So, bad progress lately in terms of my active lessons of Assimil. Still working on lesson 57, which shows I just haven't put in enough focussed time on the task. I still listen to SBS' German programme on my morning commutes, and Deutsche-Welle. And I've been listening to Rammstein more lately. It's funny how now I pick up more of the songs, I'm starting to really get into songs that perhaps never really did it for me before. The songs are often so insane that I find myself intrigued to figure them out :-)
I have at least written to a few of my German acquaintances, and got replies. Interestingly I got back a review of the subject of my last post on the website SlowGerman. My former German teacher from back in the Vaterland had a somewhat mixed impression of the content and the site. She seemed to think some of it was a little too confusing for beginners, or that some of the content itself had errors, but that overall it was a very good idea and that she planned to write to the website author to say so. She also has plans to share it with her students I think.
I think what I liked about the site was mainly that I understood enough of the vocabulary that I could either work out the meaning of words I didn't know, or I could look those few words up without feeling like it was just becoming a tedium of incomprehensibility.
In other good news, my new Austrian friends are keen to meet up again to do "something typically Australian". Maybe I'm not a typical Australian enough to know what that should be :-) I would think a barbecue with a game of backyard cricket would be in order, but neither of us has a backyard or a barbecue. I think I'll take them up into the Blue Mountains for the day because, without a car, it can be a pain to get to and from. Not impossible of course - at least it has a train line (unlike much of Sydney).
I also recently discovered that a new work colleague has a German wife and seems to speak fluent German, so we will be chatting a little over lunch some days. Maybe I'll be able to get some practice in twice a week. Not a native speaker, but better than me, which is the main thing :-)
At least I've got some positive news to report, despite the lack of apparent progress in German - I did NOT come last in the 1km swim at Cronulla last Sunday (I beat 25% of entrants, which just shows that a lot of real amateurs like myself go in this event), and I've done a bit of exercise each night since to keep up my momentum - a run that was approaching my old pace, and a fast walk pushing my daughter up the hills in my local area. Tonight I'll get out for something too - I just need to make sure I find the time to advance my German as well.
Only 3 months to go till the B2 exam!
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