• modifier@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Ja genau.

    I had a two year streak on Duolingo and I still get maybe 40% with context clues help.

    • lugal@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      A lot is inside jokes and playfully bad translations from English. Don’t know if that makes it easier or more difficult

      • modifier@lemmy.ca
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        24 hours ago

        It’s probably half an indictment of Duolingo effectiveness and half an indictment of my retention skills.

    • bignate31@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      I took German in high school, and while I understand maybe 60% of the words, 90% of the (what I assume to be critical) context is lost on me

      • TerHu@lemm.ee
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        10 hours ago

        with how the german community is radically translating everything english directly into german, i too tend to need some time figuring out what the heck they mean. lemmy is translated as „let me“ but in one word, same for meme being translated as „me me“. so, oftentimes, i need to translate half the words of a sentence directly into english without taking context into consideration, then try to put them together and reread, if that makes any sense…

        • Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de
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          7 hours ago

          Welcome to Zangendeutsch, where we (mostly) take words and translate them literally. Works the other way as well btw, I often see stuff like that in those “funny german words” memes. Birth control pill = Antibabypille = Antibabypill

          Tangled cables = Kabelsalat = Cablesalad

          (excess weight gained due to sadness) = Kummerspeck = Griefbacon