One question I've gotten on multiple occasions is whether I think in German or English. Without getting too abstract, I'd like to try to explain how it works.
When I speak German, I don't think of sentences in English and then translate them. I kind of open my mouth and German flies out. When I'm trying to express more complicated ideas or when I back myself into a corner during a grammatically complex sentence, I really have to think hard, but I feel like I think in German at the time.
When I speak English, of course I think in English. English is my mother language and it's just natural that way.
But the hardest part to describe is how I think when I'm not talking, for example, if I'm biking to soccer practice or on the train. I guess I could best explain it like this: if I'm thinking of anything language-related that's happened in the past or that will happen in the future (a conversation, something I've read, something I've written or will write), then I think in whatever language that it's in.
But I feel like my consciousness isn't really in any language. When I let my mind wander, reminisce about past events, ponder an important issue in the world today, or wonder what the future will bring, the thoughts just are. They don't need to be brought to words; words are used to transfer ideas between people, while my thoughts are just for me.
What I'm much more interested in is knowing how all of you bilingual and multilingual people out there handle this. For anyone who speaks more than one language fluently, what language do you think in?
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
15.4.08
28.2.08
Learning English in Germany
I've recently started tutoring a group of four students through my school's "Schüler helfen Schülern" (Students helping students) tutoring program. The program matches tutors from the upper grad levels with students from the lower grade levels and provides a room for one hour of tutoring a week. The students signed up to be tutored in English. Imagine their surprise after they found out that their tutor is an American exchange student!
At the beginning of the first lesson last week, I asked the students what their goals were for the tutoring session and why they think learning English is useful. The students wanted to get good grades, be able to understand music that they listen to, and thought it would be cool to be able to speak another language. But what one of the students said really made me realize something about learning English in Germany: "I have to either learn English or Turkish to have any chance of getting a job here."
Now, the situation the way I understand it is a little more complicated than that. Of course there are lots of jobs for people who can't speak English. But it seems that the aspect of employabilty that foreign language skills affect the most here is mobility. Without knowledge of English, many Germans have trouble climbing the career ladder. On the other hand, there are lots of small businesses founded by Turkish immigrants, which explains why Turkish would help job chances.
This explains the demanding English classes in German school. In the highest grades at my school, students analyze Shakespeare, Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and novels in English. Germans often learn 3rd, 4th, and even 5th languages in school, too. English is portrayed as a requirement for getting a good job here, and other foreign languages along with English help even more.
So, for those of you worried about English fading away as the mother language in America, don't worry. You can always come to Germany and get by speaking only English here.
At the beginning of the first lesson last week, I asked the students what their goals were for the tutoring session and why they think learning English is useful. The students wanted to get good grades, be able to understand music that they listen to, and thought it would be cool to be able to speak another language. But what one of the students said really made me realize something about learning English in Germany: "I have to either learn English or Turkish to have any chance of getting a job here."
Now, the situation the way I understand it is a little more complicated than that. Of course there are lots of jobs for people who can't speak English. But it seems that the aspect of employabilty that foreign language skills affect the most here is mobility. Without knowledge of English, many Germans have trouble climbing the career ladder. On the other hand, there are lots of small businesses founded by Turkish immigrants, which explains why Turkish would help job chances.
This explains the demanding English classes in German school. In the highest grades at my school, students analyze Shakespeare, Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and novels in English. Germans often learn 3rd, 4th, and even 5th languages in school, too. English is portrayed as a requirement for getting a good job here, and other foreign languages along with English help even more.
So, for those of you worried about English fading away as the mother language in America, don't worry. You can always come to Germany and get by speaking only English here.
15.1.08
The Awful German Language, or, "Deutsche Sprache, Schwere Sprache"
In a previous post, I discussed the aspects of German that make it easier to learn, especially for native English speakers. In this post, to the delight of German teachers everywhere, I will talk about the most difficult aspects of the German language. Hopefully I won't scare everyone away from learning German, because it really is worth it.
Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache is a saying in broken German ("German language, hard language") used ironically when difficulties with German come up in a conversation.
So, here's what makes German a difficult language:
1.Gender
In German, each noun has a gender. A word can be masculine, feminine, or neuter. That means that instead of just using "the" for every word, you have three different possibilities if you want to say "The ______ is big." Masculine words use der, feminine words use die (pronounced dee), and neuter words use das.
2. Cases
There are four different cases in German, which indicate the role a word plays in the sentence. You can usually tell which case a word is in based on the article(a word like "the" or "a") in front of the word. That means that there are four ways to say "the" in front of a masculine word, 3 in front of a feminine word, 3 in front of a neutral word, and 3 in front of a word in the plural form.
That means, for the masculine word "man", you would say "the" four different ways, depending on the role of the word in the sentence.
Der Mann ist groß.
The man (subject) is tall.
Ich mag den Mann.
I like the man (direct object).
Ich gebe dem Mann eine Blume.
I give the man (indirect object) a flower.
Die Frau des Mannes ist nett.
The wife of the man ("of" relationship) is nice.
Changing the article (the word "the" in this case) according to the case is called declining a word. In Mark Twain's famous book "The Awful German Language", he says "I would rather decline two German beers than one German noun."
The gender and case working together result in a sometimes very difficult process of trying to decide how to say a word as simple as "the".
Sometimes I'm just a little confused.
3. Adjective endings
Depending on the aformentioned gender and case of a word, along with the article, you have to change the way you end the adjective. Examples using the German word gut, which means "good":
Der gute Mann or den guten Mann
Ein guter Mann or einen guten Mann
4. Plurals
The German words in plural form are much more irregular than the English. You can't just stick an 's' onto the end of a word to make it plural. There's somewhere around 12 different categories of plural words, plus exceptions.
Der Zug and die Züge (the train and the trains)
Die Zeitschrift and die Zeitschriften (the magazine and the magazines)
Der Spieler and die Spieler ( the player and the players)
All of that adds up to many small mistakes for those learning German, but they can get by anyway. A mistake in the adjective ending or using the wrong gender doesn't mean people don't understand what you say, it just means you make mistakes and you always talk a little funny.
Another effect of the complexity of the language is, in my opinion, a larger barrier between classes in German society. Often the people with a lower level of education will simply leave out the word "the" for whatever reason. Maybe it's because they don't feel like declining it, maybe it's because that's the way they always hear it in their group of friends. In any case, it results in very interesting sentences like "Come train station" or "I drive car to airport", which, quite frankly, sound a little bit neanderthal.
Does anyone else notice effects of the complexity of the German language on German society?
For all of you people out there learning German, what do you find is the hardest part about the language?
Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache is a saying in broken German ("German language, hard language") used ironically when difficulties with German come up in a conversation.
So, here's what makes German a difficult language:
1.Gender
In German, each noun has a gender. A word can be masculine, feminine, or neuter. That means that instead of just using "the" for every word, you have three different possibilities if you want to say "The ______ is big." Masculine words use der, feminine words use die (pronounced dee), and neuter words use das.
2. Cases
There are four different cases in German, which indicate the role a word plays in the sentence. You can usually tell which case a word is in based on the article(a word like "the" or "a") in front of the word. That means that there are four ways to say "the" in front of a masculine word, 3 in front of a feminine word, 3 in front of a neutral word, and 3 in front of a word in the plural form.
That means, for the masculine word "man", you would say "the" four different ways, depending on the role of the word in the sentence.
Der Mann ist groß.
The man (subject) is tall.
Ich mag den Mann.
I like the man (direct object).
Ich gebe dem Mann eine Blume.
I give the man (indirect object) a flower.
Die Frau des Mannes ist nett.
The wife of the man ("of" relationship) is nice.
Changing the article (the word "the" in this case) according to the case is called declining a word. In Mark Twain's famous book "The Awful German Language", he says "I would rather decline two German beers than one German noun."
The gender and case working together result in a sometimes very difficult process of trying to decide how to say a word as simple as "the".
Sometimes I'm just a little confused.
3. Adjective endings
Depending on the aformentioned gender and case of a word, along with the article, you have to change the way you end the adjective. Examples using the German word gut, which means "good":
Der gute Mann or den guten Mann
Ein guter Mann or einen guten Mann
4. Plurals
The German words in plural form are much more irregular than the English. You can't just stick an 's' onto the end of a word to make it plural. There's somewhere around 12 different categories of plural words, plus exceptions.
Der Zug and die Züge (the train and the trains)
Die Zeitschrift and die Zeitschriften (the magazine and the magazines)
Der Spieler and die Spieler ( the player and the players)
All of that adds up to many small mistakes for those learning German, but they can get by anyway. A mistake in the adjective ending or using the wrong gender doesn't mean people don't understand what you say, it just means you make mistakes and you always talk a little funny.
Another effect of the complexity of the language is, in my opinion, a larger barrier between classes in German society. Often the people with a lower level of education will simply leave out the word "the" for whatever reason. Maybe it's because they don't feel like declining it, maybe it's because that's the way they always hear it in their group of friends. In any case, it results in very interesting sentences like "Come train station" or "I drive car to airport", which, quite frankly, sound a little bit neanderthal.
Does anyone else notice effects of the complexity of the German language on German society?
For all of you people out there learning German, what do you find is the hardest part about the language?
8.12.07
German is Easy
"German is easy." Definitely a bold statement. I don't think it's true, but there are definitely some elements of the language that make it easy for English learners:
1. Spelling
Spelling in German is straightforward. No student of German has ever had to learn a rule like "i before e except after c and in words that rhyme with..."
2. Pronunciation
I find pronunciation in German much easier than in English. Read a word just like it's written and you'll pronounce it correctly almost all of the time. The main exception to this is found in French words that have been imported into German, like Portemonnaie, a kind of wallet, or Kampagne, a campaign.
3. Vocabulary words
If you can speak English, you already know a bunch of very impressive-sounding German words.
Take any abstract term, scientific term, or political philosophy, spell it just a little bit differently, pronounce it differently, and you've got a German word, and you'll sound highly educated.
the agitation = die Agitation ah-gee-tah-zee-ohn (used mainly in a political sense)
the inflation = die Inflation in-flah-zee-ohn
anti-Americanism = Antiamerikanismus an-tee-ah-mehr-ee-kahn-ihs-moos
4. English is a Germanic language
English is very closely related to German. In addition to the above vocabulary words that have been brought back over to German, there are many similar words that stem from the common ancestor of the two languages. "Tür" and "door" and "Grab" and "grave" are just a couple of examples.
For you polyglots out there, what do you think? What makes German easy for English speakers? What makes German difficult for English speakers?
Stay tuned for the coming post "German is Hard, or "deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache".
1. Spelling
Spelling in German is straightforward. No student of German has ever had to learn a rule like "i before e except after c and in words that rhyme with..."
2. Pronunciation
I find pronunciation in German much easier than in English. Read a word just like it's written and you'll pronounce it correctly almost all of the time. The main exception to this is found in French words that have been imported into German, like Portemonnaie, a kind of wallet, or Kampagne, a campaign.
3. Vocabulary words
If you can speak English, you already know a bunch of very impressive-sounding German words.
Take any abstract term, scientific term, or political philosophy, spell it just a little bit differently, pronounce it differently, and you've got a German word, and you'll sound highly educated.
the agitation = die Agitation ah-gee-tah-zee-ohn (used mainly in a political sense)
the inflation = die Inflation in-flah-zee-ohn
anti-Americanism = Antiamerikanismus an-tee-ah-mehr-ee-kahn-ihs-moos
4. English is a Germanic language
English is very closely related to German. In addition to the above vocabulary words that have been brought back over to German, there are many similar words that stem from the common ancestor of the two languages. "Tür" and "door" and "Grab" and "grave" are just a couple of examples.
For you polyglots out there, what do you think? What makes German easy for English speakers? What makes German difficult for English speakers?
Stay tuned for the coming post "German is Hard, or "deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache".
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