Many people nowadays want to learn a second language. And why not? Learning a second language opens a door of possibilities for your career, relationships, and travel. But when you sit down at your desk, notebook, pen, and highlighters ready, where do you start? Beginning to learn a foreign language can be a lot to take in. There is no cut and dry way to start. So how do you do it? It's simple. Languages are just input and output. When you were a child learning how to speak English, you heard people speaking to you in English (input), and then you would try and formulate sentences back to said English speaker (output). But anyone trying to learn a language who is older than the age of 4 knows it's more difficult than listening and responding. Your brain has matured and it is constantly yelling "STOP!" at you since it's trying to think more in-depth about what's processing. This does us no good. So here is a list of input and output things you can start doing:
Input:
Studying Vocabulary
Studying Grammar
Reading
Writing
Listening
Output:
Speaking with someone who knows German
Sadly there isn't much more to Output. In another blog post, I will post some websites that you can use to find native speakers. Now, on to the input!
1. Vocabulary
There are so many ways you can study and memorize vocabulary. This part will take some trial and error on your part to see what system works for you. Some systems are:
- Memory Palaces
- Flashcards
- The Chunking method
- The Gold list method
(I will try and go more in-depth about these systems in future posts)
When starting to learn a language you want to start with the most frequently used words and verbs.
I would recommend the 625 Fluent Forever word list - https://blog.fluent-forever.com/base-vocabulary-list/
and the top 100 German verbs - https://www.thegermanprofessor.com/top-100-german-verbs/
One important thing about learning a language is connecting it with an image or a personal event. Just writing the Dog = der Hund won't be enough. If you're using flashcards you can add a picture to the words. With the other systems, you want to make a personal connection. When you think of "Dog", what memory pops up? Is it the memory of your dog, Jackie, eating all your greek yogurt, having explosive diarrhea, making your house smell like poop for 3 weeks? Always try and make a personal connection.
2. Grammar
Grammar is a difficult subject. You might be a grammar junkie or you might hate the sight of it. It really depends on who you are. Some basic grammar you will need to know just starting out is:
- Personal pronouns
- Basic sentence structure
- How to structure questions
- Verb changes based on pronouns
With these 4 basic grammar rules, you can start speaking simple sentences.
There are plenty of videos, websites, podcasts, and books that explain grammar in depth which I will talk about in other posts.
Here is a simple grammar book to start you off - https://www.pdfdrive.com/basic-german-a-grammar-and-workbook-grammar-workbooks-e156690556.html
3. Reading
Reading is a good way to notice how german sentence structure and grammar work. Reading also gives you vocabulary which you can learn, more on vocabulary in a different post. One resource that I used is "Cafe in Berlin". It has 10 easy to read short stories that become more difficult in each story. Reading is more beneficial once you have a good base of vocab, and It would be more beneficial to save it for another point in time if you are just starting out.
Link to Cafe in Berlin - https://www.amazon.de/Learn-German-Stories-Berlin-Beginners-ebook/dp/B00F33E3C0
4. Writing
Writing is a good way to put your Vocabulary and Grammar to the test. You can write just about anything. You can write about your day, a short story, a poem. You can then plug your writing into google translate and see if it makes any sense. You can then hear what you wrote as well. You can start out with a few simple sentences and slowly make your way up!
5. Listening
You can listen just to just about anything anywhere. YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, etc. Listening helps you train your ears to pick up german, or any other language you're trying to learn. It can also get you closer to the culture as well. If you're watching a video, series, or movie in your target language, make sure to have the subtitles on in your target language. This will help you know what words are being said and how to say them.
I hope this post helped you in any way. Remember, It's important to have fun and enjoy how you're learning the language. If you hate grammar, don't focus all your attention on it. If you hate flashcards, pick a different vocabulary learning system. There is so much variety on how to learn a language that there is no need for struggle. You shouldn't be setting a time slot to learn a language and dreading for it to arrive. That's all for now, till next time :).
Photo credit - https://unsplash.com/@jankolar
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