How do I survive in my third language?

March 13, 2008 1:42 PM

Please help me survive a whole year of school in my third language!

I'm heading off to Germany on an academic exchange next year, and every time I think about it I get really excited and bouncy... then I get really scared. German is my third language and I'm far from proficient in it (although I'm assured that two years of German are all that are needed to survive in a German university). All my courses will be in German, and I definitely need to be able to understand them!

So here's where I need some help. I'm looking for a way to record my lectures (digital voice recorder of some sort, not an mp3 player) so that I can replay them with almost perfect clarity. I'd also like suggestions about ways to translate the words from oral into written German... Is there any software out there that will do this for me fairly accurately? Where could I get a handheld translator that would be small enough to fit in my pocket?

Some specifics about the recorder:
-Smaller is better
-some way of orienting the mini-mic towards the professor/whoever might be speaking so that that's the only (or main) voice that can be heard, and it can be heard clearly
-I'd really like it to have a built-in battery... Batteries are notoriously expensive in Europe, so instead of filling my suitcase with batteries on the way there I'm trying to get all rechargeable devices
-bonus points if it's cute
-Under 200$ Canadian, preferably under 100$ but I feel that that's slightly unrealistic.
-available for purchase in/shipment to Ontario

Also, if anyone has been in this position before, what are some helpful hints you can give me about staying sane while not understanding very much?

Thanks!

posted by Planet F to Technology (6 answers total)

I'm studying abroad in France right now, and I had the same fears before I came. But three weeks in, I understand everything just fine. Having taken both languages, French is much harder than German to understand when spoken--so I think you don't need to worry. When you're in a sink-or-swim setting like that, you end up learning to swim pretty quickly.
posted by nasreddin at 2:37 PM on March 13, 2008

French university is, however, a complete and total joke, so I don't know if we should be comparing it to its German counterpart without a little context. It's possible German courses are more rigorous or more demanding--I have been absolutely *skating* by in France (though admittedly I skate by in all academic settings) with a low, low degree of effort. I found lectures difficult in the first couple of weeks (only in the literature class because of the sheer amount of detail and the fact that French university is far more lecture and note based) but after a while found I understood everything. 7 months in the only difficulty I have is expressing more complex things, but comprehension is not at all a problem.

You'll be fine. The worst part is the week before you leave. From there it all sort of goes. It was really, really hard for me to adjust in the first couple of months but 7 months later, here I am, more excited to GTFO of France than I ever thought possible.

Where you studying, nasreddin? I'm in Poitiers, one of the more dismal French cities.
posted by nonmerci at 3:10 PM on March 13, 2008

Oh yeah, I remember that two years of German was supposed to be enough. Sure. But I think you'll be fine. Of course there are miniature voice recorders, but I would certainly ask before using them in a lecture hall (the professor may be writing a book). I'm not aware of any speech to text software (really at all) that I would expect to be any good. But in any case, sit near the front and approach the professor before class and say something like "entshuldigung Herr Professor, darf ich meine Bandgeraet benutzen? ich bin Auslaender, und ich finde es immer schwierig deinen bloeden Dialekt zu verstehen..." (okay, I'm just kidding about "deinen bloeden Dialekt" but you get the idea).
posted by thomas144 at 3:33 PM on March 13, 2008

Where you studying, nasreddin? I'm in Poitiers, one of the more dismal French cities.

I'm at the Catho in Paris, which admittedly has a reputation for teaching foreign students. I did only have 4 semesters before coming here, though.

(It does seem like a total joke. But I assumed that these past few weeks were some kind of dress rehearsal for full-on Hard Work to come later. I suspect I was wrong. The only thing anyone does for a grade hereabouts, apparently, is give halting exposés)
posted by nasreddin at 3:48 PM on March 13, 2008

When I was at a Japanese university, what helped me most was:
-Having an electronic dictionary so that I could look words up as I was taking notes
-Asking professors to write the words for important concepts on the blackboard in case my own hearing was inaccurate
-Reading the textbook before class and looking up vocabulary so that I could have the vocabulary I needed for the lecture.
posted by Jeanne at 4:01 PM on March 13, 2008

I studied for a year at a fairly well known, well respected Uni in Germany. The piece of advice I put forth most heartily is to find a class buddy. Not only are you making a new friend, but you can compare notes, and get together to study for the inevitable oral report (god I hated Referate)/test/really long paper at the end of the term. Making friends (Auslaender and German), with whom to both vent frustrations and to party, is essential to keeping sane and happy.

I basically only took History and German lit classes, so my impressions could vary from other people's, but I found lectures to be pretty dry and boring. It was nowhere near abnormal for a professor to get up and just read from his notes the entire class. Questions from students seemed pretty rare. A normal class would require only one lecture a week, usually weighing in near two hours. Two hours is a long time. Because attendance wasn't often counted, it got really easy to skip these... even though I had never been a student to skip class before. (Another reason it would pay to have a class buddy to get notes from.)

Two years of college level German wasn't really enough for me, but yeah, once you are there you will develop your sea legs and all will work out fine. Study as much as you can now, but don't stress out beyond that.

I have never owned an electronic dictionary, but they do seem really useful, and I think I'd put money into that before a voice recorder. If you are a major that is used to taking lots of notes (z.B. Geschichte), I don't think a recorder is necessary. As for recording lectures, you might run into trouble unless you asked each professor beforehand, as suggested above, and... maybe I'm wrong, but even then they might say no.

Feel free to message me if you have any other questions. Some of the above might sound kind of negative, but my year in Germany was undoubtedly the most thrilling and invigorating of my life. I hope it will be similar for you.
posted by liverbisque at 2:26 AM on March 14, 2008