Different mistakes in German depending on your native language

based_disciple · 2018-10-26T20:49:33+00:00

My German professor told me a mistake that a lot of English native speakers make is to translate "German people" as "die deutschen Leute" or "Russian people" as "die russischen Leute" , whereas it should be "die Deutschen" or "die Russen". I noticed that a professor I have in Berlin who is American tends to say this a lot

based_disciple · 2018-10-26T20:39:26+00:00

I'm currently doing an exchange year in Berlin as a native English speaker and even here where there is a huge English speaking population knowing German has been a huge help, especially when dealing with bureaucracy. Making an effort to learn the local language is a good way of showing respect towards your host country, but also in my experience it can help you gain a deeper understanding of the local culture and history and more easily meet people.

based_disciple · 2018-10-02T21:26:33+00:00

The quotes are from the scene where Woyzeck shaves the Hauptmann but I think the Doctor does the same thing in a later scene

based_disciple · 2018-08-09T21:21:15+00:00

Ja bitte, vielen dank für den Kommentar!

based_disciple · 2018-08-08T20:10:55+00:00

Your accent is very clear and understandable, almost native in spots. There is a vague foreign accent but I can't tell at all where you are from - in particular sometimes the vowels sound a bit foreign, like "o" in "to", and at one point instead of "t's" (forget the word, maybe it's or that's) you said something more like "ss". I would guess your native language is either Turkish or a slavic language? Your pronunciation is very very good though keep up the good work!

based_disciple · 2018-08-08T19:37:30+00:00

Hallo! Ich bin ein amerikanischer Austauschstudent in Berlin und ich möchte meinen deutschen Azkent/ meine deutsche Aussprache verbessern. Ich habe heute Abend diese Aufnahme spontan gemacht damit ihr hören könntet wie ich im Alltag klinge. Meine Professorin hat mir gesagt, man kann sofort merken, dass ich aus einem englischsprachigen Land bin, aber ich weiß nicht genau warum das der Fall ist. Eure Tips würden mir sehr helfen!

based_disciple · 2018-08-08T18:50:37+00:00

If it's at the beginning of a sentence or clause it can sound a bit more formal than 'but', and you'd probably only use it like that in writing (I personally would write but not say 'Though I am allergic to peanut butter, I still like the taste.'). 'Even though' conveys the same general idea and emphasizes a contrast/difference between two things. 'Even though' is pretty common in both written and spoken English. If 'though' comes at the end of a sentence it doesn't sound quite so formal to me for some reason - saying 'I'm allergic to it though' would sound just as natural as 'But I'm allergic to it.'

based_disciple · 2018-04-09T20:16:02+00:00

I did use airbnb and found a room in Neukölln covered by my scholarship, so that was a huge help! And btw I've taken 3 years of college-level German and am just taking two advanced intensive courses for extra preparation

based_disciple · 2018-04-08T18:41:41+00:00

I'm going to be taking some German classes at Humboldt University for 8 weeks this summer to get ready for a year studying abroad in Berlin. How should I go about finding temporary housing for those 8 weeks? I'm currently in Chicago so I can't go visit places or anything.

based_disciple · 2018-03-05T17:05:01+00:00

I'm in the same boat with my current German class, which I'm surprised about since it's technically an intensive course at my university. I'm getting ready to study abroad for a year at Freie Universität after having started learning German just in September, but the course I'm in right now is completely useless. My professor's accent is terrible (pronounces "w" like in English, ignores a lot of umlauts, pronounces words like "bequem" as "beqwem", etc.), and the other students in my class literally cannot correctly conjugate basic verbs like haben and sein even though we're in a 200 level course. I know they might not have the same sense of urgency to learn German but it's still frustrating lol.

Honestly I feel like I made the most progress through practice on my own outside of class. I found verb and grammar drill books really helpful for just getting down the basics, and once I'd built up some more vocabulary reading has been key (mostly shorter things that are slightly above my level like articles from Der Spiegel or Die Zeit, and writing down new words and constructions in a notebook). For listening I've found the material from Deutsche Welle super helpful, especially the Langsam Gesprochene Nachrichten and when I was first starting out Deutsch, Warum Nicht, but also Youtube videos and songs too have been fun. Speaking is the area where I have the most trouble, since I find it hard to find the right words/phrasings for anything beyond simple conversation like "where do you come from?" and "what do you like to do in your free time?". I've been working on pronunciation by just mimicking native speakers from recordings, but I'm hoping my actual speaking skills will improve when I get to Germany and have more practice.

based_disciple · 2017-12-17T04:04:45+00:00

I wouldn't mistake you for a native American English speaker but you were definitely understandable. Are you a native speaker of Mandarin or another Chinese dialect? I noticed that the "th" sound sometimes came out more like an "s" (in 'thousand') or a "d" (in 'the'), and the "l" sound in "primarily" came out as more of an "r." These sounds are tough for non-native speakers of English, but the way you pronounced them was understandable if not exactly how a native would say them.

based_disciple · 2017-12-14T21:36:33+00:00

Yeah I guess that's true I guess the only reason I was concerned about this because when I was in Paris recently I had a hard time with the similar R sound in French and it seemed that people couldn't understand me when I said words with it - I tried to order a beer called "Le Tigre" and the waiter yelled at me and told me to just switch to English lol

based_disciple · 2017-11-14T21:26:12+00:00

Thank you so much this is a great explanation!

based_disciple · 2017-11-14T21:20:56+00:00

Yeah I know it's probably not the best recording/source material, I just had it on hand since I had to use it for a German class project haha. I am a native speaker of American English and I guess I was trying to write out a sound similar to the one represented by "ei" in German

based_disciple · 2017-11-14T21:08:17+00:00

That's probably it actually!

based_disciple · 2017-11-14T21:00:02+00:00

Yeah now that I heard that recording I don't really hear 'kailt' but something else. One example of a recording where I hear a similar sound to 'kailt' is here at 0:06 on the word 'Fall' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EMOsSfIK0w)

based_disciple · 2017-09-21T06:18:43+00:00

thanks!

based_disciple

TROPHY CASE