German Log: Day 11

It’s fascinating. Things are actually starting to fall into place. It is very satisfying when I for instance grasp how to conjugate the simple past, or how the dative case functions. It sounded like latin to me in the beginning. But by repeatingly listen, practice, and then reading, it starts to make sense. It is a coherent system. An advanced one, I give it that, but I start feeling it can be learned.

I’ve fallen into a regular pattern in my days which goes pretty much like this:

• At lunch I go out for a walk and listen to Laura’s German GrammarPod. This was hard at first because what she talks about is so complicated. I wanted to understand everything at once. But then I realized it doesn’t matter if I don’t understand it completely now. It will come. I just have to focus on what she says, then my subconscious can deal with comprehending this later and bring it up when I need.

• In the late afternoon I go to german.net and do some practice. Now the grammar comes again. I read about the rules and the system and then I do some of their intensive lessons. It’s great for applying the podcast for a practical purpose.

• In the evenings I continue to read a German book on my Kindle. Then I can apply the rules I’ve learned throughout the day in the writing I see. In the beginning it was mostly for pleasure but now I start seeing the system in the writing. Very slowly, of course, but it comes.

The biggest lesson I think so far is that I’ve realized that it is not important to understand everything at once. My subconscious is a great asset. I just have to feed it a big chunk of the right material and when I go to sleep it will work out much of it for me. Perfect.