This weekend I returned to one of my favorite language-learning strategies: intensive grammar study. I have three books I am making my way through. Most of what I focused on yesterday and today was nouns: gender, plural forms, that kind…
Yesterday I went to Café Margot with my German grammar books. While in line waiting for my coffee, I scouted out seating opportunities; seats are generally hard to come by in New York City establishments. It is competitive…
I woke up in the dark yesterday, around 5:45 a.m. It was not my intention to wake up while it was still dark. The result of waking up in the dark was that I was tired. I hate that. …
My running situation is improving again, and my mileage is up. Unfortunately, I am out of Pimsleur to keep me company while I stretch. I hate being out of Pimsleur. I need to find myself some podcasts! Anyway, I just…
Yesterday I did a bit of translation work at home for the Goethe-Institut, then went down there for my usual late Friday afternoon conversation. I love this place! It is, by the way, open to the public, so people interested…
Yesterday, after a late-afternoon nap that stretched into evening, I decided to take myself (and my SparkNotes German flash cards) out for a brain-stimulating latte at a local café, a different one from my usual language-learning coffee haunt. The guy…
Although this is a mostly food-free language program, I still enjoy visiting places with food and drink related to the languages I am studying. I love seeing containers of rice, or noodles, or soda—just commonplace items like that—plastered…
Yesterday I achieved a new Pimsleur PR. PR means “personal record”; in running, it is your best time for a given distance. Speaking of which, I haven’t talked much about running lately because (1) although I am obsessed with…
Today I went for a second time to the Goethe-Institut, where I enjoyed a lovely couple of hours chatting with Joanna, the German university student and Goethe-Institut intern I mentioned last week. SoHo Traffic on the Way to the Goethe-Institut …
Yesterday evening I attended a performance of Brahms’s A German Requiem at Carnegie Hall. Performing alongside the soloists was the Collegiate Chorale, of which my sister Rebecca is a member. It was beautiful. This is not the…
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