Saturday 20 November 2010

Was ich heute gelernt habe

Today was my first tutorial for L193, I was a lot more nervous about this then I was for the English one even though I was pretty comfortable with the topics covered in Thema 1.  I think it is because the dreaded speaking is involved, and with language classes you're usually made to get up and wander around asking everyone the same questions, which we were and as usual it wasn't as bad as I anticipate it to be.  It is always good to meet people that are also learning and sharing tips.

I did learn a few new bits of vocabulary which I have written down and will add to my flashcards, speaking of which I was recommended a site called Quizlet to use which has the L193 vocabulary set up by a course tutor but it can also be used by everyone to create groups and add vocabulary for any subject they like, I will add this address to my links on the right hand side. There are 299 terms in the set and I managed to get 59% (177) correct in the first try, so will be doing that as often as possible, a lot of the wrong answers were due to giving the wrong gender article or spelling mistakes rather then not knowing the word at all, which was encouraging.

In fact I was so encouraged I have submitted the first TMA which has 4 parts to it, Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking but we are only marked on the Reading and Speaking parts this time.  I think I did okay in the end, I am happy with what I submitted but time will tell, this first TMA is only worth 5% of the continuous assessment mark so not much pressure if I find I have messed it up.

I have now posted part 2 of U211's TMA02 and submitted it as a whole, and the deadline isn't for a few more days yet which is very pleasing.  I had been absolutely dreading part 2, and I changed which person I was replying to more than once and even after I had settled on the word I changed the angle I was taking with the investigation and stumbled on some really good finds.  I really hope I have done well in this TMA as I worked hard with the research aspect and really enjoyed it a lot so it would be a shame to find out I have done poorly.  Just playing the waiting game now I don't expect to hear anything for about 3 weeks... will I be able to stand the wait?

8 comments:

  1. I did test 1 I got a b 80%. I can live with that. But I must say some of the questions screwy.

    What are you studying aside from German?

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  2. Yeah some of the answers are odd, with plural endings added, and some of the definitions are the same for different words, like 'wohnen' and 'leben' so it's kinda 50/50 to get it right lol. I'd be happy with 80% :D

    I am also studying an English Language course, which I naively thought would be easyish considering I have spoken it for 32 years, but it makes my brain hurt at times. Really interesting though, it covers a lot of subjects we have just finished studying the History of the language and now we are looking at how it is used, which crosses over into sociology.

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  3. Good luck and thanks for the Quizlet recommendation. I haven't heard of it before and even though I'm taking an intensive German course am still finding I need additional practice outside of class. Hope you're German is going well!

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  4. Glad you found it useful :D My German is going well, can't say I am particularly good but I am at least noticing I am getting better so that's got to be okay right? How is the intensive course? Is your teacher still being helpful or did she slip back to her old ways?

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  5. What is this L193 of which you speak? I'm going to have to Google it, amn't I? Reading between the lines I'm guessing you are much further ahead with your German than I am. Maybe you studied your Deutsch Heute a little better than I did!

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  6. The various letters and numbers refer to Open University courses I am doing, it is an odd addiction...

    My German is nicely supplemented by the native German boyfriend, quicker and usually more reliable than google translate. I am not too bad at the translating from German into English bit, except for numbers when my brain tries to twist them back into the correct order and misses everything that comes afterwards.

    Speaking though, ugh, I feel like I am about 4 years old again and desperately wishing that my Mum was with me and that it wouldn't look so weird for a 32 year old woman to run round and hug her leg from behind whilst hiding my face in the back of her kneecap. You're speaking sounds like it is coming on well and you've been able to communicate with proper Germans, not fake fluent English speaking ones like my boyf :D

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  7. Ha, ha, yes. That'll be proper Germans in IKEA! Most of the time I just have to get on with it, and in the beginning I had a LOT more confidence in doing this. I had some words, I started off each conversation with "Es tut mir leid, Ich spreche kein Deutsch, aber...". But now, now I know that my grammar is terrible and I want to construct my sentences properly I find it so much harder!

    I wish I had a German boyfriend. I'd love to not have to be the one to sort everything out and have mundane, utterly mind-knackering phone calls about why I have lost Playhouse Disney and what I need to do to get it back. At times when I just can't be bothered and think I really HAVE to speak English, I generally seek out someone under 30, and that's almost a guarantee that they'll speak English.

    I'm enjoying your blog by the way!

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  8. The problem is that he makes it easy for me not to try and unless I try I am never going to get over my confidence issues. He will be at work for the first week I am over so I am going to, snow permitting, get out and attempt to challenge myself. I shall be on the look out for the under 30s though :D

    Very pleased to hear you're enjoying the blog, thanks!

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