Short of being über awesome, what do you do? Well, considering I’ve studied German off and on since high school, I thought it time to get back into my tools to freshen up my speaking.
For starters, need to use this cue card to remember when to say “bitte”! Heh, that’s a joke. You throw it out about every 3-4 sentences, because it means EVERYTHING.
Anki
Spaced repetition takes a deck of cards, and as you answer each one, it polls you on whether you did/didn’t know it. Cards you knew are delayed as to when they show up again. Cards you didn’t are reviewed sooner.
There are all kinds of studies backing up the efficacy of such study techniques. In fact you can spend hundreds of dollars on language learning courses based on this. Or you can do what I did (cue dramatic music leading into next section.)
Duolingo
So I dug in!
It was nothing short of awesome. Each lesson is concentrated. I enjoyed how many verbs I could still conjugate even after being away from German for twenty years.
Then a major breakthrough – after learning of Anki, I discovered someone had built a deck out of DuoLingo and shared it with the community.
Slack + German
To wrap things up, I find myself roaming around doing chores or work, mumbling little phrases in German. I have written my high school German teacher. And I’ve heckled my teammates.
It’s going to be awesome!
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