So you want to learn German? You’re going to need some perspective…
K. Williams with her daughter Katie and Sadie Sue Shagbottom.
It’s been 10 months since I last checked in on my progress with learning German. I can say that for a time, I was questioning whether or not I’d be able to continue my pursuit, or if there would be a hiatus without any determinable date to resume. That would be so heartbreaking, considering I have been trying so hard to keep up despite everything going on in my life:
- I had a baby girl in July.
- Recovery from a c-section and a newborn don’t make it easy to resume studies.
- It sometimes feels like I have to set aside any of my extra past times, because the choice is sleep or study, or blog, or write.
- My dog is getting pretty glum, now that she has to share me, and I’m trying to give her more time, which takes away time from other things.
- I am more than happy to set things aside for my daughter and my dog. They are my dearests.
It might take several weeks, even months to learn what your new groove is and to run it as normal. I’m inching close to that culmination. I’m able to do my German practice while I’m using the lactation room at work, for instance. My score on the program has raised much higher than it ever was. I think I was ranging at 50% and am at 64% fluency in the program. It was a good thing that when I came back to it, I basically had to start all over again. Yes, that took weeks to get back to where I was, but it provided some much needed review. That was something I had been forgetting to take into account prior to last July.
Practice is great, but if you don’t go back and start over, what good is it? Constantly moving forward without refreshing the memory on the things already covered can make the memory stale. I guess this is one of the few instances where looking back is required and useful.
I have to say, however, I do not feel that I am grasping the grammar more clearly. I’m learning that phrases are said a certain way because. Finding a proper grammar resource is definitely on my list. I’m nearing the end of the lessons, and I feel I need the grammar answers to really make the language stick. Otherwise, I am afraid I will not be able to properly interpolate sentences and speak truly fluently.
This should make sense, because this is how we all learn our native language. We learn as children to reiterate things we hear, without asking why the phrases are constructed as they are. Certainly, some of what we say will come easily, as if we do have a greater grasp of grammar and vocabulary than we actually do. But, the reason we have grammar classes in school is to clarify proper sentence structure, in both speech and writing.
Until I find that resource, I’ll continue my lessons as is. Maybe the program will eventually add grammar lessons into the plan. Then again, it’s probably not meant to provide such an in-depth lesson plan.
Stay tuned for more tools, tips and discussions on Learning German.
