'Line of Separation' and learning German

[watervole]

 If you want a recommendation for a really good German-language (with subtitles) TV programme, then try this recommendation by londonkds.

The drama is called 'Line of Separation' and is on channel 4 iplayer.

It's set just at the end of WW2 and it's pretty harrowing.  Definitely not for children.  Well acted.

My grandparents lived through being bombed, but they never had to live through occupation - for which I am very grateful.

I'm teaching myself a little German at the moment, partly because I'm not too well at present (costochondritis).  I tire easily and can only do a limited amount of computer work before my ribs start hurting.

There's only so much TV one can watch before brain rot sets in - sitting down with board game rules in German, and a dictionary and grammar to hand, at least ensures that the brain is engaged.

There's nothing quite like trying to work out the correct ending for an adjective when used before a feminine noun in the accusative case to force you to have to think...

And if anyone can tell me why it's "keinen Dank"  - Ah, just got it.  Dank is spelt the same whether it's singlar or plural (half the online dictionaries don't tell you what the plural is, which is a right pain).  Thus, "no thanks" and keinen  with 'en' is correct for mixed declension plural before a masculine noun.  (I wanted something to distract me from stress, there's nothing like tables of endings...)

Why, why, why do languages have genders?  
What's the point?

English is good in that regard, but has its own quirks.  eg. "I hit him"  - is that present or past tense?  I never noticed before, until I was looking for simple sentences to translate and realised that I didn't know what tense to use in German.

Comments

[word_geek]

Most people learning English are driven to despair by the two forms of every tense. German, like most other languages in Europe*, does not distinguish between I do and I am doing, and that's why it's such a common error. That said, we barely use the subjunctive, so that was an unpleasant intro to A level German - here, this tense is super common, and you will barely have used it. Good luck.

Plus, our spellings are bonkers because we borrowed from so many languages.

H
*cannot speak for non-European languages

[watervole]

Heck I don't even know what a subjunctive is. (though I've just looked it up on Wikipedia, so I now know that I do occasionally use it in English)

Blame Dr Johnson. He liked to use the spelling to match the language of origin, rather than phonetic spelling.

[word_geek]

The first lesson in A level German was our teacher first teaching us that this tense existed, and then teaching it in German, and telling us that while we might not find ourselves using it much in our written work (you don't tend to use the bits of a new language that are not common to your own until you have *really* internalised it), we would now start seeing it in work we were expected to translate.

It was a bit of a shock after a fairly easy slide into GCSE (as in, I found all the concepts easy, I just lacked confidence in spoken German).

I did find it an excellent way to get bonus points in essays in German, though.

H