Finished the German Tree
. . . in two weeks. Of course, I wasn't starting from scratch, I studied German in college - but that was over 50 years ago, so I suppose it is still quite an accomplishment. And there have been changes to the German language over those 50+ years - particularly in computer-related terminology - but then, I worked as a computer programmer for about 25 years, so that wasn't a real challenge. The biggest challenge, I think, was my brain-to-finger coordination. More than once, I was thinking the right answer and wrote something quite different - as well as a lot of just plain old typos.
Well, now I'm going to go over it again - keeping it refreshed, I'll go through every lesson once more, then a second time in refresh mode, as I did with both Italian trees. And then, time to start on the reverse tree - English from German.
47 Comments
Awesome! Congratulations and have fun doing the reverse course as well ;-)
Forgot to mention - for those who are concerned about how many levels - I had just barely reached level 12 when I finished.
Congratulations! Keep practicing German though even after you've gone through the tree three more times. With such good expierience in German I recromend your next target should be Dutch. If you managed to get through German, Dutch will be really easy, for example the German sentence "Ich bin in mein haus" is "Ik ben in mijn huis" in Dutch (I am in my house). Most native German speakers can read what Dutch people write. However judging by your expierence with Italian I would also recromend you go for another Romance Language. Believe it or not Italian shares many words and aspects with the others, especially French and Spanish. For example the words for "Yes" and "No" are the same in both Italian and Spanish, "Sí" and "No", however the accent for italians "Sí" faces left not right. The words for "Yes" and "No" in French are "Oui" and "Non". However French also uses the word "l'" before vowels with consenents, like in Italian "l'acque" and in French "l'eau" (the water in English). You can also go for Portuguese which is actually spoken by a lot more people than French but less than Spanish, however it doesn't share as much in common with Italian than Spanish and French do, same with Romanian when it comes out. But keep practicing German and Italian! Don't let those meters go to low, and once again congrats.
I'm not particularly interested in learning other languages. I first got interested in Italian and a relative pointed me to duolingo - so, since I already had studied German, I thought this might be a good opportunity to "brush up." If I did go for a third language, I suspect it might be Portuguese, as I have a brother-in-law of Portuguese background. Although I never see him any more.
If I were ambitious, I might consider Greek; I learned a little of it when my sister was taking it in Bible School, but I never got into it afterwards. And of course, in Bible School, she was learning New Testament Greek. Her husband - the Portuguese man - is fluent in at least 7 languages, one of which, is, I believe, NT Greek. I never did learn what all of them were.
Yeah, knowing two second languages can be enough. But if you want to know a fourth go ahead! Portuguese is the 6th most spoken language in the world, and is spoken in South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia (its the only Romance language that is an official language in an Asian country). And if you want to know Greek, try it, its not out yet but it will be. Stop when you feel like your brother-and-law will be impressed with you ;)
Herzliche Glückwünsche ! Es ist wunderbar, welche Möglichkeiten es heute online gibt. Viele Grüße aus Deutschland :-)
Wow!!!absolutely amazing!!!!!!!!! In 2 weeks?!!!! Congrats here's a lingot for you
Wowow Susan, 2 weeks congrats. I imagine keeping all of the eggs golden when hte whole tree is unlocked can be a time sink. Maybe take a trip to Germany to celebrate :p
Thanks, all! I actually never found it all that hard, not even when I first started learning it.
Congratulations Susanna! I think it's awesome! Where do you come from? I'm studing english and french and I already finished the french tree. I have some knowledge about german, I will think if I start with the german course. Regards!
I'm American. And English was originally a subset of German, although it has wondered far from its roots.
What's that? I never heard of it. The only think I used outside of Duolingo was my Cassell's dictionary. Well, plus my memory from 50+ years ago.
Hi Susanna35, I think he was directing his comment at me.
Khan Academy is self-study site, primarily for math, but it covers many other subjects as well (science, art, medicine, etc ... ). It has very good content, but the game mechanic is a bit of a mess. It doesn't do languages - so is complimentary to a site like his one.
Hi CapitanGMIK, ah yes.... you have caught me red handed!
I really liked the old graphics of that site, in particular the moon badge, and as they were no longer using them...
wooo ! you are really inspired me ! i'll finish my tree soon , only 5 lines to finish , , and Kindly i like to ask you as a programmer , did you work with SAP framwork before?
What does SAP stand for? I'm an old Mainframe COBOL programmer, on IBM DOS (not PC DOS!), NCR operating systems, and later on Unix machines.
2084
Great! There are very few people, who really know this stuff today.
SAP stands for "Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing" and is a huge European software company founded in 1972 which implements business logic for companies using building blocks of software and a lot of software consultants.
i would like to ask u how fluent are u in speaking the language after finishing the tree?? i started the German tree 4 days ago and im really excited and i just wanna know how useful was it for really learning the language and using it in ur everyday life.
I can't go on just finishing the tree; I studied German in college years ago. I don't have an opportunity to practice speaking it, but I could probably get by in Germany if my life depended on it.
After 3 years I wanna know your progress in German...i am in your place when you were writing this comment ;-
In TWO weeks??? that's ABSOLUTLEY amazing!!! but I could do it, but I have chosen not to.
Well, since I studied it in college many years ago, I already knew a lot of vocabulary, and a good bit of grammar, too - although it was a long time ago. But I was surprised at how much I still remembered.
Well, it IS a lot to remember, isn't it??? Anyway, thanks for the follow.
Oh I am studying German at school and I use Duolingo to practice and study what i have been learning, I am having problems with grammar, but I cannot wait to finish my German tree
Susanna, you must have a phenomenal memory and mental capacity! I, too, studied German in college - 40 some years ago. I found Duolingo Feb. 2014 and began the tree. I only finished a few months ago - more than a year later. I do a few minutes every day to keep the tree golden. I find that the words I learned in my twenties are still there, while the ones I am trying to learn now don't stick very well. :)
I would like to practice my German with you! xD "Learning from the people who know more than me"
That is really amazing! Congratulations! And I guess that this tour reminded you lots of the days before, which I think might be one of the happinesses that learning languages could bring us, that days might be gone but memries still shine when a few words lights them up.
