How to prepare for the German B2 proficiency exam

German (language): How should I study for the Goethe Institut's B2 Zertifikat exam?
Answered by various Quorans, pay attention to Michael Sieler, Michael Schmitz, Thomas Novella, and Alex Alvaro's answers
https://www.quora.com/German-language-How-should-I-study-for-the-Goethe-Instituts-B2-Zertifikat-exam

My Experiences with the Goethe-Zertifikat-B2 Exam at the Goethe-Institut Sydney
by Crno Srce
http://yetanotherlanguage.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-experiences-with-goethe-zertifikat.html

The following blog entries by Jameel Khaleel Hijazeen give extremely detailed explanations on taking steps towards B2 proficiency:

Ten months from zero to B2 Goethe Certificate outside Germany: My German Language Leraning Experience
[Updated link:
https://amanfrommoab.wordpress.com/2014/07/23/experience-ten-months-zero-b2-goethe-certificate-outside-germany/]

http://amanfrommoab.com/2014/07/23/experience-ten-months-zero-b2-goethe-certificate-outside-germany/

A 10 JD Sample B2 Test in Geothe Institut Amman: My Experience (B2 Probeprüfung, Goethe-Institut Jordanien)
[Updated link:
https://amanfrommoab.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/a-10-jd-sample-b2-test-in-geothe-institut-amman-my-experience-b2-probeprfung-goethe-institut-jordanien/]
http://amanfrommoab.com/2014/03/24/a-10-jd-sample-b2-test-in-geothe-institut-amman-my-experience-b2-probeprfung-goethe-institut-jordanien/

The Most Interesting and Quiskest Way to Learn a Lot of German Vocabulay and Pass Goethe’s B2 Exam
[Updated link:
http://amanfrommoab.wordpress.com/2014/07/23/interesting-quiskest-way-learn-lot-german-vocabulay-pass-goethes-b2-exam/]
http://amanfrommoab.com/2014/07/23/interesting-quiskest-way-learn-lot-german-vocabulay-pass-goethes-b2-exam/

How to prepare for the German C1 proficiency exam

Preparing for the Goethe C1 Zertifikat
by Matt
https://postcardsfrommatt.wordpress.com/2015/01/19/preparing-for-the-goethe-c1-zertifikat/

How to prepare for an advanced language exam. Lessons from my Goethe-Institut C1 success
by Gareth Popkins
https://howtogetfluent.com/how-to-prepare-for-an-advanced-language-exam-lessons-from-my-goethe-institute-c1-success/

How I passed German Goethe C1 German exam
by Sansar Choinyambuu
[Updated link:
https://medium.com/@sansar.choinyambuu/how-i-passed-german-goethe-c1-german-exam-7912a193f83e]
http://chsansar.blogspot.com/2015/05/how-i-prepared-for-goethe-c1-german.html

Lost in Papua: Excerpt Transcript in Indonesian, English, German, and Mandarin

I'm practicing my listening comprehension and translation skills by transcribing dialogue from movies or video clips. Here's a two-minute section from the Indonesian movie "Lost in Papua". Dialogue in Indonesian without subtitles. First I transcribed the dialogue and then translated it into English, German, and Mandarin. 

=====

Lost in Papua

[around 34:00]

Papuan man:

Apa benar kalian akan pergi ke sana?

[Is it true that all of you are going there?]

{Ist es wahr, dass ihr dort fahren werdet?}

你們要去那裡，真的嗎？

Ebie:

Betul, bapa. Saya sendiri yang akan dampingi Nadia, Meri dan Zabo untuk pergi ke hutan itu.

[Yes, "father". I myself will accompany Nadia, Meri and Zabo to go to the jungle.]

{Ja, "Vater". Ich werde Nadia, Meri und Zabo in den Dschungel begleiten.}

對，叔叔。我會陪 Nadia, Meri 和 Zabo 進去森林。

Papuan man:

Saya mengajari kamu tentang etnografi Papua. Juga tentang bahasa dari suku-suku yang ada di pedalaman sana. Tetapi itu tidak berarti bahawa saya juga, yang menyuruh kamu harus pergi ke sana.

[I taught you about Papuan ethnography. Also about the languages of the tribes that exist in the interior. But that doesn't mean that I, am saying that you have to go there.]

{Ich habe dich die Papua-Ethnographie beigebracht. Gleichfalls über die Sprachen der Stämme, dass im Innern wohnen. Aber dann sage ich nicht, dass du dort fahren musst.}

我教過你 Papua 的民族志。還有住在內部的民族語言。但是我沒有說你須要去那裡。

Ebie:

Saya tahu itu, bapa. Tapi sekarang saya sudah cukup dewasa. Saya bertanggungjawab terhadap satu keluarga. Dan kali ini, saya sudah putuskan bahawa saya harus pergi ke sana untuk cari tahu khabar tentang saya punya "Omjohn". Apa lagi sekarang Meri juga ingin pergi ke sana. Saya tidak mungkin biarkan Meri pergi sendiri.

[I know that, "father". But now I'm already an adult. I'm responsible for a family. And this time, I've decided that I must go there to find out news about my "Omjohn". What more now Meri also wants to go there. I can't possibly let Meri go alone.]

{Es weiß ich, "Vater". Aber jetzt bin ich genug erwachsen. Ich bin für eine Familie verantwortlich. Und diesmal habe ich entschieden, dass ich dort fahren muss. Weil ich die Nachrichten über mein "Omjohn" herausfinden will. Außerdem Meri auch dort hinfahren will. Ich kann nicht sie alleine fahren lassen.}

叔叔，我知道。不過現在我夠大了。我對家庭有責任。這一次，我決定要去那裡找我的 Omjohn 的消息。還有 Meri 也要去。我不甘心給她自己去。

Papuan man:

Di dalam hutan Boven Digul itu masih ada mitos. Ada perkampungan yang seluruh penghuninya itu terdiri daripada kaum perempuan. Dan sampai saat ini tidak seorang pun yang pernah lihat mereka. Seperti apa aktivitas hidup mereka, tidak ada yang pernah tahu. Tapi yang pasti, bahawa mereka itu masih hidup sangat primtif. Jadi kalian harus hati-hati apabila kalian pergi ke sana dan bertemu dengan mereka. Sebab, saya tidak tahu apa yang akan terjadi. Sebaiknya kalian tinggal di perkampungan suku Korowai. Kerana di sana kalian akan lebih aman daripada kalian harus hidup di hutan yang masih liar dan misteri ini. Saya pun tidak tahu apa yang akan terjadi. [Pauses, shakes head, stands up and leaves.]

 

[In the Boven Digul jungle there are still myths. There are villages where all the inhabitants are women. And until now (until this second in time) nobody has ever seen them. Such as what their life activities are, nobody has ever known. But for sure, they still live a very primitive life. So all of you must be very careful when you go there and meet them. Because, I don't know what will happen. Best if you stay at the Korowai tribal village. Because there you will be safer (more peaceful) than if you have to live in the wild and mysterious forest. I also don't know what's going to happen.]

{Im Dschungel von Boven Digul gibt es noch Mythos. Es gibt Dörfer, wo alle Einwohner weiblich sind. Niemand hat bisher schon mal gesehen. Zum Beispiel, was sind ihre Lebensaktivitäten, niemand weiß. Aber sicher leben sie immer noch ein sehr primitives Leben. Also müsst ihr vorsichtig sein, wenn ihr dort fahrt, und mit ihnen trifft. Weil ich weiß nicht, was passieren wird. Am besten bleibt ihr im Dorf von die Korowai-Stamm. Weil dort ihr mehr sicher seid als im wilden und geheimnisvollen Dschungel wohnen. Ich weiß nicht, was passieren wird.}

在 Boven Digul 森林還有神話。有鄉村，居民全部是女性。到現在沒有人看過她們。不過好限定，她們的生活還是很落後。所以你們去那裡認識她們一定要很小心。因為我不知道什麼會發生。最好你們住在 Korowai 族的鄉村。因為哪裡你們會比較安全過住在野蠻和秘密的森林。我不知道什麼會發生。 

German essay: Meine Probleme

[Corrections based on feedback received on Saturday, 5 November 2016.
Story originally told in Cantonese, which I translated to English and then to German. I'm sure there are grammar and idiomatic errors in the text. So if anyone reads this and finds errors, please let me know and I'll correct them. Thanks.]

Meine Probleme

Ich fühle mich sehr, sehr gestresst. Zu viele Probleme. Zu viele Drücken Druck/Stress. Es ist kompliziert. Ich bin müde. Bitte, bitte sei nicht zu streng mit mir im Klasse Unterricht, weil ich mich dann nicht konzentrieren kann. Wie schläfrig ich bin, kannst du sehen. Ich konnte nicht ausruhen. Ich habe nicht gut geschlafen.

Das Finanzielle. Die Beziehung. Die Familie. Die Arbeit. Diesen Sachen machen stressen mich gestresst. Am schwersten ist das Finanzielle. Nach dem die Tod meines Vaters, musste ich meinen jungen Geschwistern unterstützen. Es gibt fünf von ihnen und sie brauchen Geld. Dafür muss ich mich beim Arbeiten sehr viel anstrengen. Sie brauchen Geld für das die Lebenskosten. Über die Beziehung? Du weißt schon, was passiert mit meinem Freund. Ich habe es dir erzählt. Die familiäre Probleme sind mit dem Finanzielle verbindet verbunden. Die Arbeit auch. Manchmal gibt es Zahlungsverzug oder eine Absage in letzter Minute. Manchmal ist es so schwer, einen Deal zu abzuschließen.

Du kannst mich über nach meinen Problemen fragen. Ich kann dir mehr erzählen. Es ist okay mit mir für mich. Wenn ich mir nicht sicher bin wie es sagen bin soll, frage ich dich. Ich weiß, dass du mir den mit Worten helfen wirst. Glücklicherweise kannst du Kantonesisch und Mandarin. Du kannst es übersetzen.

Mach dir keine Sorgen! Mir wird es gut gehen. Ich werde okay sein. Ich kann es schaffen. Ich kann meine Probleme lösen. Egal was passiert, ich werde überleben.

My German placement test experience at Goethe-Institut Kuala Lumpur

Einstufungsprüfung @Goethe-Institut Kuala Lumpur:
Reading comprehension & grammar: Borderline A2-B1
Speaking: A2
Test date: Thursday, 30 June 2016

So I signed up for the Goethe-Institut placement test for A2 level during the last week of June 2016. I had studied German on my own, alone, without a speaking partner since January this year. I wanted to know where I stood and how much I've achieved.

I'm glad. The examiner, Tim was impressed. He said that very few people reach this stage studying on their own alone.

I was nervous. I stumbled and made mistakes in speaking. Sometimes I couldn't find the right word in time, sometimes I used the wrong tense, but when it was pointed out I could rephrase it in the correct tense form.

So speaking is definitely at A2 level. On par with students who have taken four months of intensive, full-time group classes. What I did on my own in five months gave me the results I expected. If I had someone to practice speaking with, I'd have gone even further. The results could have been better.

That means what I did was right. All the Goldlisting for vocabulary, reading authentic texts, building up from the basic blocks, isolated pronunciation practice followed by reciting sentences, hand-copying out 10,000 sentences, active, intensive listening to content I'm interested in, paying attention to words, all those stuff ... :)

Tim told me that my reading comprehension and grammar is somewhere between A2 and B1. But from the test results alone it's not clear exactly which area I didn't do so well. In my opinion it's most probably conditionals, complex sentences and adjective declination with definite and indefinite articles. He said it would be good if I were to strengthen up those weak spots in A2.2 grammar before starting B1.

Before I left, he gave me the URLs of websites I can use, such as the Goethe-Institut's online library and learner community where I could find people with the same interest in learning German. Very helpful :)

I'm just a language learner, not polyglot or multilingual

If I say "polyglot", most likely people in Malaysia will think it's a Korean pop song, the latest K-pop hit. They'd understand "multilingual" better but I'd avoid this term too. I'd just say "I'm a language learner" or "I'm learning [name(s) of language(s)]" and leave it at that. Otherwise people will have all sorts of high-level expectations as if I'm able to function flawlessly in many languages like an expert. As if I can speak like a native with no accent, no mistakes, on any topic using all the technical terms and idiomatic expressions. Come on, even a native speaker would not be able to speak smoothly on unfamiliar topics, right?

Neither do I like using the word "fluent" because it's so loaded with subjective meanings. Many equate it to high proficiency in everything. I personally think it means being able to speak without pausing too much, that's it. So in my opinion one can be fluent at beginner, elementary, intermediate, advanced levels. But to avoid confusion and subjective definitions, I'd stick to proficiency as a measurement tool. Proficiency is what you can do. A beginner can do less, an expert can do much more.

For me, I'm comfortable claiming English, Bahasa Malaysia, Cantonese and Mandarin as languages I'd put on my CV or résumé. That's because I can maintain conversations in these languages at an intermediate to advanced level. Two of these I can read and write at a high level of proficiency.

English is my main spoken and written language. I've used it in an academic setting up to university level and lived in an English-speaking country for four and a half years. With Bahasa Malaysia I have full working proficiency, having learnt it in eleven years of national school (Sekolah Kebangsaan + Sekolah Menengah) where it's the medium of instruction. For Cantonese, my heritage language, I can hold conversations comfortably on a variety of topics, including abstract and less common ones. However, in Mandarin my range of spoken expression is limited to concrete, straightforward matters.

I prefer the term "main language" because that's what it means. "Mother tongue" or "first language" can be misleading especially in my case. People look at me, see that I'm Chinese and assume my main language must be Mandarin and that I'm able to speak it like a native. No, no, no. Take it easy, man. Assumptions, ass-ump-tions can kill. I'm lost if you speak rapid-fire Mandarin and use all those idioms and alliterations that a high-level speaker would know. I'm just intermediate, for goodness sake. Keep it simple and straightforward.

I've also learnt some other languages to varying extents, such as Hakka, Penang Hokkien, Vietnamese, Thai, Tamil, Japanese, Portugese, Russian and French, but can't maintain a conversation so I wouldn't say I speak them. My mileage varies though, as I'm able to read French and Portuguese to some extent and speak enough Hakka to surprise people for a couple of minutes.

Other languages that I can speak at an elementary level (CEFR A2) are Spanish and German. For German I took a placement test (Einstufungsprüfung) for A2 at the Goethe-Institut Kuala Lumpur, so it validated my estimation of my speaking ability (although I'm sure my reading comprehension is better than A2). I wouldn't put them on my resume until I can speak them at the same level as my Mandarin which I reckon to be at intermediate level (B1 on the CEFR for those who know what the heck it is).

Spanish I haven't spoken for years so it's quite rusty, but can be revived quickly with some practice. I do have problems understanding Spain Spanish because my exposure has been primarily to American Spanish. I'm surprised that I remember so much vocabulary, so I must have done something right when learning the language thirteen years ago.

Yet I can read German and Spanish much better than Mandarin. I understand books and newspapers in German and Spanish, and can speed-read in both. But I read very slowly and struggle with deciphering the language of Chinese newspapers. Any book written in Chinese makes me fall asleep. Give me anything in the Roman alphabet and I'll digest it fast. Give me a non-alphabetic or complex writing system and I'll dump it into the slow cooker.

At the moment I'm learning German at full speed. That's what I'm focusing on now for language learning. Somehow German appeals to me because of the things I can read in it. Their open attitude towards certain matters, their variety of topics, their cultural advancement, and a rich library of content available on the Internet provide strong motivating factors for me to dive into it. The only difficulty I have now is finding real people to talk to, but in the meantime I'm doing intensive listening and transcribing to get used to the spoken language.

I'd like to learn more languages, but there are only 24 hours in a day and I have other things to do as well. So I'm just concentrating on one to bring it up to at least an upper intermediate level. Once I reach that point, I'll start learning another one. The rest are on maintenance or storage mode.

Malaysian Street Names: What do all those strange words mean?

Usually we see Jalan (Road) and Lorong (Lane). But what about Changkat, Solok, Pesara, Gat Lebuh, Regat, or Selasar?

Answers below. 

-----
In Penang you find the greatest variety of street names other than Jalan and Lorong. Here's a primer from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streets_in_George_Town,_Penang



[Extract begins here] 

In translating the English words for street, road, lane, etc., the city authorities follow a fairly regular system to avoid confusion between many streets of similar names. There are exceptions to this rule where the historic Malay usage is different and there is no chance of confusion, e.g. Hutton Lane has always been known as Jalan Hutton (see e.g. the Mesjid Jalan Hatin (mosque) there) rather than *Lorong Hutton.

Avenue - Lebuhraya (e.g. Peel Avenue/Lebuhraya Peel; context usually prevents confusion with the normal meaning of lebuhraya, viz. highway/expressway)
Circus - Lilitan (e.g. Hargreaves Circus/Lilitan Hargreaves)
Close - Solok (e.g. Scott Close/Solok Scott)
Court - Halaman (e.g. Cantonment Court/Halaman Cantonment)
Crescent - Lengkok (e.g. Jesselton Crescent/Lengkok Jesselton)
Cross - Lintang (e.g. Burmah Cross/Lintang Burma)
Drive - Persiaran (e.g. Gurney Drive/Pesiaran Gurney)
Gardens - Taman (e.g. Western Gardens/Taman Western)
Lane - Lorong (e.g. Prangin Lane/Lorong Perangin)
Place - Pesara (e.g. Claimant Place/Pesara Claimant)
Quay - Pengkalan (e.g. Weld Quay/Pengkalan Weld)
Road - Jalan (e.g. Perak Road/Jalan Perak)
Square - Medan (e.g. College Square/Medan Maktab; also used for some new square-shaped roads that are not open squares, e.g. York Square/Medan York)
Street - Lebuh (e.g. Campbell Street/Lebuh Campbell)
Street Ghaut - Gat Lebuh (e.g. China Street Ghaut/Gat Lebuh China)
Terrace - Tingkat (e.g. Erskine Terrace/Tingkat Erskine)

The word "Ghaut" at the end of some street names reflects the fact that they are extensions of the original streets beyond the original waterfront at Beach St with the reclamation of the Ghauts and the construction of Weld Quay, ghat being a Hindi and Bengali word meaning a flight of steps leading down to a body of water.




[Extract ends here]
-----
In Ipoh you can find Hala, Regat, and Selasar.

Crossing - Regat (e.g. Canton Crossing/Regat Canton, Maxwell Crossing/Regat Maxwell)
Extension - Selasar (e.g. Chateau Extension/Selasar Chateau, Rokam Extension/Selasar Rokam)
Way - Hala (e.g. Pari Garden Way/Hala Taman Pari, Wah Keong Way/Hala Wah Keong)

In Kuala Lumpur you can find Changkat.

Heights - Changkat (e.g. Bukit Bintang Heights/Changkat Bukit Bintang, Semantan Heights/Changkat Semantan)

Meanings sourced from Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu @DBP
http://prpm.dbp.gov.my/Search.aspx?
(Meanings of those "rare" words given in Malay only. I translated them based on what I know of the language.)

How did I get a B1 for the Deutsche Welle German placement test?

So I took the German language placement test [http://einstufungstest.dw.de] from Deutsche Welle today for CEFR Level B1. It had 30 questions that covered listening comprehension, reading, and controlled writing sections. Answers were true/false and gap fill. You could listen to the spoken parts for a maximum of three times. Only speaking wasn't tested.

I scored 76% overall. Took about an hour and twelve minutes to finish the test. Passing mark is 60% overall, if you score 80% or more it recommends you go for B2. For me, it said, "If you would like to continue improving your German, you should enroll for a format that is now starting towards the B2 level."

What does this mean? What implications does it have for me?

Up to now I've never taken any formal classes in German. Everything I've done has been through self-study. I rely a lot on Internet resources although I do have hardcopies of books and some reference material. I've never been to any German-speaking country, I don't have a German girlfriend, and I have no exposure to actual use of the language. All I have is the Internet, YouTube, reference text and audio, plus whatever I can get from online media.

Not being an auditory learner, I only listen to stuff if I have to, and I did a lot of listening otherwise I wouldn't understand the spoken language. Listening comprehension in any language is one of my weakest points and I really have to work very, very hard to stay "alive". Speaking also, because I'm a very quiet person by nature and don't talk unless I have to.

I'm more of a visual learner - I have to see the written text to understand and remember better. That's why I'm more towards reading a lot. Reading has been one of my hobbies since young, specifically in English. So I use my strength in this area to improve my German through reading as much as I can. I choose topics of interest which are the same things I'd read in English, except hardcore technical or classical literature. Normally I don't read entertainment or celebrity stuff in English but I do so in German.

Let's see what I've done to come this far. What worked for me, and what I could have done better?

I got hold of a wordlist with about 2400 German words (the DTZ = Deutsch-Test für Zuwanderer.) [http://www.goethe.de/lhr/pro/daz/dfz/dtz_Wortliste.pdf] Available for public use, it's aimed at integration courses for immigrants to Germany and its level is around A2-B1. Every word has several example sentences in simple German to show its meaning in context. And this book is entirely in German - 100% Deutsch. No English or any other language at all.

So what I did was, I copied out every sentence by hand. Yes. I handwrote them all. About 10,000 sentences. Filled in two A4-size exercise books in two or three weeks, I think. At first I wrote English translations in the wordlist printout. As I reached the halfway point, I realised I didn't have to write English words anymore because the repeated exposure had gotten the German words into my mind. I wore out a couple of ballpoint pens in the process. Discovered through trial and error that it's well worth spending a few extra dollars on pens that are comfortable to hold and have better quality ink.

I went to Memrise and found two wordlists:

http://www.memrise.com/course/44392/zertifikat-deutsch-wortliste/
Zertifikat Deutsch Wortliste
The official word list from the Zertifikat Deutsch B1 exam. (About 2400 words)

http://www.memrise.com/course/920/5000-german-words-top-87/
5000 German Words (top 87%)

Then I used the Goldlist Method to learn them.
Summary explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixxq8moh4pg
Detailed explanation: http://berrjod.no/goldlist/
Explanation from the originator: https://huliganov.tv/goldlist-eu/

Luckily I had bought several 200-page A4-size exercise books from Popular bookstore with 35 lines per page for Goldlisting the German vocabulary. I did this intensively over a period of three months from January to March 2016. Yeah, I probably wrote too many words in some days, but I feel it's better for me to cram whenever I can because when I get busy with things later I won't have time.

I opened up the grammar book from Teach Yourself: "German Grammar You Really Need to know" by Jenny Russ. I copied out by hand the "Ten things to remember" for every chapter in the book, and also example sentences, texts, and dialogues into my pocketbook which contains all my German language learning notes compiled from various sources.

I went to https://www.youtube.com/user/smartergerman on YouTube and watched all the videos in Michael Schmitz' A1-B1 German Grammar Course. Highly recommended! Michael has the ability to explain the complexities of German grammar in an easy-to-understand way. He also introduces memory techniques to remember those key concepts and knows what's important at which level.  I took down notes for every video and recopied the notes by hand into another exercise book.

I went to About.com and checked out their articles on learning German.
http://german.about.com/

I checked out http://germanforenglishspeakers.com/ for their grammar explanations.

I also checked out http://www.thegermanprofessor.com/ for its presentation of important areas such as the top 500 German words and top 100 German verbs.

I looked up the preview pages of Glossika's German Fluency 1, 2, and 3 and hand-copied whatever sentences they had in the preview. If you buy their package, you have 3000 sentences in audio and text format to listen and refer to.

I transcribed several Helene Fischer interviews sourced from YouTube. Helene has a very beautiful voice, both in speaking and singing, and I believe it's a good model for language learners in terms of accent, intonation and refined presentation.

I made use of Google Translate, German Wiktionary, online verb conjugators, and good old hardcopy dictionaries.

I read the tabloid newspaper Bild [www.bild.de] every day on my mobile phone. At least a few German news articles a day to keep my reading skills alive.

I went to YouTube and searched for Helene Fischer, Carolin Kebekus, Luke Mockridge, and other celebrities. Songs, interviews, comedies. Documentaries like Die Sendung mit der Maus. Dramas like Tatort, Hilf mir - jung, pleite, verzweifelt!, Das Traumschiff ...

If the people talk too fast I either use Audacity to slow down the speed or just rewind and playback until I get that part right. Else I turn on the subtitles in German if available.

Deutsche Welle [www.dw.de] has a lot of good stuff in their Video-Thema but I haven't gotten to that yet. I've yet to check out talk shows.

I might have missed out some websites or things I did, but this is what I can remember off the cuff for now.

What should I do now?

It would be good to look at the B2 and C1 levels. I've sought out advice on how to study for the B2 and C1 levels respectively, and some people on the Internet have given very helpful information on what to expect and how to study for them.

I would also need to find someone to speak with, otherwise my speaking will never improve. In the meantime I'll just have to do much more active, intensive listening and transcription exercises. Reading is no problem for me so I'll continue doing what I've been doing.

Anni Perka - Bitte melde dich lyrics & video

Anni Perka - Bitte melde dich (offizielles Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS-15hSpp2E
[Length: 3:44]

[I couldn't find the lyrics anywhere so I listened to the music video a couple of times and typed out the song text. It should be 90% accurate, but I'm sure I missed out something somewhere. Let me know about any mistakes and I'll correct them. Thanks.]

Ich hatte niemals gedacht das wieso was passiert
Das mein koolest Herz die verstandt und die kommt verliert
Ich weiß nicht vorhin das so führt
Große Gefühl taeg gefällt ist iniert
Was heiterem hier mö verliebt
Verrückt nach dir

Ab dich hat zu Augen verlor in der Hitze der Rat
Der Wai ja die ich alles der schönes gedacht
Der heb und mittags und gelacht
Die Feuer gespielt und ist angefahrt
Von Flugel in mir nach gelacht
Zusammen aufgewacht

Bitte melde dich
Hörst du mich
Wo bist du
Ich suche dich
Bitte melde dich
Melde dich bei mir

Bitte melde dich
Hörst du mich
Wo bist du
Ich suche dich
Bitte melde dich
Melde dich bei mir

Ich für dich wiedersehen und immer verliert

Ein Stunde lang ohne ein dir ich die Strasse gehört
Mit Tränen in Augen verlor ganz allein nur verführt
Suche nicht und ein Million
Ich find nie ich nur allein mit du dir
Mein Herz hat es polymution 
Die hypnotisiert 

Bitte melde dich
Hörst du mich
Wo bist du
Ich suche dich
Bitte melde dich
Melde dich bei mir

Bitte melde dich
Hörst du mich
Wo bist du
Ich suche dich
Bitte melde dich
Melde dich bei mir

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Bitte melde dich
Ruf mich an
Damit ich wieder schlafen kann
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Wo bist du
Ich suche dich
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Ich geb nie auf (Am Anfang war das Feuer)

[English: I Never Give Up (In the Beginning was the Fire)]

German lyrics and English translation from

http://lyricstranslate.com/en/ich-geb-nie-auf-am-anfang-war-das-feuer-i-never-give-beginning-was-fire.html

Music Videos: [Singer: Helene Fischer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBfbMKNBF7U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYMbWrmeSlc

Am Anfang war das Feuer

In the beginning was the fire

so heiss wie ein Vulkan

so hot as a volcano,

in deinem Blick war pure Zärtlichkeit

in your look was pure tenderness.

und als die Sonne aufging

And as the sun came up

war alles um uns her

all around us

als ob die Welt neugeboren wär.

was as if the world was reborn.

Deine Nähe ist mir heute so vertraut

Today being near you is so familiar to me,

aber wo ist dieses Kribbeln auf der Haut

but where is that tingling on the skin?

Ich geb nie auf

I never give up,

und ich glaub an grosse Träume

and I believe in great dreams,

denn oft ist in der Asche

because often in the ashes,

noch immer etwas Glut

there is always some glow yet.

wenn du es willst

If you wish it

fangen Rosen an zu blühen

roses start to bloom,

komm fang mit mir noch einmal an

come begin with me again,

weil ich an uns noch glauben kann

because I can still believe in us

komm flieg mit mir noch einmal hoch hinauf

Come fly high with me yet again,

ich geb nie auf

I never give up.

Am Anfang war das Feuer

In the beginning was the fire,

nicht nur für eine Nacht

not just for one night

was haben wir für Pläne oft gemacht

What kind of plans did we often make?

wir suchten neue Sterne

We searched for new stars,

die keiner vor uns sah

which no one saw before us

daß so ein Glück für immer hält, war klar

that so a happiness stays forever, was clear

wenn ich heute Nacht in deinen Armen frier

if I freeze in your arms tonight,

bin ich einsam und ich such den Grund dafür

I am lonely and I search for its reason.

Ich geb nie auf

I never give up,

und ich glaub an grosse Träume

and I believe in great dreams

Of gossipers and toxic people

You know what? Gossipers never ask me about things, but they tend to ask those who interacted with me before. And from there they jump to their own conclusions.

-----
M's advice on this topic and related stuff:

Meet new people.
See if you like.
Get out of the old zone of people if you are no longer happy.

No, no, don't think like that.
Don't say that about yourself.
Don't care what other / some / [fill in the blank] people think.

Take up a new hobby, forget [fill in the blank].
Never mind. Move on.
Leave the old. Start fresh.
Start a new life.
Prove the stupid [fill in the blank] people wrong.

If you know who the gossipers are, then stay away from them. These people are 小人。("Xiu Yan")

I never liked the people there actually.
I don't like the vibe there.
Then move away from it.
Do something new.
Forget the past, enjoy your [fill in the blank] and move on.

Before you can (find back some part of your old happy self, the part that can be carefree and accepting of who you are), you have to let go of the unhappiness.

You move on to live happily.

Forget about [fill in the blank].
[Pronoun] doesn't deserve you at all.
[Pronoun] doesn't deserve your compassion.
If [name] had been through that much then [subject pronoun] should know that it is not right to put you down.
If [pronoun] had really been through so much, anything that comes to [object pronoun] should be heaven.
[Subject pronoun] won't be fussy.

If [subject pronoun] is a survivor, [subject pronoun] will work with you to make both your lives better. Not make you feel miserable.

[Name] doesn't deserve your time.
And you definitely should not feel bad about what [pronoun] said. Because [pronoun] is the [adjective] one here.
Just ignore [object pronoun].

Move forward with a positive mind.

Extensive Reading and Vocabulary Range

[From a presentation by Dr Alexander Arguelles]

Types of Reading

. Intensive reading - assisted reading of relatively short, relatively difficult texts, usually for instrumental purposes - initial comprehension is less than 98% vocabulary coverage

. Extensive reading - unassisted reading of long and relatively easy texts, usually for pleasure [and vocabulary growth] - initial lexical comprehension must be around 98%

Non-lexical factors that affect reading comprehension include:

. Grammatical constructions

. Idiomatic constructions

. Reading speed

. Knowledge of content or familiarity with the subject matter

. Knowledge of cultural or historical references

. Stylistic considerations (clarity, sentence length, use of complex clauses etc.)

Defining the word "word"

. "Word" in the sense of the absolute number of units of letter combinations in a text = a "word token"

. "Word" in the sense of the number of different combinations of letters among the tokens in a text = a "word type"

. Example: The sentence, "The cat ate the mouse," contains five word tokens but four word types as the word "the" occurs twice.

. "Word" in the sense of something that you can look up in a dictionary = "headword" or "lemma". Lemmata include not only their base form, but also their inflexions. Thus, most lemmata contain several word types.

. Example: "Book" contains "books," "man" contains "men", "be" contains "am", "is", "are", "was", "were", "been", and "being".

. "Word" in the sense of a fundamental unit of lexical knowledge that allows you to recognize and understand not only inflected forms of a headword, but also related derived forms = a "word family". Many if not most word families contain several lemmata:

. Example: "accept" includes not only "accepts", "accepted", and "accepting", but also "acceptance", "acceptability", "acceptable", "unacceptable", "acceptably", and "unacceptably".

Knowing a word

. Active knowledge = a person speaks or writes a word naturally and spontaneously

. Passive knowledge = a person recognizes, understands, and may even be able to explain a word, but does not use it spontaneously

. Guessing knowledge = a person derives the meaning of a word from contextual clues

. Reading vocabulary knowledge = active + passive + guessing

How many words does a person know?

. Take the vocabulary size test: http://my.vocabularysize.com

. Cervatiuc: http://iteslj.org/Articles/Cervatiuc-VocabularyAcquisition.html

Word Frequency Lists

. Breaking vocabulary into 1000's

. The 1st 1000 word families of most common words give ~80% text coverage

. The 2nd 1000 word families provide additional ~7%

. The 3rd 1000 word families provide additional ~3%

. ∴ the first 3000 words provide ~90% coverage

. Thereafter, the percent coverage provided by each thousand decreases rapidly and geometrically:

. the 4th thousand family provides an average 2%

. the 6th, 1%

. the 8th, 0.50%

. the 10th, 0.36%

. the 12th, 0.25%

. the 14th, 0.14%

Considerations

. With 3000 words, one can begin to function;

. With that plus a specialized list such as the 570-word Academic Word List (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/index.htm), one can begin specialized studies

. With ~6000, one has 98% coverage of spoken language and with ~8000, close to 100% conversational coverage, but

. Written comprehension only begins at 8000-9000: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/Publications/paul-nation/2006-How-large-a-vocab.pdf

. ∴ obviously, lower frequency words are much more common in writing than in speech, and so they can be acquired only by reading

Learning Lower Frequency Words

. The lower the frequency of a word, the harder it is to learn.

. While 98% textual comprehension of books may be provided by the first 9000 words on average, the remaining 2% for 100% coverage is made up of lower frequency families.

. While the 98% textual comprehension provided by higher frequency lists is relatively homogenous, the 2% provided by the lower frequency families is much more diverse.

. In other words, while one may be able to read a given individual book with 99% comprehension at 12,000-14,000 families, in order to be able to pick up and read a variety of different kinds of books at that level, one needs a native range vocabulary (17,000+)

. ∴ the only way to develop an extensive vocabulary is to engage in the systemic extensive reading of progressively more challenging texts.

. As graded readers rarely go past a few thousand words, a language resource learning center for continued advanced development ought to have lists if not actual libraries of books organized by levels of word families that make them appropriate for vocabulary growth through extensive reading.

[Extracted from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbYMZZISPrU]