learning English

[Denido]

Hi , is there anyone who has the time to teach me in Englisch? Maybe a little bit writing about unimportant things or what ever. If you feel like we can talk about movies, Django Unchained for example. Or you have a better idea. I hope I will hear from you.

[Ben is nutz]

Sure, we can talk.  I recently joined because I'd like to learn German. 
Where did you study English? 
Please tell me if I'm saying it correctly in German: Woher haben Sie Englisch gelernt?

[Delfino]

  Wo haben Sie Englisch gelernt? / Wo hast du Englisch gelernt?

Germans have to attend English lessons at school. It is the first foreign language taught at every school.
Students are usually in 5th grade, and therefore, 10 or 11 years old when they start learning English.

[Ben is nutz]

Wow, that's good to know.  Thanks by the way for correcting my sentence.
I'm curious, do most students in your English classes enjoy learning English, or is it felt like a requirement?
Also, how many hours of English courses do you have per week?

Please tell me if I'm saying it correctly in German:

"Und wie viele Wochenstunden in Englisch haben Sie?"

[Delfino]

It is a requirement, but English is a Germanic language like German. Therefore,
it is easier to learn than non-Germanic languages (e.g. Romance languages etc.). 
Everyone knows about the importance of English for vocational purposes and
it helps on vacations etc. So in general the motivation is high enough.

The attitude towards English lessons depends on the expected progress. In the beginning,
the steps are rather small from lesson to lesson, but the level rises from year to year.
In the final years it is very challenging to get good grades without an opportunity to practice
English regularly and with feedback on the proper use of grammar or vocabulary outside school.

Reading books in English (novels) and watching movies in English
has become an increasingly popular hobby for kids/students
who aim to immerse themselves in a natural English environment.

On tv everything produced abroad (e.g. in Hollywood) is dubbed in German,
and only very few cinemas in the big cities do occasionally offer movies in their
original languages (other than German). So people usually have to wait for the release
of DVDs and BluRays to see a movie in English.

English bookstores are even more rare, and fortunately there is Amazon, YouTube
and the vast Internet...

In German schools the students are to learn and use British English, but a lot of content online
is American English, various dialects, slang and some things are created by other non-native speakers.
So beginners are struggeling to know what is proper English.

[Ben is nutz]

That's good to know, thank you!

From the sounds of it, the progress that students make every year in English follows a very methodical set of increasing grammatical complexity.  Indeed, it is difficult to get feedback on our language use from a classroom, when there is only 1 teacher to correct everyone's work.  My experience on the internet tells me that it may be more profitable for students to receive weekly feedback on their English writing from other students whose first language is English.  For example, perhaps if two particular schools, one in Germany and the other in Britain, became affiliated for this purpose, students in Britain can receive a grade for their community service work by helping to edit and provide feedback on the written work of an English student in Germany.  The reverse service can also be offered to the school in Britain for students who are learning German as a second language.

The type of texts that are written could be more communicatively oriented (e.g. letters), a welcome contrast to studying language through reading and listening (from books or tv shows) which is a more passive learning experience. 

This can be a quite inexpensive approach.  It could be done using an intranet network connection between the two schools, using either a private messaging system or an online discussion forum like this one. 

Please let me know if I am saying this correctly in German:

"Dies kann ein ganz ostengünstig Ansatz sein."

[Delfino]

I agree. btw. this kind of tandem learning approach has been investigated several years ago
when I was part of the German group in this project:

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/r ... 2/art00003

"Dies kann ein relativ kostengünstiger Ansatz sein."

[Ben is nutz]

That's interesting!  I did a bit more investigation on google about Tandem learning and was surprised to note its popularity in Europe.  In the Canadian province I live (Quebec), I think this method would be very suitable to help anglophones and francophones share their strengths in their mother tongues.  Thank you for sharing this, and for helping to correct my German.

Please let me know if I'm saying it correctly in German:
"Lassen Sie mich bitte wissen, wenn ich es richtig sage in Deutsch"

[Delfino]

That's interesting!  I did a bit more investigation on google about tandem learning and was surprised to note its popularity in Europe.  In the Canadian province (Quebec) I live in, I think, this method would be very suitable to help anglophones and francophones share their strengths in their mother tongues.  Thank you for sharing this, and for helping to correct my German.

Please let me know if I'm (not) expressing myself correctly in German.
"Lassen Sie es mich bitte wissen, wenn ich mich auf deutsch (nicht) richtig ausdrücke."

[Ben is nutz]

Thank you!