more German lessons

I am really enjoying Duolingo. I think it's because I feel like it's a break in my day I can "sanction" because it's Learning (rather than faffing on Ravelry or free-associating on Twitter).

A few random thoughts:

- one of the early lessons is common phrases. So I was reminded of Ja, Nein, Hallo, all of that. One of the practice translations was, "Hallo, ja!"(which is "Hello, yes..." I suppose it's how you answer a phone when you are working somewhere).

And this popped into my head:

"Hallo. Ja, das ist Hund."

Also, they reminded me of one of the favorite phrases from my original German class: "Tut mir leid" or "Es tut mir leid." Literally, it translates as "It does hurt to me" or, better, "It pains me" but the figurative translation is "I'm sorry."

I like it because it seems to me to be such a resigned phrase - "It pains me, but I cannot do that." Almost TOO polite, and I am good at being too polite. I also imagine being able to say it with a slight Gallic shrug (I am good at those. Though I do recognize there's a contradiction in terms, making a Gallic shrug as you say a German phrase). French has "désolée," which is almost as good.

(People often tell me, "Don't say sorry when it's something you have no control over, or when you're maybe not that sorry" - as in, telling a student, "No, I cannot accept this paper that is three weeks late and written in crayon." I do say "sorry" because I'm conditioned to think that saying it might make the person less likely to become angry. 

I will say you could almost say - or I almost hear in my head "tut mir leid" with a little bit of a sarcastic turn, as in "Oh, it KILLS me to tell you this, but..." for some case where you have to lay down the rules on someone).


I've heard from other Duolingo users that as you get more advanced, you get wacky sentences, and that will be fun, but I'm not that far yet. (I just completed the section on Animals - not all animals, just bees, flies, ducks., mice, cows, cats, dogs, and horses....) So far the weirdest sentences I've got have been "Die Katze isst die Maus" and "Der Hund isst ein Vogel" which are not so much weird as a little gross. (the cat eats the mouse; the dog eats a bird)

I will say that one of my favorite things about learning happened while I was working on that section. It tossed the word "Haustier" at me. I had not seen the word before but I went, "House....animal. OH! Pet!" I love it when my brain does that.

Another funny thing: they give out "lingots" (ew. So I'm going to think of them as fire-rubies instead, in a little nod to Spike and Rarity) as you complete things (this is part of the gamification thing). You can use the fire-rubies to buy additional "special" lessons.

One of the ones (I can't afford it yet) is on idioms, but the other one is on "how to flirt in German"

How to flirt in German.

This makes me laugh because (a) I'm terrible at flirting in English, so they think they can teach me to flirt in German? and (b) German doesn't seem exactly to be a language of Romance. (I wonder if they have a special lesson on cussing people out. I might want that one. At least, if the cussing doesn't use R-rated words....)

I also wonder how Duolingo is funded. I've not been asked for money yet, there are no ads on the site....so I wonder how they pay for it to work. I hope I won't run up against a wall at some point where it's $400 or something if I want more advanced lessons.