Intuitive programming enables the system to recognize which words you have learned well and which words need repetition. You quickly get a sense of achievement. When I started learning languages at school, I would pass the time on my cycle ride home by counting to one hundred, first in French, then in German. Nowadays, I still have to do mental arithmetic and count money in English, but I am now good with numbers due to my practice at a young age.
You can have simple monologues in your head. My name is Sarah. I am not suggesting you have dialogues with yourself in a schizophrenic manner, but practicing everyday situations alone will make you more confident and fluent when you get out there in real life. Thirty years ago, getting exposure to authentic material in another language was much more challenging than today.
I went on a school exchange to Germany in I heard a song from a German band I liked die Prinzen. I treated myself to the cassette. Yes, pre CD and download times! I repeatedly listened to try to understand the lyrics of the ten songs on the cassette.
In time I could sing along to the music and gradually know about what I was singing. Today, the world is your oyster when it comes to accessing music, texts, and videos, all online. Alternatively, watch the news online. If you have heard the latest information about an international disaster, for example, an earthquake or volcanic eruption somewhere in the world, find a German news station and learn the vocabulary.
One of the points in my article 6 best reasons to learn German by a teacher was the richness of German culture. Most people watch movies as a way to relax during their downtime. So, go ahead. Find a German film on Netflix or Amazon Prime and press play.
I would recommend turning on the English subtitles for the first viewing at least. It is challenging to understand all characters in one go. All of my points thus far have been about activities, which you can do all by yourself. But language is about communication at the end of the day. And that means engaging in dialogues.
Again, this is something you can do from the comfort of your own home. In Germany, many people look for a so-called Tandem partner. That is an exchange of languages, e. Such a language exchange is possible online and is invaluable for improving your fluency. You should, however, be aware that your partner is not a qualified teacher. German is very closely related to English. The two languages share common words, sentence structures, and an extremely similar alphabet.
The fact is, it depends on a lot of things. What kind of learner you are, what your native language is, and what resources you use matters. These can either slow you down or fast track your fluency. But, if you insist, we can give you a number. Based on how far the language is from English, they assigned approximate times for how long it takes to learn them.
For German, they estimate 30 weeks or hours of study. Thanks to how closely related German is to English, it takes a relatively short time to learn it. So, please, take the numbers with a grain of salt. Steady practice every day will get you there. Stop counting your steps, and look up to the finish line. These practical steps can guide you to German fluency. While you still need to do most of the works, these tips to learn German will make the journey easier.
Having the right strategies lets you achieve German fluency much faster. And you can definitely do it by yourself.
Learning a language can often cost a pretty penny. If you join a language class or a University course, be prepared for some potential college debt.
Similarly, hiring a private tutor is a great resource, but you have to pay for their time and expertise. In the beginning it can make sense to study on your own until you reach a certain level of proficiency.
The basics of German are easy and if you really commit yourself to it you can learn them quickly by using free resources. Especially the basics of grammar and some easy to learn phrases like greetings and introducing yourself can be easily learned before thinking about any course.
At a certain point, you would have to take courses to correct your mistakes and start to speak the language. This should be done until you reach a level where you can start reading German books. Around B1-B2. Once you reach that level, you should have picked up enough of the language to be able to avoid major pronunciation mistakes and you can then go on with learning the language by yourself. Reading books will probably be the most useful resource that you have at that level. It will help you expand your vocabulary at a reasonable pace and it will get you a lot of exposure to the most frequently used sentence structures.
When trying to learn German by yourself, resources suddenly become much more important than they would be for someone taking a course. Your resources will be a big part of your success or failure. You need to have not only one but various sources of information to be able to look at topics from some other point of view.
It will almost certainly require you to do extensive searching on the Internet for a lot of topics that you are looking at. Also keep in mind that you will need much more exercises than someone who is speaking the language at a regular basis and on top of that you need to have some way to correct the exercises that you do. There is no other way for you to use what you learned than to do exercises, so they become essential for your studying.
Try to set yourself a daily goal—for example, learn three new nouns, verbs and adjectives for nine words total every day. Then, you can practice using those rules for yourself with these free online exercises—just click a series of words in the correct order to build German sentences.
Just like with single words, begin practicing simple phrases that you might say on an average day. Choose whatever would be most useful for you in daily life in Germany! You could even use English subtitles to make it easier. As your level improves, or to give it a boost now, try watching some German films with German subtitles. Reading German newspaper columns is a tried-and-true method to do this.
Use a website like Meetup to meet with people who have an active interest in learning German as well, so you can all practice together. You could use similar sites to meet a German friend and practice speaking the language together. First, check out this post on German learning podcasts. Yes, you can indeed learn German on-the-go.
As an alternative way to concentrate on your German pronunciation while being entertained, podcasts are a intriguing and fun way to learn German. You can listen to lessons on German idioms, colloquialisms and even some cheeky words to banter with the local Deutschen. The most popular podcast out there for German learners is most likely GermanPod —and it is certainly popular for good reason.
There are hundreds of audio and video lessons, and the collection is always growing with fresh material for all skill levels. Yup, this covers you from newbie to nearly-fluent.
Try it out with a free account! I mentioned it earlier, but I just need to stress that Meetup is a fantastic website for finding like-minded people who may also want to meet you.
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