Good info. Hmmm. I think I'll go with your sentence exactly. It all looks to be A1+ level to me, and if its more clear + natural to a native, then that's even better.
Alice:
Naja. 500€ ist zu teuer! “Wicked” kostet am Sonntag um 19 Uhr nur 150 €. Geht das?
Could you tell me what the English sentence/meaning was that you had in your mind and wanted to translate? If it’s something along the line of “I like going to the theater on weekends, despite Hamilton being too expensive!” then disregard everything below this point.
However, if your intention was something more like: “I’d like to go to the theater this weekend, but Hamilton is too expensive!”, let me know, then I have some additional thoughts on the sentence.
The second paragraph is indeed what I was aiming to say. However, the subjunctive mood ("I'd like to...") is seemingly above-and-beyond A1 or maybe even A2 level. I could of course study subjunctive mood and build such a sentence... but I'd be leaving the bounds of this exercise (A1+ level roleplay).
So my priority is to "Stay within A1, maybe A2-" (meaning not to use the subjunctive mood).
I guess that means I'm "forced" to accept the former (ie: first quoted paragraph) meaning as the true meaning. If only because of the skill-level issue. I'm having enough trouble with simple-past and indicitive as it is!
Hans:
Ich gehe gern in das Theater am Wochenende, obwohl Hamilton zu teuer ist! Hamilton kostet über 500€! Welche Theaterstücke sind billiger?
Further weaknesses identified:
Although I "know" A1 stuff such as every pronoun (nominative, genative, accusative, and dativ), I'm "slow" to come up with some of them. (ihr vs ihm vs ihn vs ihnen). I've decided that adding these as one-way Anki cards is my best chance to drill.
Although I can count to numbers up to 1-million in German, I'm also slow at it. So slow in fact, that reading the time (ex: 13:45) in a sentence interrupts me and forces me to start over. Its not sufficient to "merely" be able to read numbers, you must read them with such speed and accuracy that your thought process is not interrupted. Especially when working on harder grammar (ex: verb-last subordinate clauses, seperable verbs, dativ vs accusative details, etc. etc.).
The solution is just more Anki. Speaking practice identifies weaknesses, but its drills that can remove those weaknesses with more precision / speed than wholesale speaking practice.
EDIT: Speaking of Anki... with my focus on speed recently, I've pushed my average time from 11s per card down to 5s per card. It does require more focus though to go through the cards this quickly... but I'm better able to work with larger volumes of cards now.
A bit of a bumer note: the USA Snowstorm is forcing me and my teacher to meet over Zoom. It will be so much worse than usual, but better than nothing.
Alice:
Na ja. $500 ist zu teuer! "Wicked" ist nur $150 um 19 Uhr an Sonnetag. Das geht?
Ooophh. I think my A1 level vocabulary is hurting me here. I'm basically trying to have Alice ask for the 7pm show on Sunday, since Hamilton was rejected by Hans in the last sentence. Also yeah, these are the rough prices for Hamelton vs Wicked last time I checked NYC Broadway, the shows there can be stupidly expensive!
"Das geht" I've used in class as "that works for me". I'm hoping the question form ("Das geht?") is usable? I don't really know though. Formally it'd be "Geht es das?", but this is also a casual phrase that probably can't be manipulated by formal grammar. I'm searching for a simple phrase for "Does that work for you?" (or really, trying to give Hans the opportunity to respond with "Das geht" next sentence).
DeepL did recommend the verb "kostet" btw. "ist" is how the sentence was formed originally with my own level of German. It does seem to flow better to use the verb kostet.
Thanks!
So corrected:
Hans:
Ich gehe gern in das Theater im Wochenende, obwohl Hamilton zu teuer ist! Hamilton ist mehr als $500! Welche Theaterstück ist billiger?
I'm changing the name to Hans. Apparently I'm very bad at spelling in German.
Hans:
Ich gehe gern an das Theater im Wochenende, obwohl Hamilton zu tauer ist! Hamilton ist mehr als $500! Welche Theaterstück ist billiger?
Is the correct preposition "an (akk) das Theater" in this case? I feel like it is but I'm not 100% sure.
Obwohl looks like a subordinate clause so I'm using verb last form. I'm not very good with mehr vs sehr either so if someone could double check my sentence structure that be great!
EDIT: I might have to use the subjunctive mood for the above statement actually. But that's well above the A1 level I was hoping to keep this exercise to....
On the other hand, openly admitting to monetizing AI slop?
We don't need this here. Banned for 5 days.
Hmmm. Someone sent me a moderation request to look at this topic, claiming it's AI. I'm inclined to agree that it's AI... But....
I don't think there's a rule against AI articles, and I doubt that there's any good methodology to prove it one way or the other in an objective manner.
I'd say that the solution is for users who think it's AI should comment / post and say they think it's AI.
As such, I'm against the deletion of this topic (or otherwise hard moderation options available to me). Let's start with just pointing out publicly that this feels like AI here in the posts before we move to deletions, banning or other mod options.
Alice:
Hallo Hanz! Am Wochenende habe ich veile Freizeit. Magst du das Theater gehen? Ich will Hamelton sehen.
A few weeks of in person tutoring has shown me exactly what my weaknesses are and what I really have to work on. Alas, it feels like a step back rather than a step forward, but I know this is mostly a psychological issue.
Learning about weaknesses is more important. I'm probably making more real progress than my psychology believes.
I've explicitly enrolled for classes because I knew my speaking skills sucked. They still suck but now I know the problem. More importantly, I've learned the importance of trying to form sentences of my own accord.
To correct this issue, I've been advised to start talking to myself (!!!!) in German... and start trying to think in complete sentences, etc. etc. You cannot learn sentence construction and conjugation with paper work or exercises, you have to just make sentences over and over again.
A few weeks ago, this would have been impossible. I didn't know enough vocabulary to talk to myself. But now.... I can. With help from Wiktionary and other English-German dictionaries.
I shared some of the children songs with Learning German discord, and some B1-ish people were talking about how some of those songs felt challenging. So indeed, children songs can vary from A1 through B1, don't be discouraged by the kid nature, some truly are more advanced than they look.
I did accomplish a new feat this past week. Upon listening to 99 Luftballoons, I suddenly realized how none of the lyrics-rhymes work in English. Then I realized that I knew this because I'm actually beginning to learn the German lyrics (to the point where I can sing some of the simpler lyrics: like the 1st verse while it's still slow).
In particular was my sudden realization that it's neun-und-neun....zig Luftballoons. (She has a bit of a pause in German before saying -zig). Plus all the nearby words that rhyme with zig/sich/Ich/mich/dich/veillicht . This absolutely cannot and never will work in English, it's something that can only be appreciated in German.
So I did accomplish a new listening feat. It may have been an entire lifetime of listening to 99 Luftballoons, but now suddenly I'm truly beginning to understand it.
I'll probably spend the next month working on vocabulary so that I can truly learn 99 Luftballoons. (I finished the vocab practice with Lagtrain German cover by Jinja, but it's grammar is too difficult for me to comprehend even if I know the individual words).
Danke schön!
Ich weiße nicht wenn der Witz in das Deutsch machen. Aber versuche ich, weil ich musse üben aus.
So don't worry, I'm kind of throwing it out there and seeing if it sticks! If not, it's still good sentence practice for me.
Anki is an open-source flashcard app for Windows, Linux, Mac OSX with versions also available for Android and iOS. Unfortunately, iOS version costs $25, but all other versions are free.
Anki is a self-graded flashcard program / app. This makes it a combination quiz-app + timer system. Unlike Duolingo or other programs, Anki entirely relies upon self-grading, but this is more than sufficient for study.
Anki grabs the top cards from a deck (defaulting to 20 new cards per day. Feel free to customize this to whatever fits your needs best). Then each day, it grabs "scheduled review" cards + shuffles in the new cards, and shows you them one at a time. Once a card is shown to you, you the user click a button to reveal the other side.
After the flip, Anki asks you to self-grade yourself on your performance. "Again" means you grade yourself as "incorrect", and Anki will remember this mistake. Because you were "incorrect" on this card, Anki will show you the card again very soon.
If you choose one of the three "correct" scores (labeled "Hard", "Good" and "Easy"), Anki remembers that you've answered correctly, and will schedule the card some time in the future. I'll get to the difference of the three scores later, but consider all three to just be "correct" for now.
The precise time is calculated based on how well Anki thinks you know the card. If you know the card well, "Good" might schedule the card to be reviewed 1 month from now, but if you've made a lot of mistakes with a particular card, then that card will likely be reviewed 1 or 2 days from now. Its all data collected on a per-card basis.
Above is an example screenshot of Anki's memory: every single self-graded score is remembered on every single card, as well as the date and time of each score.
As such, Anki is a system of spaced repetition. The "better" you are with some cards, the less you see them. The "worse" you are with other cards, the more Anki shows you those particular cards you keep making mistakes with. Timer + self-grading == you only see the cards you're doing bad with, while Anki hides the cards you are doing good with.
FSRS is a new experimental algorithm Anki is using. There's been 6 versions (FSRS-1, -2, -3,... and of course FSRS 6 today). Fortunately, the overall gist has been the same for all 6 versions. Alas, its a lot of blogposts and technical math that's far too nerdy for most people https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/fsrs4anki/wiki/The-Algorithm. For the math nerds who want to learn the algorithm, study away. But I'll attempt to do a simpler "translation".
Before we get started, click on your deck's preferences and scroll down to the FSRS button. Ensure it is on.
FSRS is simply three pieces of memory being applied to each and every "card" in your Anki decks. Every single card will try to figure out "R", "S" and "D". R is the probability that you've forgotten a card each day. The longer a card goes without being shown, the worse-and-worse "R" gets (this is the value Anki uses to determine when to repeat a card to you, it wants to show you a card before you've forgotten, but after enough time that you had a chance to forget, defaulting to 10% chance of forgetting).
Every single card tracked by Anki has this "forgetting" curve, primarily defined by the "R" aka Retention variable.
The theory is: if you show a card too often, you never really test your long-term memory. Furthermore, its too much extra work to review so many cards. By waiting days, weeks, or months before showing you a card again, Anki saves you time by not overly-reviewing cards you already know the information of. Furthermore, studies have shown that showing you information "right as you are forgetting about it" is the best way to remember (!!!). Any sooner, and you really aren't learning too well, but instead just temporarily holding things in your short-term or medium-term memory.
"S" stands for Stability. The more "stable" a card is, the longer Anki-FSRS thinks it can stay in your memory memory without review. Most "new" cards are assumed to be forgotten about within a day by default. However, as you get the card "correct" over-and-over again, Anki-FSRS will increase stability, thereby causing the longer review intervals. (Maybe showing you a card once every 3 days, then 7 days, then 1.5 months, then 3 months....).
"D" stands for Difficulty. The more times you get a card wrong (ie: when you click the "Again" button), the worse Difficulty gets. Anki-FSRS remembers that some cards are harder for you to remember... in particular the ones you keep getting wrong.
Even if you get a high-difficulty card correct multiple times, Anki "remembers" that you have been forgetting this card, and will show it to you again sooner. Ex: by default Anki will mature a card within 7x correct answers in a row. However, if a card is "difficult", Anki will keep showing you that card 10x, 15x or more, knowing that you need the extra practice.
Or in more math-nerd terms, "Difficulty" is the derivative of stability. The change-of-stability is determined by the "Difficulty" of a card.
Hard / Good / Easy all count as correct (ie: increases the stability of Anki-FSRS), but will do different things to your Difficulty score.
"Good" is the default, and Anki recommends that users hit the "Good" button 80%+ of the time. Lets pretend that a particular "Good" answer will result in 1-month timer for a particular card...
"Easy" basically is telling Anki that you don't want to practice with this card anymore (ie: low-difficulty card). After clicking "Easy", instead of taking a 1-month timer... Anki will likely choose a 1.5-month or 2-month timer on the card.
"Hard" is telling Anki that you want extra practice with this card. It increases difficulty, despite increasing stability. You'll see this card again more-and-more in the future. Instead of 1-month timer, Anki might show you the card again within 2-weeks.
Anki was originally developed to help its original programmer learn Japanese. Its not an end-all be-all app however. Anki is only a piece of any language-learner. You must also buy grammar / theory books, as well as write regularly in the new language... speaking and listening and more.
Nonetheless, "Anki" is your cudgel. A brute-force method to try to force vocabulary words into your brain through raw force. You'll likely never gain mastery of the words through Anki... but you can at least become a beginner and learn how to start reading. There's literally thousands, if not tens-of-thousands of words you must learn to become proficient in a language. And that's spelling, grammar usage (gender / der/das/die in German, or maybe conjugation rules and pluralization rules), definitions and more!!
In all cases, Anki can be used as a way to force this information into your brain, getting it ready so that those words can "begin to be learned" when you watch TV, listen to a foreign language podcast or hear those words in a song.
Yes, Anki isn't enough. But Anki is a great tool to get you started. And getting started is sometimes the hardest step for many people.
Remember: 1000 words is beginner level (near 1st grade level understanding), while 10,000 words is roughly high school level. If you wish to be seen as a competent adult in a new language, you must figure out a system to reach those 10,000+ words known. 10,000 words sounds like a lot in isolation... especially because true mastery of 10,000 words includes spelling, grammar (pluralization/conjugation/gender), meaning, and pronunciation. But think about it: 10,000 words is merely 14 words per day for 2-years. Plenty of people have used Anki to jumpstart that kind of long-term forced-learning of words.
My current Anki deck is the 4000 German words/phrases by frequency (https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/653061995). Anki decks vary in quality but this is one of the better German decks.
Despite that, this deck starts out-of-order. I had to reorder the first 200 words into the correct order (for some reason, words #1 through #200 were actually the least frequent words). After reordering, I hit the "FSRS" button, signed up to AnkiWeb.com and synchronized my Desktop + Phone to this deck through the web-account.
I currently keep the defaults of Anki-FSRS at 90% retention and 20 words per day. I roughly have 80 review words per day + 20 new words, or 100 flashcards to review (front and back). I hit "good" or "again" most often, though some very easy words (ex: "Ich") I do hit the "easy" button on. I rarely hit "hard" at all.
When a card feels poorly made, I always go into "Edit" and improve the card. In most cases, the "English side" of this deck is lacking (ex: "because" either turns into weil or denn). In these cases, I add a German sentence to the English side with the German-word missing, so that the card can become "more fair" as study material. Anki Decks should always be customized to become your own notes.
If Anki gives me a new word, I also check Wiktionary for the proper pronounciation, as well as additional "example sentences" of that word. Anki is NOT a dictionary, its simply a notecard system, and you should rely upon good and proper dictionaries. In some rare cases, I go to German Language Discord and ask the community to help me understand a concept, but in most cases I do try to figure out the word myself.
I also use many songs, kids songs, Anime songs, pop songs and more as my primary source of "Practical German". (Ideally songs harder than Ramstein's "Du Hast", lol). I'm building an Anki deck out of these songs (ex: Backe Backe Kuchen, or "Bake Bake a Cake", a traditional German kid's song, has a list of common ingredients like sugar, salt, milk. Its good vocabulary practice... and also is a good source of practical words for an Anki deck). I also have a beginner German book ("Cafe in Berlin"), with a huge vocabulary list. Fortunately, the author for this book already made an Anki deck and I can just go to to the listed website and download the pre-made Anki.
This NEEDS to be saved. People will forget if we don't save this.
I'm going to make a summary thus-far (using the "most correct" form made thus far...)
New sentence from Hans:
Das geht nicht. Obwohl der Preis nicht schlecht ist, müss ich Früh am Montag arbeiten. Der Preis um 15 Uhr ist 170 €. Dürfen wir um 15 Uhr gehen?
Hmm, I'm realizing I'm using a lot of stuff from my A2 lessons and A2 classes. Although I'm at A1+, I'm obviously trying to practice my new lessons closer to A2 level. Strict adherence to the "level of German" doesn't seem too necessary... as long as we're in the rough ballpark.