Teething Issues

Hello, I'm fairly new at this and I'm having a few confusing moments. Firstly, the word schon seems to be used quite a lot, sometimes for "already" and sometimes for "pretty". Is this correct, or am I confusing completely different words? Similarly, heisse seems to mean both "am called" and "hot - is this right? No? Secondly, I have progressed to where I am able to read and understand about a quarter of the words I see in German texts, but when watching TV or movies in German I understand only one word in forty and usually just the ones that sound like English. Although it has gotten easier to hear the rhythm of the language, I am not able to pick out individual words unless it is a very short or very slow sentence. Is this normal? Eventually it starts making sense aurally too? Cheers! Jac

Hallo! guten tag!!! We will start with "schön!..and guess what? you are right..this word can be either used when describing something "pretty" as in "ich bin schön", also to emphatize in something as in "danke schön" and some other uses, but mainly those i mentioned you... For your second question , you need to remember that "heisse" is one thing and "heiße"...eventhough they are pronounced almost the same...the first one means "hot" as in "heisse chokolade"...and the second one has to do with how are you called or what is your name , as in "ich heiße Chris".... And lastly!...you dont need to worry...it happened to me at first...ive been taking this course since mid-2011 and i can tell you that if i read something back then i couldnt understand more than 2 words for every 50! and now i maybe i cant understand or identify about less than 50% of the words!!! haha i know its not much, but hey!..i started with zero words, so thats something!!!!...viel Glück meine freundin!..bis bald!

Thanks for that. I have been watching some German TV and the peculiarities strike me - the way shön is used, and saying "oder" at the end of sentences can mean anything from "isn't it?" to "don't you agree?", etc. It would be nice to have a German person to talk to! Best of luck with your learning :)

Hello Jaclyn, The first steps when learning a new language are always the hardest. It is good to watch tv and movies in German language so you can internalize the intonation. Also listen to the Interactive Audio Course lessons at least 3 times to make sure you are familiar with the words. Then move on to the next one. Once you have gone through the first 3-4 audio lessons you can work through the grammar notes. With time there will be more words that you recognize and the sounds will be more familiar. I hope this helps and good luck! Paul