Update!

I got a request from the lovely Miss Pynk two days ago to update (thank you for the encouragement!)  and as an amenable somebody, I decided to acquiesce and put up a post. 

I know, I've been a super lazy blogger in the last few weeks and in fact I think the last time I put up a post was over a month ago, but I have a valid excuse. My life has been just cray cray! I've been travelling A LOT, and in addition to this, have had many life-changes occur in the last few weeks. I'm not sure if everyone knows this, but I moved here to Belgium last November, almost a year ago. At the time the move was meant to be temporary, a grown-up (working) Gap year if you will. I wasn't quite ready to move back home to England, and as we still weren't sure where T and I would settle, I decided to do a sideways shift from Paris to Brussels. I got a job as a maternity replacement and a flat for 9months, however as the time slowly elapsed, I realised that I'd probably stay here for a while longer, and needed to look for a new job and a new accommodation. The job search was relatively painless and I soon got myself something interesting, however, the situation on the flathunt front was completely chaotic. I had decided to give up my apartment, and look for a flatshare, because I wanted to save more money so I could pay back my student loans faster, besides, as I was never in my flat #ajalatinz, I thought it made more sense to get something smaller and cheaper. 

Easy peasy right? Wrong! From the hollywoodesque flat, with a swimming pool, where the en-suite rooms were bigger than my actual flat, to the super grotty room in the middle of nowhere, I was exceptionally unlucky. As in people would say yes, ask me to come sign the contract, then turn around and send a message retracting their offer. The last one was particularly painful, as I truly believed I had the place, only for the guy to send me a message at 11.50pm on the Wednesday night (I was supposed to move on Friday morning!), saying they'd decided to give the room to someone else. To say I was distraught was an understatement! Anyway, I remembered that I had details for another flat, so I sent the guy a long message explaining my plight and thank God he replied immediately and even agreed to show me the place the next day, Thursday after work. With the money, as well as all my paperwork (passport, Belgian ID card, work contract etc.) in hand, I turned up without a lot of faith, since I'd been burnt so many times. Imagine my surprise when I arrived and met the guy who being in a hurry, gave me a quick 5minute tour of the house, and then handed me the keys just like that. No payment, no paperwork! He was like "we can sort all of that out in the days to come". I'd found something only a few hours before I had to be out of the other place, I couldn't believe I wasn't going to be homeless! I had to stay up all night to pack and clean the old flat, then with the help of my amazing colleagues, moved into my new place at 9.30 the next morning, sleep-deprived but so so happy. That was last Friday, and I have been trying to recover since then, with working the weekend and doing all the admin stuff (medical visits, HR etc.) for the new job.

In other equally exciting news, I got the results of my German exams yesterday, and not only did I not fail, I did well!!! I wanted to get 4s in all the sections, but knew that I was probably realistically only worth 3s. I mean I only started learning in January, by myself, and I'd had moments when I was quite lazy and didn't do any work for weeks. Plus I kept reading online that the people who did well in the exam, often took classes for years, then attended special preparation courses and bought/used the practise books. Me, being a cheapskate couldn't be bothered with all of that, especially since I had already shelled out €175 for the exam and was taking it just "for fun" anyway (other people take it to prove that they have an academic-level grasp of German, for Uni). I sha did my best in the last few weeks, revised a lot and went off to spend 4days in Germany at T's parents place, and hoped for the best. And it worked! I got 4s in 3 of the sections, and even a 5 in the speaking part, meaning that I am now at the upper Intermediate/advanced level, after only 8months of self-study. I achieved the goal I set in January 3months early!!! The best thing about all of this is that the certificate is valid for life, and should I wish to apply, I will be exempted from all German university language requirements forever. Anyway below is a picture of the results, live and direct. 

So, I'd like to thank and dedicate this award I mean certificate to T's mum, the person who inspired me to learn German, and the most patient teacher ever. I'd also like to recognise the hard work of Hanna, my language partner who started with me "from the bottom" and accompanied me till I got "here." The poor thing had to deal with me shooting unimaginable grammar bullets at her, but she survived, and made it her job to encourage me at every turn. A huge vote of thanks also goes to Jen and Shahida, my blog readers, Instagram followers and Periscope audience, for the support and encouragement in those times when I was fed up of German and/or lazy. And last but not least, I'd like to thank God, my family, T (side-eye though for the times he laughed at me), the city of Cologne, the German TV channels online, the Conversation Exchange community, my poor colleagues who had to deal with my Franco-Germano-English words and phrases, my credit card for covering the (in no way negligible) cost of the exams, the various restaurants where I met Hanna every week to practise German and sample the wonderful range of Belgian beers, the Belgian train company for not doing their usual thing and striking on the day of my exam and Haribo for making the gummy bears given to me by the MIL as nerve-calming medicine. I will think of each person/party whenever I look at the certificate, and of course you should know that you each own a tiny piece of it ;)

Now I really am motivated to keep improving, plus I need to get back to my Italian. This has reminded me that I CAN do anything I put my mind to!

And, #godwin is definitely the phrase for this week!

Clara's Travel Tales: The Köln Edition

As you may know from my constant blathering, I have been learning German since January and I was scheduled to take the early September TestDaF exam. Well I realised that I wasn't perhaps as prepared as I could be, so I decided to go visit T's parents for 4days so that I could really practise my German intensively. It was obviously good for my language skills (T's mum was a teacher), but not only that, also my physical and mental well-being. I was spoilt by the MIL, and really got to relax and do nothing but hangout, watch silly TV, laugh, sleep, eat and (window)shop. It was exactly what I needed after the hectic lifestyle I had leading up to the visit, and it also signalled the beginning of my week long travels/holiday in Budapest and Belgrade. This post is just a quick update, and I will be writing about my adventures in Eastern Europe, over the next few days and weeks. Have a lovely week!

 

Had to pack 2 different luggages 

for my 2 very different trips

 

Lots of girly dates with the MIL

 

Broke my no-shopping rule to 

buy this lovely pair of rain-boots

 Spoilt rotten! I got a lovely welcome, late birthday surprise presents 

and of course a mini-haul of goodies to take home with me

 

Yet another lunchdate with the MIL, 

the theme seemed to be Italian this visit

Clara's Travel Tales: Why I am always Poor! :(

We got paid about a week ago, and doing my budget/finances today made me realise I'm already quite broke even though it's barely the end of the first week. Yet I am not a big spender, as is obvious from my bank statements, where the biggest expenditure by far is from travelling.

I mean I'm off to Prague again in one week, and then two weeks after that, off to Köln for a few days, so that I can polish my German skills right before my exam. And of course I haven't seen a few dear friends (Engefreunde as the MIL told me yesterday), in a long time and I miss them all very much. I would like to see everyone, but realistically know it's impossible because my middle name is Ajala, and sadly not Bill Gates.

So, I decided to do a list based on how long it's been since I saw each loved one, and even with all that careful prioritisation, I still ended up with this urgent "to-travel" list! It's beginning to look like Budapest(Hungary) and Belgrade(Serbia) in September, as I want to go before it gets colder so that I can enjoy myself and possibly go to the beach (haven't caught even a glimpse of the sea this year). I'm also hoping it'll motivate me to work hard over the next few weeks as I prepare for my German exams. What this means is that I'll be travelling on the day after I get back from Germany, right after the exam, in fact I think I'm going to have to go to the exam-centre with my luggage!

Paris and Sweden also need to be planned at some point, and naturally Prague remains the regular "home away from home" for now. England will be for Christmas, and Nigeria hopefully early next year, and then of course the US ati be be lo, after that...let's just hope I don't bankrupt myself soon :( 

So, are you about the ajala life? If not, what is your particular brand of "money-waster" or "hobby"? Please share and help make a girl feel better about her vices!

P.S. I'm supposed to be doing a practice essay for my exam, but then procrastination (abi na inspiration sef) struck, and I decided to do a quick blogpost instead. Shakes head in German...

P.P.S. Since I haven't done much travelling this month (apart from Prague), and being really busy at the moment with revision (only 19days left!!!), I have decided to make this my 15-for-15 entry for August. Stay tuned for September's exciting posts...will be visiting Köln/Louvain-la-Neuve/Budapest/Belgrade, all in 12days!

July Happenings :)

Hello from the beautiful city of Prague!

As some of you may have noticed, thank you Duru aburo mi atata, I have been MIA again from the blog and blogosphere in general. Life has been super busy these last few weeks, and it has been showing me pepper recently. Why you wonder? It's because I apparently have a knack for over-stretching myself.

A few weeks ago, I realised that I was reaching a plateau in my German learning, and worried about it going the way of my Italian, I decided to challenge myself by registering for the TestDaF. It is a German language exam that tests from level B2 to C1, assigning the numerical values 3-5 to the three different levels. The exam was painfully expensive, so I am determined to get a 4 (equivalent to a B2.2), as this would in theory exclude me from all future German language tests. I'm far from a B2 at the moment, and with only 6weeks to go, I am having to put in a lot of work.

 Weekly German Plan

Then three weeks ago, I went back home to England because my uncle was getting married. I got to experience the Yoruba traditional wedding up close (we were the groom's representatives), and I loved it! The vocabulary, stunning outfits, customs and traditions and the theatricality of the whole ceremony meant I was completely blown away! I had previously participated in such a ceremony only once, 2years ago at my friend's wedding in Nigeria, but the stress then was so much that I decided it was not for me. However, although I could see how stressful it was for my uncle, this time I was carried away by the magic of it all, and I honestly CAN'T wait till it's my turn.

Of course in I have also been travelling a lot, as usual, because it's the summer holidays and my middle name is Ajala. This is my second time in Prague this month, for instance,  even though I have no right to annual leave in my first year of employment (the Belgians apparently like to test their employees' endurance and work-like-a-dog-ability). What this means is that I have been doing lots of extra shifts and replacements, working long periods without breaks, and then trying to group all my days off together (the last one was a 12day working streak that almost killed me!).

As you can see, busy busy busy indeed! Obviously I haven't had much time to blog, however I have been making an effort to visit people's blogs every couple of days, even if it means that I don't get the chance to leave a comment. I'm sorry about that, but it's only until I write my exams in the second week of September. Really hoping the result is worth all the effort and sacrifice...fingers crossed it is!

(try!)To-do List 2015: Midyear Review

 

I love list-making and goal-setting, and so it follows that I regularly evaluate my goals to see if I have achieved or am on the way to achieving them. Just before the beginning of the second half every year, I give in to introspection, reflect upon the past months and ask myself how well I have done. So, off we go with this year's resolutions

Health and Diet

• Complete ban on caffeine and fizzy drinks (failing miserably on this count, really need to re-tighten my belt)
• Minimise junk food consumption (doing ok)
• Increase intake of water, fruit and vegetables. Practise quasi-vegetarianism (spot on)
• Increase fitness, heart-rate and muscle tone (doing great)
• Get rid of acne (failing miserably, thanks to all the sugary drinks)
• Walk 2x15mins a day (going above and beyond, I regularly do 1-1.5hrs/day)

Relationships

• Stay in touch; contact at least 4 friends abroad, each week (doing ok)
• Spend more time making and developing Brussels friendships (doing great, thanks to church, internations, Hanna, Temi, Tolu, lovely work colleagues etc.)

"Self Improvement"

• Learn German, I hope to have achieved a level C1 at least by December 2015
  (on track)
• Use time wisely and improve punctuality (could be better, but I'm doing ok)
• Read more books by Nigerian/African authors (failing, but this is because of the complete ban on English/French language books)
• Go dancing, to the opera/cinema, sightseeing etc. Be cheesy, have fun! (not a lot of "high culture" opportunities at the mo, but between travelling, getting visitors and hanging out with Hanna, I'd say I'm doing just fine)
• Be aggressive with my student loan, pay back at least 6000€ (on track, thank God even though some months are harder than others! I think I might even end up paying slightly more than the amount I initially decided)

While looking at the list this morning, I realised that with a few minor adjustments, I could make even more progress in the 3 most important areas of finances, German and my health. 

Since the beginning of the year, I have given myself a monthly budget and kept a strict record of all my expenditure. This helped me see that a lot of my money actually goes on junk food and unnecessary purchases of clothing items. I mean I have so many things that I wear rarely, or have never even worn in my wardrobe, yet I continue to add to the pile! I also have a stash of toiletries that I either bought on sale myself or was given by the MIL, J from ibibiogirl or other friends, however instead of using them, I continue to spend money on new ones. As someone who has a pseudo-nomadic lifestyle, it is even more important that I have as few things as possible, because moving as you can imagine is a pain otherwise. Another way of improving both my finances and my health would be cutting out the junk food which has slowly made its way back into my diet. My face tells the story of the countless grams of sugar my body has ingested recently, and my purse certainly agrees with it. Being radical and completely eliminating junk would mean killing one bird with two stones. So the conclusion here is that I will from July to December 2015, not be spending any of my own money on either clothes (except possibly for one swimsuit) or junk food/drinks (going to restaurants with friends/family is acceptable). 

As for German, I realise that I have reached a plateau again with my learning and have become very lazy. In fact, I can feel myself slowly losing the little I know, and I am worried that if I don't do something soon, I will end up with the same situation as I have with my Italian. In order to avoid that, I have decided to register for the TestDaF (an official German exam) in September. The exam tests from the intermediate level and there are only three levels (B2.1, B2.2, C1.1), with German universities systematically accepting the B2.2 and C1.1 for studying. Now even though I don't think I'll be studying at a German university any time soon, I'd like to reach at least the second level of the test, because who knows what the future holds? The exam is quite expensive at 175€, so as a bona fide cheapskate, I'm hoping wagering money on it will motivate me to work hard on my German and I have re-enlisted the help of T, Hanna and the MIL for this seemingly mammoth task.

So those are the major goals for the next half of the year, see you in December for the next review. Have a lovely week everyone!

Started From the Bottom, Now We're Here!

Pardon my brief descent into craziness, but I am feeling very proud of myself at the moment. Why you ask? Yours truly after only 4,5months has tested as an intermediate German speaker. Oya, everybody clap for me. Thank you, thank you! ;)

.

When I decided to start learning German in the second week of December, I set myself some goals and panicked when I realised the magnitude of the task before me. Then in February or March, I booked a ticket to go see T's family in May, and promised myself that I would be done with all the lessons/exercises on Duolingo by the 7th, the day before I was supposed to travel. At one point a few weeks ago though, I started to panic because I realised that I was so behind that it was unlikely I'd achieve my goal, but for some weird reason I became motivated again and due to some intense work, managed to finish the whole thing one week before my deadline. During this time, I noticed that the more German I did (on Duolingo/by watching TV or through reading), the more I became used to the language, and the easier it was for me to learn further. It was a virtuous circle, and so efficient that it almost turned me into a German freak. I have had(and still have) so many ups and downs with this crazy language, and have often felt like abandoning it(even taking a few breaks when life got too overwhelming), but I am so glad I never completely gave up. Of course I am still far from fluent, but I thought I'd share how I did it anyway, because it might help someone else.

So a few takeaway ideas from my experience of learning French, Italian and now German:

1. Set goals and try to be accountable! Even if your boyfriend and friends  side-eye you for your obsessive behaviour.
2. Speak, speak, speak. People (again my boyfriend and even my conversation partner were guilty of this) will laugh at your pronunciation and/or just not understand your babbling, but don't let that discourage you. Practice makes perfect, and your efforts will eventually bear fruit. Oh and the same people who laughed at me now compliment me on the progress I've made.
3. Living in the country and immersing oneself in the language and culture while important, is not essential. I learnt French a bit quicker than I am learning German now, because I was immersed in the language 24hrs a day, but I've realised that these days there are so many ways of surrounding oneself with the target language. Books, the internet, radio, watching TV are all ways of bring the proverbial mountain to Mohammed.
4. Ups and downs are normal and to be expected in language learning (and with everything in life I suppose). Embrace them. Celebrate every high, mourn every low but never stay static. This is also one very good reason for evaluating and re-evaluating your progress regularly; sometimes we don't notice the progress we've made until we take an objective test or someone else compliments us or points something out.
5. Surround yourself with "encouragers". Blog readers, my conversation partner/friend, my boyfriend's mum and T have all been very helpful, especially whenever the going became difficult. So yeah a big THANK YOU to everyone that encouraged(s) me, you guys have been absolute darlings. DANKE SCHÖN!!!
6. No dream ever materialises without some effort, elbow grease and a good dollop of sweat. So to everyone that has some goal they want to achieve, my advice in the great words of Nike, would be to "just do it!"

Addendum:  After putting up this post, I suddenly realised that it might mislead people, causing them to think I speak German perfectly. Well I don't. I can communicate verbally and read without too much difficulty, and I understand a huge percentage of what I see/hear on TV/radio. However (due to insufficient interaction), my speaking language skills still need a lot of work, mostly with pronunciation and acquiring more advanced vocabulary. So yeah I'm definitely still a long way away from fluency!

Revised Weekly Language Goals: Review

Still going hard on the grind. This week was also really productive even though I seem to have lost the feeling that I'm progressing in leaps and bounds. I think that is what happens as one moves away from being a complete beginner; the steep learning curve which also means massive leaps in knowledge acquisition gradually becomes less steep and of course the leaps become "just" strides.

Anyway on to this week's review...

1. Done. As with last week, I did a bit of listening to radio, because I automatically put it on whenever I am out and about in Brussels. However, I am loving Das Erste and ZDF; German TV stations where I can watch stuff with subtitles. I even watch a short 6minute documentary last night about Nigeria. Love, love these two stations!
2. Done. I saw Hanna on Thursday and spoke quite a bit of German. I am really glad I met her, becuase apart from the German, we get along very well and spend most of our meetings giggling. Last time I met her, an elder gentleman stopped us as we left the restaurant to tell us how refreshing he found us. He'd been watching, and said he loved the fact that two young women could just meet up and spend the evening laughing away. It was so sweet!
3. Done. I wrote a super long email to MIL on Tuesday (the words flew off the tip of my fingers), then got Hanna to correct it on Thursday, the poor thing. I hadn't done that in a while and it was good to have her input, and for her to pick up on my many many mistakes.
4. Done. I finished the book I was reading and started another one. It is about 250pages long, so it should take much less time anyway, but I think I've also become a bit better and faster at reading in German. It's a much harder book to read, but I like the story and am enjoying the book, so I will not give up.
5. Done. I reviewed the 12 chapters that I previously done and became a bit more confident with some of the rules.
6. Done. I am so happy that I have re-found my zeal for Duolingo. I have done it everyday since last week and I find myself flying through the levels. I kind of re-did the whole thing, but it was worth it, and I think it was good to refresh my memory.

I'm hoping I can repeat last week's successes and work even harder this week, although I have another friend visiting this weekend. 

Revised Weekly Language Goals: Review

After so many weeks of slacking with German, I seem to have found my zeal again, thank God! I worked hard this week, and felt myself slowly sliding back into the world of German grammar and vocabulary. I learnt a hard lesson which is that no matter how hard you've worked previously, slacking off usually leads to a loss of muscle tone, in this case brain muscles. I am basically having to re-remember vocab. that was slowly becoming normal to me, and catching myself making silly grammar mistakes. Still I'm back on the horse now, and happy with my progress. I'm off to see MIL and Jen from Ibibio girl in May, and I am determined to impress them both. As I've got just over 7weeks left, I'm going to have to knuckle down and work really hard.

So on to this week's review...

1. Done! I did a bit of listening to radio, but really focused my energy on watching lots of German TV. I've discovered that I can watch the public channels online with subtitles (for deaf people), and this is such a life-saver as it means that I can follow the programme both by listening and reading. Already seen a few films and documentaries, and there seems to be a whole lot waiting to be viewed. I am so very thankful for HOLA, the browser add-on that lets me change my geographic location online!
2. Done. I saw Hanna on Wednesday and again spoke a lot of German. She taught me a few choice words this time, and we were both much less in the polite, well-brought up girls mode. I was a bit tipsy, which made pronunciation a bit interesting, but I have so much fun.
3. Done. I wrote an email to my MIL, and immediately noticed the wasting away of the German muscles of my brain. As in it was hard to get the words to sound smooth on paper, but I persevered and did it. This week should be better.
4. Done. I am STILL reading the book I bought about 4weeks ago, but I think I'll be done today, as I only have a few pages left. I am sooooo looking forward to reading something else. At this rate, I'll probably end up reading much fewer books than I usually get through each year.
5. Done! I did my one chapter, but I think this week's grammar goal will be revising all the previous chapters to make sure I've really got the lessons.
6. Done, and I am so happy about this! I finally managed to get back into Duolingo and I realised it really helps with the vocabulary and even the grammar. 

I'm hoping I can repeat last week's success and work hard, even though I have friends coming over this weekend. And on that note, I wish everyone a lovely week!

Revised Weekly Language Goals: Review

I think I've reached a plateau in my language learning. This always happens to me at some point during the journey (it did with French and later Italian), and usually occurs when life becomes busy. Well February has been more than busy, because I have spent/will spend 3 out of the 4 weekends abroad (Paris, Vienna, England), and as I currently am not entitled to paid holidays, I've had to make up the hours. All that to say I am slacking seriously with German, but looking forward to resetting the motivation in March (although that's already looking to be very busy too!).

Anyway on to this week's review, which will be short and sweet...

1. Done. I have the radio on whenever I walk to work, and I of course make sure I watch at least 2 programmes in German every week. I particularly like Karambolage on Arte because the programs are very short and they're all about explaining the German and French culture and way of life to the foreigner.
2. Done. On the conversation front, things are going quite well and it feels like I can hold up my end. I now use words that I have subconsciously learnt from reading.
3. Done. I wrote an email to my MIL as usual, but decided this time to really pay attention. I'm starting to move past the stage of being unable to communicate, to the stage where I have the vocabulary and know how to construct simple sentences, so I have decided to be stricter with myself and work harder on avoiding mistakes.
4. Done. I am still reading the book above, which I bought in Vienna. It's a normal novel for adults and is similar to the kind of books in English that I would normally pick up, so that makes it hold my attention. However my reading speed is much slower, and I will probably only finish it in another week.  Still, I am learning lots of new vocabulary which gets imprinted in my head, because I see the words being used repeatedly.
5. Done. I did my one chapter and managed to assimilate it. In fact I think that because I am working hard with the reading and conversation exchange, each week the chapter/grammar exercises seem easier. Kind of like the book is slower than my actual progress!
6. Not done. This is where I am really slacking. I can't seem to find the time or the motivation to do this to be honest. I might have to review this goal soon (maybe reducing the frequency), because I feel so bad whenever I realise I haven't achieved it.

I felt the week was a total flop, and was rather sad about how February seems to have gone, but writing this makes me realise I'm still making a lot of progress. And to be fair, doing 5 out of the 6 things on the list can in no one's books be classified as being an abject failure. There are a few more days to go before we finish the month, so I'm going to try to work hard and finish February on a high.

Wishing everyone a lovely week!

Revised Weekly Language Goals: Review

This week's review is going to be different, it will be a 2-in-1 summary as I didn't do a review last Monday, and I think two detailed reviews in one post would be too long. So anyway, here goes...

Last Week...
I was once again on fire with German! I'm not sure why this was, but I really made an effort and I saw the results. I met Hanna as usual and was able to have an actual conversation with her, then I read the much harder children's book she'd loaned me. It was a very good book, I guess written for older children, and was therefore very very challenging for me to read. Luckily the stories were riveting, so I couldn't give up or put it down. So good in fact was the book, that I've decided I'd like for my children to read it one day. The great thing about this is that I was able to learn so many new words.

In terms of the other skills, listening to German radio has more or less become second nature to me now, and I am understanding or at least recognising more and more words. I was even able to get some information about German Airline strikes and warn T who was scheduled to be travelling, about this. I was so proud of myself! I also wrote my MIL an email, did my weekly chapter and practised on Duolingo at least 5 times during the week.

This Week...
Was the total opposite! I wrote my MIL an unusually long email, did my weekly chapter and a lot of listening to radio. I also watched quite a bit of children's TV with T on Saturday, as well as the clips my Conversation partner sent me and a documentary on Youtube. Apart from this however, I feel like this was a very lazy week for me German-wise. I did hardly any Duolingo practising, did not read a whole book (read bits of another children's book and started my first novel on Saturday). And to make matters worse, I was sick down with the flu/running a fever and had a sore throat on Monday when I met Hanna for conversation exchange, so honestly didn't do very well with actual conversation. I wasn't very motivated to talk with my laryngitis, and was really slow in understanding anything she said to me...the poor girl must have been so frustrated! Still, I'm not too discouraged about my lack of progress because I've just spent 5 days in Vienna and had German around me all the time, on TV/supermarkets/public transport/everywhere, including at the basketball match I went to on Saturday.

I guess I'd just had as the Germans say "die Schnauze voll" (was fed up). This week I am once again very motivated and looking forward to working hard to catch up, especially since there won't be any travelling and/or illnesses "die Daumen drücken" (fingers crossed).

Anyway that's it for this week's edition ;)  Wishing everyone a lovely week!

Revised Weekly Language Goals: Review

I was on fire with German this week! I'm not sure why, but I must have made a subconscious decision to really go for it. I worked my butt off, and more importantly never missed even one day of studying. The encouraging thing about this is that I've noticed a huge leap in my comprehension, and I am more and more at ease with the language. I just really hope I neither backslide nor get distracted over the next few weeks...

Anyway on to this week's review, which will be short and sweet as I'm writing this on the bus, on my way back from Paris...

1. Done! I literally spent hours listening to the radio this week. I also watched a couple of documentaries, one about immigration/becoming/learning German, and was mostly able to follow them.
2. Kind of done. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be seeing one of my conversation partners in the future, so I either have to find another person, or be satisfied with just a once-weekly exchange. I'm still thinking about this, so we'll see... In other news, I saw Hanna on Friday for almost 3 hours and I again spoke a lot more German. I feel like something has finally popped in my brain, and I have found my German voice (although the ears are sadly still missing). 
3. Done x2! I wrote an email to my MIL, and the words simply flew off the tips of my fingers. Of course the whole thing was riddled with mistakes, but she understood (and I, her reply), and the important thing is that I now feel very at ease using the language.  I also published my first blog post in German this week. I did this while learning French, and I am sure it helped immensely with vocabulary acquisition, so will definitely be repeating this from time to time.
4. Done! My conversation partner kindly brought me a couple of children's books on Friday. I chose 2 and took them both along with me to Paris, where I read the first and started the second. I have also been doing a lot of singing of the old Disney songs in German. I particularly like "Won't say I'm in love," from Hercules.
5. Done! I did my one chapter, managed to assimilate it, then went back to revise all four previous chapters. 
6. Done! I did an hour on Monday, then basically forgot about this until Friday morning when I began to do exercises first thing in the morning and last thing at night. This now means that I am bathing in a constant sea of German.

The week was quite successful, at least when compared with the debacle that was last week.  The funny thing is that the harder I worked, the more I realised I needed to learn, and the more motivated I was....I guess peaks and troughs are normal in language learning.

Wishing everyone a lovely week!

Mein Erster Post auf Deutsch/First Post in German!

Heute mache ich ein "post" auf Deutsch wie ich am Montag versprochen habe. Ich bin eigentlich in der Arbeit, in ein sehr langweilig Treffen, also ich entschied mich das zu schreiben...

Am Samstag gehe ich nach Paris meine freundinnen zu besuchen, weil seit November habe ich nicht ihnen gesehen. Ich werde schmackhaft Japanisch Essen essen, um mein lieblingstadt herumgehen, und gerade einen schönen Wochenende haben! Die nur schlecht ding ist dass ich mit dem Bus muss fahren. Wie üblich, habe ich nicht meine Zug-Ticket gekauft früh, also es zu teuer war...sowieso, jetzt ich den Bus muss nehmen. Auch unglücklicherweise, wird es das ganze Wochenende regen :(
Sonst, ich freue mich sehr gern!

Today I'm doing a post in German as I promised on Monday. I'm actually at work, in a very boring meeting, so I decided to write this...

On Saturday I am going to Paris to visit my friends, because since November, I have not seen them. I'll eat delicious Japanese food, walk around my favourite city, and just have a nice weekend! The only bad thing is that I have to take the bus. As usual, I did not buy my train ticket early, so it was too expensive...anyway now I have to take the bus. Also, unfortunately, it will rain all weekend :(
Apart from that, I am very happy!

Revised Weekly Language Goals: Review

With the kind of week I've had since Monday,  I knew I obviously wasn't going to be able to do everything on the list.  At the beginning of the week, I listened a lot to the radio, wrote the first draft of my weekly email and did some very unmotivated grammar studying. In spite of this however, by Thursday, I realised that I was in danger of falling behind and failing to achieve my goals. So basically between Thursday evening and Sunday night I worked really hard to try to get every task ticked off, but it was too little, too late. As our naija people like to say, body no be leather....

Anyway on to this week's review.

Au Revoir and Lass uns gehen are both German! 

1. Done! I literally spent hours listening to the radio this week. I found a couple of new stations - Bayern 2, B5 aktuell and Deutschlandfunk. These are talk stations and they have a lot of culture/news/documentaries, just the way I prefer my radio. I listened even when I was poorly, since it requires no energy or effort. I particularly enjoyed the kindermagazin which was very easy for me to follow. As for BRF(the Belgian German station), I have kept it because although I have no internet access on my phone, I'm able listen to it on my walk to work. As a result of this I've discovered 2 songs which I really like (and 3 others by British singers!). I've downloaded the lyrics, bought the songs and been singing along all weekend ;)
2.  Kind of done. Cathy cancelled and I felt rubbish so I didn't re-schedule. However, I met Hanna on Friday for almost 3 hours. We are similar and get along, so it's easy to chat/laugh the time away. I spoke a lot more German this time, and we were both very pleased with my progress. On Thursday, I also did a sort of conversation practice with J from Ibibio Girl (with her husband in the background, helping).
3. Done! I wrote another email to MIL, and even I could see and feel the improvement. The words seemed to flow naturally out of me, and I only really had to look up 2 words. When I corrected it with my conversation exchange partner, I realised it was of course full of errors, but I felt encouraged because it was already so much better than the first email. And most importantly my MIL said she understood everything! I also completely got the reply she wrote me and did not need to use the dictionary once :)
4. Not done. I read/practised the lyrics from the two songs above, and read a couple of lines of a book by Franz Kafka. Honestly though, I was very unmotivated for this task so I'm hoping for inspiration this week.
5. Done...ish! I did my one chapter, but it was only to fulfil all righteousness. I can't even remember what I studied :(
6. Not done. I think I must have practised a total of 4times on both apps this week.

Last week was a mixed bag, but I guess that's normal with language learning...I'm hoping this week will be more successful sha. Oh and I'm planning to do a short post next week in German, with the English translation obviously ;)

Revised Weekly Language Goals: Review

I worked really hard this last week to try and maintain my language learning rhythm even though work was crazy and I was exhausted most of the time. I just knew that as soon as I let myself slide, that would be the beginning of the end, so I'm glad to say I was able to overcome the hump. I managed to do everything on the list, in spite of the busy week I had...I am so very proud of myself indeed!

Anyway on to this week's review.

 

Source

1. Done! They play a lot of English songs, which is starting to annoy me, but I've started making sure that I listen on the hour when they say the news. Half of the time I have no clue what they're on about, but every once in a while I get a snippet of information. One of my exchange partners, sent me a load of Youtube videos with German music, and T played me an easy rap song which I could sing along to, yesterday. So I'm definitely working on the listening.
2. Done too! I met Cathy on Wednesday for about 2 hours and then Hanna on Friday also for 2 hours. We're still speaking a lot of English at the moment, and it's beginning to bother me a bit, but my goal this week is to up the German. I had a short German conversation with my MIL yesterday too. It was on the phone, and only for about 2minutes before we switched to English, but as they say, every little helps!
3. Kind of done. Although I didn't write any long pieces, I actually did A LOT of German writing this last week. I sent lots of texts/whatsapp messages/comments/etc., all in German. I figured this is just as important since those are the skills you need in real life. The best thing about this kind of writing is that I get responses almost immediately, forcing me to more spontaneous and intuitive with my writing. No more re-reading the message 100 times!
4. Done! I read the children's book above, and I enjoyed/completely understood it. I recently discovered a website by a German children's author who has so kindly made his out of print books available for download free of charge. I will be alternating between this and the newspapers.
5. Done! I did only one chapter this week because I was super tired, but I tried to ensure that I absorbed the lesson thoroughly. 
6. Done! And I've recently added exercises by Deutsch Akademie to the mix, as it has a lot more grammar. I do exercises on either of the apps, as soon as I've got a few minutes free.

Verdict? All in all, a very successful week. Onwards and upwards!

Revised Weekly Language Goals: Review

I have had to to re-evaluate my goals this week because I realised that my learning efforts so far have been uncoordinated, chaotic, and a bit haphazard. I had been using too many different resources, and because of this wasn't really making progress. It felt as if I was doing a lot in some areas but not enough in others.  The thing is I don't have a lot of time to mess about if I'm to attain C1 by the 1st of October... So in order to resolve this problem, I decided to streamline things and make the learning process more efficient. The plan is to concentrate from now on, on using a few good resources instead of any- and everything. It's been only a few days, but since making this decision I've noticed that I have more structure to my learning, and I'm basically able to practise all the four language skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Anyway on to this week's review.

1. Done! I only listen for about 15mins each time, but I can already see some progress in my oral comprehension. It's also helping me remember vocabulary and teaching me how to construct sentences.
2. Done too! I met Cathy on Thursday for about 2 hours and again on Friday. She's sweet but firm which is what I need. We're speaking a lot of English at the moment, but that's normal for the beginning. The great thing about this is that I'm motivated to  work even harder because I don't want to be embarrassed each time I see her.  Plus I can get a real feel for the language/learn "street" German since she's a native speaker.
3. Kind of Done! I'm in the process of writing a short email to my MIL. I already have most of it written down, so it should be done by tomorrow (I'm writing this post on Sunday morning). I finished the email and sent it off later in the evening. The good news is that she appears to have understood everything and she replied only a few hours later.
4. Only thing I haven't done yet, because I only added this to the list of goals last night at work. I am going to try to look for a short text tonight that I can read before the deadline expires. Done! I read an article in B.Z. Berlin, about late Xmas deliveries. I use Google play news-stand and have added three German newspapers to my library. To be completely honest, I didn't understand everything, still I was happy because I got the general gist.
   
5. Done! I raced through 2 chapters yesterday and I could easily have done a third, but I decided not to because I really want to spend time absorbing each lesson before moving on to the next topic. I mean I only have 24 chapters to do, so 1 a week is really more than enough, especially as I want what I'm learning to actually stick.
6. Done! I started this all over again, because I felt like I had forgotten some of what I learnt before the holidays. Now my learning is more fluid and efficient, since I do little but often.

Weekly Language Goals: Review

I didn't manage to do everything on the list this week because I was travelling again...story of my life. I however managed to do quite a bit of work, as well as find another valuable resource thanks to Shahidah ( www.deutschseite.de)

Anyways on to the review.

1. Not done, I replaced this with work on the new site
2. Done!
3. Done too, more or less!
4. Kind of done. I basically revised a lot of the words from before and added a few others
5. Not done, due to lack of opportunities. I have contacted and set up appointments with a few language partners though. Should be starting the exchange later this week

So not great, but not particularly bad either. I'm really looking forward to meeting my 4 partners and figuring out if we click...I still remember my French exchange partner with whom I became great friends. Hoping for something similar again.

Weekly Language Goals: Review

I didn't manage to do anything on the list this week because I was too busy having fun ;) My friend Vicky visited over Xmas, and T came for 2days right after...more on that in another post. I'm off to England tomorrow too, so it's looking like not much German will be learnt over the next week either. Oh well, at least I know I'll be starting my conversation exchange in January.

Anyways on to the review, which will be very easy this week: 1-5, not done. See you in 2015!

Weekly Language Goals: Review

I didn't manage to do everything on the list this week because I was travelling, however I learnt so much from my boyfriend's mum who is a (great) primary school teacher. She was really patient and fun to learn from, and we laughed a lot! I kind of feel jealous of her kids at school....

Anyways on to the review.

1. Done!
2. Done as well!
3. Practised 3times. Goal not reached, not enough time :(
4. Learnt way more than 15words. I had already learnt about 30 before I went to Germany, where I learnt another one million words and more importantly, learnt the pronunciations. So done!
5. Definitely achieved this goal from practising with my MIL

Not bad for the first week I guess. Onwards and upwards!

Weekly Language Goals

While in a boring meeting today, my mind wandered and I started thinking about how to achieve my goal of learning German in 9months. The more I thought about it, the more I became overwhelmed with the magnitude of the task ahead of me, until I remembered the article I read on bellanaija a few days ago. Apparently, it's been proven that writing down goals increases your chance of achieving them. So, following the advice from the article (as well as GNG's example), I decided write and break down my goal of learning German into smaller, achievable and measurable steps. Now I've got a bunch of objectives that I will try to attain weekly. Every Monday from now until the 1st of October 2015, I will evaluate my progress and see how much I've managed to achieve. If nothing else, at least it means that each week, there'll be a new post on the blog...

The Little Babel in my Head

So even though I'm far from being completely fluent in Italian, I decided to add another language to my repertoire.

I began preparing for this in the last week of November, by downloading Duolingo on my tablet, fishing out my books/CD (German in French, which I bought before leaving France), and finding a good site for Grammar etc. I then officially started the process on the 1st of December, giving myself 9 months in which to learn, and achieve the goal of being able to communicate effectively and confidently. An initial look at the language gave me the impression that it was logical, similar to English and familiar (from learning Swedish briefly a few years ago, sadly all gone now from lack of use). I therefore overconfidently thought I was going to have a very easy ride. However, I hadn't banked on getting interference from French, which also seems to have left its ravages on my poor brain.

The main problem (apart from declension, which is another issue entirely) is that I often think in French and so use French constructions for German sentences. A typical example would be use of the verb "to be," where the verb "to have" would have traditionally been more appropriate. Case in point, to state my age in French I would say "J'ai 30ans" (literally, I have 30years). However, in English and German the verb "to have" is replaced by the verb "to be" so we end up with "Ich bin 30 Jahre alt" or "Ich bin 30" which literally mean I am 30years old and I am 30 respectively. Intellectually, I know this, but I cannot seem to stop myself from mirroring the French phrase and saying "Ich habe 30 Jahre". 

As if this wasn't enough, my brain (perhaps cognizant of the fact that English and French are kind of forbidden), has decided to come up with a coping mechanism to deal with the stress of learning yet another language. I now sometimes find myself using Yoruba and Italian words to fill in the currently large gaps in my German vocabulary. I think my poor brain feels like a melange of languages is its only way of producing anything intelligible at the moment!

Still, I'm not one to give up...I'm hoping to achieve my goal in spite of the challenges, but I've decided to restart the count from the 1st of January after the holidays when I'll be less distracted and more able to dedicated myself to the hard work ahead of me. By the 1st of October 2015, I hope to be able to express myself clearly in German, and have reached level C1 (to be assessed objectively with a test from the Goethe institute). 

And my English? Also going down the drains it seems. Living, thinking and working almost exclusively in French has done a number on my brain. For example, whenever I do a long piece of writing I have to re-read it a few times, since I've realised that I sometimes forget to add the preposition "to" in English when using the infinitive form of verbs. This is a really silly mistake to make as a native English speaker, but a quick glance through a list of verbs in both languages reveals how this becomes possible (to have = avoir; to be = être; to do= faire and so on). In other news, I've also taken to writing English with French spellings, for example, ou for or, Décembre for December, familiarity as familiarité, accompany as accompagne, and my construction of English sentences is also unfortunately undergoing a change for the worse. I now say things like "he is more big than you" or "the car of the man" (to think I used to be so proud of my English language skills!). Worst of all, I've noticed that I'm gradually morphing into that obnoxious person who corrects others and gets irritated when I see/hear people using bad French :(

Anyway, over to you. Are you learning a new language? How that's going, and/or what impact does it have on your first (or second, third, etc.) language(s)?

With that, I say...A lovely weekend to all/Bon weekend/ Ein schoenes Wochenend!