recording my voice

Cat O – Thu, 08 Sep 2011 01:52:45 -0500

Hi! I am new to Rocket German and so far I like very much the part where I can tape my own voice and listen to it comparing how it suppose to sound with the native pronunciation. But I think something is missing... I just finished lesson 2.1 and I am about to use lesson 2.2. How come I cannot tape my voice anymore?? is there any site maintenance that I am not aware of?
Thanks for your support in advance!!! greetings from Mexico

Cristian Montes de Oca – Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:36:17 -0500

I`ve just checked the 2.2 lesson and everything is OK.
Im also from Mexico, Tijuana to be specific!....

Me encanta el aleman y estoy aprendiendo muchas cosas yo voy en el 3.1 ...Viel Glück meine freund!..Tschüs!

Cat O – Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:25:45 -0600

Hallo Cristian! yo soy de Puebla Ich lerne gerne! Ich liebe meinen Deutschkurs (I am still practicing the der, die or das and therefore the correct nominative, accusative, dative or genitive). It didn't work what I said but now is all good.
To everyone, hallo!!!!
I have finished my first level course and now I need to buy my second one but I started to hesitate cause I have read is very alike the first one and is not worth it... any thoughts on this? Does anybody has premium plus? I found the premium gives you a great foundation and is great, but I do have doubts... I study now 4-6 hours a day every day now (that is how obssesed I am now with learning)... what you guys think?

Shannon S – Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:19:38 -0600

I bought both premium and premium plus because premium plus covers more complex situations than the premium course. I haven't finished premium yet (I'm a little more than half way through) but I took a look at one of the lessons in premium plus. It has much more complex sentence structure...more like the German sentences I hear spoken when I listen to "in the street interviews with German people" on Youtube. I held off buying the third one (platinum) because I'm hoping parts one and two will give me enough of a grounding.

Cat O – Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:09:09 -0600

Hi Shannon! Thank you for your insight! I think I won't hesitate anymore. But I do admit I also look for more stuff to rely on for learning over the internet such as DW interactive course. If anybody has tried it I do have to say I first did it before I discovered Rocket German and I was lost. Now is much better, but there is still a long road to go... but let's see what happens once I start premium plus

Shannon S – Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:52:19 -0600

Hi Cat! There is a series of short videos on Youtube about a pair of young women living in an apartment in Berlin. "Das ist die Geschichte von Sascha und Anna, die in Berlin eine Wohnung teilen. Ihre Nachbarn sind Nic...und Sam aus Amerika". The stories are fun to watch. They're spoken completely in German (and also have German subtitles) but the characters speak slowly enough that it's easy to follow the action. If I come across a word I don't understand, I pause the video and look it up. I agree that Rocket German is a HUGE help in learning the German language! I'm looking forward to catching up to you!

Cat O – Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:38:00 -0600

hi Shannon! thanks for the tip! I will check it out!
I ended up buying my premium plus and platinum (I figured once I'm into this I might as well finish it). So here I am about to start my intermediate course. Tonight I will download all the audios (which I listen during the morning while I work out), start working on this and let's see what happens. Hopefully in a few weeks I will be able to speak fluently
I will keep you posted

Shannon S – Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:33:58 -0600

Hi Cat...now I will be looking for insight from you!

Cat O – Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:08:04 -0600

Hi Shannon!
well so far I have gone through 5 lessons of the Rocket German Premium Plus. I wished I have gone further but I haven't had enough time. So far is ok. The themes covered here are very alike the ones in the beginners course but with way more complicated sentences and structure. Is harder!!!! but so far I have managed them pretty good. Here we have 3 teachers, Sarah the host, Matthias and Sandra (native speakers). I have to say I like the lessons better with Nik and Paul, for some reason they were more aproachable in my point of view. But the new ones are ok, just have to get used to them. They speak way faster than Nik and Paul and the intonation is different which makes me keep going back on the audio cause I don't get a few words. I guess is the way I would find it on a real conversation so is not so bad. I also notice that on these lessons they give you a introduction to past tense and future.What I do not like on these lessons is they do not give the extra vocabulary written down and sometimes they ask you how would you say something when you are clueless of what they just said and have to wait for the answer to figure it out. I think they should also try to make some improvements on the content rather than just the look of the page as they did on
this year edition.
Well here are my 2 cents on it... I will have to go further to figure out more
Cheers!

Shannon S – Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:59:43 -0600

Hi Cat!

I was wondering how Premium Plus was working for you. I'm just finishing up Premium and have a couple more grammar lessons to work through before I'm ready to move to Premium Plus. I took your advice though (about following through on all three levels of study) and bought Platinum the other day. Sarah and Matthias popped up in the Premium course (in the bonus lesson on Trains)...I agree they're not as dynamic as Paul and Nik (Paul and Nik are a lot of fun to listen to) but I find that (for me) Matthias speaks more clearly than Paul. I've emailed R-G twice now about grammar points I don't quite understand. Both times I got an automated response saying someone from "the team" would contact me in two days but no one ever has. I didn't post to the forum because......when I look at recent posts in the grammar section, it's always students helping students. That's ok, but what about the 24 hour support the program promises? I can see where "the team" wouldn't want to read every post in every section, but they should have someone monitoring and responding to grammar queries, don't you think?

2 cents from you, and 2 cents back from me! Bis bald!

Cat O – Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:50:45 -0600

Hi Shannon!
Yes you are right about the 24 hour support promise. I think they stopped doing that in 2010 for what I can notice on the forums. If you go through them you will see Paul was answering or monitoring the forum but then stopped. After that is just among students. I did send an e-mail to RG as well and I did get a response from someone of the team. One of my questions was answered which was more a sales question. The other question I asked was related to the course and they told me I should ask one of the language experts but they never told who he/she was and how to contact them. I replied asking who should I talk to or who was the language expert and never got a response, I ended up asking my boyfriend... I will try RG facebook page, maybe I will have more luck there.
Bis später!

Shannon S – Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:06:37 -0500

Hi Cat!

I'm three lessons into Premium Plus now and am finding that I have to go much slower in order to absorb everything. Is it the same for you?

Cat O – Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:33:25 -0500

Hi Shannon! Yes!!!! I thought I was the only one... I haven't gone that far in this course cause I have to go over and over the lessons again in order to let them sink in... and yet I do not feel like I had really got everything. I am getting used to them but I still have trouble getting things a little faster as I expected. I also have noticed that they do get a few mistakes in the spelling which is a bit disappointing specially since I am able to spot them and I am not very good at spotting mistakes in other languages! but oh well...

Shannon S – Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:06:39 -0500

Hi Cat! I think what I'll do is work through the first five lessons (the Perfect Tourist) along with the first five culture/grammar lessons and then go over them until I feel ready to move on. My head is exploding at this point! Good to know I'm not wandering alone out here!!!!

Cat O – Wed, 21 Mar 2012 23:36:29 -0500

Well I have gone through the first and second part of the audio and cultural/grammar course and I have tons of questions like how do I say things in past cause I really don't get that part (I wished there was some sort of a clearer explanation about that). Hopefully this time I will get an answer since I got an e-mail today from RG saying that the tutor has been away for personal reasons but now is back and will answer questions here at the forum...). And no worries, my head is exploding too, but slowly getting the hang of it

Shannon S – Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:29:03 -0500

Hi Cat! I'm glad to hear that Paul is back monitoring. It's so much better to get questions answered early on...otherwise I end up repeating my mistakes over and over or driving myself crazy trying to work out the answers for myself. I have a couple of sites I go to for more detailed grammar explanations: one is Grimm Grammar (they use examples based on up-dated and somewhat irreverent versions of Grimm's fairy tales) and the other is through dartmouth.ed (they use a lot of German street and shop signs and printed advertisements to illustrate their points). Both are helpful.

Cat O – Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:57:24 -0500

Hey Shannon! thanks for the tip, I will check them out! as for the tutor, well I do not really know if it's Paul... or Matthias or Sandra or who, but hopefully we will get questions answered!

Cat O – Tue, 27 Mar 2012 23:56:15 -0500

Hey Shannon! I just wanted to say thanks for pointing me out Grimm Grammar. I did find quite useful! It did clarified a lot how verbs should be conjugated (plus I found the entire fairy tale thing updated to the 21st century quite amusing). I also got a little anxious cause I found I need to memorize a lot of verbs!!!! but little by little will know all of them mentioned there

Shannon S – Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:04:04 -0500

Hi Cat! I'm glad you like Grimm Grammar. I find it makes learning grammar entertaining (always a good thing) and adds variety to my vocabulary....not that I have a great need to talk about witches and wells. So.....do you think Oma and the wolf will get together in the end?

Cat O – Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:16:52 -0500

well I find quite entertaining the entire witches and spells thing as a vocabulary to add to my knowledge, not like i will really use it but I just find it quite amusing. I haven't found the story of Oma and the Wolf, is that Wolfgang, the one living with his brother at Wohnung 2/c just next door of Frau Holle?

Shannon S – Fri, 30 Mar 2012 23:25:22 -0500

Ooops...I must be making up my own fairy tales: it's the hunter who loves Oma, not the wolf! Sorry, Cat! We'll just call it information overload, shall we?

Shannon S – Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:50:24 -0500

Hi Cat

Sooooooo........................I'm about half way through Premium Plus. You must be working on the Platinum level by now. How is it going?
Shannon

Cat O – Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:18:31 -0500

Hi Shannon! well I am shamed to say you probably have surpassed me! I am probably half way through Premium Plus still. I got stuck at the love section because of my anger... let me explain... I had a fight with my bf and since his name is the same as our teacher here, the entire love thing with that name was not mixing very well in my brain with my personal life. But with a slow progress I have managed to keep going and now I hope to catch up with you
You know is funny, now I read texts in German and I hear things on tv or internet and I do understand a lot, but when it comes to speaking I feel like I cannot put it together! I hope i do improve this as I keep going on the course... what about you?

Shannon S – Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:45:21 -0500

Hi Cat! That's funny (not the part about the fight)...I thought you would be nearly half way finished Platinum by now. I have one more section on Business to finish up (and a ton or so of grammar) before I'm ready to start in on Celebrations.

I'm in the same boat as you are: my comprehension is getting pretty good, but I'm not sure I could hold a proper conversation. (Real people aren't going to stick to the scripts, now are they?) I have a bi-lingual friend who lives in the next province over and she has kindly offered to video 'live chat' with me on MSN. If all goes well, we're going to start tomorrow evening. I've already warned her that I may end up sitting in front of the computer screen looking blank and not being able to say anything!!!! Let's hope that doesn't happen!

I have a couple of German friends (also bi-lingual) on my Facebook account and I try to post to them in German rather than English. Because they're in a different time zone we're never on-line at the same time and I have all day to decide what I'm going to say and how to go about it. I would prefer to be able to respond "in the moment" but at least it gives me practice and I get exposed to new vocabulary as I react to what's going on in their lives.

I'll let you know how the live chat goes.......

Cat O – Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:09:46 -0500

Hey Shannon!
well i have managed to reach the business section... but just started! (maybe cause i worked out my personal problems and I was able to go through the lessons).... but yeah tell me how you do on the chat thing!
I also have a few German friends, on facebook and skype and i also try to say a couple of things in German every time I talk to them (or to be more accurate they try to tell me things in German and I do understand them). But I just wish I can make some progress when I speak cause so far I can come up right away on a conversation is... Ja! Stimmt! or ja! Ich weiß dass!
But you know what, I think this is a better way than going to an actual class. I have a cousin that has been going to classes and I find I have learned more than he has
So let me know how it goes!

Shannon S – Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:24:08 -0500

Hi Cat! I think my friend and I need to back up and try again.....we spent most of the visit talking in English while we caught up on each other's news. But in all honesty, I couldn't have expressed what I needed to say in German anyway...our conversation took some pretty complex turns. It also took awhile for us to successfully link up our two computers. But now that we're finally connected it should go better in future. She helped me with some vocabulary I was trying to sort out (about dentistry) but we didn't really speak much German. I think next time I should lead off with something like, "Ich will heute nur Deutsch sprechen". It may make for a shorter chat, but that's ok. I'm assuming I'll get better over time! It would also help if I had something specific I wanted to talk about...that way I could keep the conversation moving at my level of ability.

I'm determined to get on top of this!!!!!!!

It was the first time I'd used msn live chat and I prefered it to Skype (which I've had for a long time). A couple of times I needed to see the word my friend was pronouncing in order to fully get my pronunciation right. With msn, I was able to read and talk at the same time. Bonus!

I think RG is WAY better than formal classes...it's a pleasure to tune in each day and after a bit, the information seems to imbed itself in my mind without me really noticing. Formal classes focus more on grammar drills and I find I switch my brain off the moment things get tedious.

Shannon S – Fri, 20 Apr 2012 23:38:58 -0500

Hey Cat...I found something else you might enjoy: It's called Duolingo (duolingo.com) It's both a project to translate the entire web (!!!) and a learning tool. So far, the languages they're working with are English, Spanish and German. You apply to join (it's all free) and once you're invited in, you do translations of sentences. As a way of thanking people for participating, they also do a bit of teaching along the way. The translations start out with very simple sentences and progress to harder stuff over time. It's a crowd source thing, so I think the final translations used are based on the feedback from all participants. I just started with it tonight. There are levels and you build up points as you go along to make a personal progress chart. You can either work on your own, or connect through Facebook and see how you compare with others. It's fun. And hey, I learned a new word (die Steckdose--wall socket).

Cat O – Sat, 21 Apr 2012 15:00:58 -0500

Hey Shannon! Well I am also determined to be on top of this language! I need to be fluent!!!!! I will succeed at some point!
Well Duolingo looks like fun! I will give it a try!!!! thanks! It looks like another way of practicing what I have learned. I need to really figure out the past tense and the future... I know out RG premium plus has shown us some of it and it does explain it in the future lessons but I am getting confused. I am looking at Grimm's Grammar and it does make sense but I find it a bit tedious sometimes and the webpage does not really have an order that really flows. Maybe this duolingo does the trick But let's see what happens, I will keep you posted!

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recording my voice

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