One thing that keeps tripping me up with spoken German is numbers. When I hear a number such as "vierundfünfzig" or a date such as "neunzehnhundertsechsundneunzig," I have to mentally transpose the digits, and this takes long enough that I lose the next sentence.

Oh, well, I can make that an excuse for a new sentence to practice: "Engschuldigung ( Read more... )

My comprehension of spoken German, which is a lot weaker than my reading comprehension, is improving. Yesterday I put on an audiobook of Der Steppenwolf, which I'd previously been unable to make much sense of, and this time could clearly perceive it's a boring story. Incidentally, back when I first got it, someone saw the receipt lying around and ( Read more... )

My LJ odometer just passed 3,000 posts. Wow, that's a lot of text ( Read more... )

This was a no-English month.

Jules Verne: Maître du Monde (audiobook, in French).

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust, Part 1 (e-book, in German).

Kurt Mahr: Der Herr des Siebten Tages (Perry Rhodan #358) (in German). This is the story of an evil overlord's rise and fall. His ascent to lordship of a universe is absurdly easy, and the account of ( Read more... )

I've just finished reading Goethe's Faust in German; I'd previously read it in translation and heard an abridged German audiobook version. It has some wonderful scenes, but also parts which I don't get at all. The "Walpurgis Night's Dream" scene must be a contemporary satire, and I have no clue what it means. Still, the work was thoroughly worth

A few days ago I found an ad for the Bavaria German Restaurant in Hooksett, NH, which is the only German restaurant I know of within thirty miles or more. Yesterday I went there for lunch, combining the trip with some shopping in Manchester. It's quite nice if expensive. I had Bratwurst with warm potato salad, which was quite nice. I was enjoying ( Read more... )

Currently I'm listening to my first French audiobook ever, Jules Verne's Maître du Monde. It describes a chase that covers most of the eastern United States, so there are lots of American place names and other English words in it. These are pronounced as if they were French words, or at least are modified to be closer to French pronunciation. In ( Read more... )

I just found out that one of my co-workers speaks Czech, so I got to use a few words of the language in conversation for the first time. She says my pronunciation is pretty good, too.

My vocabulary is about 20 words currently.

The Pimsleur course in Czech is good for drilling in basic expressions, but it requires some imaginative use to really become learning. I try to respond to the exercises with some kind of emotion, and sometimes even argue with the speaker. Or I'll address my responses to the cats, who get confused when I don't talk to them in German ( Read more... )

My Pimsleur course in basic Czech arrived today, and I just went through the first lesson. I can now say things like "I understand a little Czech" and "Are you American ( Read more... )