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March 28, 2024, 09:04:28 pm

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tennis1

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Tips!
« on: December 05, 2016, 11:24:50 pm »
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TIPS FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING

For year 11’s and 12’s {next year tips}
NB. These Tips can apply to learning ANY language, but I’ll be focusing more specifically on German :))

Also just a heads up, I’m no where near as smart as some of the people on this website… But hopefully you  can get something out of this.


Let’s say that you have a language reading/listening/writing test tomorrow. Most of you would probably be like „meh I can’t study for this, I’ll just wing it.“ (I was guilty of this at times) but the truth is, although you can’t do last min cramming like most other subjects, you CAN still study for languages. Studying for a language is just like any skill training (i.e. sport); you have to gradually build up your skills over time.

So how can you do this?
Plan out your week so that you cover the skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking. Spend more time on the the areas you’re least comfortable with. It doesn’t have to be a lot - just a little but each day, and you’ll be surprised how much you can improve by the time you reach your final exams!

Here are my tips:
Set the moon goal of becoming fluent in German by final exam time. (Crazy I know but it means that you will try and expose yourself to the language as much as possible=improvement!)

Some ideas:
- Change the language in your phone/laptop to German
- organize a monthly Friday movie night with your class where you watch the movie in  German together and only talk to each other in the language (Eg. Watch Tatort TV show in German online; it’s a popular, crime show, or you can watch German dubbed movies )
- listen to language podcasts or CDs in the car
For example: Slow German, Deutsche Welle, katzensprung (just google search some)
- etc etc etc
-

1. IMPROVING VOCAB
I would suggest that you only spend 15-20 min per day learning vocab. If you focus, you could learn anywhere from 15 to about  50 words in that time. You HAVE TO use this app/website called Quizlet. You can make your own flash cards or use other people’s for free. It even pronounces the words in the accent out loud! Seriously, just use it!  You can thank me later.

-any new words you find during reading etc, add these to your vocab flashcard lists

2. WRITING
Pretty sure everyone knows this:
All you do is write stuff, hand it to your teacher/anyone fluent in the language, then you will undoubtably improve. The trick is to consistently write and not get lazy. (Maybe 1-3 times a week? Or even daily haha)

3. SPEAKING/ORAL
Find an oral buddy and schedule in times to meet.
-write out your oral answers. Hand to teacher. Transfer corrected answers to flash cards (eg. Quizlet). Quizlet automatically records the answers in the accent.
-listen to them before bed/car/shower/when bored

4. LISTENING
Again, be consistent. Find youtube vids/clips/movies/podcasts. Write stuff down while listening. Also, don’t make the mistake of doing listening prac exams too early like I did…Save them for your finals.

EG. type in German Listening in youtube with „annik rubens“

5. READING
Find interesting articles online that relate to to the topics in the syllabus, or ask your teacher for resources. Practice translating these outlaid. Prac exams.

There’s heaps more that you can do! But that’s all I got for now.
Good luck for next year.

P.S Feel free to message or email me your German answers or questions etc

P.P.S I’m actually writing this post on the plane to Germany right now (bored af) so if you want, I could find you a German pen pal later on :)

elysepopplewell

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Re: Tips!
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2016, 09:47:42 am »
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That's so cool tennis1! I hope you have a fantastic time in Germany. Which level of German did you do? What section of the skills was the hardest for you? Reading/Writing/Listening/Oral?

Thanks for posting this!
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heids

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Re: Tips!
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2016, 09:48:10 am »
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I just stickied this; it's awesome, thanks Tennis!
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tennis1

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Re: Tips!
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2016, 11:53:51 pm »
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That's so cool tennis1! I hope you have a fantastic time in Germany. Which level of German did you do? What section of the skills was the hardest for you? Reading/Writing/Listening/Oral?

Thanks for posting this!

Thanks :)  I did German Second Language (WA) and I found listening the hardest because you had to try write everything down at the same time as listening to them talk really fast! My faves were orals or writing

Jakeybaby

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Re: Tips!
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2016, 12:22:28 am »
+1
Thankyou for these tips!

It'll be great for me next year, as I will be picking German back up as an elective in one of my Uni courses after dropping it after Year 10, I'll be sure to use them!
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gilliesb18

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Re: Tips!
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2018, 05:34:44 am »
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Hello!

Just wondering if anyone has any notes for German Beginners? Just struggling with my writing a bit and have been looking for notes everywhere but cant find any!!

Thanks:)

InnererSchweinehund

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Re: Tips!
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2018, 09:37:23 pm »
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Hey,
Do you have any advice on learning (and mostly remembering) different grammatical structures for German??
I find that I learn them very easily, but when it comes to writing often make 'easy' mistakes or forget how to use them correctly...

Thanks!!

fantasticbeasts3

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Re: Tips!
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2018, 10:05:09 pm »
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Hey,
Do you have any advice on learning (and mostly remembering) different grammatical structures for German??
I find that I learn them very easily, but when it comes to writing often make 'easy' mistakes or forget how to use them correctly...

Thanks!!

Hi!

I don't do HSC German but I study German at uni. :-)

What I do to memorise German grammatical structures is mostly through notes and exercises. Doing grammar exercises on a regular basis (even once a week!) really helps to retain what you've learnt and if you're not bothered to do the exercises, you can look at your notes. The Goethe-Institut has lots of online exercises you can do and caters to all German levels. If you're doing beginners, you're probably at A1 or A2, and continuers would be the end of A2 (they have A2.3 I think) to B2-ish.

Hope this helps!
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InnererSchweinehund

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Re: Tips!
« Reply #8 on: February 05, 2019, 08:28:33 pm »
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Hi,
Does anyone know any good German Language courses suitable for German Continuers in Sydney?
A lot of them only offer things for younger children or 18+...
If not, does anyone know a German Teacher/Tutor in Sydney who might be up for some one-on-one lessons??

Thanks!!

fantasticbeasts3

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Re: Tips!
« Reply #9 on: February 05, 2019, 09:05:49 pm »
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Hi,
Does anyone know any good German Language courses suitable for German Continuers in Sydney?
A lot of them only offer things for younger children or 18+...
If not, does anyone know a German Teacher/Tutor in Sydney who might be up for some one-on-one lessons??

Thanks!!

Hello!

I believe the Goethe Institut runs programs for high school students. Some unis also run night classes for all language levels but I don’t know about age for those. You could also look into German language schools but I don’t know any, sorry!

I hope this helps :-)
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