question about starting out (with german.)

Josef   Wednesday, October 13, 2004, 11:20 GMT
first of all, great site. it's very inspiring to read about successful language learners and their proven methods.

i'm just starting to attempt german seriously. i have supermemo, bi and monolingual dictionaries, several 'easy reader' books from beginner to advanced, the first german rosetta stone set, and the first set of pimsleur tapes.

i'm very interested in the methods discussed on this site, particularly when it comes to reading books and adding items to supermemo. i just have a few questions about how i might start along this path as a beginner. this site, and the info regarding supermemo in particular, seems to assume a basic knowledge of the target language. i'm after some opinions on how i should start building that base. for example, should i start reading my easy reader books (starting from the beginner ones, of course) and look up every single word i come across that i'm unfamiliar with? obviously, as a beginner, i'm going to be looking up almost every word. it will be time consuming, but i have no problem doing it if that's an ok way to start building up that basic knowledge which supermemo can then reinforce for me. secondly, should i start using 'sentence-items' right away? the examples of sentence-items i've read usually contain an interesting phrase or word usage that would be more appropriate for an intermediate learner. how would i effectively use sentence-items when i'm just starting out? i was thinking that it might be better to start adding 'definition-word' items with example sentences in the answer field. but i'm not sure. that's why i would like some advice.

thanks.
vn23   Wednesday, October 13, 2004, 13:20 GMT
I'm no expert but for German I would recommend a few things.

Learn how the cases work. (First articles, then adjectives)
Learn how the verb order works.
Learn the prepositions (there aren't that many compared to English).

Genders are also important, know how they work in each of the cases but don't bother spending hours learning each word, let it come naturally!

And then go for it however you like, lots of reading/listening etc. It is a language where the grammar I mentioned is very important to get correct, and once you have those concepts sorted in your head, its becomes reasonably easy... I really just need to extend my vocab now!
vn23   Wednesday, October 13, 2004, 13:22 GMT
Forgot to mention verb conjugation, learn the rules: present and perfect are probably the two most important tenses! The regular ones are easy, but you'll pick up the irregular (Strong) ones in time!
Tom   Wednesday, October 13, 2004, 23:21 GMT
Congratulations, looks like you're all set to start learning.

"should i start reading my easy reader books (starting from the beginner ones, of course) and look up every single word i come across that i'm unfamiliar with?"

Yes, that's what I would do.


"the examples of sentence-items i've read usually contain an interesting phrase or word usage that would be more appropriate for an intermediate learner. how would i effectively use sentence-items when i'm just starting out?"

Just add a sentence with an unknown word or phrase, then another one, etc. You can add a definition in the answer field, but you don't have to.

However, I would suggest NOT adding everything to SuperMemo. Some words and phrases are so basic that they will stay in your memory just through reading/listening, and you don't need to review them with SuperMemo. For example, "dog", "red", "mother", "I am", "you are", "it is blue", "it is not good". In 1-2 months, you will find it a waste of time to keep these phrases in SuperMemo, and you will probably delete them.

Remember that it takes time to add something to SuperMemo, and the time expense has to be justified.


P.S. Before you start speaking, make sure you learn a bit about the phonetics of German.
Josef   Thursday, October 14, 2004, 15:59 GMT
thanks for the advice, guys.
Joe   Thursday, October 14, 2004, 21:57 GMT
Definitely follow the advice of learning the German phonetics first. I did. I started into German slowly, because I actually didn't know what to do. I've been doing Pimsleur. Before that though I just browsed around the internet and came across some great sites, my favorite being the University of Exeter's German Department site You can actually follow their lessons if you'd like. But their pronunciation guide is excellent, and can be found here:

http://www.ex.ac.uk/german/abinitio/pronounce/


The University's German department's site is:

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/german/

Hope that helps, I think you'll really find the pronunciation guide very handy.