German native speaker is looking for an English writing partner

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Dani79
Bilingual Newbie
Beiträge: 2
Registriert: 2. Aug 2015 12:56
Muttersprache: Deutsch

German native speaker is looking for an English writing partner

Beitrag von Dani79 »

Hello everybody,
I have just registered to this lovely forum, so maybe it's a good idea to introduce myself.

I'm a 35 years old woman and live in the middle of Germany in a small town together with my boyfriend.
The reason for my registration is my wish to improve my writing and speaking skills in English. I learned English in school (unfortunetly I wasn't very interested in it) and because I need English in the office I have started with some English lessons and self studying for two years now. Due to a job change in about 2 month I'll have to use my English a lot. I'm somewhat afraid of it and don't want to embarrass myself - that's why I want to learn as much as I can in the next two month.

So, to make a long story short I'm looking for a tandem partner for writing emails. I'm a German native speaker and can offer to help my tandem to improve his German skills. 

I'm flexible about the topics to write, maybe we can just start with normal day-to-day things or hobbies.

To give you an impression of my hobbies: At the moment I prefer to be outside because of the nice summer weather. I like riding mountainbike and to be in the garden (laze around, reading a book or working in it). In my vacations I like to go for kitesurfing. Other than that I have been started learning to sew one year ago and have a lot of fun sewing my own stuff. Even though I'm not a good cook, I really love good food and I am willing to write about it, as well.

I'm super excited if there is someone outside who feels like writing to me and I'm looking forward to answers :-)!

And if somebody feels like correcting my mistakes in my post I would appreciate it!

Have a nice sunday!




Keswick
English Legend
Beiträge: 4795
Registriert: 30. Jul 2008 11:20
Muttersprache: Deutsch
Wohnort: Borough of Gateshead

Re: German native speaker is looking for an English writing partner

Beitrag von Keswick »

Dani79 hat geschrieben:Hello everybody,
I have just registered on this lovely forum, so maybe it's a good idea to introduce myself.

I'm a 35 years old woman and live in the middle of Germany in a small town together with my boyfriend.
The reason for my registration is my wish to improve my writing and speaking skills in English. I learned English in school (unfortunately I wasn't very interested in it) and because I need English in the office I have started with some English lessons and self studying for two years now. Due to a job change in about 2 month I'll have to use my English a lot. I'm somewhat afraid of it and don't want to embarrass myself - that's why I want to learn as much as I can in the next two months.

So, to make a long story short I'm looking for a tandem partner for writing emails. I'm a German native speaker and can offer to help my tandem to improve their German skills.

I'm flexible about the topics to write about, maybe we can just start with normal day-to-day things or hobbies.

To give you an impression of my hobbies: At the moment I prefer to be outside because of the nice summer weather. I like riding mountain bikes and to be in the garden (laze around, reading a book or working in it). For my vacations I like to go for kite surfing. Other than that I have been started learning to sew one year ago and have a lot of fun sewing my own stuff. Even though I'm not a good cook, I really love good food and I am willing to write about it, as well.

I'm super excited to see if there is someone out there who feels like writing to me and I'm looking forward to answering :-)!

And if somebody feels like correcting my mistakes in my post I would appreciate it!

Have a nice Sunday!
Hello,

Welcome to the forum, and I felt like correcting the few mistakes you made :) . From what I can see, your English is already really good, so I wouldn't worry too much about starting your new job in a couple of months.

Good luck with both your new job & with finding a tandem partner.
Bitte keine Korrektur- / Erklärungsanfragen per PN.
British English (BE) Sprecher.

Dani79
Bilingual Newbie
Beiträge: 2
Registriert: 2. Aug 2015 12:56
Muttersprache: Deutsch

Re: German native speaker is looking for an English writing partner

Beitrag von Dani79 »

Hi,
Thanks a lot for you corrections and your kind words!

dannibanni
Bilingual Newbie
Beiträge: 1
Registriert: 3. Sep 2015 13:46
Muttersprache: Deutsch

Re: German native speaker is looking for an English writing partner

Beitrag von dannibanni »

Hi Dani,
I am also new here :-) And my reasons to register here are nearly the same as yours. After I did my A-Lavel Exam, I never had the possibilitiy to improve myself. While I studied I had some english lessons but it was not enough to get better. When I started my job in a company who makes plastic parts for the automotive industrie I more and more realized that it is so important to train my english. We have customers all around the world so it is necessary to speak and write, but I always feel bad in such situations. I know that particularly my "speaking" is horrible and if I am in a telefone conference or get a call from a english speaking customer, I think my speaking is embarrassing... the last two years I had as often as I can english lessons with a native speaker, but it was very expensive and he did it not in a very good way. So I thought that It might be better, to get in contact with people in the www who have the same problem :-) Perhaps we can start a conversation and find some other people who want to talk in english :freu:

Let me also introduce myself: My Name is also Dani and I was also born in 1979 :prost: Really funny!!! I live in a small town between Hannover and Bielefeld with my boyfriend. My hobby is my 21 years old horse, we also have two cats.

I am looking forward to hear from you :-)

tiorthan
Lingo Whiz
Beiträge: 2815
Registriert: 13. Jun 2010 01:36
Muttersprache: de, (pl)

Re: German native speaker is looking for an English writing partner

Beitrag von tiorthan »

dannibanni hat geschrieben:Hi Dani,
I am also new here :-) and my reasons to register here are nearly the same as yours. After I did my Abitur[sub]1[/sub] exams, I never had the opportunity[sub]2[/sub] to improve my English[sub]3[/sub]. While I was studying[sub]4[/sub] I had some English[sub]5[/sub] lessons but it was not enough to get better. When I started my job in a company that[sub]6[/sub] makes plastic parts for the automotive industry. I more and more realized that it is so[sub]7[/sub] important to practice[sub]8[/sub] my English. We have customers all over the world so it is necessary to speak and write, but I always feel bad in such situations. I know that my spoken English in particular is horrible and when[sub]9[/sub] I am in a telephone conference or when I get a call from an[sub]10[/sub] English speaking customer, I think my pronunciation[sub]11[/sub] is embarrassing... in the last two years I had English lessons with a native speaker as often as I could[sub]12[/sub], but it was very expensive and he did not do it[sub]13[/sub] very well. So I thought that it might be better to get in contact with people on[sub]14[/sub] the www who have the same problem :-) Perhaps we can start a conversation and find some other people who want to talk in English  :freu:

Let me also introduce myself: My Name is also Dani and I was also born in 1979  :prost:  Really funny[sub]15[/sub]!!! I live in a small town between Hannover and Bielefeld with my boyfriend. My hobby is my 21 years old horse, we also have two cats.

I am looking forward to hearing[sub]16[/sub] from you :-)
1 - Da es keine offiziellen Übersetzungen für Begriffe aus dem Schulsystem gibt, werden diese Bezeichnungen einfach in ihrer deutschen Form verwendet. Falls man auf eine Übersetzung wert legt, dann muss man auf eine beschreibende Übersetzung zurückgreifen. Man kann aber nicht einfach einen Begriff aus einem gänzlich unterschiedlichen Schulsystem benutzen.

2 - "Possibility" ist hier das falsche Wort, denn es ist eine ganz abstrakte und ggf. auch hypothetische Möglichkeit. Was du hier brauchst ist aber das Wort "opportunity" dass von einer konkreten Gelegenheit spricht. Du hattest immerhin immer die Möglichkeit (hypothetisch) aber eben nicht die Gelegenheit.

3 - Ich würde hier nicht "improve myself" benutzen, da es nicht spezifiziert in welcher Art man sich verbessern will. Der Satz klingt nämlich dann so, als ob du dich seit dem Abitur in keiner Weise weiterentwickelt hast.

4 - Wenn man über zwei Handlungen spricht von denen die eine innerhalb des Zeitraums der anderen stattfindet, dann wird die längere (also die umfassende) Handlung im Continuous verwendet.

5 - Im Englischen werden alle Namen und alle namensähnlichen Bezeichnungen groß geschrieben. Das schließt auch die Namen von Nationalitäten und Sprachen ein. Im Englischen werden diese Wörter immer groß geschrieben. Auch dann, wenn man die entsprechenden Übersetzungen im Deutschen klein schreiben müsste. Beispiel: "I have a Japanese car." aber "Ich habe ein japanisches Auto."

6 - "Who" benutzt man nur, wenn man damit echte Personen meint. Wenn man über eine Firma spricht, dann ist das in der Regel aber nicht der Fall, denn meist meint man die Firma als Institution. Who kann man benutzen, wenn man explizit die Belegschaft meint, das würde man hier aber anders formulieren.

7 - Das klingt für mich etwas seltsam.

8 - Das deutsche Wort "trainieren" kann man nicht einfach so als "train" übersetzen. Wir fassen im Deutschen nämlich zwei verschiedene Dinge zusammen nämlich jemanden zu trainieren und etwas zu trainieren. Diese beiden Dinge werden im Englischen aber getrennt. Man benutzt "train" oder "coach" wenn man jemanden trainiert, und man benutzt "practice" wenn man etwas trainiert.

9 - If bedeutet "falls", und das passt hier nicht sonderlich gut. Es ist bei dir ja offensichtlich keine Frage ob du telefonieren musst sondern nur wann.

10 - Ob man a oder an sagt, hängt davon ab wie das nachfolgende Wort gesprochen wird. Da hier English als nächstes kommt, und dieses Wort mit einem Vokal beginnt muss hier an stehen.
Achtung, nur die Aussprache ist entscheidend. Man sagt zum Beispiel "a european nation" weil european mit einem j-Laut beginnt, also nicht mit einem Vokal sondern mit einem Konsonanten.

11 - Speaking ist etwas seltsam. Es ist vergleichbar mit "mein Sprechen" im Deutschen, und wir sagen ja auch nicht "mein Sprechen ist schrecklich" sondern wir sagen "meine Aussprache" oder "mein Englisch" usw.

12 - Hier gibt es mehrere kleine Probleme. Zum einen die Satzstellung. Du musst darauf achten, dass Zeitangaben wie "as often as I could" nicht mitten im Satz stehen können sondern nur am Ende des Satzes (wo sie in einer bestimmten Reihenfolge mit anderen Adverbialen stehen). Dann natürlich wieder die Großschreibung von "English"
Und schließlich "could". Das Hilfsverb "could" ist die Vergangenheitsform von "can". Wenn du also einen Satz in der Vergangenheit hast, dann musst du "could" benutzen, wo du in der Gegenwart "can" nehmen würdest. Da dein Satz eine Zeitangabe in der Vergangenheit enthält muss der Satz selbst auch der Vergangenheit stehen, und daher "could".

13 - Verneinungen sind nochmal eine ganz spezielle Sache im Englischen. Eine Verneinung muss im modernen Englisch immer ein Hilfsverb enthalten (in älteren Schriften findet man es noch häufig ohne Hilfsverb). 
Wenn man schon eine grammatische Form hat, die bereits ein Hilfsverb benötigt (Perfect, Continuous, Passive etc.) dann ist die Voraussetzung schon erfüllt, und man kann einfach noch ein "not" hinzufügen um zu verneinen. Wenn man aber wie hier eine grammatische Form ohne ein weiteres Hilfsverb hat, dann muss man noch "do not" oder "did not" verwenden.

14 - Im Englischen ist man "auf" dem Netz unterwegs, da das Netz hier als ein Netz von Datenverkehrswegen gesehen wird. Im Deutschen sagen wir "im" weil wir es als eine Art "Raum" ansehen. Ortspräpositionen sind ein recht schwieriger Teil der Sprache, da sie sich sogar von Region zu Region unterscheiden können.

15 - Vorsicht! Funny bedeutet nicht immer lustig sondern es kann in vielen Situationen als seltsam interpretiert werden. Hier ist halbwegs klar, was du meinst, aber hättest du einfach nur "That's funny" geschrieben, dann wäre es schon nicht mehr so klar.

16 - Nach "look forward to" und "be looking forward to" muss immer ein Substantiv stehen. Du musst ein Verb also immer in die ing-Form bringen.


Fun fact (at least for me):
The words train and coach can both mean "to teach someone something" but in both cases the meaning is actually connected to another meaning of the respective word in transportation:

Train
As you probably know the word train can also mean a railway train. The word train comes from the Latin word trahere. It was brought into the English language during the Norman-French rule over England in the Middle Ages. The original Latin meaning is (among others) "to pull" and even though it changed quite a bit (and in a very roundabout way) it always retained that meaning.

When train entered the English language it was first used for "something that is pulled" like the trailing end of a dress or skirt. The meaning of training someone was then derived from something like "pulling into shape" or "drawing out so it can be formed to ones liking".

Coach
The word coach started its history in the Hungarian village of Kocs (pronounce: Kotsh). In the 14th century someone in Kocs invented (or rather re-invented as the Romans had already known this) the spring suspension for carriage wheels. They called the carriages "kocsi szekér" which translates to "carriage from Kocs" and quickly became referred to only as "kocsi" (kotshi).

The Germans quickly picked up on that invention. The "Kotsche" became widely used. When the invention reached France it did so with the German name, although they changed it slightly to "coche" to match French pronunciation. And since France and England had a lot of trade going on at that time, the "coche" also reached England. Over time "coche" became "coach".

The meaning "to teach" was born in Oxford University. There the tutors were called "coach" because they were said to "carry the students through the exams".

Another fun fact:
You're writing is reasonably understandable, and that's actually a good thing. There is no need to be perfect, because there are so many different dialects of English that do things slightly differently, that not even native speakers can claim perfect English.
You're never too old to learn something stupid.
MistakeSuggestionYou sure that's right?

maxioso7
Bilingual Newbie
Beiträge: 2
Registriert: 19. Sep 2015 20:02
Muttersprache: Englisch

Re: Re: German native speaker is looking for an English writing partner

Beitrag von maxioso7 »

Hallo Dani und Dani,
Wie geht's euch? Ich habe hier als Mitglieder seit einigen Monaten (während dem letzen Jahr..=P) mit diesem Forum mitgemacht um eine(n) deustche(n) Muttersprachler(in) nachzusuchen und kennenzulernen, um mein Deutsch wieder zu trainieren und verbessern und so gleichfalls Hilfe für jemanden mit seinen / ihren englischen Studien beizubringen. =D Noch habe ich einige Fehler in der berichtigten Version des ersten Absatz gesehen und einige Berichtigungen nach meiner Erfahrung als Muttersprachler von amerikanischen Englisch dazu hinzugefügt. Ich bitte euch auch darum, mein Deutsch zu berichtigen nach Bedarf, und auch hoffe wir können uns auf Skype (oder etwas ähnlichem) eines Tages verbinden! Macht's gut und Tchüss! =)

Hi Dani,
I am also new here and my reasons to register for registering here are nearly the same as yours. After I did ("took" würde in dieser Fassung besser klingen, ich glaube)  my Abitur[sub]1[/sub] exams (man könnte auch einfach "A-level exams" schreiben), I never had the an ("an" klingt etwa besser nach meiner Meinung) opportunity[sub]2[/sub]to improve my English[sub]3[/sub]. While I was studying[sub]4[/sub] I had ("took" würde auch besser klingen) some English[sub]5[/sub] lessons, but it was not enough to get better. When I started my job in at a company that[sub]6[/sub] makes plastic parts for the automotive industry, I more and more realized realized more and more that it is so[sub]7[/sub] important (Ehrlich klingt sehr normal meinen amerikanishen Ohren hier "so important" zu benutzen) to practice[sub]8[/sub] my English. We have customers all over the world, so it is necessary to speak and write in good English / well in English, but I always feel bad in such situations. I know that my spoken English in particular is horrible, and when[sub]9[/sub] I am in a telephone conference or when I get a call from an[sub]10[/sub] English speaking customer whenever I'm in a teleconference or on the phone with an English-speaking customer, I think my pronunciation[sub]11[/sub] is embarrassing... in the last two years, I had had taken English lessons with a native speaker as often as I could[sub]12[/sub], but it was very expensive and he did not do it[sub]13[/sub] very well / he didn't really help much / he wasn't all that great (ugs.). So I thought that it might be better to get in contact with people on[sub]14[/sub]the www online who have the same problem. Perhaps we can start a conversation and find some other people who want to talk in English

Let me also introduce myself: My Name name is also Dani and I was also born in 1979  Really funny[sub]15[/sub]!!! I live in a small town between Hannover and Bielefeld with my boyfriend. My hobby is my 21 years old 21-year-old horse, and we also have two cats.

I am looking forward to hearing[sub]16[/sub] from you.

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