4 Insanely Useful Tips To Learning German (That Will Change Your Life)
Yana Immis
Frau Flamm will teach you German in 4 steps. German learning has never been so fast and easy!
When people think about the German language, they probably imagine very hard grammar and long harsh sounding words.
Well, it’s kinda true but only from first sight. After learning German for years I can definitely say that this language is truly beautiful in its logic and structure. And today I’m going to share with you some useful tips on how to start learning German and how to make this process faster and easier.
1. As I always say, motivation is the key. First of all, you should decide why you learn German.
Language learning is a long process (I would even say a never-ending process), so knowing your reasons and understanding your own language goals will help you to keep going and to know how close you are to your goals. For example, you want to study in a Master's program in Germany. So you know that one of your language goals is to pass a certified language test. Knowing what you have to achieve makes it easier to succeed.
“A different language is a different vision of life.”
2. The second tip - take it step by step.
When you know your big goal, make many smaller goals out of it. As you might have heard, our brain doesn’t like tasks that are impossible to complete. We simply give up thinking it’s too hard. So why not make it easier? Why not divide your big goal into smaller manageable tasks. For instance, in order to learn more German words try to learn 3 new words a day and repeating it 3 days and 1 week after.
It seems too simple? But this easy task really enriched my everyday vocabulary, when I was just a beginner in learning German.
3. Another good tip would be to connect to the language through popular culture.
For example, if you like listening to music, then choose some German songs and try to sing along. That was one of the tactics I used while learning German and English. Not only you start to associate language learning with some fun (which can be crucial when you lose your motivation), but also it improves your accent, you learn more new words through the lyrics and you gain some confidence in speaking.
The same can be done with reading international magazines which you used to read in your native language or watching movies which you really love in its German version with subtitles.
4. It’s important to have a certain kind of learning structure and learning habits.
Having a structure will keep you intact while having daily learning habits will accelerate your progress. There are many free online resources that you can use for creating this structure.
Where you can get free information on learning German through the channels solely dedicated to learning German:
YouTube Resources
Free apps like Duolingo
Facebook pages
There are plenty of Facebook groups about learning the German language out there. I would strongly recommend finding a study group in your native language. For sure you can understand most of the explanations in English but having people who can relate to the same problems as you have can be very helpful.
For example, the rolling R is usually a pronunciation problem for many Russians which I also experienced. However, my study friends used to give me really useful tips on this topic. And slowly but surely, I fixed it.
Instagram pages
Study groups can be also formed in real life which I find to be even more motivating because you can have more funny interactions, help each other on a more personal level and form good friendships.
Last but not least, studying the language should always come hand in hand with the good sense of humour. This is how I teach my students through my Instagram
And here is your first English - German lesson
Many of you have asked me about how I learned German language and how long time did it take me to have an advance level. Well, today I share with you my story:
When I arrived in Stuttgart in 2013, I kinda thought that I will have an easy relaxed exchange semester. Luckily enough I could visit free german courses in my Uni. Straight away I got into A2 group (till now I don't know how that happened)... and I was a lousy student! I hated German grammar and refused to learn der-die-das Regeln (who needs these articles anyway). I was sure that I will come back to my study in Canada, so I had no motivation in learning German. It was like that till I've met someone special who spoke mostly German and suddenly the knowledge of this language became very important to me. I wanted to speak with my boyfriend's parents and friends in German since most of them didn't speak English (or Russian)... as I always say: motivation is the key! So in less than 3 months I prepared for TestDaf and successfully passed it even though my previous level was B1.
Right now learning German is not just a hobby of mine which I actually enjoy (never thought that this moment will come) but also a very useful skill that maybe will turn into my digital entrepreneurship!
What is your story of learning this hard language?
Why do you want to learn this language?
What motivates you the most (does it bring you closer to your dream job/study)?
Viele von euch haben mich gefragt, wie ich Deutsch gelernt habe und wie lange es dauerte, bis ich ein fortgeschrittenes Sprachniveau erreicht habe. Nun, heute teile ich mit euch meine Geschichte.
Als ich 2013 in Stuttgart ankam, dachte ich, dass ich ein lockeres, entspanntes Austauschsemester haben werde. Zum Glück konnte ich an meiner Uni kostenlose Deutschkurse besuchen. Ich bin sofort in die A2-Gruppe gekommen (bis jetzt weiß ich nicht, wie das passiert ist) ... und ich war eine lausige Studentin. Ich hasste die deutsche Grammatik und lehnte es ab, die 'der-die-das' Regeln zu lernen (wer braucht diese Artikel schon?). Ich war mir sicher, dass ich zu meinem Studium in Kanada zurückkehren werde, daher hatte ich keine Motivation, Deutsch zu lernen. Es war so, bis ich jemanden getroffen habe, der hauptsächlich Deutsch sprach. Und plötzlich wurden mir die Kenntnisse dieser Sprache sehr wichtig. Ich wollte mit den Eltern und Freunden meines Freundes auf Deutsch sprechen, da die meisten von ihnen kein Englisch (oder Russisch) sprachen ... wie ich immer sage: Motivation ist der Schlüssel! Also habe ich mich in weniger als 3 Monaten auf TestDaf vorbereitet und erfolgreich bestanden, obwohl mein vorheriges Niveau B1 war.
Deutsch lernen ist im Moment nicht nur ein Hobby von mir, an dem ich wirklich Spaß habe (hätte nie gedacht, dass dieser Moment kommen wird), sondern auch eine sehr nützliche Fähigkeit, die sich vielleicht in eine digitale Unternehmerschaft verwandeln wird.
Was ist euere Geschichte vom Lernen dieser harten Sprache?
Warum willst du diese Sprache lernen?
Was motiviert dich besonders (bringt es dich deinem Traumberuf/Studium näher)?
About the Author
Alesia Flamm was born and raised in Samara, Russia.
Since she was 8 years old, she has been learning foreign languages. In the beginning, Alesia absolutely hated it. But after the first time abroad she has realized how important it is to know a foreign language, especially such as English. It definitely opened up a lot of doors for her, one of which was an exchange program in Germany.
In 2013 Alesia came to study in Stuttgart as an exchange student from Canada, where she was finishing her Bachelor's degree. German was definitely not an easy language to learn, but within one and a half years she managed to achieve high proficiency in this language. Since then she has been helping other people to perfect their German and English by creating free online resources to learn these languages.
Alesia is still at the beginning of her professional path and it's still a lot to be done, but knowing that she has found her true purpose in life makes everything possible.
