Etwas Gedachtnis...

Sorry for the lack of updates, but due to the nature of the stuff I've been reading, I've been unable to post screenshots. Or I've just been too immersed into the world of German that I no longer get those epiphany like revelations from learning a new word. I do still learn new words, but because the majority of what I read is stuff I've already seen before, it's hard to keep doing it. The only thing left is to practice hearing and speaking it. And maybe writing it.

This has been a long journey into the world of the German language, and it will continue so long as I can get my hands on things written or spoken in German. Along the way, I have originally consulted materials in German that I am already familiar with in English, and when I found them too easy, I consulted new materials in German that I hadn't already seen in English (or only partially). And now I do songs and movies as well, but it seems ultimately that my ability to read is the strongest.

Here's a partially completed list of games I've completed for the sake of learning German:

Game	Completion	Languages
Harveys Neue Augen	Complete	German
Edna Bricht Aus	Complete	German
A New Beginning	Complete	German
Terranigma	Complete	English, German
The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time	Complete	English, German
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening	Complete	English, German
The Legend of Zelda: The Oracle of Ages (and The Oracle of Seasons)	Complete	English, German
The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap	Complete	English, German
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney	Complete	English, German
Phoenix Wright: Justice for All	Complete	English, German
Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations	Complete	English, German
Crono Trigger (fan translation)	Complete	English (official translation), German (fan translation)
SaGa Frontier II	English Complete, German Incomplete ~65%	English, German
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask	Complete	German
Apollo Justice	Complete	German
The Legend of Dragoon	Complete	English 5%, German
Okami	Complete	English, German
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess	Complete	English 80%, German
The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker	Complete	German
Ghost Trick	Complete	German
Professor Layton and the Curious Village	Complete	English, German
Professor Layton und die Schatulle der Pandora	Complete	German
Professor Layton und die Verlorene Zukunft	Complete	German
The Whispered World	Complete	German
Riven	Complete	English, German
Myst IV: Revelation	Complete	English, German
Discworld II	Complete	German
Discworld	Complete	Voices in English, subtitles in German
Hotel Dusk: Room 215	Complete	German
Last Window: Das Geheimnis von Cape West	Complete	German
Baphomets Fluch	Complete	English, German
Baphomets Fluch II: Der Spiegel der Finsternis	Complete	German
Illusion of Time	Complete	English, German
Lufia 2	English Complete, German Incomplete 50%	English, German
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass	Incomplete 80%	German
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks	Incomplete 70%	German
Final Fantasy VII	Complete	English, German
Final Fantasy VI	Complete	English, German
Final Fantasy IV	Complete	English, German
Final Fantasy IX	English Incomplete 70%, German Incomplete 75%	English, German

So I think at this point, I can read typical things written in High German, and maybe a little Low German, but nothing particularly technical, legal or highly academic, and I can't yet skim texts particularly well, but the words come to me easily when I see them. I can also read Old German scripts, and have been able to read some archaic texts like Brüders Grimm and a play about Ephigenie by Goethe. I can also hear some German, provided it's not too fast or too Low German. I can also write it, but I fear my grammar is worse, not because I don't understand it, but because I can't seem to remember the genders of the words, or I haven't discovered what they are, and sometimes, I am unaware of the idiomatic usage of some sentences. I do not know how well I speak it; I guess I can speak what I can write or read, and have been trying to get some practice by joining meet-ups. According to a few native speakers, they think I've been to Germany (I haven't), and that I speak it well enough (I beg to differ...), but sound somewhat regal/archaic. But they say it has some sort of charm, apparently.

There's only one other thing I could do to get better at those other three areas--go to Germany itself. I think I might be able to do that soon if I can secure a co-op position there.

And even if I've never been to Germany, this process of deducing and inducing words from a game, movie or book has been highly entertaining--and with each new word and new grammar construction, a new dimension is being formed. It's as if an entire new world has opened itself up to me for my enjoyment and adventure, and I can't let go of it.

July 25, 2010

The following have been deduced from Apollo Justice. Unfortunately, because it doesn't work so well on the emulator, I couldn't take any screenshots. I can describe the context in which I found them though.

Zurückgezogen - reclusive, shy (or something similar. Literally means "taken back".)

Was used in the context to describe Drew Misham's lifestyle--he never left his house, and only communicated with the outside world through snail mail.

Einfluss - influence

Was used to describe the "influence" of Drew's lifestyle over his daughter, Vera.

Röntgen - X ray

I saw this twice, and figured it out the second time I saw it--the first time was to describe some documents in a safe relating to Wocky's operation (which was signed by his "girlfriend", Alita). The second time, it was the device Ema was using to examine the documents sealed inside envelopes, and to see sketches underneath paintings (and that usage made it rather obvious).

June 10, 2010

The following have been deduced from Spiegel articles.

"Wenn man Prostatatumoren untersucht, muss man natürlich mit Männchen arbeiten, bei Eierstocktumoren mit Weibchen."

Prostatatumor(en) - prostate tumor
Eierstocktumor(en) - ovary tumor. I think.

"If one examines prostate tumors, he must of course work with males, as one does ovary tumors with females."

"Islamischer Gelehrter will Weihnachten verbieten"

verbieten - to condemn, forbid, ban

Now it could mean that Islam teachers want to allow Christmas, but under the context of this quote in the article, "Kirchen dürfen keine Kreuze mehr tragen. Kirchenglocken dürfen auch nicht mehr läuten." for "Churches may no longer carry crosses. Church bells may no longer ring.", I think it's fairly clear what the context is.

March 7, 2010

The following have been deduced from Erzälte Zeit, Die Kinder des Grals and various other unknown sources.

Over the course of several months, I have found these words, and just wrote them down. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to take the screenshots or the exact sentence they came from.

Gering - slight(ly)
Entwickeln - to create, Devise, conjure
Arbeitgeber - employer
dringend - desperate(ly)
Moench - Monk
Patronen - ammunition
Angebot - offer
Pfennig - penny
Muehe - effort
Haeretisch - heretic (noun?)
das Kreuzzeichen machen - to make a cross sign
wie wenig (viel) auch immer - however little (great) (0 position)
die Stille - silence
die Furzwolke - fart cloud
ebenso - equally so
die Unebenheit (-en) - uneveness
die Rasierwasserduefte - after shave
unterdruecken - to supress (aus Lateinisch)
Ausdrueck - expression (aus Lateinisch; abstract usage also)
(all from druecken - to press/print)
wohlvorbereit - well-prepared
die Tatsache - fact
tatsachlich - "factually"; actually
weich - soft
die Witwe - widow
lustig - merry
spitz - spiky
subtil - subtle
winken - to beckon
lenken - to steer
nicken - to nod
die Braut - bride
die koechin - cook (f)
die Itsche - toad (Kroete)
nimmermehr - no more, never
der Gesichtsschutz - face guard, visor
weswegen -à on what account
ankommen - to overcome
Wahrsager - prophet
flackern - to flicker
Augenhoehle - eye socket
wagen - to wage, bet, dare
zwecklos - pointless
wog - to weigh (simple past tense; possibly of wagen)
die Schenkel - torso
die Oberschenkel - upper torso
idiomatisch - idiomatic
Orden - badge, emblem, crest
half - helped (simple past tense)
geholfen - helped (past participle)
unvermeidlich - unavoidable
die Handbremse - handshake? possibly from bremsen - to shake
der Nack(e) - neck
Widerspruch - contradiction
zIttern - to shake
der Kühlschrank - fridge
der? Pudel - poodle
die Aschenbecher - ash tray
(die) Baustellenbereich - construction Zone
die Bereich - Zone (probably)
ersuchen - to implore
buchstabieren - to spell
der Beifahrer - passenger
die Beifahrtur - passenger door
der Beifahrersitz - passenger seat
(die) Gänsehaut - wrinkly skin (eg, from staying in water too long) (probably)
ziemlich - rather, really, very
erwähnen - to mention
beeindruckend - impressive

I have also figured out the forms for adding adjectives to a noun. This was rather tedious; I had to watch the endings of every adjective followed by a verb. Most of it came from Erzälte Zeit. There are probably irregular words though, and I think the participles may be different.

Adj construction
m
der/sein/ihr
(nom, acc, dat, gen)
-e, -en, -en, -en

ein/kein
-er, -en, -en, -en

(no article)
-er, -en, -em, -en

f
die/ihre/sein
-e,-e, -en, -en

eine/keine
-e, -e, -en, -en

(no article)
-e, -e, -er, -en

n
das/sein/ihr
-e, -e, -en, -en,

ein/kein
-es, -es, -en, -en

(no article)
-es, -es, -em, -en

p
die/ihre/sein
-en, -en, -en, -en

eine/keine
-e, -e, -en, -en

(no article)
-e, -e, -er, -en

I am almost certain that "weder" is neither. To use it, write "weder", then the first item, and then the second after "noch" (equivalent to using "nor"). 

For example,

Weder der Lehrer noch der Student kennt die Antwort.

Neither the teacher nor the student knows the answer.

I have also seen this construction several times, but it goes something like Je...desto, which is like saying "the more [phrase], the more [phrase]."

For example,

Je mehr man denkt darüber, desto mehr weiß er.

The more one thinks about it, the more he knows.

January 5, 2010

Okay, I really, really have to write this one because it's funny. I am reading Die Kinder der Gral (kindly loaned to me by the Alpen Club), and there is a funny word I found--it helped that I found a similar word to it previously. The word came from a flash game online, and it was "Furzkissen" for whoopee-cushion (Furz + Kissen; Furz = fart, Kissen = pillow). If that wasn't funny enough, I found Furzwolke (and we previously found wolke, which makes that a fart cloud.) The context was an irritation that lingers like a fart cloud. I'll try to get the original sentence when I get home.

EDIT: It says, "Der Erzbischof verließ den Platz, sein Ärger hing ihm nach wie eine Furzwolke." For "The archbishop left the place, his annoyance hung after him like a fart cloud."

November 2, 2009

Here is my plot "summary" of Die drei Männlein im Walde from Brüder Grimm.

There was a man whose wife was dead, and a woman, whose husband was dead. They both had daughters who knew each other. Then the woman asked the man's daughter to have her father marry her, and then she would drink wine and bath in milk every morning, (don't ask; that's what I think it says) and then her daughter would drink water and bath in water. The man reluctantly agreed; there was a bit about him taking off his boots and filling it with water (don't know what that was about) and something about his boots having a hole in it. But they got married anyways, and they did what they were going to do about drinking and bathing; on the second morning, they both drank water and bathed in water, and then on the third morning (and thereafter) the man's daughter drank water and bathed in water and the other one drank wine and bathed in milk. Apparently, the woman was jealous about her daughter being ugly, and her stepdaughter being beautiful.
During winter, the stepmother made her stepdaughter go outside and fill a basket with strawberries while wearing clothes made of paper, and gave her a piece of hard bread (of course there aren't any strawberries in winter...). She found a little hut in the woods and went inside because it was warm. Three little men came by and asked for food; she gave them some of her bread, and told them she was looking for strawberries. They gave her a broom and told her to sweep away the snow from the back door. Then the three little men discussed what they should give the girl for helping them. One said to make her prettier every day. The second said to have her words turn to gold. The third said to have a king come and take her away to his castle (I guess it's a castle it was Gemahlin, but I thought a castle was a Schloß; don't really know).
The girl finished sweeping the snow and found deep red strawberries where she was sweeping. She filled her basket and went home. Then she found her words did turn into gold. The stepmother wanted the same thing to happen to her daughter, so she gave her butterbread and cakes and warm clothes (I suppose a Pelzrock is some sort of skirt made of some warm fur) and sent her to look for strawberries in the forest. She did find the three little men, but gave them nothing to eat, and didn't sweep the snow away from the backdoor. The three little men discussed what to give her; they said to make her uglier every day, and her words would turn into toads (I guess that's what Kröte amounts to I mean Schildkröte is a turtoise, so I thought maybe it was a compound word for an armored/shielded toad.), and the last one said she would die an unfortunate/unpleasant death. The girl couldn't find any strawberries, so she returned home and tried to tell her mother what happened, but toads came out of her mouth.
Of course, that made the mother angrier, since her daughter still wasn't any prettier, and her stepdaughter was prettier and her words turned into gold. She ended up taking a cauldron, and made the stepdaughter go outside with an axe and look for something in the river (Okay, I don't really know what Garn is exactly, but it said something about a frozen river and a hole in the river, so it was probably some sort of sea/freshwater creature.). A king happened to be passing by and saw the stepdaughter doing what her stepmother was making her do. He felt sorry for her (and partly because she was beautiful) and asked if she wanted to come with him; she said she did. Apparently, the stepmother and daughter found out what happened to her and visited her after a year. She already had a son. The stepmother and daughter threw her out her bedroom window and the daughter disguised herself under the bed covers, and as the king came by, the stepmother said she was sick and couldn't talk. He believed that until he tried to speak to her in the morning, and her words turned into toads. The stepmother said that she was simply very sick.
(Okay, now it gets wierd) A duck swam by and asked a young servant what her guests were doing, and what her child was doing, to which he replied they were sleeping. She transformed into her original form and gave him something to drink and put him to bed. She did this for three nights, and on the last, she told the boy to tell the king to take his sword and swing it over her three times. He did this, and she returned to her original form. The king immediately recognized her. Then the king asked the stepmother what to do with people who dragged people out of bed and threw them into the water. She replied that they should be placed in a barrel and rolled from a mountain into a river. The king then had this done to the stepmother and her daughter.

October 10, 2009

I haven't updated this thing for awhile. Oh well; I've still found some stuff to read. Additionally, I've been playing Legend of Dragoon in German, without having beaten it in English previously, so I got most of the storyline in German. I'm also doing the same with Majora's Mask. I have also read Bewährung der Herzen, and learned some words like taub, stumm, Taubstumme, and Sprosse--additionally, I have an idea of what Rippelsamthosen is, even though all the German speaking people I've talked to haven't seen it.

The following is a summary of Die sieben Raben, a story from Grimms Märchen.

There was a man who had seven sons, and he had always wanted to have a daughter. He eventually had one, and sent his sons to fetch water. They were eager to see their new sister (If I read this correctly), and accidentally fell into the well. Their father got impatient waiting for them, and thought they forgot about the water over some game, and wished they were ravens--his wish came true.
Apparently, his daughter grew more and more beautiful, but her parents never told her about her brothers; they didn't want to. She found out somehow, probably from other people, and her parents finally revealed the truth. They said it wasn't her fault. She wanted to find her brothers, so she set off with a stool for when she got tired, bread for when she got hungry, and water for when she got thirsty. They also gave her a ring (possibly to remember them).
She went to the end of the world and to the sun; it was too hot and scary. She went to the moon; it was too cold, evil and cruel. She went to the stars, which sat on her stool and were nice and friendly; they told her her brothers were in Glasberg and gave her some sort of object (possibly a key) so that she could go there. She wrapped it in a cloth. When she got there, she lost it, and (If I'm reading this correctly) cut off her small finger and stuck it in the gate. She met a small dwarf there, who said her brothers were away, and to wait for them to come back. As they waited for them to come back, the dwarf laid out seven plates and goblets of food; she ate a bit from every plate and drank a bit from every goblet, and then she put her ring in the last goblet.
The seven ravens came back and found someone had eaten their food. When they found the ring and realized it was their sister, they wished they were human again. They went home happily.

Now I don't actually know if Raben is a raven, but it does say "blickte auf und sah sieben kohlenschwarze Raben auf und davon fliegen." for "...he looked up and saw seven coal black ravens (up) and flew." This at least indicates that Raben, whatever they are, can fly. "Auf einmal hörte es in der Luft ein Geschwirr und ein Geweh, da sprach das Zwerglein »jetzt kommen die Herren Raben heim geflogen«" which means "On hearing a whir and a cry in the air at once, the dwarf spoke 'The ravens are flying home now.'" (I don't actually know about "Geschwirr" or "Geweh"; I can just guess, but "geflogen" does mean they flew, and they were heard from the air, so it must at least be a bird, if it isn't a raven.

Here is another listening exercise. I took the song, Los from Rammstein and decided to find all the words in it that contained the suffix, -los, which is the equivalent of using the suffix -less in English.

Wir waren namenlos,
und ohne Lieder,
richt wortlos,
waren wir nie wieder,
etwas sanglos,
sind wir immer noch,
dafür nicht klanglos,
Man hört uns doch,
nach einen Winch dos,
Gingen sturmlos,
einfach beispiellos,
es würdet Zeit,
Los,
Sie waren sprachlos,
So sehr schockieren,
sehr ratlos,
Was zwar passiert,
etwas fassungslos,
und garantiert,
verstrecklichlos,
Das wurd setziert,
Sie sagten grundlos,
Schaden um die Noten,
So schamlos,
Das gehört verboten,
Es ist geistlos,
Was sie da probieren,
zu geschmacklos,
wie sie nur sitzieren,
Es ist hoffnungslos,
sinnlos,
hilflos,
sie sind Gott,
los,
Wir waren namenlos,
Wir haben eine Namen,
waren wortlos,
Die Worter kamen,
etwas sanglos,
sind wir immer noch,
Dafür wir klanglos,
Das hört man doch,
Die sind nicht fielerlos,
zu etwas haltlos,
Wir werden lautlos,
und schneelos,

Wir waren namenlos,
und ohne Lieder,
richt wortlos,
waren wir nie wieder,
etwas sanglos,
sind wir immer noch,
dafür nicht klanglos,
Man hört uns doch,
nach einen Winch dos,
Gingen sturmlos,
einfach beispiellos,
Für die Zeit los,

Wir waren los,
Wir waren los.

Again, there are some words I'm not entirely familiar with, or didn't hear properly.

namenlos - nameless
wortlos - wordless (additionally, this may be mistaken for wertlos, which sounds similar, for worthless.)
sanglos - songless
klanglos - without sound
sturmlos - without turmoil
beispiellos - without example
sprachlos - speechless
fassungslos - (I don't entirely know, although I would guess "incomprehensible")
verstrecklichlos - effortless, perhaps?
grundlos - without reason
schamlos - shameless
geistlos - spiritless
geschmacklos - tasteless
hoffnungslos - hopeless
sinnlos - without reason/rationality
hilflos - helpless
fielerlos - without mistake (this might also be fehlerlos, but it sounded more like "fielerlos")
haltlos - unstoppable
lautlos - without sound
schneelos - without snow

I should also say now that "los" is also an interjection meaning "go".