It’s that time again! So you want to learn German – So dass Sie wollen Deutsch lernen!

Remember way back when that guest blogger Victor Anibal Rodriguez went on about the articles Die, Der and Das giving him trouble? Oh, my god…it gets worse! Nominative Pronouns and more articles…

But, never fear! Your intrepid and borderline genius (the iq results were “gifted” at a score of 145) author is forging ahead. These things are definitely hard, but I’ve only been working on them for a few days now. German vocabulary is still sticking in my brain, like water to a sponge. I’m able to form sentences, very simple ones, from combining what I have already learned. Ihre Augen sind blau – Your eyes are blue. Using the pronoun I am learning – still confused about Ihr (you) switching between her (Ihr) and your (Ihre) and you (Ihr), but I am confident that it will become clear. (Just in the event it doesn’t, which one of you lovely German men would like to help a girl out? I was once told by, Frenchman and Philadelphia Ochestra Conductor, Charles Dutoit that the best way to learn a language is with a boyfriend, and I couldn’t agree more–it’s called investment.)

On an uptick, I now know exactly what Siri is trying to say when he goes Alles klar, blah blah blah. Alles klar literally translated means, all is clear — so, he’s saying understood or got it. The rest he jumbles out is this is what I found on the web for you…(blah blah blah). Strangely, Mr. Siri Deustche-Hosen doesn’t verstet mich as well as he thinks. This leads to some amusing moments of me baiting a computer device with name calling. But anyway, it’s further proof that programs like Duolingo and Rosetta Stone are effective (Duolingo is free, by the way, and available for your smart phone making it really easy to use).

Oh, well. At least I am still going forward with this. The other night, I watched Generation War (2013) and was really reinvigorated by being able to identify so much without the use of subtitles. I am able to pick up more vocabulary, or reinforce what I have loosely learned. Plus, it’s a great mini-series produced in Germany that tells the story from the German perspective, something we tend to forget in turning things to black in white: we were right and they were all monsters. Let’s not get into that here, because it’s been discussed in spades before and it’s not the place.

Moving on…I believe that my reading skill will probably be the first skill in which I will be fluent in German, then my listening comprehension and last my speech. I’m sure I will be a source of endless amusement for my German friends as I struggle to properly pronounce things in my American twang, but it is all in good fun (remember the squirrel video).

Anyway, I can’t wait until I can read this box so I know what I’m eating (Shokolade ist gut):

Remember kids…Hasen für immer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bis bald!