Strong verbs, weak Ronni

[dolorosa_12]

I always leave my German class feeling completely demoralised. It's mainly my own fault - I don't put half the amount of effort into my German homework as I do into my translation classes (Middle Welsh, Middle Breton). But it's also partly because it's been so long since I've had to learn a non-Celtic language that I've forgotten how to do it. (The last time I learnt a non-Celtic language, it was Japanese, and I was 12-18.)

The other thing is that I learn by endless repetition. With my Celtic languages (Old and Middle Irish, Middle Welsh, medieval Cornish, Middle Breton, Modern Irish), tenses, moods, numbers, cases and genders, prepositions and conjunctions all stuck in my head eventually, after I'd seen them enough times. (The fact that the languages are related also helped; my knowledge of Welsh reinforced my knowledge of Breton and Cornish, and my knowledge of medieval Irish aided in learning Modern Irish.) Thus, I can recognise the more common verbs and nouns with ease, having simply seen them enough times. But in German we translate different texts every week, with a completely new set of verbs in each (because they're all on such disparate subjects).

I know I shouldn't really whine. Most of my problems are due to my own laziness, and if I were to sit down for two or three hours each week drilling verb tenses and noun cases it would eventually begin to sink in, but as it is, I leave each class feeling depressed, stupid and embarrassed.

Comments

[jademacgrath.livejournal.com]

As someone struggling with German grammar as well, I know how frustrating it can be. It's like no matter how many verbs and nouns you're learning, there always are hundreds more you don't know. Don't give up hope!

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Aww, thank you! Good luck with your studies too!

[verschreibsel.livejournal.com]

German is hard.

I'm struggling with Spanish. I should learn the verbs but I get so frustrated because it's a lot harder for me than English verbs and vocabulary :(

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear you're struggling with Spanish. I think adding a new language (one that is very different to the other languages you're used to) makes things more difficult. I'm in a weird situation because I've learnt lots of languages, but they're all dead medieval Celtic languages, and so I've sort of forgotten how to learn a (spoken, non-Celtic) language.