL in the US. I always took each class to a spelling bee to help them understand that native speakers find the sitting hard also, it wasn't just them as new learners.
i started relatively early with watching movies/series and playing videogames in their original the language (95% englisch) and german subtitles, and i gotta say i learned from that easily 4x more than from my english lessons. that said back when i was in school you only got english lessons in 5th grade and the teachers couldnt even speak it very well themselfs.
There was a time when I had CNN/BBC/Sky etc. running in the background. At first I would only pick up maybe 70% of all the words and phrases. I've looked-up the words and idioms. Over time my ears got used to the way the words and sentences are phrased etc. It is more a subconscious thing. I think that helped a lot.
i'm an english teacher in germany for grades 5-12 (ages 10-18) and i've noticed that the fact that i'm a native german speaker can help a lot though i always used to think it's all bad and that i wouldn't be good enough as a non-native english speaker... but i feel like it makes me approachable and it helps me relate to most of the mistakes they make...
i've also noticed that some students often believe that they'll just never be able to do something and that it takes a lot of work to help them stay positive and motivated!
btw do you still teach english dana?
have a lovely time :)
That's cool! I thought about becoming an english teacher a few years ago and decided against it.
Sorry if I'm being blunt, but is it OK to ask you something? I've never found the courage to ask my own teachers, but how do you handle making mistakes? I mean, as you're not a native speaker you have probably made mistakes at times, be it during class or while correcting students' work. I've had quite some discussions with a few of my teachers at the Gymnasium about the meaning of words, or sometimes when I wanted to know the translation of a german expression they answerd they needed to look it up. In my eyes it wasn't a big thing and just made my teachers look more human. Of course it's normal not to be an all knowing demigod, but it must be terrifying to be confronted with something like that. (I'm still feeling pretty guilty about some those situations. Please tell me that things like that are normal and don't bother teachers. Otherwise I'll probably have to go back to my old school and hand out apology-cupcakes or something)
Also: Do you sometimes grade people more strictly because of their over all language skills? My junior and senior year teacher used to downgrade me because of little things while not minding other students using less formal language (Her favorite thing to do with my work would have probably been underlining certaing phrasings or whole paragaphs of my essays and simply commenting on them with the word "clumsy" (Thx for the feedback...) ) She was otherwise awesome but that still bugs me to day as it probably cost me the 1 before the comma in the Abitur
it's SO interesting that you ask that (of course you can ask)! idk if my answer is the same your teachers would have given you back when you were their student but i can give you mine :) maybe some "facts" first. i've been teaching english for 3 years (only?) now and i'm (only) 28 and some people think i look even younger ;-) one other thing is that personally i've never been abroad or lived in an english-speaking country for a longer period of time (i mean 5-day-trips to the UK don't count i guess haha), so in many people's eyes, i lack experience i guess. and this used to bother me A LOT in some situations... but when i think about your question, i've actually become quite relaxed with making mistakes or not knowing stuff... it's so cool to hear it from a student's perspective (tho idk how old you are now and when you got your abitur) cause i think i used to think the same as a student... it's easy to think "well my teacher studied english so he/she should just know stuff" until i realized for myself, that studying sth. doesn't automatically make you perfect AT ALL. so in my classes i always bring my dictionary with me and tell my students that i'm not a walking dictionary haha and i don't even wanna be cause it's normal to not know all the words that i might've never had to use in any context... and after a while they get it... sometimes my grade 7 kids even try to make it a game to find words in their english text book that i do not know :D they don't succeed too often, but it happens and i'm fine with it and i can laugh about it.
and like you've said, i've definitely made mistakes in class (which i usually correct as soon as i make or sometimes even a student notices it and tells me) and when correcting/grading class tests... and they usually come to me and ask me... most "mistakes" happen due to being rushed cause i have so many corrections to get through sometimes (bad excuse, i know) and then i just give them more points if they deserve it ;-) so all in all i can say: it's not terrifying anymore... so i don't think you have to feel guilty at all... i mean sometimes i feel like i should know something and when i don't i feel bad but i can live with it! it doesn't make me feel super shitty or anything like that:)
and your questions about grading more strictly because of the overall language style: yes and no... i don't do it cause of my "feeling"...it depends on the grade and i haven't taught english in abitur-relevant courses yet (only in grade 10 so far) and in the "Erwartungshorizont" for grade 10 (and also for Q1 and Q2) for example, 60% of the points are language points... not only correctness in terms of grammar, vocabulary or spelling, but also your style, your overall ability to express yourself etc., e.g.: good sentence structure for a specific task/text, being able to express a thought complexly and with fitting words etc. ... so i guess it could count in this area, though it sounds like in your case it wasn't such a "big thing" ... do you know what she meant with "clumsy"? i've never heard it in the context of writing style, only to describe a person's behaviour... mhhh ... so idk how she was as a person, but i wouldn't mind being approached and asked, what i mean with it...
i hope this answers your questions =) btw your english seems really (!!!) great!!
First of all: Thanks for the compliment! I try to improve my english skills whenever possible, be it through reading books or watching movies in their original version. Glad that it seems to work ;)
About the "clumsy"... I actually asked my teacher what she wanted to say with it after she wrote it a few times as I had also never heard the word used in that context before. (I always thought about snowwhite and the seven dwarfs when reading it, which confused me even more...) She said that whenever she wrote that it meant the wording or sentence structure wasn't technically wrong but could still be improved/adapted (sometimes more formal or just simplified).
Overall she was a pretty good teacher. She had it hard as our course consisted of a few horrendous students a good midfield and a three of us who were mostly bored (especially on grammar days). I was already one of the best in my course along with two others who were basically native speakers. One had spent 3 years in chicago, the other grew up bilingual and had a british mother. I on the other hand have never been on an exchange. It probably was her way of pushing me to get even better.
It just sucked that she obviously put higher expectations on me (and the two others) than on the rest of the class and marked us according to her expectations. In the end it only made me better. And I guess in some way we learned from each other (One time we got into a discussion about the usage of the word rifle and whether it was just a "Flinte" or if it could be used to describe the weapons uk police started to carry around a few years back. I had used the word in a picture description and she had underlined it. I actually won that one... Amongst others we also discussed the usage of pseudo curse words like dang or gosh after i used dang in a creative writing exercise.)
Olfonia Can you help me to leran english
You know that cul-de-sac is not an English word, right? And the original French expression means exactly the same as German "Sackgasse".
It's a word they adapted from french and redefined, much like "Doppelgänger" or "Angst". It still means a similar thing as it did in the original language but not quite. A cul-de-sac in english is indeed a dead-end (or Sackgasse) but with a circular end for u-turning. (Sackgasse mit Wendemöglichkeit?)
In English (American) the cul-de-sac is a medical term for an anatomical location in the abdomen of females (also known as the pouch of Douglas). I'll leave it at that.
Me (No, not Ashildr, I had the name before Doctor Who, and I'm not changing it!) Wendehammer
"Cul-de-sac" is rather pretentious in Australian English (and likely British English as well). More common term is "dead end", or "no through road". Signs at the entrance to dead-end streets will actually state "No Through Road".
[ˈkʌldəsæk] is an English word, quite different (as she explained) from the French [kyd.sak]
I have been learning English at work for some years now. Once a week a teacher comes to our offices to teach us some lessons. Mainly, this was meant by our bosses to improve our skills in communication with customers from all over the world.
Weird fact: The teacher was not a native speaker but she came from Chile. ;o) Nevertheless, most of the time, we also learned tons and tons about English and American culture as well. And Chilenean, of course.
I never took any English class outside of school. All my experience comes from online gaming and making international friends back in high school and going on vacation with those. Then watching a lot of movies and series in OV and being responsible for international students at University. There I learned that even though I knew a lot about the English language I knew nothing. There is no way knowing the full amount without actually living it where it is native. And even then there is a huge difference in regions, dialects, Aussie, UK and US.
Dana, are English and German the only languages you know? If not, you would know that these kind of things apply to the learning process of every language. Learning languages will always teach you about the culture behind it. That's why it's so interesting. ;)
Hi! I teach English at a language school in Russia)) Russians are like Germans in that respect - it takes time for them to open up, but once they do - they are like your best friends)) Especialy it can be felt at individual classes - sometimes you feel like the people really want to be listened to or have a conversatiion or even get some advice rather than learn English:):):):):)
My parents generation only had English in their last year of school back in the day, sadly. A bit more could've been useful as I live in Ireland and when they visited me and my landlady invited us over for a cuppa tea, my parents couldn't talk much or understand, I had to translate. Meanwhile I had 5 years of English in school. well it teaches you the basics here, but still if you go out there into the world, you will have problems. I was good in English in school, although I never spoke a word, but always interested in languages. Then in 2003 I did some volunteering in Ireland for over 4 months which really helped getting fluent plus It even got me secure in my wish wanting to live in Ireland, which I made come true in 2006 eventually. Despite being fluent, there's always new things one can learn. Sometimes I just have problems remembering German words now an have to translate backwards from English to German. And as I am currently learning Hungarian all these three languages mix up in my head sometimes and I think a sentence with words of all three languages mixed....lost in translation really exists lol
I haven't taken classes outside of school yet but have recently taken the IELTS test and I am really curious what my score will be. Maybe, when I don't get my needed score I will take a course.
At the moment I try to learn Norwegian and Russian with DuoLingo :)
It's a great site, I feel like I really get a feel for the language.
Do you know wattpad? If not: it's a plattform where people can write storys and if they want to they can publish them so that other users can vote and comment. I'm writing a story on wattpad and it's just so complicated 'cause this story plays in the USA and aaargh I just don't know how college works there, how all the places look like or how people act there. I feel so insecure about it, but your videos help me to kinda understand how things work there so thank you :)
when i was in gymnasium i had always an 5 in english (like E) or even a 6. i sucked so hard i quit school it was horrible.
years later after years of computergames and movies i had english in my buissness class again, and even my gramar is horrible, i never had an easier 1 xD
hey Dana, can you do a looooong video about vocabulary that can't be translated directly into German please?! like the cul-de-sac..... and vice versa :-)
I think I have learned more about english by watching movies and TV Shows in english, listening to english music and UA-cam videos and reading english books and fanfiktions than I ever learned at school.
Huh. Where I live in Canada we certainly have housing developments and cul-de-sacs, but as far as I know no housing associations. You have to follow municipal laws, some of which could get silly for things like house colours, but nothing really smaller than that unless your house is a condo.
Also, Ich muss sagen das ich für meine Ausbildung nun mal englisch brauche. In der Prüfung wird z.b. ein englischer Text( Anleitung/ Tech.Dikumentation) die übersetzt werden soll, bzw. Inhaltlich übersetzt werden. Im grunde geht es noch weiter für meine Tätigkeit muss ich verschiedene Sprachen wiedergeben.
Ich denke es ist sicher besser eine kulturelle hintergründe versteht, es ist besser gewisse Zusammenhänge versteht. Es wird auch einfacher eine Sprache zu lernen.
I would like to do an English class. I got a very bad rating at school... Learned English after school because of programming computers. Now I can understand English quite well, but grammar and vocabulary are not as well. until now I just didn't manage to do it.
Wow, the fact that German students were somewhat distant in the very beginning of your classes is something I would've never guessed was a cultural difference /German thing in the first place, but kinda makes sense if you have a general idea about German people's way of thinking. In that sense I just assumed that this is what people would be doing all around the world when meeting new teachers or people of such positions, but hearing that you encountered such a behavior only in Germany was such an eye-opener. :D AND reminds me of all the the language classes I took during university, where they "imported" language teachers to teach us and we never answered when they asked us questions... :D But when I went to their country as an exchange student the other students there just happily answered starting from the very first minutes of a new class... Such a mind-blowing information!! Once again I learned more about German culture! Thank you very much!! Makes me also kinda feel bad for the teachers that came to Germany just for us... :D
I learned finnish for one year at a VHS before I moved here (to Finland).
I wish I knew German. I'm taking it this year in school, and I already know some simple words, but I really want to be fluent and I'm hoping to be able to have a conversation in German someday.
I'd suggest you to watch some videos here on youtube from german youtubers, for example watch let's plays of games that you know and are interested in. Also (I sadly don't know how common it is) try to find someone who has german subtitles (not auto generated) and is talking slowly enough. Reading the German words will make it so you can understand it better and focus on the words and not having to try to hear which wordd they are saying in the first place. It also helps with grammar since you'll be reading the words correctly written (for the most part).
I don't know whether he has subtitles but I'd recommend you the youtuber Gronkh (possibly the biggest let's player of Germany?) as he has a calm voice , talks not too fast and has a wide variety of games to choose from.
What word dose she say at 2:02? Ether i'm hearing it wrong or its a foreign word for me to.
Ross Armstrong cul-de-sac
All English I know is from school. I have no problem to understand the language but for conversation I'd really like to have a native speaker I can talk to and improve myself. Otherwise I will forget more and more which would be very sad.
A someone who is trying to learn German and is an native English speaker who also speaks Spanish. I find German hard as you always put the second verb at the end of the sentence.
I've always wanted to study abroad, prefferably in an english speaking country or just somewhere i could study in english so i spent a lot of money and made a real effort to get my english proficiency recognized (i took the ielts exam).... but somehow, i ended up in rural north Germany. My english is pretty much useless and now i struggle with german. It's kind of scary, starting all over again with a new language.
I know a little bit about Germans, and I can imagine, you with your ebullience might have scared the sp*t out of em. Love your stuff, keep up the good work!
Does the internet count as an englishclass outside of school?
I wouldn't be as good as I am at the english language if I wasn't using it all the time.
A cul-de-sac is called a Wendehammer in German
I took a French course a few years ago and it was kinda weird. I was in between 2 much older people who had spoken French for years and I really wondered why there wasn't another class for the beginners and younger people. I was just like 11 that time. I left the course after a few months because it became a weird time. it had like no structure because of the knowledge differences
Marie Cimorelli i speak french