So I'm 21 years old, i've been living in germany long enough to be fluent, however i did not start learning actual german until i was about 16.
I went to a DODDS American school, and their method of teaching german in the highest levels were things like "I have the ball"


Even aside from then, i only became proficient in things like getting a taxi, ordering food, and basic directions. And i learned these through immersion, and through trial and error.

Sometimes when german people talk to me, there's always that one (or five) words that fucks me up. I never learned it fluently, just the basics of how to order a sentence, and the basics of everyday shopping. I can get around just fine, but when someone says something to me, sometimes i'm not 100 percent sure as to what they're talking about.

It is conversational german and a lot of verbs/nouns that are bothering me.

Currently i have a huge german Joke Book that i've been looking through. Some of the words i cannot understand, so what i do is, read the sentence, then pick out the words i'm not too sure about, and look them up

I figure if i can understand a full chapter of jokes, then that's one step closer to becoming semi fluent in German.

I also listen to the german radio as much as i can. Although i don't get german televison

I just want to be understood and to understand what people are saying moreso than i do now. I don't expect to be completely fluent.

Is there any other thing i can do to increase my vocabulary?

Are there any ways that i can learn a new word, and REMEMBER it? Sometimes i find myself struggling for the right words but i just can't remember how to say them.

I have some Pimsleur german lessons and an Immersion Plus german lesson. I was told that i could listen to those while i sleep and maybe that would help me?

But i'd like to hear any input.


Thanks

Watching TV and reading will help.

Btw, if you're missing up to 5 words per sentence, you should be careful calling yourself "fluent".

Listening in your sleep doesn't work.

Oh, by the way: Check out FSI. They'd got a very structures, comprehensive course that will help you a lot with grammar and perhaps fill in some vocab blanks.

http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/

in your sleep you better listen to folk songs to get a feeling for the rythm of the language, that´s what pregnant moms do, the baby already listens ..

I never said i was fluent.

I said i lived in germany long enough 'to be' fluent (Implying i've been here a long time)

But i'm not

I also said i wanted to be one step closer to being semi fluent.

But aside from that

I checked out the link, and its brilliant!

Thanks so much for that

I'm not trying to be a dick, but what you originally wrote meant that you were fluent. You should have said "I've lived in Germany long enough that I should be fluent..."

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1071197

No you just suck at context.

And you suck at English, apparently. No matter what the rest of his post is about, "I've lived in Germany long enough to be fluent." means that he is fluent. Period. If he had say "...,but I'm not" it would have been sloppy, but it would have made more sense.

No bro, I'm not autistic like you. I read the thread title, read the sentence, and understood what he was trying to convey. It would just be redundant if he wrote the sentence the way you wanted it, for the rest of us there is a concept called implication. As far as message boards go, you can often include the thread title as part of the conversation. So my interpretation was : "Methods of learning german vocab? I've lived in germany long enough to be fluent, however" Seriously though, why would you even bitch about something so trivial?