I am sharing with you what I have learnt within just three months.
You can too.
Three important tips to start with:
Firstly, about 'der, die, das', once you start to learn German, everyone would tell you, oh, der, die, das, that's so confusing. Well, the truth is, it is far less important than we think. If you make mistakes about the gender, it is okay! People understand you. This is not something you have to get it right from the beginning.
Secondly, I can not emphasise enough about word order. This is very often overlooked by the beginners. Word order is the key difference between English and German. Word order, you have to learn it well from the beginning. Look for "Word Order" under "Noch Mehr".
Thirdly, you can quickly pick up some German if you speak English. You can find those under the session of Easy Peasy. German language is not that scaring after all.
The rest comes with passion, persistence, and practice.
- To start the day, I listen to 'Was habe ich heute verpasst' by FOMO at Spotify.
- While I cook, I listen to Youtube 'Easy German', and 'Hallo Deutschschule'. And plus some youtubers making fun of politics - Renzo, Walulis, Heute Show.
- I definitely don't understand much, but still I watch TV series in German, initially with English subtitle (The Split), then with German subtitle (20:15 TV Show), and finally completely without any subtitle (The Mentalist).
- Local people, especially strangers are the best audience to practice German with. (Not your English-speaking friends!) Believe me. With strangers, you don't feel embarrassed if you make mistakes and for certain things, you can brush up again and again and get better and better.
- Read kids' book and write diaries no more than a page. This is a habit not easy to maintain.
- Check out German music - Rammstein (Deutschland) , Deichkind! You will be surprised.
- When you start to dream in German, you know you have made it!
I leave you now to explore the website, find your own learning path and keep visiting it whenever you can.
Meanwhile write to me (yuli.liang@hotmail.com) if you have any questions or wish to have private tutoring. I read English, German and Chinese.
Credit of the pictures on this website goes to gumbootsandwellingtons, Songhong and Siegfried_beyers.