Learning German via Songs

Also known as why the hell am I always walking around singing to myself a strange language!!

Since my brain seems to be programmed to memorize/remember song lyrics and music this is one of the tools that I am using to get my German skills back.  My desk looks like a German dictionary and grammar lesson got into a fight and both came out as losers!  There are random bits of paper with German words and phrases written all over them.  (And I should note that its sometimes very badly misspelled German)

I've been pretty much just listening to Woflsheim and Peter Heppner non-stop for the past 2 months.  While the majority of the music is in English there are some beautiful German songs and Peter has done quite a few side projects with other artists that are in German.  I have learned some very "colorful" phrases that I can  now say in German!!

So far one hurdle that I have encountered with the spoken language is that the German 'R' is very different from the Spanish 'R'.  As someone who can actually sound out and hear the difference between the Spanish 'R' and 'RR' I have to fight my natural propensity to roll my R's! 

Meine Welt

The one high point of this week has been hearing the upcoming single 'Meine Welt' by Peter Heppner.  I've been listening to it non-stop for the past 2 days and I absolutey LOVE the song.  I've been working on translating it into english and its not the most "english friendly" song; it definitely sounds much better in german than it would in english.  I do love the verse
Meine Welt... Meine Welt...
Und die Liebe die wird rot
Und der Hass schwarz wie der Tod
Ich mach' das so wie's mir gefällt
Denn ich mal ja Meine Welt

It translate a bit rough- My world, my world...and the love is red and the hate is black as death....I'll do it just as I please because its my world.

Effin Grammar!

I hate German contractions!! *beats head against wall* Stupid things are way to freakin hard to translate :(

Life and other stuff

Have not had a chance to actually do anything normal this week.  My mom had emergency surgery last night and I managed to pull one of my hip flexor muscles at the gym.  Half the house is in pain and doped up on pain meds; all the men are hiding and staying out of the way!!

Hopefully I will get back on track tomorrow or this weekend.  Starting to recognize more words in German but I still cannot get my brain to think in German. 

Super Bowl Sunday

Not much to report for today.  Hit up Target and Barnes and Noble for some supplies; I found one of the books I was looking for and grabbed a grammar book.

Spent the majority of the day watching the game and listening to Wolfsheim.  So even though I didn't dive into my German books I at least got in some listening practice...accompanied by some very bad singing.  Apparently I sing in German with a Spanish accent.  :)

My study aides- 5 books, 1 desk calendar, new pens, new pencils and 3 notebooks.  The grammar book scares me!! 

My brain hurts!

Started my online German course today.  There is quite a bit that I do remember but there is still a ton of stuff that I have forgotten.  I HATE grammar in English and its even more confusing in German.  Why do some foreign languages insist on assigning gender to words?!??!!  I'm loving the fact that English is gender neutral; I don't have to worry if an object is "male" or "female'.  Its just "the"

Oops!

Well so much for my attempt to write more! :) The husband absconded with the laptop over the weekend and I was too damn tired to actually write anything. 

Starting to slowly understand a few more words in German; I've been trying to listen to just songs in German while at work and when I hear something that I know I've been making a habit of writing it down.  Right now I have little scraps of paper with random phrases all over my desk.  Either my coworkers think I've finally gone totally bat shit crazy or that I lost the ability to spell. 

Going to start my online German course this week.  Hopefully once I brush up on grammar things will start to click into place.  And hopefully my brain will stop defaulting to Spanish whenever I want to say something in another language!