Drinks and German language practice

Anyone else out there worried that hanging out with TT is so addictive, that their hard won German language skills are not getting aired enough?

What about a German only meet every couple of weeks..I can bring a few natives with me.

Click for details about the: Current event

I'm definitely interested - I need the practice badly before I finally depart TT in just two months time

@jimbo - you're going back to England man, better start improving your english accent again.

But...if the whole TT crowd is going, there will be more English speaking people hence English will be spoken...

Nope... Rule will be ONLY GERMAN. From the moment they arrive..or else pointless.

Not sure I am here or not, but when I talked about this with someone previoulsy there was a suggestion of having a fine system for english spoken

More goes towards a round of drinks at the end??



P

I agree, someone posted the other week saying they need help, I offered to do a german Stammtisch, and someone actually posted to say I shouldn't bother as we all speak english!

As I said before, I don't need to practice as i speak German all day at work and live with a German! If I do a Stammtisch it will be to help the newcomers who need support.

So if you guys switch to English it's your problem

this will only work if the vast majority of participants is German.

The point is that it doens't make much sense speaking German if you know that everbody participating in the converstion is better off speaking English. I speak German to my German collegues on a daily basis, but still speak in English (or Dutch ) to my non-German collegues.

There is a club in Munich called the GEA, the German-English Association. Along with organising their own set of expat events, they have a whole month of activities called Deutsch mit Freunden, where the language is German, not English. If anyone wants the list for August, send me a PM and I'll pass it on. It's too long to post here.

Right - I get the same emails as Showem :-)
The Deutsch mit Freunden people also organise French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish Stammtische, in case anyone's interested. Details from me or Showem, I guess.
Topsy

wow SK04. where the hell do u get all this time and energy?!!!

there are quite a few german natives on TT. they could go along to help the english speakers out (who have probably helped them with their english skills too over the months/years).

@VDB- It's targeted only at people who want to work on their German language skills (not a TT piss up). I've been to loads of these through the GI etc where there was no native majority... but worked out great. I know of about 4 natives who will join.

Can those interested in coming along pls give me a quick PM so I can reserve table space.

count me in, i'm glad to help out if i can
just make sure we get the discount on cocktails as the more drunk you are the easier it will be to speak a different language

I can't make it on the 11th but I'm happy to help improving your german language skills the next time...

sh.. my schedule got changed, have to work now
will try to get out asap and swing by

A German Stammtisch for practicing my German sounds great! But Wednesday? I'd have to miss my German class to attend...and I'm pretty sure several other people who might be interested do classes on the same day.

...and/or eat curry...

Ok.. gonna be impossible to please everyone...so

as suggested by JML, to kick this thing off, we'll stick with Wednesday but to compliment the Curry night, JML cleverly suggested we hold it nr to Sitar at:

New Location
Roosevelts
Thierschplatz 5
U4/5 Lehel
Tel. 089 21 57 83 00
7.30-9pm under name Toytown
For ongoing, we'll then switch to Thursdays.

Newbies welcome. Anyone who wants to join, please PM me so I can get an idea of numbers.

Hiya...also if you want to join the Curry dinner at 9pm, you have to register here.

To read more about Roosevelts bar, click here.

Shaggy,
have you got anough natives to hold down the ford?

If not let me know...glad to help.

margret

roosvelts is a cool place!
i'll be there around 8-8:30pm and bring a friend!

OK, so I'm going to pop along, but I'll be the quiet one - well, it's difficult to chat away in German, if you don't actually know much, but will give it a go.

@petal
Great. U gotta start somewhere... but just to warn you, it'll be ONLY German so unless we have a couple of beginners present, it might be tough.

so, let me get this straight - how many native german speakers are going to be there? 'cos I can't improve my german if I'm just speaking to my mates in pidgin deutsch can I?

There was a german / english stammtisch thingy that I went to once organised along with the munich-singles website which was good for getting a mix of locals and foreigners, perhaps someone should post the details there...

no disrespect to shaggy - always great to have someone willing to stick their neck out and organise something, just finking about how its gonna work...

i think it'll work great if everybody sticks to the rule: no english!!
i'm gonna bring 1 or 2 german speakers myself, so we'll have at least 2 native speakers, that should work!

there will be enough natives I think it's more a question of attititude.

Easy to find excuses why it won't work and if you want perfect German then try the G. Inst. This is not a lesson.. it's a pratice platform.

Most people just need confidence and opps to speak... even starting speaking Pidgeon German is better than staying in English.

I think it is a great idea...having some natives there will help as well. As you say, people need to build confidence...and this will help whether the Der, Die, or Das' are all in the right place or not. I am sure that your German-speaking career will not be limited to only speaking to native speakers. You may be surprised one day, chatting away only to discover that the German you are speaking with is from Spain.

Tom17 and I are basically beginners...he can construct more than he can understand and I am the opposite. We will likely be along to see what it is about. Even if you don't say much...just the opportunity to sit and observe is very useful. Also helps with pronunciation.

Question is...are dictionaries okay? My vocab is not all that...so although my ability to construct might be decent...I can't do much more than ask people for ein Helles bitte

I'll be along before the happy hour ends.

There are a couple of other beginners coming too... but it's amazing how much you know when you start joining words into sentences. 've been to several of these and when faced with sink or swim, it's amazing how well people do.

Feel free to bring a dictionary. Simple word transalations between language also works.. just no going off into English.

Ahhh so its ok to ask "was ist 'sticky label' auf deutsche?" ?...

... without having to buy a round of drinks as a result

Tom...

For those who are planning to go to the curry afterwards, can you please remember to sign up on the curry thread as well - thanks!

Reservations currently stand at 20, so it looks like another big one.

Back on topic - Hopefully there will be more of these, unfortunately my conversational German is non existant and maybe sometime soon I will be able to come along to one of these.

Isn't it an idea to post it on Muenchner Singles? That way there might be more native Germans there.

@ Who ever is trying to organize this: If you plan to post it on the MüSi-page, please get in touch with someone who's already well known on that board. Otherwise you won't get much responds in short time. Can offer my help if nessecary. Don't know if I can make it to your German Meeting but will def. see some of you at the Curry Night.

just a thought - would speakers like to be constantly "corrected" as in:
no it's "das" not "der" and no you pronounce it such and such...
or should we just chat along?

Personally I would suggest the second option - y'all probably have teachers who will do the correcting anyhow.

margret

I can do thursdays. Wednesdays I have my German class.

@ margret
If the pronunciation is way off then it should be corrected. Der, die, das is not so important.

I think I prefer to be corrected...when possible...obviously every mistake might not get caught...but I will never get any better if I don't make the corrections.

As an example, if I continue to think der Tisch is actually die Tisch forever...then I will never improve. Perhaps I will be understood...but the more people remind me of the gender...the more it will stick in my teensy brain

Obviously there has to be a fine line...it would not be fun for the native speakers to have to become teachers of sorts...just glaring mistakes and a quick correction would be lovely

Okay, here is another native german victim.
Please be kind with me. I´m afraid I´m not that good
in explaining my own mother tongue with regards to
grammar and rules. I´m not a teacher.
But I will try to be helpful.

Can't make it, sorry.
hopefully i will not get hung for that comment now, but I think you should have enough Germans there who are wiling to stick to their mothertongue.
personally, I'd say I am a good teacher and always open to speak German, but I also know how hard it is to stick to German when I know They all speak English.
imho you should be corrected in the pronounciation, when is too far off and also when there is big grammar mistakes.
When I learned my foreign languages ppl wouldn't correct me and then my english got better and better but is still made a lot of simple mistakes as they got into my subconscience and it is sooo damn hard to get rid of mistakes you are used to.
Even now I know I make a lot of mistakes and i hear something is wrong and then I like to be corrected and dont feel offended at all. I miss Big C to correct my English
Of course it all depends how good you are in the foreign language.

Also dann, viel Spass heute abend!!!

@Karen
Did you post something about it in Münchner Singles?

We're at circa 15 people with about 6 natives so will leave the Singles option.

Thanky for all the support from you natives and hope to see PJ and BL at the next one.

Almost 20 people ranging from beginner to Native...and not one Engliish conversation.

excellent cocktails and a lot of progress.

Next one planned for Thursday Sept 2nd... at the Ark (tbc)

I loved it, was great.

That was the first time I had ever sat down and only spoken german for over an hour. Normally I intertwine (a word?) it with english.

The last time I explained that was last night.. in german hehe. Wasnt easy.

One other thing... After speaking german for 90 mins, it felt weird talking english again on the way home

I'll be at the next one I hope!

Tom...

yeah it was a great idea, nice to chat in German for a change, feels weird living abroad and only speaking English out of work.

I can't make the 2nd as I'll be practising my Spanish ("Una Cuba Libre, per favor!" ) but will keep it up afterwards

yep, i also thought that this was a great idea!
thanks to shaggy for arranging this !
you were all awesome! it's been great talking to you
looking forward to the next one!

Thanks so much to all the native speakers...esp. Karen, Rubber Duck, and Arwen who made the Anfänger Ecke a much more relaxed place to be for Tom17 and I

I was a bit nervous at first...but it was so much fun...and the practice was invaluable in my opinion.

Great night...roll on next one!

Oh, what a pity, missed that one.
Well, next time then if there's still a need for native german speakers.

Pictures from the German Stammtisch and the Curry Night are now posted in the Gallery section. Some blurry ones I'm afraid. Not sure if that's because the subjects or the photographer were a bit tipsy or the lighting conditions weren't the best, but I blamed the subjects.

Come work on your German skills over drinks.

At the last event we were almost 20... at all levels and including several natives.

Note, we only speak German, but even the beginners found this really helpful.

7.30 at The Arc
Well priced dinner and snacks are available and I believe cocktails are at a discount on Thursdays.

Open to all- only 1 rule- All conversations are in German.

Nifty - see you there!

Sounds good, I think I might pop along to the next one. Any clues on how a Toytown newbie would recognise you fine folk?