Day 010: German is hard, yes it is
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
10 — German is hard, yes it is
12-August-1971
(Thur.)
TRANSCRIPT
Class is still good but very hard. Teacher said to
stay in and do my best. All that is spoken is German.
Biggest let-down at night. Guitar concert was sold
out.
REFLECTIONS
This is a short journal day. Since part of the reason
for this blog is to inspire both young and old alike
to not be afraid to try new things, rediscover the
joy of discovery, and go for that dream, I thought I
should comment a bit on "learning." Remember, I was
your age when I wrote this journal.
German
is hard. Obviously,
I'm finding the total-immersion German class very
difficult. Learning German is hard. Learning anything
"new" is hard. Whenever you do anything new, it is
always harder to do. Pick any subject—algebra,
Shakespeare, black-hole-dark-matter-string-theory
physics, Schenkerian musical analysis, even
English—it's never easy. Unless you're a genius, and
I'm not.
Here
is how I learn. It's very
traditional, not "fuzzy" at all.
•
Listen: It helps
to actually listen to the professor or teacher as he
or she speaks in class. Unplug that iPod from your
ear child, and pay me some attention. Me bad. You
bad. Listen and learn.
•
Take notes: When
someone speaks to you, for 45 minutes or more, do you
remember most of what is said? No! I am a believer in
there being a direct link between your fingertips
holding a pen or pencil, and the brain. I can prove
it. Well, I can’t. But I’m certain someone can. There
is evidence that same link may exist between your
fingers, the computer keyboard, and the brain. (As
long as you’re not on the Internet, which is famous
for brainless activity.)
•
Review: Same
principle. Once is not enough. Review your notes and
reading in your books. This is sometimes referred to
as studying, or re-reading. This is not memorizing.
Remember me saying that I couldn’t remember the face
of that extraordinarily beautiful Spanish girl I was
speaking to in Grinzing? A second date would have
clinched my remembering what she looked like. Read,
review, study. Fact! Street
cred.
•
Use it. Finally,
do something with the knowledge. Use it in some
manner. That's why you get assignments, questions to
answer, reports and such. All of this leads to
thinking and
learning.
•
Don't give up. Learning
takes time. Just do it. Things will get easier. It's
never too late to start learning. It's never too
early to start learning.
I can’t tell you how many graduate classes I’ve taken
where I didn’t know anything at the beginning of the
class. I took a lot of notes. By the end of the
course, I would be surprised at how much more I knew.
Disclaimer: Do NOT enroll in any doctoral courses of
study in Austrian or German universities that require
the reading of German books, unless you have
extraordinary reading/writing/aural German-language
skills. 
Just a helpful suggestion. I had a
little bit of a break, music is the universal
language.
I hate being so serious. I did enjoy learning in this
German course, despite my whining.
Moving on.
Hey, my first attempt to go to a concert at night
failed. Sold out! I can’t remember who it was. (maybe
John Williams, guitarist?) Can Google go back in
time? Back 36yearsago?
John
---
