To Ma'am Jeanne Arroyo.

To Ma'am Jeanne Arroyo,

Ang masasabi ko lang po ay G-E-R-M-A-N.

Salamat po sa:

German. Siyempre po, 'yan ang pinakagoal ko sa subject na'to. Ang matutunan ang mga basics ng German language. Sa isang semester po na pagtuturo niyo ng Deutsch, no wonder sobrang dami ko na pong natutunan although my blue book exercises does not seem not reflect that, but I'm assuring you that you did a good job teaching us. :)

At saka po gusto kong ibigay ang aking sincerest

Entschuldigung. Pasensya na po sa mga mediocre results ng mga blue book exercises ko. At saka for committing one absence. At sa madalas na matagal na pause 'pag tinatanong niyo ako ng oral questions. :)

And I'm more than happy na kayo ang naenlist ko, since

Rar ang ang mga katulad niyong profs. You make learning German-a hard language-easy for us. Walang masyadong pressure pero madaming matutunan. :)

At bago po tayo maghiwa-hiwalay, ang masasabi ko lang po

Machen Sie es gut! Para po madami pa kayo maturuan ng German. :) Kung hindi po ako nagkakamali, Take Care ang ibig sabihin niyan hehe.

Salamat din po pala sa lahat ng home

Arbeit. Dahil po sa mga home tasks eh napapractice ko 'yung language kahit wala ako sa school. At ska po it keeps me busy, as a freshman kasi, 'di maxado haggard, mabilis ako ma-bore. :)

Lastly, tinanggal niyo po ang aking
Neugier sa German language. Dati po talga, gusto ko magkaroon ng kaalaman about German kasi nga po, as I said in my post last year, dream ko po makapunta ng Luxembourg, eh ang German po ang isa sa mga major languages nila.

Thanks po sa lahat! Auf Wiedersehen!

P.S. Ipagpaumanhin niyo na po ang mga words na pinagsiksikan ko para maging start of the sentence lang. haha. bye po Ma'am!

Pinoy-German Exchange

Had this conversation in Pinoy exchange.


Too bad I won't be able to use it anymore as my German-language-learning journey will end next week. :(

Purrrfect

Haha. Yes, I perfected this German verb game ---> http://www.digitaldialects.com/German/Verbsinfinitive.htm


Examples:

Before Ending German.

It has been almost five months since I started learning German and it's amazing how my "Mein Name ist Jordan" turned into "Mein Name ist Jordan. Ich bin siebzehn Jahre alt. Ich bin ein freshman. Ich bin ein studierte BS Communication Research..."

One more chapter and this language class will end. It's time for me to evaluate myself whether I'm doing good in class.

INTRODUCING MYSELF (ÜBER MICH). This should be basic for someone who already spent months learning a language. As far as my name, age, where I come from, where I live, what I do, is concerned, I'm good to go.

GREETINGS (GLÜCKWÜNSCHE). Yes, I already know a lot of greetings, from different times of the day to holidays.

CONVERSATION (GESPRäCH). In our past activity which required us to converse with a partner, I think I did okay. I was able to interact with my partner and was able to answer all his questions using pure Deutsch. However, I know I still need a lot of improvement as I had some pauses and few grammatical mistakes.

ALPHABET (ALPHABET). Spell EASY.

USE OF VERBS (VERWENDUNG VON VERBEN). I know this lesson is quite easy, but I am still confused sometimes when using verbs. I still need to think of the imaginary table (of verbs) before I can be assured if the verb I'm using is the right one.

NUMBERS AND COUNTING (ZAHLEN UND ZäHLEN). I know I alreasy mastered eins (1) to einhundert (100). Haha. I also learned the mathematical operations.

CAFE (CAFE). I already know how to order drinks in a cafe, how to call the waiter if I want to pay already, how to ask for the price of the things I bought, how to read amounts of money, how to ask for the toilet, and many more.

EXPRESSIONS (AUSDRÜCKEN). I am already familiar of expressions over there like our version of buti nga sa'yo!, theirs is Vorsicht!. Our Ikaw na! is Besserwisser! over there.

GENDER OF NOUNS (GESCHLECHT VON NOMEN). :( I'm not good at this. I had a hard time memorizing or familiarizing myself with the gender of nouns in German. My expertise is when nouns are pluralized because I am only to use one artcle, and that's die! :)

DIRECTIONS (RICHTUNG). Passable. I know the directions' translation to English but I'm confused when to use some of them. It's because I was dreizig (30) minutes late when we were discussing this one.

W-FRAGE, AUSSAGESATZ, SATZFRAGE. I was absent when this lesson was discussed that's why I had a hard time answering Nummer sieben (7) and acht (8) of Seite vierundfünfsig (54) und fünfundfünfzig.

That's it, I think I'm doing okay but I know I can still improve. Especially with the use gender of nouns, and positioning of verbs, I know I'll be able to master it over time but for now, I will first focus on our current lessons and I'll just get back to them afterwards.

Freitag. Samstag. Sonntag.

Freitag, war ich in Timog, Quezon City. Ich besuchte Foreplay, organisieut von meiner Organisation University of the Philippines Mass Communicators Organization. Ich ging nach Hause 2:00 AM von Samstag. Es war meine erste Party in meinem college leben.

Samstag, ich kam home spät. Ich habe meine "brunch" (Frühstück plus Mittagessen). Ich sah den Fernseher.Ging ich zur Kirche.

Sonntag, Zeit für Studium und Tun hausaufgaben. Ich habe keine Zeit für Computer und Fernseher.

Tour in Deutschland

Der Stephansdom ist im Wien. Wien ist in südostlich von Deutschland. Das ist im nordostlich von Graz.
Die Semperoper ist im Dresden. Dresden ist im Osten von Deutschland. Das ist im ostlich von Leipzig.
Der Maintower ist im Frankfurt. Frankfurt ist in der mitte von Deutschland. Das ist im Süden von Hannover und Norden von Stuggart.
Der Zytgloggeturm ist im Bern. Bern ist in südwestlich von Deutschland. Das ist im südwestlich von Zürich.
Das Schloss Sanssouci ist im Postdam. Postdam ist im nordostlich von Deutschland. Das ist im ostlich von Hannover und sudlich von Stralsund.

Ely Buendia

Eleandre Basiño Buendia (geb. 1970) - seine Freunde sagen Ely - kommt aus Naga City, Philippines. Er ist ein philippinischer Musiker. Er singt fur Eraserheads. Er spielt Gitarre. Er studierte in University of the Philippines. Ely Buendia ist verheiratet mit Diane Ventura, Eraserhead's Aufseher. Er hat einen Sohn, Eon, sechs Jahre alt. Er komponierte Songs wie 'Pare Ko', 'Magasin', und 'Huling El Bimbo'. Er spielte in Film 'Run, Barbi, Run.

German a la Cartoon

As I was surfing the library last month for a novel that I could read, I stumbled upon this book. German ala Cartoon: 101 hilarious cartoons for understanding German language and culture, by Dr. Albert H. Small. I was immediately drawn to the book because of its cover. When I read the introduction, I became more interested in reading it. I was about to borrow the book, when I decided to scan it.

The first part of the book is good. It introduced the learning language. And I learned something new. That some German words have families. For example, we will represent hospital in German as X. Using the German language, hospital bill will become XY, in which Y are added letters. What I’m trying to say is you just have to add some letters in some German words when the basic word is related to your new word. In English, hospital bill is a compound noun, but in German, it will become a single word.

(Note: I used variables because I forgot to list down and I forgot the examples of the book ; I just used hospital and hospital bill as examples, I don’t know if the ‘family rule’ is applicable to those two terms. )

Also in the introduction, it states that I will learn the language with fun, which I expected because of the illustrations.

When I finally reached the comic section, I was disappointed. I thought “how could I learn the language if the topics are random?”

At one page, you have the illustration.


And at the bottom of the page, you have the translation:


So far, so good.



But then, on the next page, you have an entirely different illustration, meaning an entirely different topic.

It’s like random cartoons are put in one book and translations are added. How could you learn if each page is disconnected from the next. It’s like the book wants to tell you to memorize each German word and their translation. Nowhere in the book would you find how to order the words in a sentence, or in what context you use a certain word. For me, the book is interesting; however, I don’t find it effective for students like me who are just starting to learn the German language. I found the comics humorous, though. :)

In th end, I found myself putting the book back to the shelf, but for those of you who might be interested in borrowing the book, go to the University of the Philippines - College of Arts and Letters Library. Here's the call number:


Tschus!

VAK

Since I don't know exactly what kind of learning style fits me best (I'm confused whether I'm a visual or an auditory learner), I first answered a VAK (visual-auditory-kinesthetic) questionnaire. Here's the link: http://www.businessballs.com/vaklearningstylestest.htm.

I found out I am no way near being an auditory learner, I'm an almost-pure visual person. Out of 30 items, 23 of which are in visual, 5 in auditory, and 2 in kinesthetics.

Anyway, as I found out earlier in our German class that nouns in the German language have gender (WHAT?!), we were advised to strategize on how we could remember the gender of those nouns. I'm thinking the gender must be based on how hard/soft the object is, or how frequent men/women use it, BUT, the hard part is, there's no fixed rule about it. For those just starting to learn the language, you just have to find a way to memorize the word together WITH the articles (articles used in German vary according to gender).

Whenever I memorize words of small number, I just memorize the initials of each word and make a word or a phrase out of it. However, this will not work in language learning. As for my strategy, I force a word to be feminine/neutral/masculine to whatever category it belongs. For example, Job, it's masculine for me 'cos more men are expected to have jobs. Another, Lowe, it's masculine 'cos lions are agressive. So yah, that's my strategy.

Hallo!

Hallo! It’s been three months since I started creating my blog of me learning the German language, and I still haven’t introduced myself in Deutsch. So, here it is.

Guten Tag! Mein name ist Jordan Charles De Guzman. Ich komme aus den Philippinen. Ich wohne in Binangonan, Rizal. Ich bin siebzehn Jahre alt. Ich bin ein freshman. Ich bin ein studierte BS Communication Research.

Das ist es. Gute Nacht!

Joyeux Noel's Beginner's Review

Joyeux Noel is a film by Christian Carion depicting true stories of German, French and Scottish soldiers during the Christmas of World War I. This war was set in France.

Joyeux Noel is a French phrase meaning Merry Christmas.

I never really liked movies about war, Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down for instance. Before watching the film, I had no clue that the movie is about the World War I. First, I don't know what Joyeux Noel means. And second, when I looked for an online translator, I found out it means Merry Christmas. SO there, I watched it and I expected I would be bored like when I was watching other war films.

I was confused at the beginning who the Germans and the French are. Thanks to their caps, I know who the Scottish soldiers are. Anyway, as I continued watching, I understood the movie more. However, when the couple (Sprink and Anna), were singing for the crown prince in private, I thought I was wrong again in distinguishing the Germans from the others. They were pronouncing 'r' very clearly. I thought Germans don't pronounce it markedly.

All in all, honestly, it's the best war film I've ever watched. It's profound and unexpectedly moving. And the film's not only all about war, it's about human goodwill that despite what they're fighting for (although in the film, some were merely forced to join the battalion), they still had the self-possession of laying down their arms. It is a true occurrence about an unbelievable time for peace in the utmost violence of war.

I recommend you all to watch this film. I'm telling you, this is a film of violence, with HEART. ♥

Klirrende Tower (Icy Tower), Graded

This is my grade for the previous post.

There are three words/phrases in each line, each seperated by a hypen (-).
First word: German word.
Second word: The correct translation of the German word.
Third word: My guess.

Before each German word, there's a symbol.
/ means I guessed the translation correctly.
X means I'm wrong.
.5 means partly correct.

/ Spielen - Play - New Game or Play
/ Rekorde - High Score - High Score
/ Einstellungen - Settings - Settings
/ Hilfe - Help - Help
/ Info - Information - Information

/ Einfacher, Schwerer Modus - Easy, Hard Mode - Time Trial/Adventure or Easy/Hard.
/ Zuruck - Back - Back

X Steuerung - Controls - Sound
.5 Music: Aus - Music:Off - Music (I didn't include Off that's why it's only .5)
X Spielstil - Game style - No answer
/ Figur - Character - Character
X Startebene - Start Floor - Start
/ Sprache - Language - Language
X Spiel zurucksetzen - Reset Game

/ Menuhilfe - Menu Help - Menu Help
X Spielhilfe - Game Help - No answer

/ Wilst du das Spiel wirklich beenden - Do you really want to exit the game - Quit

Out of 17 items, I only guessed 11.5 correctly. That's 67.65 %. Not bad! :)

Klirrende Tower (Icy Tower)

I just had a new game installed in my cellphone, Icy Tower. After opening the game, I was asked what language to use. Since I'm studying German, I chose Deutsch. Let's see if I can make my way through the actual game using Deutsch as the language.

After the language to use, I was confronted with six options.

Spielen, Rekorde, Einstellungen, Hilfe, Info, Beend.

I'll try to guess what each word means.

Spielen. I can't think of an English word close to this German word. But since it's the first option, I guessed it must be New Game or Play.
Rekorde. Close to Record. Maybe this is the record for high scores.
Einstellungen. If not for the small graphic beside the word, I would have not guessed its meaning. Settings.
Hilfe. Hilfe is Help.
Info. It's Information.

Then, I explored each option. After one option comes more sub-options.

Spielen.
Options:
Einfacher and Schwerer Modus. I can only guess Modus. It's Mode. I guessed it's either Time Trial/Adventure or Easy/Hard.
Zuruck. I already encountered this. It means back or return.

Rekorde.
Options:
Einfacher Modus, Schwerer Modus, Zuruck. I thought this is the high score record for the two modes.

Einstellungens.
Options:
Steuerung. Maybe sound, cos' it's close to Stereo. Haha
Music: Aus. I'm quite sure, no, I am very sure, this is for the music option.
Spielstil. Hmm. Can't guess.
Figur. Figur is close to figure. Maybe this is where you choose your character.
Startebene. There's the word start. Maybe start game, I doubt it, it should not be in the Settings section.
Sprache. Language for sure, I already encountered this somewhere, probably in my German class.
Spiel zurucksetzen. Too German. I can't guess.
Zuruck. Back/Return.

Hilfe.
Options:
Menuhilfe. Menu Help?
Spielhilfe. Spiel again, what does that mean.
Zuruck. Back.

Info.
Only information about the game, it uses English as the language.

Beend.
Wilst du das Spiel wirklich beenden? This is a question, and I can only answer Yes or No. Maybe it's quit.

There it is. I'll grade myself in my next post.

See my grade here.

What do you think of German?

Boredom struck so I decided to ask my Filipino friends and few strangers about the German language.

Here's what they have to say.

<i> Note: The surnames of the respondents were hidden to protect their privacy. :) </i>

I don't know why my friends think German is a masculine/heavy/commanding language. But I do agree that it's a sophisticated/complicated language. Haha, but I don't think it's weird. And they are all rooting for French, well guys, more people speak German, so get over French.

Thanks for the few answers, I was hoping for more response. Oh well, anyway, that Garamant.... guy has a point.

Comm 3 = German 10

I never thought I could use my little knowledge of German this early. Haha

Just yesterday, my Comm 3 professor asked us to do a presentation/skit about the models of communication.

My groupmates decided we do two scenarios; one portraying good communication, and the other, just bad communication. Unluckily, I was one of the chosen to act in the bad communication scene. The scene goes like this, two bastards bump into each other and start talking trash. They're from two different countries, so what added fuel to the fire is that they don't know each other. From bad, it became worse. Where's the use of German? You guessed it, I'm one of the bastards, and I'll be speaking German! :))

I Don't Want to be Stuck in Bilingualism

According to researches, 66% of people in the world is bilingual. That's a lot! Here in the Philippines, aside from our native language, many are able to speak in English. Fortunately, I was one of the few who are priviliged to learn another language aside from English. Thanks to my curriculum, I can study not only one, but two new languages.

This semester, I'm learning German. Well, there are a few things why I'm glad I have the chance to learn the language. If I pass this subject,

1. I will belong to the few who can speak three languages.

2. German is the mostly used language in Europe, that's why it would be easier for me to communicate there in case my feet brings me to Germany or Austria or Belgium or Romania or Switzerland.

3. It's exciting, I don't know why, maybe because since entering college, my German subject is the most different of all.

Yes, those are my reasons... for now.

Before entering my German 10 class, the only German word I know is Auf wiederschen, I don't even know if I spelled it right. Before the semester ends, I expect myself to master the basics of the German langauge and be able to converse using it.

Making Known

I've been wanting to take up a communication course since highschool, the times when I used to have very satisfactory grades in my English and Filipino classes. However, due to my wrong perception that communication courses are not as important as others (e.g. engineering, biology), I decided to take up civil engineering. The moment I scored high in my communication classes instead of acing my math majors is the time I realized that I should have taken the course which I really wanted, and not what is needed. After spending a year with numbers, I shifted to BA Communication Research.

My few months of stay in UP are not berries and chocolates.I remembered, first day of class, I refused to answer some of my professor's introductory questions, not because I don't know what to say, but for the wack reason that I'm not sure if my grammar is correct. I thought one mistake would humiliate me for the rest of the semester. It was repeated on the second day in my other class. Although it's not a big deal, I felt I did worse than having a grammar mistake. I'm a communication student! What was I thinking.

Yes, grammar is my biggest problem, for ages I have been dealing with it.

After that incident, I decided to read more books. I thought it's the easiest way of improving my grammar skills. Everytime I go to the mall, I make it a point to buy a new novel. That's how I work on my weaknesses, I find ways to lessen it and eventually, eliminate it.