I am so god damn proud of you all. Every week I read of wins and struggles and it’s exciting and inspiring following your langlearning journey.
Everytime I get frustrated I come back to the weekly discussion thread and get that small spark of motivation that helps me push through that next pit of despair :)
A few weeks of in person tutoring has shown me exactly what my weaknesses are and what I really have to work on. Alas, it feels like a step back rather than a step forward, but I know this is mostly a psychological issue.
Learning about weaknesses is more important. I’m probably making more real progress than my psychology believes.
I’ve explicitly enrolled for classes because I knew my speaking skills sucked. They still suck but now I know the problem. More importantly, I’ve learned the importance of trying to form sentences of my own accord.
To correct this issue, I’ve been advised to start talking to myself (!!!) in German… and start trying to think in complete sentences, etc. etc. You cannot learn sentence construction and conjugation with paper work or exercises, you have to just make sentences over and over again.
A few weeks ago, this would have been impossible. I didn’t know enough vocabulary to talk to myself. But now… I can. With help from Wiktionary and other English-German dictionaries.
I shared some of the children songs with Learning German discord, and some B1-ish people were talking about how some of those songs felt challenging. So indeed, children songs can vary from A1 through B1, don’t be discouraged by the kid nature, some truly are more advanced than they look.
I did accomplish a new feat this past week. Upon listening to 99 Luftballoons, I suddenly realized how none of the lyrics-rhymes work in English. Then I realized that I knew this because I’m actually beginning to learn the German lyrics (to the point where I can sing some of the simpler lyrics: like the 1st verse while it’s still slow).
In particular was my sudden realization that it’s neun-und-neun…zig Luftballoons. (She has a bit of a pause in German before saying -zig). Plus all the nearby words that rhyme with zig/sich/Ich/mich/dich/veillicht . This absolutely cannot and never will work in English, it’s something that can only be appreciated in German.
So I did accomplish a new listening feat. It may have been an entire lifetime of listening to 99 Luftballoons, but now suddenly I’m truly beginning to understand it.
I’ll probably spend the next month working on vocabulary so that I can truly learn 99 Luftballoons. (I finished the vocab practice with Lagtrain German cover by Jinja, but it’s grammar is too difficult for me to comprehend even if I know the individual words).
Sounds to me like you’ve made a great leap in your learning! It is indeed psychological and you aren’t taking any steps back. Realising where you are lacking is in itself a step forward!
Talking to yourself is something that I also try to do to practice German. A one-on-one conversation is stressful because you don’t want to always keep the other person waiting until you form a proper sentence structure in your head, but you yourself have time to listen to yourself until you get more comfortable :)