English for runaways - the phantom menace

[Carwyn]

French at school was bad timing back then. I wasn't really motivated because I've had tons of other problems (like teenagers do). To top it off, the teacher was bad and psychologically unstable. He wasn't able to get the things across in a way that we would understand them and he had troubles of his own that had an influence on how he'd be able to manage a class full of teenagers. I'd say, it wasn't a responsible decision from our school to let this man teach us in the state that he was in back then.

@Grimlet

Yeah, I was gonna go for duolingo when the sea gets quieter and it'll be easier to concentrate on other things than the position of your sails and the wind.

[abby]

My last english teacher had severe depression. One time he graded everyone with 4 and below (it was the last test before the A Levels) just because he tried going without his meds. He also screamed at us and threw chairs. 

After that year he was off into a clinic. 

Fortunately someone else graded our A levels. 

(Can A levels be used for the german word "Abitur"?)

 

[Carwyn]

I wouldn't wanna translate "Abitur". Gaining the "Abitur" would be comparable to graduation I guess. But discribing something as a qualification for the "Abitur" or adressing the "Abitur" itself, I would just stick to the German word. It's a pretty specific thing which isn't really comparable to anything in the US, the UK or any other English speaking country.

[abby]

ok, thank you.  

I'm often struggling with deciding what to translate.

Spoiler

 

Again what learnt.. () 

(@english beginners: please don't use this phrase)

 

 

[Carwyn]

I mostly try to differentiate what is commonly known everywhere and what is a distinct German thing. Or I compare it to things known to them. Like explaining that the "Abitur" is comparable to a diploma that you get after you finished school or that it's a qualification that enables you to attend University.

[Yannick]

The german "Abitur" is often translatet with "A Levels" or " general qualification for universaty entrance".
Today you will learn "A Levels" in school, so in 10 to 20 years most of the people should say A Levels, hopefully.
But i think it will be a topic where everybody will struggling forever.

[Ulfmann]

vor einer Stunde schrieb Grimlet:

Play your video games in English.

Funnily, this is why my English teacher was surprised each time, we were asked for a very specific vocable and the only one who raised his hand was me and I knew it from a conversation in Resident Evil or something  

vor 44 Minuten schrieb abby:

Again what learnt.. () 

I love these jokes and inventing silly translations, this makes me and my girlfriend laugh quite often.

[Carwyn]

Confession time: I stopped learning vocab when I was in the second half ot the sixth grade. Definitely not something to recommend to anyone. I just found out that I learned them best as I went along while reading books, listening to music, watching movies...

[Grimlet]

@abby6 month in a french school? I envy you. I used to live near Elsass and watched a lot of french cartoons without understanding a single word^^. I still had french in school though but I'm really bad at it.

"Again what learnt" oh god... how do you make it sound right? After googling it's "Learning never stops" or "Something else that I've learned".

vor 4 Stunden schrieb YAnnIFreaK:

The german "Abitur" is often translated with "A Levels" or " general qualification for university entrance".
Today you will learn "A Levels" in school, so in 10 to 20 years most of the people should say A Levels, hopefully.
But i think it will be a topic where everybody will struggling struggle forever.

not sure about this one, will struggle forever or will be struggling forever...

@UlfmannSame here! I still remember the word my teacher asked which was "realm". I knew the word because I used play wow back then. XD

@CarwynAw, we were forced to learn vocabs regulary because our teacher would do a pop quiz every now and then. So failing in front of the class was kind of embarrassing because two of us were taken in front of the blackboard. Me too! You learn best if it's something that goes along with a hobby or something. In my case iit started with gaming. I also have a strong desire to look up words that are unknown to me. I just have to know what it means, jeez!

@all

Tomorrow will be valentines day! So what plans did you guys make with your loved ones? Ladies, did you receive any roses,gifts? Isn't valentines day just another commercial bullshit that influences us to spent more money because advertisements, society is telling us to do so?

If you find any mistakes please do correct me!

[Ulfmann]

vor 11 Stunden schrieb Grimlet:

not sure about this one, will struggle forever or will be struggling forever...
(Both are fine)

@UlfmannSame here! I still remember the word my teacher asked which was "realm". I knew the word because I used to play wow back then. XD

@CarwynAw, we were forced to learn vocabs regulary regularly because our teacher would do does a pop quiz every now and then. So failing in front of the class was kind of embarrassing because two of us were taken in front of the blackboard. Me too! You'll learn best if it's something that goes along with a hobby or something. In my case iit it started with gaming. I also have a strong desire to look up words that are unknown to me. I just have to know what it means, jeez!

@all

Tomorrow will be valentines day! So what plans did you guys make with your loved ones? Ladies, did you receive any roses,gifts? Isn't valentines day just another commercial bullshit that influences us to spent spend more money because advertisements, society is telling us to do so?

If you find any mistakes please do correct me!

As to your question: Of course I'll bring flowers today, maybe a bottle of wine in addition for a nice dinner. Why not. I agree with you that there is a certain pressure from your environment to take part in this game. It's like buying presents for Christmas or making party on New Year's Eve, nobody forces you to do this. But I don't want to be the rebel who rejects all this rather than spending nice time with friends or my girlfriend.

[abby]

vor 11 Stunden schrieb Grimlet:

@abby6 month in a french school? I envy you. I used to live near Elsass and watched a lot of french cartoons without understanding a single word^^. I still had french in school though but I'm really bad at it.

"Again what learnt" oh god... how do you make it sound right? After googling it's "Learning never stops" or "Something else that I've learned".

jup, I always wanted to do an exchange, and so my parents gave me the choice between france and england. As I was really bad in french I thought the exchange might be usefull.

I love those direct, bad translations of german sayings. 

 

My boyfriend and I are going to spend valentines day at home in our chaos (we moved last weekend) with chinese food and Sherlock Holmes  

 

[Ulfmann]

vor 6 Minuten schrieb abby:

I love those direct, bad translations of german sayings.

Yeah, cool, you can translate everything word-wordly! 

[Carwyn]

I was pretty good at the occasional vocab quiz. Mostly because I picked up those words in the units which we were working through anyway. And yeah, I also need to know ALL THE WORDS. The nice thing is that I don't forget them after looking them up once. I wish I'd have this gift when it comes to other important stuff. *g*

Valentines day? I'm single right now, so I won't do anything special today. But if there's someone who wants to give me some flowers, invite me to dinner or finds a nice way to spend the evening with me, I'm game. Totally.

[bummel]

A warm and friendly hello. My next attempt to drive carwyn carzy. 

Valentines day is going to be realy romantic this year. After aproximately ten hours of work I will be alone at the hotel and have to prepare myself for my training next week.

 

for @Ulfmann

I think I spider!
That makes me fox devil wild!

[Grimlet]

vor 3 Stunden schrieb bummel:

A warm and friendly hello. My next attempt to drive carwyn crazy. 

Valentines day is going to be really romantic this year. After approximately ten hours of work I will be alone at the hotel and have to prepare myself for my training next week.

Sounds like my day.

vor 5 Stunden schrieb Carwyn:

Valentines day? I'm single right now, so I won't do anything special today. But if there's someone who wants to give me some flowers, invite me to dinner or finds a nice way to spend the evening with me, I'm game. Totally.

Sure I'll take you out, just the two of us having candle light dinner  under the moon. What flowers do you like? Japanese or italian food? After that we can spend the evening with Netflix and chill. I'm just kidding... Where do you live?

[Yannick]

@abby

not sure about this one, will struggle forever or will be struggling forever...

To my defence: I am sixteen

And that mistake with university was very stupid, yes...

 

 

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[Enno]

Yes, english can be weird.
It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though. 

And for this reason i try to teach the persons german like, ' Daß als mal als als und mal als wie verwendet wird, ist zwar nicht richtig aber immer noch besser als anstatt als oder wie alswie zu schreiben.
Anders als wie wird als bei vergleichen für ungleichheit verwendet, während wie als anzeiger für gleichheit oder ähnlichkeit dient. anders als - genauso wie. klaro, ne?'

There are so many tricky things in german to struggle with.

[Crash2001]

vor 12 Stunden schrieb Enno:

[...]It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though.[...]

THIS sentence is really weird... 

[Asura]

Am 13.2.2017 um 16:07 schrieb abby:

 

  Inhalt unsichtbar machen

 

Again what learnt.. () 

(@english beginners: please don't use this phrase)

 

 

Like?
I think I spider.
The goes the dog in the pan crazy!
Sorry my English is under all pig!
You had a circleuntogetherbreak!

You see, I made a few mistakes. Also I'm struggling with words like will (German) and would (English). I know the difference very well, but if I do not pay attention to it, I'm going to make/do (which one of both words is correct?) this mistake all over again.

Same counts for to and too. Normally I'm the first one who would correct this mistake, but I just didn't see this while checking the text.

I'm trying to watch some movies or series in English, but sometimes it's just not as relaxing as watching it in the native language. The good thing of being used to watch or listen to english movies is, that some jokes are way funnier in English than in German. But if you're not, it's a bit stressful.

I attended an English course, but I dropped it because I had no time (football (Don't you dare "correcting" it into soccer!) training, meeting friends, other stuff to do.. like beeing lazy.)

If you correct my mistakes, would you mind to write a short sentence, instead of just marking it read? "it's wrong because.."?

 

[Carwyn]

@Asura I'll do that if I find the time.

Back in vocational school I was pretty stupid. We've had English lessons there as well. The premise was for it to be on a 9th grade level of "Realschule", which was a real bummer to me, who has had English "Leistungskurs" at school. Most of the other students didn't really like to express themselves in English. So I basically had a dialogue with my teacher for two periods. After those two times he said that he'll have a tough time rating the class. So everyone was supposed to do a written homework over the course of the year in order for him to be able to determine a grade for the students. Then he looked at me and said: "Well, she doesn't because she'll have an A anyway."
He basically said I could stay absent from the class for the rest of the year - but I didn't get it. So I stayed. Because I like English. Yeah, sometimes I'm stupid like that...

[Goulasz]

English is the best. It's huge. The best language, period. Trust me. It's great. Like my hands. All other languages are for losers.

Bearbeitet 16. Februar 2017 von Goulasz

[Grimlet]

Am 14.2.2017 um 22:08 schrieb YAnnIFreaK:

To my defence: I am sixteen

And that mistake with university was very stupid, yes...

You don't have to defend yourself, we all make mistakes. We are here to learn remember?

vor 1 Stunde schrieb Crash2001:

It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though.

THIS sentence is really weird... 

Yeah it is, I'll try to translate it for you without the use of google. 

through = durch

tough = hart 

thorough = gründlich

thought = Überlegung

though = jedoch

@CarwynAw that's unfortunate. You were maybe to eager to please the teacher or blinded by love for the subject. xD I'm almost in the same shoes like you back then. I'm really bored with simple present, present progressive at the moment... and having english class every 2nd week makes progress very slow...

[Carwyn]

Wait, you're learning basic English grammar at vocational school?

[neinal]

vor 36 Minuten schrieb Goulasz:

English is the best. It's huge. The best language, period. Trust me. It's great. Like my hands. All other languages are for losers.

Youre hands are great? Huge? The best?

 

 

i only understand trainstation.

[Grimlet]

@CarwynNot entirely it was a small part as a revision for some students who needed that. The rest are discussions about how to build a pc, advising customers and how companies are structured. it matters