Learning a Foreign Language

Hi y'all! Today I wanna share some tips to on how to learn a foreign language. I would say for me, the method that my school is applying is quite effective. First we learned basic phrases and the teacher repeat a bunch of time with everyone in class. Then VOCABULARY is very important. The more words you know in the beginning, the easier the process of learning the grammar. Because you CAN'T learn the grammar if you don't know the words. Your brain will focus on finding the meaning of the word and it makes the grammar looks hard. So, vocab after basic phrases. (Don't forget the articles and the singular and plural part). Then comes the building of simple questions and simple sentences, in present tense. Then only in past tense. And then slowly build up in momentum.. And you can speak well :)

Of course, lots and lots of practise. And, learn new words everyday or if possible every time.. Learning a new language, (at least for me), is like you are teaching a kid to talk.

Teacher : This is a ball... What is this ?
Kid : A ball.

Then describe the ball.

Teacher : The ball is round. What is the shape of the ball ? Round. What is the shape ?

Kid : Round (Here he knows the word SHAPE and the word ROUND. And later you can learn other shapes).

And slowly and slowly.. you will get the hang of it..

Good luck for those who are interested in learning a new language!! Practise, practise and practise.. and NEVER GIVE UP! most importantly, HAVE FUN!


I would also wanna share with you tips on the best way to learn new foreign language.. Taken from this site

Schönes Wochenende! (Have a nice weekend!)

Where I live.. now

I have been wanting to blog about this topic for months now.. Only today, I decided to write about it.

As many of you know (tak ramai pun), I am currently residing in Mannheim. This city is known for its structure being Quadratic. Berpetak petak (picture taken from http://www.uni-mannheim.de). What's cool about it is that it has no street name. Only Letters and Numbers. Like in New York (or maybe in Mannhattan if I am not mistaken). And they have about 11 S-Bahn (trems) running around the city which you can hop in and out from one place to another. The city is very properly planned in such a way that you won't get stressed from the jam during rush hour. Your main concern would be, will I miss the SBahn or not?

Personally, I like taking the bus if going back home. But if in the city, SBahn is the main transportation. You can live without a car here in Mannheim. Except if you wanna purchase a furniture or something big for your house, that can be a problem. But how often do you shop big² items ? Jarang - jarang..

So the bandar Mannheim starts from the Hauptbahnhof (Main train station). And after months of observing, I can personally conclude that the bandar is something like Jalan Sultan Ismail. See, for me, Mannheim is divided into two big sections. Satu the posh area. They have shops like Zara, S. Oliver, Engelhorn, Appelrath cüpper, New Yorker (actually ni kedai mcm affordable), H & M (i love!), Buffalo (kedai kasut yg mahal), Saturn (kedai electric electronic and almost anything can be found here), Starbucks, Grimminger along the way. So you feel like walking through Bintang Walk only no mat rempits around.. The second area would be 'the other' area. Area² Marktplatz and Abendakademie. Sini you would feel macam area Sg.Wang and kedai² murah yg ada kat Times Square.. And of course, the Turkish shop. You can get really cheap stuff here and bende kecik² (which is really distracting). Here you can also see the diversed population. Ramai orang pakai tudung here, turkish, iranian, and from countries I havent even heard of. At the end of the street is where my school is. Abendakademie. Macam² orang with macam² dresscode. Before I enrolled in the Deutschkurz, I used to think that it's like a freakschool. Cause the school has soo many diversed people, it's amazing. And everyone speaks Deutsch! So I guess now, I am just like one of those freaks :p

So here I am.. A foreigner in a foreign land, surviving. For my 5th month here, I am posting a video of Mannheim. It was featured on Majalah 3 on my wedding day. The house they shot is now our home.. But we live upstairs. Enjoy and hope you can get a feel of Mannheim :)

Viel spaß!

Ada Apa Dengan Deutsch.. dan Deutschland

Today while walking around in the hot sun to do my assignment, I was laughing alone tanpa disedari. Mainly because I recalled several incidents yang mencuit hati and also some new experiences I would like to share that had recently happened.

Incident 1 : Ingat ni kedai Turkei ke?
Right now, we are learning Past Tense (Perfekt) in our Deutschkurs. My teacher gave us homework and usually my husband will check after I have completed it. This was the conversation..

Wife : Tolong checkkan ayat ni betul tak? '....Maria und Jochen hat ein flasche Wein getrunken und ein Stück Fleisch bestellt (Maria and Jochen minom satu gelas air wain dan order satu potong daging)... '

Husband : (checked and laughed) ... tengok la ayat you nih.. diorang minom air wein.. tapi order daging.. you igt ni kedai Turkei ke boleh order² daging.. bang.. bagi sekilo daging bang...

Wife : (Gelak tergolek²)


Incident 2 : Jikalau takde Aral Melintang

Wife : I dah pergi Aral (kedai Stesen minyak) kat KFC tapi tak jmpa gak Relentless Shots tu.. I rase kena pergi Aral lain kot..

Husband : Cuba you pergi Aral dekat Netto kat rumah tu..

Wife : Tu la I rase smlm I ada ternampak.. nak pergi balik la.. Kalu tak.. taktau lagi nak pergi Aral mane dah

Husband : I tau.. kalau u tak jumpa jugak.. I know where you should go..

Wife : Mane ? (intonation dengan penuh harapan)

Husband : Aral Melintang..

Wife : !!!!!!!!


Incident 3 : Tak berapa nak kelakar walaupun pelik tapi benar..
Conversation between me (LS) and my classmate (MC)

MC : LS, schiashishiashia (said something in Mandarin)
LS : Bitte ? (Apa mu royak nih??)
MC : You speak mandarin or cantonse ?
LS : Er... neither..
MC : Oh ? You're from Malaysia right ? I thought Malaysians can speak either Mandarin or Cantonse ?
LS : Ooh.. ya.. but those are Chinese Malaysians.. I am not.. I am a Malay..
MC : Oh ?? (surprised) You mean you're not chinese ?
LS : (nganga ???? ohmyGod... seriously????)

Incident 4: Menyenangkan benda yang susah sket

Cikgu : In Deutsch, I know you don't like it, but we have artikel for every nouns. Every noun has genders and you can know the gender of the noun from the artikel. You have to memorize each artikel for each nouns. However, there are some that you can be sure of the gender of the nouns. For example, and nouns that have a '-chen' in the end is neutrum. i.e. das Brotchen (small bread), das Tischen (small table), das Stühlchen...

MC : That's easy.. just refer as everything as small.. then you can know the gender (neutrum) .. small person, small cake, small everything!

Me : One way to remember it!




There are a few more incidents that had happened.. mainly about class.. would love to blog about it.. tapi I cant really remember the details.. also other random stuff.. sigh.. rindu pulak nak berblog but I have lots of things to do right now... Biss später!!

Youtube

Lately I have been listening to Hari Raya songs. I dont know why. Rindu rumah pun ye. Tak sabar nak bulan puasa pun ye. A mixed feeling. My most favourite would be Aman Shah singing Kepulangan Yang Dinanti. Sedih and sebak bila dengar that song.

Last year was the first time I raya as a wife without my husband beside me but my family with me.. This year, Inshallah will be the first raya together as husband and wife.. however, my family will be 13000 kms away....

Listening to this song

sory²

Perasan tak the previous post has no title and ended just like that ? ok, I was blogging and suddenly my husband came back and I terus tertekan publish post :p hehehe actually I was waiting for the telur to masak so I blogged for awhile. Yesterday's dish was nasi lemak, kari daging and telur rebus. Sedap. It wasn't me who said it, it was my husband. heheheeh sorry I have no pictures. Dah licin habis dimakan.. I guess we were really that hungry. The heat is making us (or at least me) eat alot, sleep alot and laze around alot. Tak larat nak buat apa. But yesterday, the weather was just nice and I decided to surprise my husband with his fave dish :)

Everyday pikir nak masak apa. Sometimes dah sampai takde idea nak masak apa. Yeah² so random housewife talk kan.. hehehe well, its okay. I guess its kinda cool being a housewife. A friend once said , waah you are an expat housewife.. sounds so cool.. heheheh it would be if you're in Malaysia. but here, everyone is the same. Everyone speaks the same language no matter where you are from.. :)

Now that I am in level 2, we are at the difficult of Deutsch. Grammar! Deutsch is one of the most difficult language to learn. I would know, cause I am learning it. It's no where near English. I thought the articles were difficult. Tapi bila masuk dativ and akkusativ mak aih.. And all of this are only in present tense. Belum past tense lagi! oh gosh.. Tabik hormat (lama tak cakap nih) to those who studied in Germany for their degree or masters. Because it is not easy to learn a 3rd language (eg. Deutsch) and also learn a difficult course in it... Most of the time, I am just trying to figure out what they're trying to say or ask..... and then... figure out the answer and how to reply in Deutsch.. that will take me a few seconds.... :p

Hope I will manage! okay.. its 7am now.. gotta get ready for class.. catcha later!

Bis Dann!

Today was the start of the next level of my Deutsch Course. I have been skipping lunch for almost a week now. Reason being, I was too tired and felt too hot to cook. Macam oven. The weather is almost at 38°C nowadays. After class, I went to buy a few stuff for our home. Beras, Pencuci Pinggan Mangkuk etc. (Notice I used Caps lock for the two nouns? Yes, Germans have Big Letters for their nouns. Starting to get used to it). Anyway, after buying my pencuci pinggan mangkuk, I walked by Victoria (kedai aiscream) and saw the Germans enjoying their Eis. Sedapnya. But in the words of Sanisah Suri, Bersabarlah.. I decided not to stop and buy the Eis. Because I would miss the 1.52 bus and will have to take the SBahn and I would rather take the bus. 

As I walked to the Haltestelle (Bus stop), I saw an empty seat. In the hot sun. And under the shade, there were almost 10 people standing under the shade and no one wanted to sit at the empty seat. Everybody was anticipating my decision. Was I gonna sit or join them standing. It looked funny and I felt like I was in some comedic movie. Hmm.. sit in the hot sun or stand under the shade? I decided to sit in the hot sun. I could sense a sigh from the crowd. I guess they were thinking siapa la nak duduk kat kerusi tu.. ehhehehe And in the hot sun, suddenly, I was mumbling words in my mind. And my mental monolog came back again. At that particular time, I wished I had a pc in front of me so that I could blog whatever it was in my mind at that point because I know.. that at that time, it would sound good if I had written it down. Of course I had my handy with me but typing on a computer or writing it down was much better. I could, since I had a pen and a paper but the stuff I was carrying was abit overwhelming and I didn't wanna make a Betty scene of having everything fall down (as always) in the hot sun.

point blank

Hi everyone! I am back and blogging now. Its 940 pm here in Mannheim on a Friday night and I am just chilling here. This is becoming more like a dear diary blog. I decided to change the template (again) of my blog and also change my signature. Today while waiting for the bus, I thought about change. Maybe change is good. Today is also the last day of my nachbarin (partner) in my class. She sits next to me and sometimes we laugh about how difficult it is to pronounce German words! She will be flying back to US on Sunday and will not be joining us for Level A1,2. She is nice and funny and we always try to talk Deutsch and practice.

And so I thought about life. How funny it is that two person from different part of the world can meet at one place. I so wanna blog tp mcm blank tiba2. I hate this feeling :(

when the wind blows

It's been more than a year that I have been married. It's been 4 months that I am here in DE. While waiting for the bus yesterday and today, I thought about these two facts. I remember the time when I was in boarding school or at college I would wait for the weekend or the month end so that I can plan my way back home. That's when I can be dependent and be a teenager or a youngster, eat healthy home cooked food, wake up late and laze around the house watching tv. 

It's a different case now. I am now not in boarding school or college. There is no waiting for a weekend to go back home. Because I go back home everyday after school. The next time we go back to Malaysia would be our parents' home. Of course it will also be our home for awhile when we are there. But we have a home here (alhamdulillah). My husband said to me, This is our home and it hit me. He's right.

Ben Harper

Currently I am listening to Ben Harper's Waiting on an angel. The song sounds so sincere and deep.

I read through my old blog from the very beginning till the end. It has more than 500 plus posts and I decided to stop blog there. Hence the new blog here. What's funny is that I saw myself back then, four years ago, and how I evolved to be someone I am right now. Not much difference in term of size but I guess I have matured abit (I hope). Some of the things are still the same. I am still that goofy person who sings in the shower and talk alot sometimes about nothing or everything under the hot sun. I used to blog about the random-est thing and it was to me back then some sort of a Dear Diary blog. Except that what it really meant was Dear Everyone. Later I changed to a more discussion kinda blog.

Sayang juga nak tutupkan the blog.. But I have my reasons why I am doing that.. so, here is to a new life and new blog writing here :)

funky dance

Halu all! Yes, this is yet another attempt to blog again. Perhaps I would wanna share with you how yesterday went. So............. WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! FUNKY DANCE! WE WON! hehehehehe yup.. that was what I was doing with Carrie yesterday after the game. I went to Lindbergh to help out my houseowner at her restaurant. There were almost 3000 people who came yesterday and it was really amazing to see how everyone was supporting Deutschland. People came with their  DE Jerseys, DE hat, DE T Shirts, DE armbands, DE Flags, DE pants, DE vuvuzela.. and DE flags painted on their faces. It was unbelievable. I had fun just watching them and the game too.. The first goal was very unexpected. And I was delivering orders to the Kitchen, suddenly everyone jumped at said GOALLL!!!!!! and blowing their vuvuzelas.. it went on for 4 times and the last few minutes they were singing, 'you can go back now Argentina' in Deutsch.. It really felt like I was in SA.. With the heat and all.. fuh!

After the game, Carrie and I went to KFC to buy dinner and then we had to take the route to Wasserturm cause the bus was running late (very unusual). And people were celebrating like mad.. Watching them celebrate was the most unbelievable thing I have ever experienced here in Mannheim . The Germans are very Nationalistic so you can imagine how happy they were.. Everywhere people honking their cars and screaming German words and blowing their vuvuzela.. celebrating victory.. Yeah, it was too bad that Argentina had lost but this success means a lot to the Germans. The German team players are young and have great potentials. Let's hope that they take the Cup this year..

My husband was talking on the phone with his family and said, 'yeah.. she is officially a German now.. cakap jer tak reti lagi :p '

on another note, miss home....

bis dann!

1st day of the 2nd half of the year

Haluuu hi! * cough cough * uish.. banyak betul habuk kat blog ni.. sorry.. haven't been blogging in a while.. i dont know why.. memang mood nak blog tu takde.. i envy those who has the energy, idea, and enthusiast (betul ke?) to blog.. (i was those people once upon a time.. in a far away land).

So, let's start with some updates okay.. 

1. I have now enrolled into Abendeakademie in Mannheim for my IntergrationKurs in Deutsch. It's one of the requirement for my visa here. I need to attend, understand and pass at least A1, A2 and B1 level of German Course. It's also good for me to communicate.. maybe get a job inshaAllah here in Deutschland :) The class is great. We have 2 teachers. Herr Müller and another one we only call her Agnes because we didn't really get her name the first time she told us (teruk kan). Among ourselves we only refer to her as the Polish teacher cause she is actually Polist but speaks good German. My class consists of 12 international students.. 1 Canadian, 2 from Iran, 1 from USA, 1 from Malaysia (that's me!), 1 from Turkei, 2 from Syria, 2 from India, 1 from China and 1 Albanian. It's amazing meeting up with these people. You get to learn a lot from them and some of them don't speak English very well and the only way to communicate is via Deutsch! Nak tak nak, kena cakap la.. hehehe It's fun learning language :) My class is everyday from 9 - 1. I go out from the house at 820 and take the SBahn at 831 and reaches school at 851 everyday. And what's cool about going to school is that you meet the same people in the SBahn everyday! It blows my mind, really! Now I am learning a lot of German and trying hard to practise speaking it. It's hard at first but I hope I will get the hang of it soon inshaAllah.. :)

2. So World Cup is here. Everyone is talking about it. Suddenly it's like a Universal Language. Even if 2 people don't speak the same language, they can talk about Football.. It's wow.. for me, a phenomenon. Being here in DE during the world cup is very much different compared to in KL. People here are very expressive and they scream out really loud in the city.. But they are not as irritating as when the Mat Rempit screams in KL.. I don't know why..

3. It's already summer here and the heat is on.. It is so ON it's almost like an OVEN here. We have 3 fans blowing right in our faces everyday. And it's gonna get worse in the weekend. 38°C! I cannot imagine..

4. My in laws came over to visit us here. It was nice having them around. And bringing them around town. They are pretty amazed by people always carrying bags with rollers everywhere. I never really noticed that till they mentioned it..

OKla.. I think that's it for now.. I will blog more soon.. the heat is making me crazy!! take care all.. more pics and stories coming up soon k.. inshallah :)

Bis dann!!