What's the best way to learn German?

111kg · September 1, 2015

My plan is to get my C1 certificate (in German) by the next summer so I could go with an Erasmus scholarship for a semester or even a year in Germany. However, I find that learning German by myself can be extremely difficult, especially as this language has a lot of grammar rules.

In your experience, what's the best way to learn German? As well, to the teachers here, how do you teach this language?

Chnuschti · September 1, 2015

That`s a pretty difficult question...

I suggest learning basic vocabulary and sentence structure first.

After that make sure to not get lost in the grammar. Quite a lot of Germans can`t even talk proper German. They mix up cases, conjugate verbs incorrectly etc.

I am convinced that the best approach is that you start using the language as soon as possible.

Search a German to talk to. Watch German TV shows and most importantly:

read a lot of books

If you have to look up a lot of words when reading is no problem at all. (at least if it doesn`t bother you to much)

Trust me, you`ll do a lot of mistakes, but that is ok, Germans that aren`t educated to much do it too. But after some time you will start to learn from your mistakes. After you have reached a level that enables you to talk to others you will beginn to realise that you always do the same errors. And as soon as you are aware of your mistakes you can look up the specific topic of grammar.

What is your level in German now? I might give you better advice if I knew that

111kg · September 1, 2015

Let's say... I'd easily get an A2 certificate.

I've finished all the Duolingo lessons, but in all honesty, they don't seem to help too much in real life, mainly because I've learned the exact phrases, but not why exactly they were built that way.

PS: thanks for the tips. I will definitely try to find a (very patient) native German.

jamesbonner · September 2, 2015

Well, I suggest that you start learning the main words first, after that you can try to read german forums, watch their movies with translation, and even try to make some friendships with the native speakers ! in that way you'll learn more words and how to use them good luck

linguaholic · October 3, 2015

Chnuuschti, are you Swiss by any chance? That name of yours really sounds like it :=))

missbookworm · October 4, 2015

I think the best way to learn German by yourself is to get familiarized with their language. If you don't want to hire a German language tutor, then you may just want to study German vocabulary and grammar rules online, and try to watch German movies/shows all the time. These resources might be of great help to you. Best of luck!

111kg · October 10, 2015

I think the best way to learn German by yourself is to get familiarized with their language. If you don't want to hire a German language tutor, then you may just want to study German vocabulary and grammar rules online, and try to watch German movies/shows all the time. These resources might be of great help to you. Best of luck!

I've found out that watching German movies doesn't really help, mainly because I am still a beginner and they speak so damn fast. It's almost impossible to understand how they speak so fast such a complicated language.

However, I have no problem in speaking some basic phrases with my German friends. Memrise and Duolingo help a lot, too.

Nick2015 · January 28, 2016

I think the best way to learn German is to visit a language course, because German grammar is really difficult to learn by yourself. If you plan to go to Germany for a year, you should take the opportunity to visit a language school with German native speakers as teachers.