Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer can I PR a german-english dictionary?

I'm not a PReader yet, but I was wondering if I know english very good (still ain't my mother language) and I'm learning german, Can I PRead a german-eng dictionary in order to ameliorate my German?

It's helping me with my spanish but it's kinda hard to activate unless I'm actually going to use the word daily. If you think about it you only need 5-10thousand words to fully speak any language. It's the understanding and speed part that's hard- knowing what people are saying in the time that they say it.

If you think about it, most of the words in the english dictionary are words you don't need to know unless you are reading something and the word is used.

PR sections of the dict nightly. What can it hurt.

I love that campfire scene in "The 13th Warrior" where Antonio picks up the new language. At first he hears nothing. Then he picks up one word, then two, then 3 and finally he's hearing and understanding everything and able to speak it. That's pretty cool. I'm to the point where I listen to the spanish soaps and I can follow what's going on. I say "listen" only because if you watch the soaps with the volume off you can follow them just as well. You can cheat by following body language, heck they say it's over 50% of communication.

German is next for me after spanish because I work for an Austrian company. If you come across any good books tell me, ok?

Andy030,
To learn German, try the "TravelWise" series.
It has a basic book/dictionary, 1 tape, and a dialogue pamphlet. It costs aroud 15.00,
but its a good beginning to a language.
Also, try the Cortina Language books, they are also good, but no tapes.

Hi, perhaps I can help too.
For my Abitur in English I had to buy Oxford's Advanced Learner's Dictionary (ALD), where I-don't-know-how-many English expressions are explained with a basic word-pool of 2.000 words; it's english-english and we were allowed to use it in the tests. Perhaps something like that is also available for German. I think that kind of dicionary might be more useful to photoread because you do not get the (more or less) exact translation but you are lead to understand the context and receive some examples for using the words.
hth,
Mina

Hi Mina!
I haven't heard of that dictionary, but I will look for it, as I am also interested in learning German. Your English is good. Good luck in your studies.
Jonah

Hello,

langenscheidt has Basic Vocabulary books that have 2000 common basic vacabulary and another 2000 or something grouped by subject. They are written for german speakers trying to learn a foreign language but the principle is very effective. Very good starting points for me were also Easy Readers books. They have categories A to I think D that have a fixed number of vocabulary. e.G. 400 word only childrens tale. 800 word vocabulary tale. to 4000 words vocabulary who-done-it. I started using them when I was 7 years old to learn english, used them as a teen for french and in my twenties for spanish and russian. The next extreemly efficient thing is intrest and laughter. As a teen I read the lord of the rings which which made my vocabulary a bit oldfashioned. What really got me started to speak english though was the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. It is not the title itself but the laughter. Choose something in a foreign language that makes you laugh. You will feel as though you know every single sentence by heart. When you speak you just exchange a few nouns and verbs and you speak fluently. All of these involve reading and if it involves reading photoreading will speed it up and enhance understanding. So by all means DO photoread the dictionary. The effect is immense though different from what you probably expect (it will hit you a few months later). All of the above won't help with the accent though :-)

Have fun

Thanks jonah!

Mina, I'm already learning german in Goethe Institute Beirut. I'm not bad, I'm learning fast, I'm doing little practice though.

I built a simple site to teach german language. (I update it after each german class).

I'm now at my GII class.

Would be nice if we exchange mails, Especially that we can help each other...programming, language exchange, ....

[This message has been edited by lallous (edited October 09, 2001).]

quote:

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Originally posted by lallous:

[...]
I built a simple site to teach german language. (I update it after each german class).

I'm now at my GII class.

Would be nice if we exchange mails, Especially that we can help each other...programming, language exchange, ....

[This message has been edited by lallous (edited October 09, 2001).]

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The site is nice, I really enjoyed the joke!
In a few days I'll send you an email.
Greetings, Mina

wow cool! mina...would be nice to hear from you! hope you write me in german...but don't pick hard words!