Learning German from DuoLingo: Day 148 - Shopping and travel.

Today is day #148 in my continuing attempt at learning to read the German language by using the DuoLingo application and web site. My previous update was on day #139. In the intervening time, I completed the "shopping" category and advanced from beginning through level 2 in the "travel" category.

In addition to working on German with DuoLingo, since @cmp2020 is also working on learning German, he and I have also tried to exchange some rudimentary thoughts in German while sitting at the dinner table or driving in the car.

I'm sure I've included this before, but since today's lessons included the word, "Wandern" and I really like the song, here is Nena doing Wandern.

In DuoLingo, I'm back to having 3 categories decaying per day, so that has - once again - slowed the rate at which I can advance through new lessons. At least there seems to be a cap at 3.

Even though I completed "some" before my previous post, I haven't discussed the "Tips" from that section yet, so I'll make some notes here.

1.) I honestly don't understand the first tip, which is to put the verb in the second chunk of the sentence. It seems straightforward enough, but then they give the example, "ich bin irgendwie traurig" (I am somehow sad). In that sentence, "bin" is the verb (to be), but that looks like the first "chunk" to me. So I'll make a mental note to try to understand this later. I actually didn't read these tips when I was completing the category.

2.) They also suggest that the subject of the verb needs to go next to the verb, with the same example and another, they demonstrate this with:

• ich bin irgendwie traurig
• irgendwie bin ich traurig

In both cases, "ich" (I) is the subject and "bin" (am) is the verb, and the two are next to each other.

3.) They point out that for when/where/how/why statements, the part answering those questions goes after the verb or at the beginning of the sentence. Which we can also see demonstrated in the examples above.

Moving on, I'll also discuss the Tips from the "Shopping" category.

Tip #1 is that the "th" in German sounds like a "t" in English or "th" as in "Thomas". Examples include:

• Apotheke (pharmacy)
• Bibliotheke (library)
• Mathematik (mathematics)

After that tip, it goes on to introduce the words: Supermarkt (supermarket), Kasse (cashier/checkout), Einkaufswagen (shopping cart), and Tüten (bags).

And now, here are some words or phrases from the lessons:

Shopping

German	English
Das ist nicht meine Tüte.	That is not my bag.
Ich bin Kunde.	I am a customer.
Sie hat das Restaurant mit dem Laden.	She has the restaurant with the shop.
Aus einem Laden.	Out of a store.
Wie viele Gutscheine haben Sie von mir?	How many vouchers do you have from me?
Das sind gutschein für das Restaurant.	These are vouchers for the restaurant.
Diese Tüte ist zu klein.	This bag is too small.
Eine Tüte Kostet zehn Cent.	A bag costs ten cents.

If there's a single most important part of this lesson, it seems to be "kauf" ("Purchase") which is at the heart of a good number of words, including:

• Einkaufszentrum - shopping mall (shopping center)
• kaufen - to buy
• verkaufen - to sell
• Einkaufswagen - shopping cart
• einkaufen - shopping

Travel

German	English
Die Bahn kommt.	The train is coming.
Gibt es noch eine Tour?	Is there another tour?
Ich komme mit der Bahn.	I am coming by train.
Die Kinder kommen aus Italien.	The children are from Italy.
Das Boot ist groß	The boat is big. ("Das Boot" like the movie....)
Wie viele Boote hast du?	How many boats do you have?
Ich kenne Frankreich.	I know France.
Das Abenteuer beginnt.	The adventure begins.
Wanderst du gern?	Do you like hiking?

Finally, here are my current numbers in the application:

• Streak: 148 days
• Crystals: 530
• Lingots: 536
• Hearts: 5
• Crowns: 199
• Total XP: 21,503
• XP today: 114
• League: Diamond
• XP in league: 569
• Place in league: 20
• Time left in league: 1 hour
• Words learned: 729 in application, 940 on web site

There were no new special characters in today's post, so the full table (so far) still looks like this:

Key press	character
ALT-0196	Ä
ALT-0214	Ö
ALT-0223	ß
ALT-0228	ä
ALT-0246	ö
ALT-0252	ü

If you want to learn a foreign language (or Klingon or High Valyrian), my recommendation for DuoLingo continues to be "thumbs up". According to the app, you can also use DuoLingo to learn dead or endangered languages like Latin, Navajo or Hawaiian.

My guess is that no one is going to learn to speak a language perfectly through DuoLingo, but I think it can provide a solid foundation that can be used to build additional knowledge through other, immersive techniques.