More disconcerting language learning exercises

It sometimes appears that publishers of language learning materials can't think of some useful example sentences for students to practice. Sometimes the examples they come up with can be downright disturbing, such as talking about a man who follows women, as I wrote about here.

I haven't used language learning materials geared toward the basic consumer market in some time (think Berlitz, Pimsleur, etc.); I much more prefer the more academic approach. However, I recently needed to test the software from one of the big guys in the world of language learning.

Cue the insane example of a sentence to learn, and the corresponding picture:

"The man is reading a burning newspaper."

I had so, so many questions after seeing this, including:

1. Why the h-e-double-hockey-sticks is this man reading a burning newspaper?!
2. Is this some sort of social commentary on the dangers of censorship in the media?
3. Why is he not perturbed that his newspaper is burning?
4. Why does he appear to be standing in the middle of a lane of traffic?!
5. Is his hand not getting burned by the fire?
6. When am I going to say, in German, that a person is reading a burning newspaper?
(From my cultural observations from living here, it doesn't seem that people read burning newspapers.)
7. Why would the course designers think this is a useful phrase to learn?
8. (From my experience in marketing/stock photos): Did they actually do a photoshoot where the man had to hold a burning newspaper? How'd they get him to agree? What kind of liability insurance did they need for this? Or was the fire photoshopped in?

The entire diatribe above is why I'm not a major fan of the "quick and easy" (not) learning without a teacher. A lot of time the CDs or software teach utter nonsense.

Not happy with Sicher German textbooks

I am relieved that the latest German class ended as I was running out of steam with it. We used a book that is, in my opinion, very poorly organized and difficult to follow; I was also very displeased with the same company's B2 book, both of which are in the Sicher! series. One learns the grammar that's spread out in tiny, nonsensical bits and bobs throughout the chapter then it's repeated all over the place in the back of the book in no particular order. At the end of the chapter, there's a short description of the grammar but it wasn't that clear.

It's the kind of grammar learning where the grammar is presented in use and the learner is just supposed to "get it"on one's own, to an extent. Yes, I realize that we were using the upper intermediate and advanced books and have higher skills at this point, but still...with some of these nebulous constructions, one needs much more.

I was so frustrated with the book and didn't feel that I learned the material well that I bought Erkundungen, the C1 book from the previous series we'd used before we were stuck with Sicher. With those books from Schubert Verlag, I felt that I learned the content well; chapters are laid out in a manner that makes sense and there are clear reviews at the end of the chapter that explain the grammar clearly. The book has a good flow and it's easy to thumb through it and find the particular thing one learned. Plus it includes an answer key, which Sicher doesn't. I don't like putting all the work into exercises without being able to check immediately if I completed them correctly in order to avoid burning the wrong answer into my brain.

I am either going to go over the Erkundungen chapters myself or see if I can find a teacher on my own before the Uni offers the next level of class in the fall. It's my goal to take/pass the C1 exam sometime next year or so and I doubt that'll happen if we keep using the Sicher books. It seems really difficult to retain any information from those books, and I'm certainly not the only student in the class who felt that way. It's ironic that we felt insecure after using Sicher.

The bane of my German-learning experience

Have you used the Sicher books? What is your opinion of them?

Some darn weird language learning sentences

Have you used some learning materials pick up a new language, and have thought, where the heck do they come up with these sample sentences or conversations? Some of the examples are funny, some are irrelevant, and some are downright creepy!

I was using Duolingo to learn German and a sample went something like this:

The man likes the women. The man follows the women.

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Let me translate: the man is a creeper. He follows the women. [The women get freaked out and run away.]

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I was recently using another set and the sample was just...jacked up. It was a conversation between a man and woman on the train. She didn't have a ticket and was trying to buy one; he told her not to worry about it and just to be a Schwartzfarerin. He told her that tickets were rarely checked and the fine wasn't high. Of course along came a ticket checker. The guy whipped out an extra ticket and got the checker off their case. The lady was surprised and the guy said he had the extra ticket all along because one of his coworkers had disembarked from the train earlier and left the ticket with him. The lady was grateful and introduced herself, then asked the guy out to dinner.

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Okay, can I just say: what the heck kind of sample is this?! First of all, the woman is dumb. Just buy a darn ticket. Any tourist book will tell you about the ticket checkers and the fines for riding without a ticket. She spoke with an American accent and it doesn't work in the US to travel without a ticket, so why try it in Germany?

Secondly, the dude is manipulative as all get out! Why was he encouraging the lady to go Schwartzfahren? If he wanted to be helpful, why didn't he just give her the ticket in the beginning? Was he hoping that the could "rescue" her, then impress her with his chivalry and maybe she'd be interested in him?

Yes, maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I find these examples weird. If these situations happened to me in real life, I'd find them weird. Also, I would imagine that someone coming from a very different cultural background might think that these types of situations must be normal in Germany.

My DW language learning material thought of the day

Warning: this contains spoilers if you use the Deutsche Welle German-learning materials. However, since the point is to learn the language, it's probably not the end of the wold.

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Dear Deutsche Welle: thank you for the free language learning materials. They're well-produced and interesting enough. However, what the heck is up with the themes of really weird boy/girlfriends? For example, Jojo sucht not only Glück, but also tried to find the guy who stood her up all the time even though she moved from another country to Germany to date him (and he ended up being a creepy stalker, which strangely enough didn't bother her friends). I'm getting ready to listen to the Warum Nicht podcast and it's about Andreas and his invisible ex. Does he hallucinate? Does she really exist? Or is it just that DW couldn't afford a female narrator too?

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Despite these irregularities, DW has some great materials to help German learners and everything is free. Check it out with this link.