Native English speaker offers help learning English in exchange for help learning German

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Ant
Bilingual Newbie
Beiträge: 3
Registriert: 7. Dez 2015 08:00
Muttersprache: English
Wohnort: Melbourne, Australia

Native English speaker offers help learning English in exchange for help learning German

Beitrag von Ant »

Hallo, Entschuldigung, mein deutsch ist sher sher schlect. Ich kann nur richtig Englisch sprechen.
I speak English natively, and well. I know this place might not be the most appropriate to ask for help but I can't find anywhere else. I am trying to learn German, however I struggle. I am learning on my own and have no one to ask questions. I was hoping I could come here for help. Whilst I'm no literary professional I'm a decent writer as a hobbyist, and I am more than happy to help people and answer any questions.




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

Re: Native English speaker offers help learning English in exchange for help learning German

Beitrag von Keswick »

Ant hat geschrieben:Hallo,

entschuldigung, aber mein Deutsch ist sehr sehr schlecht. Ich kann nur richtig Englisch sprechen.

I speak English natively, and well. I know this place might not be the most appropriate to ask for help but I can't find anywhere else. I am trying to learn German, however I struggle. I am learning on my own and have no one to ask questions. I was hoping I could come here for help. Whilst I'm no literary professional I'm a decent writer as a hobbyist, and I am more than happy to help people and answer any questions.
Hi Ant,

I think you might find someone to practise your German with on this forum. Why don't you tell us a little more about yourself?
Bitte keine Korrektur- / Erklärungsanfragen per PN.
British English (BE) Sprecher.

Ant
Bilingual Newbie
Beiträge: 3
Registriert: 7. Dez 2015 08:00
Muttersprache: English
Wohnort: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Native English speaker offers help learning English in exchange for help learning German

Beitrag von Ant »

A bit more about myself...
Well I'm a 22 y/o Australian guy, currently taking a gap year from studying IT (was focusing in Web Development but I want to change to Networking or something.) My interests are video games, game modification, fitness, health and digital arts. I'm the 2nd generation born in Australia in my family, my Oma and Opa having migrated from the Netherlands. (Though my uncle was also born in Holland.) I'm very interested in the linguistics of the Germanic region and intend to migrate there at some point in the future.


I've really enjoyed learning German so far (using software) but I've had no opportunity to practice it with others.
Which I'm here to change, needless to say.


What I've struggled the most with so far is... I think it's called conjugation? Like knowing when to use trinken vs trinkst vs trinkt.
I know some people with English struggle with Their/They're/There but I've had the difference explained to me and there are cool little ways of remembering them.
I don't know any such things for German. =[

Schuyler
Frequent Typer
Beiträge: 233
Registriert: 1. Mai 2015 01:40
Muttersprache: English (US)
Wohnort: USA (NJ)

Re: Native English speaker offers help learning English in exchange for help learning German

Beitrag von Schuyler »

What I've struggled the most with so far is... I think it's called conjugation? Like knowing when to use trinken vs trinkst vs trinkt.
I know some people with English struggle with Their/They're/There but I've had the difference explained to me and there are cool little ways of remembering them.
I don't know any such things for German. =[
How you conjugate the verb depends on the subject of the sentence (the noun/pronoun "doing" the verb.) The way my teacher taught it, once we had gone over the patterns, was through a lot of repetition with different verbs until we didn't even have to think about it anymore. We have conjugation in English, too, so if you understand the difference between, for example, "I say" vs. "he says," it's the exact same concept as with German conjugation. A German-speaker wouldn't say "ich sagst," just like an English-speaker wouldn't say "I says."

What can make German conjugation seem confusing for an English-speaker is that German has more variety in the verb endings. Whereas English verbs typically only have two different conjugations in the present tense (say/says, see/sees, walk/walks, etc.,) German verbs can have four or more. However, the idea is the same.
For regular verbs (I'll use trinken as an example,) the German conjugation in present tense is as follows:
  • infinitive form: trinken (to drink)

    1st person (sing.): ich trinke (I drink)
    2nd person (informal sing.): du trinkst (you drink)
    3rd person (sing.): er/sie/es trinkt (he/she/it drinks)

    1st person (pl.): wir trinken (we drink)
    2nd person (informal pl.): ihr trinkt (you [all] drink)
    3rd person (pl.): sie trinken (they drink)

    2nd person (formal sing. & pl.): Sie trinken (you drink)
So that means that when the subject of the sentence is ich, the conjugation is trinke; when the subject is du, the conjugation is trinkst, and so on. For example:
  • Er trinkt ein Glas Milch. (He drinks a glass of milk.)
    Ihr trinkt Tee. (You [all] drink tea.)
    Ich trinke eine Tasse Kaffee. (I drink a cup of coffee.)
    Wir trinken kaltes Wasser. (We drink cold water.)

Does that help at all? I'm drawing a blank on any cool/fun ways to learn it, but I hope I made the concept a little easier to understand. Of course, be aware that like in English, not every verb follows this same pattern -- this is just the conjugation for regular verbs. It's a good place to start when you're first learning the language, but if you're trying to conjugate a verb you don't know, remember to check if it is regular or not.

There's another website I'm a member of that you might find useful: http://gemeinsam-deutsch-lernen.net/index.php . It's aimed specifically at helping English-speakers learn and practice German, so it might be more helpful than here if you're a beginner. :)
American • she/they • sie/ihr
EN (L1) • DE (B2?) • PL (A1)

Ant
Bilingual Newbie
Beiträge: 3
Registriert: 7. Dez 2015 08:00
Muttersprache: English
Wohnort: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Native English speaker offers help learning English in exchange for help learning German

Beitrag von Ant »

Thank you Schuyler! That was very helpful. I think similarly it will just take me a lot of practice. But having it all laid out helps a lot, I will definitely reference it in study in the future. 
Also the forum you linked is great! Thank you. =]

Pador
Bilingual Newbie
Beiträge: 1
Registriert: 20. Feb 2016 18:13
Muttersprache: German

Re: Native English speaker offers help learning English in exchange for help learning German

Beitrag von Pador »

Hey,
my name is Patrik and I'am a software programmer. I also want to improve my language skills, but for my case it's English.
You can send me a PM if you want and I think there a enough topics we can talk about :-)
Best regards 

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

Re: Native English speaker offers help learning English in exchange for help learning German

Beitrag von tiorthan »

Pador hat geschrieben:Hey,
my name is Patrik and I'm a software developer[sub]1[/sub]. I also want to improve my language skills, but in my case it's English.
You can send me a PM if you want and I think there a enough topics we can talk about :-)
Best regards 
1 - It's usually either "computer programmer" or just "programmer" (because not much else is programmed professionally nowadays) or "software developer". "Software programmer" sounds like someone who just programs within a software, like exclusively writing macros or such.
You're never too old to learn something stupid.
MistakeSuggestionYou sure that's right?

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