AMD 3 Ben Oztalay

I decided to watch a couple episodes of South Park in German for this AMD. It had less to do with German culture than I suppose I would have liked, but it was interesting nonetheless. Hearing how German sounds from many different speakers in different tones and speeds was cool, and it made me realize that listening to German is a rather difficult thing to do. I kept noticing that whenever I would hear a word or phrase that I recognized, my brain would catch on it and I would automatically stop listening to the rest of what was being said while I translated that word or phrase in my head.

I wasn't really able to understand what was happening in the episodes from the speech alone, but I was able to pick it up from the imagery. I think I have a long way to go before I can actually watch German TV, but I did start to get accustomed to the sound of the language as I kept watching. I noticed that I got better at hearing individual words, instead of a block of syllables, and that I would be able to move on quicker from something I recognized, although that was a very small portion of what was said. After having done this, I think I'll continue watching German TV, like news and other shows, to get more familiar with the language, even though I may not understand what's happening.