Hallo Leute!

lately in our course we have been working a lot with family tree and learning new words to describe whats going on in our families. So….

Das ist mein Stammbaum.

Meine Großeltern väterlicherseits leben in der Stadt Chico in California. Ein mal in der Wohe, gehen meine Großeltern tanzen. Es ist gut für ihre Gesundheit und ist auch sehr lustig.

Meine Großeltern mütterlicherseits: Mamas Eltern heißen Allen und Beverly. Sie sind in den 50er Jahren nach Nevada ausgewandert. Mein Großvater hatte einen tollen Job bei Audi. Meine Großmutter war Hausfrau. Ihr Sohn, Onkel Jeff, ist Professor. Er  arbeitet in einer Universität. Ihre Tochter, also meine Mutter, hat in Reno an der Uni Jura studiert. Dort hat sie auch meinen Vater kennengelernt. Sie sind beide Polizeiassistenten.

Oft verbringen wir unseren Urlaub bei meinen Großeltern in Kalifornien, USA. Wenn wir alle zusammen sind, lachen und reden wir bis tief in die Nacht. Ich ben sehr stolz auf mine Familie.

So i feel like my writing has seriusly improved already from the last DE course i took. It really des take practice and patience to learn a new language. i hope that i can keep motivated & not take myself too seriously.

Hier ist etwas neues Vokabular ich habe gelearnt….

Das Dachgeschoss = roof … funny because i knew Erdgeschoss (ground floor) probably because it’s way more commonly used compared to roof.

der Rauchfang = chimney. this i would never have looked up on my own. i ,ean about how many times you say „chimney“ in a day?

as a little side note… there is a slight difference in vocabulary between german speaking german people and german speaking austrian people. its great that my teacher Anna points out two different ways to say something. Important because we are not living in Germany!

der Spiegel = mirror … useful for women 😉

die Schublade = drawer

one this i have done to help my vocal along is make small sticky notes around my house that says the german name for whatever it is.

im not sure exactly how helpful this is for everyone. but it helps me. and as long as the people/ person you live with doesn’t mind.

der Witz = joke

einfach = easy, simple, single

klappen, hat geklappt = fold

„das sieht gut aus“ = that looks good

die Beratung = advice

außerdem = as well as

erlben, hat erlebt = experience

in class we are working a lot with dativ, akkusative and nomiative cases. we are not yet allowed to work on genetive case. i mean, the instructor told us that we shouldn’t concern ourselves with that tense because we are not profiient enough to use it properly.

 

 

 

one of the best parts about living in vienna, is there is so much going on! I went online and found a group called ‚coffeehouse conversations‘ meeting at the end of October. Apparently you can expect a coffee house full of english speaking local viennes people who are wanting to chat with us tourists/ non-locals! 🙂 for two hours you can sit just the 2 of you, or in a small group and talk about whatever interests you have! so i registered… because i would love to sit down & chat with a friendly local. 

there is literally so much to do and see in this city. here’s a place i look around for things to do or events to attend 

Heute, in unser Kurs wir hatten beginen mit Partnerarbeit… ich muss fragt zu meine collegen „Was machst du am Wochenende“? und „Worauf freust du dich“? Sie hat gesagt, „ich gehe zum fahreschule“… und das freust sie viel sie konnen fahren learnen.

und dann wir sprechen von gerstern…

Was hast du gemacht? Gestern bin ich geschwommen. Ja, Wow. Hast du einen Badeanzug gekauft? Ja, ich habe einen gekauft.

Zum Beispiel:

Warst du gestern im Kino? Ja, ich bin gestern ins Kino gegangen. Welchen Film hast du gesehen? Ich habe Titanic gesehen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Night course begins at 6:15pm, we take a break from 7:45-8 and finish the lesson at 9pm. I don’t mind taking the night course. I think I would prefer mid-day or morning better. But after the first week actually I realized that i can get so much accomplished in the day & i normally don’t get too much done between 6-9pm anyway… so actually this time has been working well with my normal schedule! perfekt 🙂

I’ve had three different teachers though out my time at DA. It’s great to see the variety of instructors the program offers. Each teacher has their own personal style. For example, I’ve noticed that Anna prefers to do handout work more then line for line in the book.

Here is what we are working on….

Possesiveartikel:

Ich heiße Nicole und bin 27 Jahre alt. Ich bin verheiratet. Mein Mann heißt Niko. Unser Haus steht in Vienna. Meine Mutter wohnt bei uns. Meine Familie ist ziemlich groß. Ich habe einen Bruder. Er lebt mit seine Frau Heather in Nevada, USA. Sie haben einen kleinen Sohn. Seine Sohn ist zwei Jahre alt. Meine Schwester Jacqueline ist 25 Jahre alt. Sie ist wunderschön, ihre Haare sind lange und rot.

Liebe Grüße,
Nicole

Hey everyone!

I’m really excited to be taking the Deutschkurs A2.1 with Anna this October! She seems to be a great teacher and I’m looking forward to working with her & my new classmates for the next four weeks 🙂

I’m using this blog to improve my German writing skills as well as tell you about what’s going on in my normal days at school or around Vienna. So I apologize in advanced about the mistakes i will most likely be making when I write in German. But as the weeks go on, I hope that I make fewer mistakes and become more comfortable writing.

Here’s my first story…..

Hallo! Ich bin Nicole und ich erzaehle euch von meinem Alltag. Normalerweise, ich stehe jegen Tag um acht Urh auf. Ich laufe immer am Vormittag funf kilometer. Ich bin sportlich und ich habe Spass dabei. Nacht dem Laufen, fahre ich zur Schule. Ich fahre mit dem Strassenbahn. Ich moechte in meiner Pause, einen Kaffee trinken. Nachdem Schule, spaziere ich mit meinem Freude und wir zusammen Abendessen kochen. Manchmal ich frage meine Freunde, ob wir Mittagessen gehen. Niko fragt mich, do wir zusammen am Abend essen. Spaeter, wir bleiben zu Hause und sehen ein Film. Dann gehe ich ins Bett und lese ein Buch.

This will be my final DA blog for the 2015 summer. it was really wonderful to document my process and to be able to reflect on the course. I know the course has worked wonders for me because I keep getting compliments for my friends that my German has improved so much. some people can’t believe it was only a four week course, and but I guess when you take the intensive class it really makes a difference. My goal for the future is to keep working on my German language every day… with friends or even writing people online. I think it’s so important to practice practice practice what you learn otherwise you might forget or just become rusty. The end of class couldn’t have come at a better time though, my mom is coming in today to visit me from the US. I can’t wait to show her around this new city I’ve grown to love, and maybe even impress her with my new language skills? ciao and wish you all the best ❤️❤️❤️

it’s so sad class is almost coming to an end. It’s our last week of school and I can’t believe it’s almost over. I feel like I really bonded with my classmates and I’ll be sad to not see them every day. It really became a routine for me, every day between 1145 and 245. DA gives you the option to pre-sign up for the next level, like you’re getting a foot in the door instead of signing up brand-new each course. Because apparently there’s a waiting list or the classes fill up so quickly that it’s important you get your name in soon. so if i were you… I would look on the DA website and see when the course begins, and plan to sign up maybe as far as two weeks in advance. and I guess some levels are more popular than others, for instance my A1.2 I think it’s always full. unfortunately in my case, I’m traveling back to the US and will not be continuing courses. Although the time I had here was special, and I must return home. for sure next time I’m in the vienna for a longer time, I’ll sign up for another course at DA.

Our course has been shared between two instructors. Jacob and Gabor are taking turns teaching classes and kind of filling in for each other. We had Jacob for mostly the first two weeks and Gabor the second two weeks. At first it threw me off a little bit to have a different instructor, but then I realized it’s actually great to have two different minds to learn from. Jacob is originally from Austria and Gabor I think is from somewhere else because he had a little different accident. And speaking of accents, it’s also great to hear people not from Austria or Germany speaking German because you can hear different pronunciations styles. Like, for example, what it sounds like for a Spanish person to speak German, or someone from Bangladesh to speak German. I feel lucky in a way that English is my first, mother tongue… Because there are a lot of similar words between English and German. I think the list is almost 155 or more words that are pronounced exactly the same. so for me I feel a little ahead of the game sometimes, just because my language has a dramatic route. so I’m learning German in Vienna, I might end up with a Viennese accent ???  and just as a side note…. when you visit vienna you must  eat Tichy ice cream!

Took another weekend trip to Salzburg! It’s so nice getting way from the city and enjoying the countryside, when you can. This time we traveled to some friends of friends in Elsbethen, Salzburg. we met everyone at the top of the mountain and had a really wonderful traditional austrian dinner. It was basically like mac & cheese but way better. They serve it fondue style so that everyone shares from the same pan. It’s a really heavy meal but seriously tasty. I totally recommend anyone traveling to Austria should try this dish. Unfortunately I totally forgot the name, I hope you can forgive me, but I’ll post some good photos so that maybe you can find it while you’re here. Because the meal is so heavy they usually serve schnapps when you’re done eating. It really helps to digest the ch eese and bread-ish type food. There’s something special about being on top of the mountain, with good friends, Maybe a glass of wine and good food. and especially important to sit outside during the summer, it’s not often that you can sit outside in Austria… so when you can you should. here’s some photos of my friends and dinner that night.

Here’s a general overview of the course book that we are using. Each chapter has about 12 to 15 new words that you learn, having to do with the specific theme. The beginning of the book starts with location, for instance, ‚in front of‘ ‚behind‘ ‚on top‘ ‚under‘, which is good for directions. You learn some useful things like „can you please help me find…..“. I mean the book knows that were foreigners here in Vienna so it’s useful & practical information. In the beginning of the chapter you learn the vocab… and then usually follows a listening exercise… next comes more intense grammar exercises. And then you can switch books and in the workbook there are more exercises and lastly a test at the end. my level is a 1.2 and the entire two books are in German. Including the instructions. I actually found that the hardest part of starting the course was learning what was asked of you. I mean, you can’t do the exercise right unless you know what they’re asking for. But once I was comfortable with the instructions vocabulary, I found a sort of working flow between the two books. My favorite part of class though was when we read out loud, I feel like I can really work on my pronunciation.

Like I wrote before, one of the beauties about living in Vienna is how close you really are to everywhere else in the world. I traveled with my boyfriend this weekend to Russia! Kazan was hosti ng the world championships for all water sports. For example…. swimming, water polo, diving and the newest sport is high diving. High diving is from 27 m for men and 20 m for women. it’s amazing to watch these incredible athletes dive from such a height. I was lucky enough to be a guest during the competition and I was able to watch all of the events. It was easy for us to travel there… it was only two x two hour flights. Not bad at all I think for being in a completely different place. It was my first time to rush and I thought it was the coolest experience. The people were so friendly and the organizers for the event provided everything we could’ve asked for and more. I think that if I was still living in the US I wouldn’t have the chance to visit Russia like I did. at least I would’ve been a lot more jetlagged ?. here are some cool photos from the trip…..