Understanding fast spoken German

The YouTube algorithm threw up this video which I thought was quite helpful:

7 Tips to Better Understand Fast Spoken German | Super Easy German 238

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOAg4xyScmI&ab_channel=EasyGerman

It explains a lot of the contractions that Germans often use when speaking.

HI Simon

Thanks will look into it. I like the Easy German on YouTube. Watched a lot before we left for Germany. I found that once people realized I was learning they would automatically slow down. Watching movies and recipes in Germany I miss a lot, but eventually do get it. We got rid of our Nettflix and I do miss the access to a lot of the foreign films. I don't like watching stuff that has voice over, but always prefer watching something in the original language, even if it is Russian or something I don't speak at all. : )

Sharon

Hallo zusammen, 

Vor hundert Yahre, meine erste deutsche Lehrin (Frau Uzandizaga)  kommt aus Deutschland.

Viele Mal sie erzahlt das wann sie Englisch lernen, sie ist im England gereist.  Sie hat viel mal ins KIno gegangen.  Sie hat fuer viele Stunden English Filme ins Kino gesieht.  Nach Wochen oder Monaten sie koente English in die Filme verstehen. Sie hat meine klasse deutsche Filme sehen emphalen.

O.K!  I promise not to drink a couple of glasses 0f California chardonay before attempting to write in German!  If any soul is really interested, I will send my original thoughts in English.

I am intrigued that when I attempt to speak German, Spanish, French, etc., I am flustered with idioms that seemingly must be brutally memorized.  Then I get a moment of clarity and realize that in English, we use lots of contractions and probably untranslatable jargon to the English as a second language student.  I thank God that I don't have to learn English as a foreign speaker!  I am still researching English grammar and feel that I will never be in complete confidence when speaking or writing.

60 Years ago one german  would say, “Guten Tag! Her/Frau_____”, to their neighbor and the neighbor would say, “Guteh Tag Herr/Frau_______” in return.  According yo Rocket German, the response today would be simply, “Tag".  This is really what we would say in converational English.

I am just obeserving.  I am intrigued by the world and its languages are morphing!

Bis nachste Mal,

Elko Ed

HI again,

In my few travels to germany, I found that if I studied a german grammar book in a public place such as a gasthaus, nobody refused me when I asked a total stranger, “Entschuldigung, koenen Sie mir erklaren die entscheidung zwische der Taffel und die Tisch?”  I was never refused!

Das Ende!

Elko Ed

Hi Maxie and Ed

Well done Ed for writing some German I could understand it perfectly. Your teacher must have had pretty good English to start with if they could understand English movies after only a few hours. I have watched a lot of German TV shows and although I can get the plot, I miss a lot of it. I find the Easy German video very helpful for that.
 

Here in the UK we can watch a lot of German TV shows on the public networks, I am not sure if that is the same outside Europe, but a VPN can fix that. A lot of the shows have German subtitles, but of course none have English subtitles.

Yes, English is stuffed full of contractions, slang and weird expressions which must be hard to learn, but to me the real challenge is English spelling which is completely mad. I think a lot of it was phonetic a long time ago and got stuck. I believe the Germans regularized their spelling in the 1920s, I don’t suppose we will ever do the same.

Simon

Hallo!

Thanks for sharing the video Simon, there are some very helpful tips and explanations in there! German words, and sentences for that matter, can get very long sometimes so Germans tend to shorten words to get the meaning across quickly. Having a solid foundation of the basics but also knowing that these contractions exist will help to understand native speakers better. 

Also thank you for sharing your story Ed! Writing all this is not easy and you did well!

As for watching German movies and TV shows, a few public broadcasters offer media libraries that can be watched online so that might be worth checking out :)

Viele Grüße, 

Julia

Hallo Simon,

I want to clarify about my first german teacher at university:

She was a native born german.

She travelled to London, UK for an undetermined length of time.  I suspect something more than a month.

While she studied English in Germany in publis schools probably for possibly 10-12 years, she had great difficulty with auditory comprehension.   (This is close and near my heart!) She spent many hours in movie houses apparently for hours everyday for weeks or months.  She reported that after significant hours, eventually, she was understanding spoken english!

On a historical note:  This story occurred in the early 1960's.  It is hard to believe that at that time there were no computers, no cable television, there were only text books and auditory tapes in the seldom used “language labs”.

While our efforts to learn a new language today are not easy,  we certainly have a lot more learning aids than 60 years ago.  If you will excuse me, I need to listen to Rocket German on my android phone.  I forgot, there were no cellular phones in the 1960's!

Lasset uns, alle, viel spass haben waehrend Deutsche Lernung! (I guessed wildly. I wanted to write  german learning.)

Elko Ed

Hi Ed

Thanks for the explanation, I was rather jealous of your teacher, but if she 10 years of leaning English when she was young, she would already have had a pretty solid knowledge of English when she was watching movies. 

I got Rocket German about 6 years ago and have been studying casually on and off since. After going through the course I used Deutsche Welle quite a bit and YouTube videos. Lately, most of my German time has been watching German shows on Nettlix, zdf.de and ardmediathek.de (the public TV channels). Most of the old shows are open access for the UK.

I am gradually getting better, but it is slow going as I am past retirement age and my memory is not as good as it was. But I am getting much better at hearing the words even if I don’t always know what they mean. My main interest is in being able to speak and understand spoken German rather than worrying too much about writing correct German.

Good luck with your learning, It sounds as though you already know quite a bit of German.

HI Simon and Ed. 

I think we have so many more resources now, but I think that can lead to confusion too. I find I use several resources every week, as each one brings something else to the table. I know a lot of people knock Duolingo, but it is a great resource for reinforcement and revision. 

Rocket I find amazing for speaking and listening, but the grammar bits frustrate me. 

In the mid 60's my family decided to learn French. We had long playing records and the 4 of us would sit and listen to them. Was a lot of fun. My parents lost interest and so we didn't get very far. In South Africa European languages were not introduced until secondary school. We did Afrikaans as a second language and if you failed it you failed your year. Many students really struggled to pass it in secondary school. I was fortunate as was sent to an Afrikaans elementary school, so sailed through. Afrikaans has helped my Germany, as many similarities.

Happy

learning

Maxie