I received a few comments directly after my last post (not sure why people are too shy to post comments here!) and I realise that its title and some of the content may have sounded unfair. That wasn't my intention really, and I've since read a follow-up post on Randy's Yearlyglot blog which just shows that I should probably have made my intention clearer.
Randy's post is a good one where he talks about the year not being a failure just because he won't reach his goal. I totally agree with him. In fact, I have to since I set myself the goal originally of passing the B2 exam in July of this year. I didn't hit that goal. I'm actually now considering just pushing on to do the C1 exam because that's where I would end my "academic" language goals, and I think that if I were to ever have a need for the qualification, the C1 level would be far more useful to me. In any case, I don't consider the time leading up to missing the goal a waste of time at all. Far from it! I've never been so confident and capable in a second language (not that I'm really good!) and that's all thanks to the goal I set myself. Even though the deadline has slipped, and I might move the goalposts on my self, the existence of the goal and the time spent heading towards it have all been very worthwhile. It really pushed me to do several things, mainly finding people to meet up with and chat to in German and I've made some great friends as a result. I didn't start having regular conversations (and I mean, just once a week) until about 4-6 weeks before I had originally planned to do the exam, and that wasn't anywhere near early enough. If I were to start again, I would get my shit together much earlier.
I still consider the method that was employed by Randy to have been less successful than it could have been, and as such the experiment, under the conditions it was done, was a sort of failure. The most important thing is that he had goals, and the goals pushed him to succeed. In terms of learning language (as opposed to experimenting with a method) he didn't fail and he didn't waste his time. It just reinforces to me the importance, above just about anything else, of having a goal.
As for an update for what I've been doing lately. Well, keeping up with my Anki, of course, and listening to German podcasts of course, and trying to find the time to read a German grammar book called "Modern German Grammar - A Practical Guide" (going cheap here for Aussies - maybe even cheaper than other people can get it from their local Amazon). I've borrowed it rather than bought it because I'm really trying to keep the costs of this exercise down (to as close to zero as possible!). It seems like a really good reference and is full of examples. I am actually reading it from cover-to-cover and that's far more enjoyable than it sounds! I don't expect to remember every little rule, or edge case, or even the big things. Right now I just want to get a sense for when there might be something to check or explore later. I'm currently up to about page 90 although I also read the 20 or so pages at the end entitled "Communication Strategies" which is really useful. So useful that I think I should review it on a semi-regular basis and do my best to absorb more of it all the time.
I'm still speaking German in person once a week, and last night I got the chance to watch an old favourite movie (Wargames) on a DVD that has a German language soundtrack and subtitles. I started off with both on, and then switched the subtitles off because they were just completely different. There was hardly even the smallest of exchanges that was the same in both the dubbing and the subtitles. Pretty funny :-) I hope to do some more of this. After looking through all my DVDs, I found about 15 in total that have at least German subtitles, and actually most of those also have German audio (it's not a common language to find in subtitles actually).
On a sort of language learning note, I've been chatting online with a french couple who've come to Australia for three months. One of them needs to pass the OET (an English language test for medical professionals) and so they're looking to meet up with people to practice English. In a sort of "pay it forward" sense, I've decided to return the kindness shown to me in my German studies (amongst other things!) by my new Austrian friends by doing the same favour for this new couple and helping to correct some English texts for them.
Bis zum nächsten Mal!
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