Torcon update, learning German

Why is this Nazgul getting on a TTC car? Find out from Allison.
Photo by Allison.


Only a few weeks left until Torcon! Urban Tapestry's concert is on Saturday, Aug. 30th at 3:00 p.m., for those interested. If you have a concert/panel at the convention, feel free to plug it in Blatherchat.

Looks like the company printing our CDs is a bit behind schedule, but supposedly the CDs should be shipped very soon. Please keep your fingers crossed for us! Allison, Jodi and I have been REALLY looking forward to releasing the CD at Torcon.



Jodi at Concertino. Photo by Jim Leonard.


I'm quite enjoying learning German. Some of the sounds are challenging but way fun to say. Take "das Frühstük", for example (breakfast). It's strangely satisfying to say this word. I want to try working this into casual conversation as much as possible. Can't wait until Jeff wakes up so I can start practising on him, especially before he's had his morning cup of coffee. "Hey Jeffy, want some Frühstük?" "You gotta start your day off with Frühstük." "Stop scowling at me, have some Frühstük!" Oh, happyjoy, this'll be fun.

I've just started learning about verbs. Holy cow, this is going to take some serious study. There are weak and strong verb forms, and also seem to be different verb endings depending on the person you're talking to, and how familiar you are with the person you're talking to. Reminds me of French a bit, especially since there also seem to be masculine and feminine nouns. (And neuter nouns, Rika tells me...still haven't reached that chapter yet :-))

I can see why the German language would appeal to historians of all types, and anyone interested in languages in general. Already I am finding so many connections between words in German and words I already know. Not just in every day English conversation, but also to certain proper names, musical terms, other subjects.



Rand in concert at Concertino. Photo by Jim Leonard.


I study German whenever I am taking an arm break from typing on the keyboard or using ViaVoice. I've copied the CDs onto my iPod. Whenever it's time for me to give my arms a rest, I take out my German course book, put on my iPod headphones, and go through a lesson. I end up repeating the lesson about 10-12 times during the course of a day, helping to cement the words and phrases in my memory and pronunciation. Sometimes I just listen to earlier lessons without the book in hand, just to see how much I understand. I'm up to Lesson 9 of 40 lessons.

It's already become clear to me that even after I go through the course, I'm going to have to work hard on building up my vocabulary, and listen to as much German as possible. I'm going to check out libraries in Toronto for tapes and CDs in German.

Thank you so much to those of you who suggested online resources. Here are a few:

http://www.cas.usf.edu/german/forms/webforms.htm
(from Katy: "good for verbs, but overall rather for advanced learners (and there's some mistakes in the java mouseovers, unfortunately, so some pages are not usable)")

http://www.germanfortravellers.com/learn/index2.html
(from Katy: "fun, with pronounciation mp3s and movie clips!")

German cartoon site
http://www.nichtlustig.de/main.html
(From meritmatt on LJ)

I also found the following:

German vocabulary and pronunciation

About.com's German Language Resource

BBC's German Learning Resources



Dave Weingart and Daniel Glasser. Photo by Jim Leonard.

August/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ