Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Mental health vocabulary

One of the most common recommendations for learning vocabulary in a foreign language is to focus on words that are relevant to your daily life. Why spend time learning words you will never use?

A subject that is often viewed as taboo in social circles around the world is mental health. I have major depression and ADHD that is maintained through a regimen of medication and therapy. It can be difficult enough to talk about this in a native tongue! That's why I've culminated a vocabulary list of possible words and phrases that could prove useful when talking about such issues.

die psychische Verfassung – mental health
die Denkfähigkeit – mental capabilities; intelligence; cogitation
der Nervenzusammenbruch – nervous breakdown
die Fassungskraft – mental capacity
die Nervenklinik – mental hospital
der Geisteszustand – mental state; state of mind
das Seelenleiden – mental suffering
die Geistesstörung – mental disorder
die Gemütskrankheit – mental disorder
der Psychiater – psychiatrist
psychiatrisch – psychiatric(ally)
psychiatrischen – psychiatrically
die Psychiatrie – psychiatry
die Gruppentherapie – group therapy
der Therapeut – therapist
die Beklommenheit – anxiety; depression; trepidation
die Depression – depression; melancholy
deprimiert sein – to be in low spirits
aufpassen – to pay attention; to be attentive; to watch (out)
das Rezept – prescription; formula; recipe
der/die Individualfürsorger/in – case worker; case manager
die Fürsorge – welfare
Fürsorger – social welfare worker
die Gesundheit – health
aus gesundheitlichen Gründen – for health reasons
die Krankenversicherung – health insurance
etwas für die Erhaltung seiner Gesundheit tun – to do something for one’s health
Es ist gut/schlecht für deine Gesundheit. – It is good/bad for your health.
die Dauerhaftigkeit – stability; durability
die medizinische Behandlung – medication



Monday, November 1, 2010

Learning German has improved my English

It’s interesting how studying German on my own has forced me to learn about English grammar.

For instance, I was telling a friend earlier that if she had asked me last week what an auxiliary verb was, I wouldn’t have a clue. But in order to learn – and by learn, I mean truly understand – what an auxiliary verb in German was, I had to decipher the English auxiliary verb.

It turns out it’s a “helper” verb, one that works with a second word in a sentence. English’s most used auxiliary verbs are to be, to have and to do (I am working, he has sung, we do eat) whereas German has sein (to be) and haben (to have) but does not use tun (to do) as an auxiliary.

This is all information I could write up charts and make notes on and ponder day after day until I memorize it. But I took the easy route, which is figuring out what this all means in English and finding a way to quickly relate it to German. In the end, it was painless and beneficial. Knowing what they do and how they work helps me apply them to German grammar without second guessing myself.

I grew up with the double edged sword of easily grasping concepts of the English language. Without learning what type of word something is or what a part of a sentence structure is called, I’ve been able to create lingual works of art that have been published and won awards. Yet, roughly two months ago when I decided to take on German, I found myself looking up the definition of “pronoun.”

I can pat myself on the back for my accomplishments all I’d like but the fact is there’s a lot of basic stuff I don’t know. I’m finding myself learning all the information I somehow bypassed in elementary school. However, I’m finding myself having an easier time comprehending my German lessons once I’ve dissected the ideas presented.

Ultimately, the extra time I spend learning English grammar definitions and rules allows me to learn their German counterparts in less time and with less difficulty.

Wandrers Nachtlied

In a continuing attempt to practice my German pronunciation, I recorded a video of myself reciting Goethe's Wanderers Nachtlied. It's a very short poem that I jotted down on my oversized clipboard and performed in my back yard.


Über allen Gipfeln
Ist Ruh,
In allen Wipfeln
Spürest du
Kaum einen Hauch;
Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde.
Warte nur, balde
Ruhest du auch.

I spent about 30 minutes practicing the pronunciation of the word "spürest." The combination of sounds that go into making this one word feels like chewing the same stick of gum for three hours!