I don't know how, but somehow I missed this a long time ago - I made a parallel translation of "Der Erlkönig" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe which I did in April last year. I also found some free audio of it. Here they are:
My own loose parallel translation
The audio on youtube
To get the audio as an mp3, I just use RealPlayer. It has a plugin that lets you download streamed videos from youtube and you can then extract the mp3. Easy :-)
I didn't put much effort into the translation so don't base your exam preparation on my vocabulary choices! Comment below if you find any issues.
My preparations for what I plan to do in trying to achieve the C2 level exam by the start of next year have not really got started very well. I know I really need to speak German every day, but that certainly hasn't happened yet and the year is almost 1 month down. I have a few plans of attack on this problem which I will discuss more in my future posts.
I'm currently reading a new German book after reading one of the several books in English which I got for my birthday and Christmas (both around the same time). This book was lent to me by my Austrian friend at work. Called das größere Wunder, it is written by an Austrian author but set all over the world. I've had it for a couple of weeks and am about 10% of the way through it. I'll try to pick up the pace a bit! I'll write some more thoughts about it soon as it was a bit of a shock to me in some ways and a great test for my current abilities helping to show me the way to some improvements.
Showing posts with label Free Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Media. Show all posts
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Jung in Europa
I just found something on Australian TV which might be of help to locals learning German, depending on their level. It's a short series called "Jung in Europa". I was obviously targeted at high school students of German, but I don't see why anyone couldn't get use out of it :-) It's obviously not an Australian production, but I haven't been able to find the episodes out there on the general "intarwebs". If anyone knows where it can be found online other than through the Australian ABC then let us know in the comments.
Anyway, here's a link for those interested:
http://www.abc.net.au/schoolstv/series/JUNGINEUROPA.htm
Look it up on ABC's iView to see past episodes.
Also, for French, Chinese or Italian learners, the ABC's "Schools TV" has some other similar programs for other languages so check them out if you're interested!
Anyway, here's a link for those interested:
http://www.abc.net.au/schoolstv/series/JUNGINEUROPA.htm
Look it up on ABC's iView to see past episodes.
Also, for French, Chinese or Italian learners, the ABC's "Schools TV" has some other similar programs for other languages so check them out if you're interested!
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Sprechbude
Sorry to say, but I still haven't found the time to post my post-mortem. Hopefully I'll get more time soon!
In the meantime, I wanted to point you to a source of free audio books which I recently found:
http://www.sprechbude.de/
I guess all the material is out of copyright. There's some poetry by Heinrich Heine (of "Die Lorelei" fame) and works by Goethe and Kafka. Speaking of Kafka, how about reading and listening to "Der Prozess" to get the ball rolling:
Der Prozess (audio)
Der Prozess (text)
I haven't started on it yet, but it's quite famous and I believe it's worth a read and/or listen. Anyone who gets into it, please let us all know what you think in the comments. Personally, I still plan on reading Das Parfüm next, properly this time, including adding a lot of the new vocabulary to my Anki list. I haven't started yet because I've been reading some English language books that have been missing out on my attention due to my German studies.
In other news, everything is ticking along. We're still having a Stammtisch at work once a week, I still listen to podcasts (SWR2 Wissen podcasts are my current favourites) every day, and read articles in FAZ every few days.
Oh, and I keep up with my Anki list, of course! I'm adding words much more slowly these days, both due to a reduced necessity and reduced effort :-) Some recent additions have been words I've heard in Podcasts and which I later remembered well enough to look them up (several hours later) so this indicates an improved level of comfort with German. I still have to put in some really focused effort to bring up my listening comprehension to that 95++% region all the time. I'll let you know what I work out for that in the near future!
In the meantime, I wanted to point you to a source of free audio books which I recently found:
http://www.sprechbude.de/
I guess all the material is out of copyright. There's some poetry by Heinrich Heine (of "Die Lorelei" fame) and works by Goethe and Kafka. Speaking of Kafka, how about reading and listening to "Der Prozess" to get the ball rolling:
Der Prozess (audio)
Der Prozess (text)
I haven't started on it yet, but it's quite famous and I believe it's worth a read and/or listen. Anyone who gets into it, please let us all know what you think in the comments. Personally, I still plan on reading Das Parfüm next, properly this time, including adding a lot of the new vocabulary to my Anki list. I haven't started yet because I've been reading some English language books that have been missing out on my attention due to my German studies.
In other news, everything is ticking along. We're still having a Stammtisch at work once a week, I still listen to podcasts (SWR2 Wissen podcasts are my current favourites) every day, and read articles in FAZ every few days.
Oh, and I keep up with my Anki list, of course! I'm adding words much more slowly these days, both due to a reduced necessity and reduced effort :-) Some recent additions have been words I've heard in Podcasts and which I later remembered well enough to look them up (several hours later) so this indicates an improved level of comfort with German. I still have to put in some really focused effort to bring up my listening comprehension to that 95++% region all the time. I'll let you know what I work out for that in the near future!
Friday, March 30, 2012
Knaller Frauen
[Allen Deutschmuttersprachlern: Es tut mir leid, wenn ihr hier zufällig gelandet habt. Mein Blog ist kein Fansite für diese Sendung! Es ist nur ein Art Tagesbuch, in dem ich über meine Erfahrungen mit Deutsch schreiben. ABER - wenn ihr mir helfen könnt, wie man Sat1-Sendungen online und kostenlos anschauen kann, ohne in Deutschland zu leben, dann wäre ich super-dankbar!]
Just a quick one to share a link to a funny show that you can watch online for free - and you don't have to live in Germany!
It's called Knaller Frauen. Not sure what it means exactly - maybe "Firecrackers", or "Bombshells"? Not sure. It's just a comedy sketch show - some hit, some miss, but I found it very easy to follow so I'm sure others will as well. Here's a link to a recent episode.
There are plenty of other shows there - not sure what's available to watch in full yet, but when I get a chance I'll try to check it out more.
Now I've got to go practice the long written part of the exam. And yes, I'm writing it out by hand, because I'll have to for the real exam. Sigh...
Just about 18 days to go till my B2 exam, by the way...
[UPDATE: As of today, none of the tv shows on the sat1 website are available outside Germany (or at least, in Australia!) anymore. I was watching part of a show last night "Der letze Bulle" which was pretty good. Man. Why can't shit just be free, and freely available? Copyright sucks :-) ]
Just a quick one to share a link to a funny show that you can watch online for free - and you don't have to live in Germany!
It's called Knaller Frauen. Not sure what it means exactly - maybe "Firecrackers", or "Bombshells"? Not sure. It's just a comedy sketch show - some hit, some miss, but I found it very easy to follow so I'm sure others will as well. Here's a link to a recent episode.
There are plenty of other shows there - not sure what's available to watch in full yet, but when I get a chance I'll try to check it out more.
Now I've got to go practice the long written part of the exam. And yes, I'm writing it out by hand, because I'll have to for the real exam. Sigh...
Just about 18 days to go till my B2 exam, by the way...
[UPDATE: As of today, none of the tv shows on the sat1 website are available outside Germany (or at least, in Australia!) anymore. I was watching part of a show last night "Der letze Bulle" which was pretty good. Man. Why can't shit just be free, and freely available? Copyright sucks :-) ]
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Grüße aus Deutschland!
Just a small post which I've meant to do previously. The Goethe Institut did a series a while ago under this name. It is targetted at A2->B1 level but I often find the interviews hard to understand, and although it seems targetted at high school language learners, I find the tweeness amusing and the format quite useful. Anyway, you can find all the text and audio here:
http://www.goethe.de/lrn/prj/gad/deindex.htm?wt_sc=gad
However, since they are not producing any new episodes, the RSS feed is no longer advertised, but after writing to the person responsible I was told that the feed is still available, so I figured I'd pass it on in case anyone else ever wanted it. I personally find it easier to use the podcast version since it just means selecting a different podcast within the same application on my phone as I drive home, and I could grab the whole lot at once without any fuss. You can find the RSS feed at:
http://media.goethe.de/
On a sidenote, just for the record, I did the first audio exercise in the online B2 sample exam from the Goethe Institut just a short while ago and got 8 out of 10. I lost 2 points on a question which required me to listen to a name being spelled out. I heard the name and immediately wrote out the spelling I thought it would be and so didn't pay proper attention to the actual spelling given. The mistake I made was to write a "v" instead of a "w" which is the sort of mistake I could make under pressure even if I was paying attention, so I'm glad I did the practice test!
http://www.goethe.de/lrn/prj/gad/deindex.htm?wt_sc=gad
However, since they are not producing any new episodes, the RSS feed is no longer advertised, but after writing to the person responsible I was told that the feed is still available, so I figured I'd pass it on in case anyone else ever wanted it. I personally find it easier to use the podcast version since it just means selecting a different podcast within the same application on my phone as I drive home, and I could grab the whole lot at once without any fuss. You can find the RSS feed at:
http://media.goethe.de/
On a sidenote, just for the record, I did the first audio exercise in the online B2 sample exam from the Goethe Institut just a short while ago and got 8 out of 10. I lost 2 points on a question which required me to listen to a name being spelled out. I heard the name and immediately wrote out the spelling I thought it would be and so didn't pay proper attention to the actual spelling given. The mistake I made was to write a "v" instead of a "w" which is the sort of mistake I could make under pressure even if I was paying attention, so I'm glad I did the practice test!
Friday, September 9, 2011
Podcast addiction...
I'm a bit of a latecomer to the podcast game, considering that I never saw the point in giving mp3's another name. Well, it's mp3 + RSS - how very Apple to name them i-something or pod-something.
Just recently, I discovered how useful RSS is for finding the latest episode in a series or the latest news. I used to like to listen to streaming radio, but I don't have access to it when I'm driving. Podcasts fix that problem Apart from a good selection on Deutsche Welle, I discovered dradio as well which has a good environment program and a really excellent science show (Wissenschaft in Brennpunkt). Links to their science show articles are here.
Of course, it's an addiction. There's only so much time available in a day to really focus on listening, after which it becomes background noise. I don't believe in passive listening, but I do leave it playing at times when I focused on other activities (especially at work) because I get a chance to focus every now and then, and I can take advantage of those little moments. I listen to good articles multiple times.
I did a little self-assessment recently, just on the basis of my own comfort level in certain activities, and I came up as B1 level for everything except speaking which was somehow B2. My speaking still feels pretty bad, so that doesn't leave much hope for everything else...
Just recently, I discovered how useful RSS is for finding the latest episode in a series or the latest news. I used to like to listen to streaming radio, but I don't have access to it when I'm driving. Podcasts fix that problem Apart from a good selection on Deutsche Welle, I discovered dradio as well which has a good environment program and a really excellent science show (Wissenschaft in Brennpunkt). Links to their science show articles are here.
Of course, it's an addiction. There's only so much time available in a day to really focus on listening, after which it becomes background noise. I don't believe in passive listening, but I do leave it playing at times when I focused on other activities (especially at work) because I get a chance to focus every now and then, and I can take advantage of those little moments. I listen to good articles multiple times.
I did a little self-assessment recently, just on the basis of my own comfort level in certain activities, and I came up as B1 level for everything except speaking which was somehow B2. My speaking still feels pretty bad, so that doesn't leave much hope for everything else...
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