Ok, here there is my report about how my Deutsch classes are going...
It's frustrating!! Ok, well... that's not the best way to start, and it's not the main feeling. I like the classes, I think our teacher does quite well, and we repeat the things over and over again until some of them, at least, stick in our mind. The frustration comes because every class our teacher asks each of us to talk a bit. We can talk for long time or only one sentence (today, one of my classmates said he hadn't anything to tell, and she didn't pressure him). But what we try to explain... it's so hard!!! We have almost no vocabulary! Our knowledge is so basic we can only talk in present. If we try to say anything... either we have the dictionary with us, either we constantly ask her for the vocabulary, or we stick to some very basic sentences...
Ok, stop complaining!! Truth is: I'm glad I decided to study German. I like it, and I mostly enjoy, although I feel sooo clumsy, and I feel I'm learning so slowly. For now we've learnt to introduce ourselves, talk about our family, work, colours, numbers... We've learnt some verbs (all in present), we've started with Akkusativ... All basic, but all necessary if we want to set the ground to a good learning!!
Ah! And next Unit we'll learn about the clock. As a curiosity, the teacher told us that, although the way to say the time is usually quite difficult, we won't find it soooo difficult: it seems in Catalan, we say the ours in a similar way than German. Markus, Shelley... we have something (linguistically speaking) in common!!
Personal ideas: knowing English, in order to learn German, is very useful. And... knowing English, in order to learn German, makes things really diffucult!! Contradictory? Yes, but... It's very clear some common ground. A lot of words are very similar o equal to English; a great deal of them, if you know something about linguistic changes, are easy to unerstand they are related to. BUT. But pronunciation. That's THE problem. Ok, German is easy to pronunce. Unlinke English, it DOES have rules. And they are not complicated. Unless you know English beforehand and you tend to pronounce the English way. Let's say "Mutter". Let's say "Nummer". "U". Bad English "U" that in German is quite plain "U" and in English is more like an "A"...
And... of course, the BIG problem. Damn genres... why the hell German has to have THREE genres? And why must you know it in order to produce ALL the sentence?
Ok, Spanish and Catalan have genres too. And they can be as random as German. That's the problem: what in Spanish is masculine, in German can be Masculine (if I am lucky), neutral (if it's not my lucky day) or feminine (if it's definitively a terrible day). Wouldn't it be easier being as English? No genres, all objects are "it"? Do you like to make all German learners crazy???
Ok, that might have been in the "Let the steam out" thread. But it's not, beucause not all is bad, because I, in fact, enjoy the classes, and because I'm even allowed to kill German at class, and I'm only corrected, no punished for it! Imagine!! I can kill the language in public, and I'm not alone!!
Ok... and now, our favourite sentece of all:
DAS IST ALLES!!!!
NTSMS has gone Budapest! 