source: pixabay.com (derwiki)
To change gears in 2019, and also feed what appears to be an incurable case of “polygluttony” (♫ Feed me, Seymour! ♫), I’ve chosen to study a wider variety of languages through a series of shorter-term projects. I’d still like to focus on advancing one particular language at a time (which I’ll indicate in the sidebar), but will keep another slot free for languages that are already at least partially advanced and I’d like to develop further.
Carrying on from where I left Russian in 2018, it’s time to also revisit German, and apply some WD-40 to the nuts, bolts, and hopefully-still-working mechanisms of both languages. As a brief background, I lived in Germany as an army brat for a few years, studied German throughout high school, and finally returned to Germany many years later from 2009 to 2010 in support of my wife’s career. Over the ensuing decade, I’ve only occasionally used the language, and my self-assessed level of proficiency in German is currently in the B2-C1 range.
Speaking: Looking back a decade ago, I miss speaking German. I was able to chat fluently with locals for several hours straight, especially when free drinks were involved ;), and still find it relatively natural and spontaneous to think (and even occasionally dream) in German, only reverting back to translating in my head when vocabulary fails me.
Pronunciation: It was always fun to ask Germans where they thought I was from…and to this day, no-one has yet replied Engländer! When I initially moved back to Germany, some people thought I was Dutch or Belgian at first, so I worked a bit on softening my /ç/ sound and confused them even more. I’d love to be soberly mistaken for a native speaker one day…at least just once…but I can’t imagine that happening in my lifetime as there are probably still so many telltale signs that give me away.
Listening: I’ve watched several German movies and series over the years, and enjoy playing computer games in the language on occasion. I’m not saying I understand every single word and phrase, but I nearly always get the gist, along with most of the finer details when dialogues are clearly spoken and closer to Hochdeutsch. I particularly love quirky German series like “Der Tatortreiniger” but falter in places where the discourse becomes more dialectal, full of slang, slurs, and obscure idiomatic expressions. This was a particular issue for me in larger groups and noisy busy environments where locals tended to revert back to strong Hessisch.
Reading: Using Hesse’s “Der Steppenwolf” (which happens to be on my bookshelf but I haven’t read yet), I knew over 97% of the running words across a few random passages when I tested myself just now, and my reading speed was in the 150-200 wpm range (although this was under considerably less than optimal reading conditions). This is decent enough for me to pick up a novel and start reading for pleasure, looking up the occasional word here and there.
Writing: I’ve written some essays in the far distant past, and more recently brushed up on some advanced aspects of grammar. However there’s still so much work to be done. Grammar gremlins aside, the real trick is to develop an intuitive feel for native-like syntax, which will hopefully only strengthen over time following further generous helpings of language immersion and attentive practice.
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Summary after 50 more hours of Russian (also added to ongoing 
Travels with Teango 