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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
17 messages over 3 pages: 13  Next >>
Bakunin
Diglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
outerkhmer.blogspot.
Joined 4889 days ago

531 posts - 1126 votes 
Speaks: German*, Thai
Studies: Khmer

 
 Message 9 of 17
03 July 2015 at 6:23pm | IP Logged 
Random review wrote:
I should add that this week I realised something about the German word for
successful. Erfolgreich is obviously formed from Erfolg and reich. Erfolg just
means "success" so the Germans are just using 'reich' as a suffix where we
would use "ful". In standard English we don't really use " rich" as a suffix
but the German makes perfect sense to the English-speaking mind: rich in
success.

The foreign-looking part of the word is 'Erfolg', but then I suddenly realised
that the German word makes perfect sense if you look at the other meaning of
"to succeed" in English: if something succeeds something else, it comes after
it, it follows it! The German word for "to follow" is (of course)
folgen (as so often German has a "g" where we have a "w"). A quick check shows
that the German word for " succeed" is 'folgen' when it means "follow" and
"Erfolg haben" when it means "have success".

So it looks like we took a Latin word and made it English while German just
added the prefix er" to the native word.

The curious thing is how the secondary meaning of achieving a favourable
result can have possibly evolved from the original meaning of coming
next/following on. I tried looking it up in the Online Etymology Dictionary
but (unusually!) it doesn't really explain the connection very well, at least
I didn't understand.

This kind of connection occurs all the time when you study German. It's one of
the main reasons I love German.


I also love these little insights :) The stories of individual words almost always reveal something fascinating about the language, and sometimes even history. Since I've started looking into Sanskrit roots of Thai, I've found all kinds of connections back to our language family, sometimes even recognizable cognates to languages I know. As you also say, it makes me love the language even more! And sometimes it's not the similarity but the difference which is interesting...

Edited by Bakunin on 03 July 2015 at 9:22pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Random review
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5542 days ago

781 posts - 1310 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German

 
 Message 10 of 17
17 July 2015 at 2:50pm | IP Logged 
iguanamon wrote:
Hi Random. How about combining Spanish maintenance with
German learning by using some of the free alem%C3%A1n/cursos-de-alem%C3%A1n/s-4640">Deutsche Welle Cursos de Alemán
with a Spanish base. When you go back to Spain this October, look into
volunteering on the weekends for a local charity or NGO. It will get you out
in the local community and force you to use your Spanish. It's also a good way
to meet Spanish people and break the expat bubble. Community theater groups
are always in need of help, for one example.

Nice to see you back posting. Good luck with German this summer!


Thank you for your kind words. The volunteering thing is a great idea, can you
give me some examples as I wouldn't know where to start with that kind of
thing.

The Deutsche Well thing isn't a bad idea either, but I'm a bit sick of Spanish
TBH. I actually studied German last time with a Spanish base but this time
have actually shelled out money for the English Assimil book just to avoid
that. Nevertheless thanks for reminding me about Deutsche Well again, I had
forgotten about that excellent resource and have started using it again.

Edited by Random review on 17 July 2015 at 3:00pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Random review
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5542 days ago

781 posts - 1310 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German

 
 Message 11 of 17
17 July 2015 at 2:58pm | IP Logged 
Well it's been two weeks since my last update, sorry.

I am now on lesson 72 of both Assimil courses and will start an active
(translation) wave this week.

I am now on the second set of sentences of level 2 of the Glossika package,
which amounts to 1,100 sentences so far.

I started doing to the Antosch and Lin (now known as "learn with Oliver") SRS
programming and so far have accumulated over 720 sentences in just over 2
weeks.

Finally I have watched a couple more episodes of The Simpsons, started Terry
Pratchett's " The 5th Elephant" in German audiobook form and have started
listening to Deutsche Welle's "Top Thema" podcast again (thanks to Iguanamon for reminding me about Deutsche Welle!).

Regards Spanish maintenance, I couldn't bring myself to do any of the things I
planned yet. Returning to German has made clear to me what a joyless slog
Spanish was this last time around. I listened to a few songs in Spanish, I
don't seem to mind doing that and it'll have to do until I get my mojo back.

Edited by Random review on 17 July 2015 at 3:01pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Random review
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5542 days ago

781 posts - 1310 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German

 
 Message 12 of 17
31 July 2015 at 5:24pm | IP Logged 
Another two weeks since my last updated, this time not my fault. The forum was offline last week.

Slower progress now. I've reached lesson 82 of both Assimils, I expect to
start lessons 83 and 84 today. Nearing the end now. I still haven't started
the second active wave (translation).

Now on sentence set 9 (of 20) for Glossika German level 2. Together with level
1 that's 1450 sentences and almost halfway to the 3000 in the 3 levels. I'm
still very happy with this product.

The reason progress has been slower is because I've been spending more time on
the Antosch and Lin site. At least for German, it's a really good product IMO
and I heartily recommend it. I've got a little addicted and am now on 1351
sentences!

I'm finally starting to feel a difference in my German 2 months in and am
starting to feel this B1 goal for the summer might just be feasible!

I found out the Megabus goes from London to Cologne and have booked a 3-day
trip for the end of the month! Return trip and 2 nights in a hostel cost £90
and I've never been to Germany. Should hopefully be a nice reward and chance
to practise.

Finally I have listened to some more Spanish music every day. Unfortunately
it's the only maintenance I can stand for the moment. I'd be really grateful
for any song recommendations.

That's it till next week. I'm fairly happy with progress.

Edited by Random review on 31 July 2015 at 5:28pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Dagane
Triglot
Senior Member
SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4270 days ago

259 posts - 324 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishB2, Galician
Studies: German
Studies: Czech

 
 Message 13 of 17
31 July 2015 at 8:51pm | IP Logged 
Hi Random review. I just spotted your log. It's interesting to see you're tackling German with very different resources to the ones I use.

I read about your experience in Spain. You know, it's the same for me here in the UK. It's quite hard to break the Spanish bubble even though I work in English. I owe London a normalisation of my vocabulary, some fluency and overall a huge improvement of my passive skills. However, I sometimes feel frustrated because I think my vocabulary has reduced and I am unable to utter proper sentences many a time. This hardly happened before I came here. How could this be possible? I hang out with Spanish speaking people quite a lot. Occasionally I hang out with British friends only. When this happens I feel my English becomes correct instantly!

Anyway, I will follow your log. Hope to pick up some good tips from you!
2 persons have voted this message useful



iguanamon
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Virgin Islands
Speaks: Ladino
Joined 5021 days ago

2237 posts - 6731 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)

 
 Message 14 of 17
31 July 2015 at 9:46pm | IP Logged 
I can recommend a couple of artists you may like with different styles. The first is Mi guitarra y vos (voz) por Jorge Drexler. He's Uruguayan but lives in Spain now.

I love Rubén Blades- El Padre Antonio y su Monanguillo Andrés. Rubén Blades is a salsero from Panamá, with a degree from Harvard. It's a song of its time and beautifully written and sung.

What a shame I can't post the videos here. They come with the lyrics. I think people underestimate just how useful music can be for learning, and even for rekindling interest in a language, hopefully.

Edited by iguanamon on 31 July 2015 at 11:37pm

2 persons have voted this message useful



Random review
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5542 days ago

781 posts - 1310 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German

 
 Message 15 of 17
09 August 2015 at 2:19am | IP Logged 
Again slow progress this week, but not because I'm working less hard! On
lesson 86 of both Assimils now. Only 4 new lessons for each edition (for a
total of 8) this week.

Now on set 11 of level 2 with Glossika, only two new sets this week.

The reason for the above slowdown with Assimil and Glossika is as follows.
Firstly, as with last week, I've been spending time on the Antosch and Lin
website. Secondly the Glossika sentences have been really hard, I've had to
repeat them several times a day in order to master them which has really eaten
into my study time and stopped me taking on more than two new sets (up till
now I've usually done 4 new sets a week) or more than 4 new lessons for each
Assimil.

Nevertheless I feel good about the fact that some progress has been made,
especially given that I'm really tired from an unpleasant week at work.

I'm now on about 1530 sentences on Antosch and Lin and have completed the full
sets of Basic and Very Basic sentences. I'm now working on the intermediate
"deck", which is noticeably harder. Their SRS software of course keeps
checking I remember the sentences I have studied before from the easier
"decks".

This may not sound that impressive but in fact the decks at Antosch and Lin
are, unlike most commercial products, accurately named and the" Basic" deck
includes sentences such as "we have to reduce our energy consumption". Most
companies would (incorrectly) advertise sentences like that as " advanced".

The big news is that not only have I listened to Spanish music every day, I've
been using the Lyrics Training site. I'm happy with that for maintenance TBH.

That's it. Hopefully next week will be more inspiring ha ha.

Edited by Random review on 09 August 2015 at 2:23am

1 person has voted this message useful



Random review
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5542 days ago

781 posts - 1310 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German

 
 Message 16 of 17
09 August 2015 at 2:25am | IP Logged 
iguanamon wrote:
I can recommend a couple of artists you may like with
different styles. The first is v=Uyb214a4h0E">Mi guitarra y vos (voz) por Jorge Drexler. He's Uruguayan
but lives in Spain now.

I love Rubén Blades- El Padre
Antonio y su Monanguillo Andrés
. Rubén Blades is a salsero from Panamá,
with a degree from Harvard. It's a song of its time and beautifully written
and sung.

What a shame I can't post the videos here. They come with the lyrics. I think
people underestimate just how useful music can be for learning, and even for
rekindling interest in a language, hopefully.


That's awesome, mate. I really liked them both a lot. Thank you so much!


1 person has voted this message useful



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