Dana is great and should have never been ridiculed like she was in the other episode! She knows the language and she tries and does her best! If people understand, then who cares?! I think the Easy German crew is probably one of the most supportive groups when it comes to learning German (or any language)! Thanks Easy Languages for all of your help and videos. :) küsse von Amerika!
This video was really nice and as a self-conscious language learner I admire her bravery! Sometimes we have the idea that we shouldn't try to speak a language just because of our accents. This is wrong!
An advice for Dana: for the pronunciation of umlauted vowels try the following: For O: Form the lips as if you were trying to say "o", but say "e" instead. For U: Form the lips as if you were trying to say "u", but say "i" instead.
Helpful. Dana deserves an "A" for effort. Often the most critical people are those who only speak one language, in my experience. They may not understand the challenge of learning another language.
+Mary Ann Mehegan or they are trolls/not smart kids. been playing game some kids 8-13 yr old just don't get that they're ,,shit talk,, is a stupid, bad thing
i guess Im randomly asking but does someone know of a method to log back into an Instagram account..? I somehow forgot my account password. I would love any tips you can offer me.
Ich muss euch danken, für alle die Folgen, die ihr hochgeladen habt. Vor gut einem Jahr habe ich Deutsch studiert während ich bei der Uni Rechnungswesen studiere und ich muss sagen, dass diese Videos mir total helfen.
Ja einer meiner besten Freunde aus Bangladesch hat in der Schule vor allem Englisch gelernt und auch gesprochen und hat am Anfang auf Deutsch ganz oft ü, ö und ä mit U, O und A verwechselt :P
Ich bin eine Amerikanerin aus Kalifornia. Seit zehn Jahre lerne ich Deutsch und ich habe Problem auszusprechen mit alle Woerter mit umlaut und "r". Sie sind sehr schwierig fuer mich. Ich mag das Video sehr viel. Ich verstehe wie schwierig Deutsch zu sprechen.
Zalina Walton A couple people have suggested trying to pronounce the R more like an A. I've been trying that out lately, because I realized that it's true! :D I often hear "oder" said more like "oda" and "aber" said more like "aba." Hope that helps!
Dana, u are amazing! I'm half swiss, half canadian... learing German like u, with an english accent too...........it is not always wasy, so proud of your work!
Andrew Feinberg I never quiet understood why so many people put emphasis on the accent. I never really considered it important, since every foreigner I've known all speak English with accents. It doesn't mean that I don't think their English is good, though, it just means that I know they weren't born in America! Having a thick German or Chinese accent doesn't mean that you're English is automatically poorer than someone who decided to master the local accent here (we sound a lot like the Fargo characters where I live, in cast you need a mental reference). To the people who can blend in perfectly with a "native" accent: good job! That's hard to do and you deserve praise.
+shounenbat510 It's important to be understandable though. Each word has a "'proper" or accepted pronunciation that is understood by speakers of that language.
Danke Cari und Dana dieser Folge! Es war hilfreich für mich. Whenever people with giving Dana tips or suggestion on pronunciation, I was also practicing too! Being an American and learning German, like Dana, is not easy. I commend her for even taking the initiative for learning another language because many Americans do not care to do so. It was also cool to see the people in Germany being helpful and giving her tips.
If you want to pronounce a German ü-sound you may try either of the following tricks: 1. Pronounce an u. While you do this, push your tongue to the front of the mouth. 2. Pronounce an i. While you do this, slowly make your lips round as if for an u. The combination of tongue position and lip shape will get you an ü-sound. The same works for an ö-sound (same as 1 with o instead of u; same as 2 with e (German pronunciation!) instead of i).
Ich finde es echt fies, dass manche ihren Akzent kritisieren. Das ist nun einmal so, sie wurde halt in Amerika geboren und deswegen ist es für sie viel schwerer, als für uns.
Samira Lodin Als deutschsprachiger Amerikaner muss ich gestehen dass sie sich ein bisschen mit der Aussprache anstrengen sollte. Viele Deutsche können mir kaum einen Akzent anhören. Doch ich finde es trotzdem gut dass sie so viele Kenntnisse hat. Allerdings können die meisten Amerikaner nur eine Sprache...
Dan Worden Vielleicht braucht sie da auch noch mehr Zeit als du :) Deutsch ist aber schon eine schwere Sprache wenn man nicht direkt hier geboren wurde :D
Du hast recht. Deutsch ist sehr schwierig doch ich hab's gelernt ohne einmal Deutschland besucht zu haben. Ich habe noch nie Europa besucht. Leider fuer manche Leute, bleibt der Akzent fuer immer. Also wie frueher gesagt ist sie schon viel besser als die meisten Amerikaner :)
Learning another language is hard enough. Trying to perfect an accent or dialect is just extra. Even in the video it was hard for her to hear the difference between what she was saying and what the germans were saying. Its fine. Shes fluent and is doing well. Kudos to her for learning a different language.
Well done Dana, but for people learning German it is better if the german spoken in these videos are only by native speakers, that way the viewer will learn the correct pronunciation!
Native/near-native pronunciation is not impossible to achieve in a new language. There are only 2 things that affect this: 1. Natural/Learned ability: if you are naturally talented or trained to listen to small detail in sounds, this will make the process significantly less difficult. People like myself who are musicians and others who might be linguists come to mind. 2. Early and Immediate Exposure: this is the most crucial step. You must expose yourself to the native pronunciation of your new language as often as possible within the first few months. I personally watched a lot of Easy German videos and also began to listen to German music everyday during my commute. It is important that you try to reproduce the sounds that you hear as best you can (sing along with the music, repeat the sentences, etc), paying very close attention to the subtle qualities of the native's pronunciation (this is where part 1 really helps). **For the pesky sounds like the German "r", there are plenty of videos on TH-cam that explain how to pronounce them correctly. For the "r" in particular I had to practice and listen to it a lot before I got it. If you can't do it yet practice and use a Spanish trilled "r" sound if you can, that's what I did. Using the rhotic American "r" sound is very unpleasant on the ear, sorry Dana.
What are people complaining about? Her German is very good and easy to understand. Sure she has an accent but that is absolutely normal when you are learning a foreign language. I don't want to know how German people sound to native English speakers when they do speak English with their German accent.
Hi! i just found this video and I must to say that your youtube channel is amazing... I am trying to learn German and it's exactly what need... thanks a lot. You are the best!
Dana, deine Aussprache ist viel besser geworden! Ich habe auch Schwierigkeiten mit der Aussprache von ,,r" mit folgenden ,,ch", zum Beispiel ,,Rache", ,,Krach", und so weiter, aber außerdem glaube ich, dass meine Aussprache relativ gut ist. Cari (und Easy Languages), vielen Dank für alles, was ihr macht!
At least she's learning this hard language. Many props to her! And if any German speakers were talking bad about her accent I can only imagine the sound of your English...respect people that are learning.
Easy Languages Of course, I am also scared to speak foreign languages because of my accent. Nobody should be put down though or made fun of for trying to learn a language. It's called "learning" for a reason. You also can't expect a British person to perfect the American accent and vice versa. We are all born with accents.
There is no need at all for people to be nasty (that is sad to hear) but the criticism is valid. No one expects her to sound like a native - we all speak German with an accent - but she just pronounces them like they are English words and it sounds to the listener like she has never once tried to imitate the sounds of the new language. Good luck to her and everything, but it is REALLY hard to watch a whole video like that.
Congrats on making the effort to improve your accent Dana! Hats off to you! It takes a long time for some. And I think your advice at the end about getting rid of fear and just SPEAKING regardless of the accent was spot-on. Fantastic tip to those who are at any stage of learning to speak a new language! I think people need to give anyone learning a new language a break. It is a HUGE undertaking (particularly for those of us learning a new language later in life). Not only are there thousands of new words to remember, but sentence structure varies greatly from English to German. There is a lot of work going on "behind the scenes". I think Dana does an admirable job. Maybe her particular struggle is learning to speak with a more authentic accent. That isn't such a great problem for me, but I struggle a lot with remembering my vocabulary and sentence structure rules. Perhaps I am lucky with my ability to speak in a German accent because my partner whom I live with is German. In short, we all have our strengths and weaknesses.
OMG! Dana! This brought back memories of when I was in Norway as an exchange student from the US many years ago. I had the same problem with the u/ü sound. [Though the spelling is different in Norwegian.] Simply couldn't hear the difference. But I finally learned how to make the sound. Kudos for continuing to try to get the sound right!
As an American who learned German myself, some of these sounds aren't very hard. It sounds like sometimes she's not even making an effort to pronounce certain letters. If you're in Germany try to find a speech coach or take a pronunciation class.
Yes, exactly the same as I felt, not even the slightest effort to make the right sound or perhaps she's faking it...don't know. I'm not saying German pronunciation is easy or speaking it with an accent is wrong. However, mann soll immer versuchen, die richtige Aussprache zu sagen. :-D
I'm an American studying German, and I've noticed that non-German people (especially Americans) dogmatically pronounce "ch" like "sh" -- as Dana (love her!) does in this video -- and they simply will NOT change it when corrected. I heard that this is a dialectic choice; however, it's my biggest pet peeve when non-Germans do this, and it drives me nuts. Which is better though? Thoughts?
Wanted Adventure I'm learning German too, and I think I have a couple tips for you! The sound in Offensichtlich that you (and just about everyone learning German) are having a hard time with is called a palatal fricative. We don't really have it in English, and it is not the same as the English 'sh' sound (not in Hochdeutsch, anyway). Say the English word hue. The air should be hissing from kind of the middle of your mouth between your tongue and hard palate. This sound is made anywhere between here and the soft palate (farther back) where it turns into the Krach sound. (In Brötchen, it IS a little farther forward, I guess. Due to the t right before it.) For ü, start off by saying a really pronounced eeeee, but then round your lips small like you're saying ooooo. KEEP THE REST OF YOUR MOUTH THE SAME! It's almost just like an ee with rounded lips. And ö is almost just like an 'ay' with rounded lips, but don't really pronounce the y. Just say the beginning part that's almost like the e in 'let' if you really listen to it, and round your lips. The r is Bratwurst is really hard, but maybe the best advice is to stop looking for it in the same place as your normal r. It is a lot more like the ch in Krach, but with voicing added. An English z is just an s with voicing. Similarly, a German Bratwurst R is almost just the ch at the end of Krach with voicing. Or at least it's right near it in your mouth. I really had to stop trying to make it in the front of my mouth and just think of it as a whole new letter. Sorry this is so long, but I hope it helps! Keep up the good work!
There’s a great trick for learning how to say Ü. The trick doesn’t work for Brits or Aussies, but it will help Canadians and Americans. Say “poor little ME” and pout like little kid. A similar trick that helps with Ö is to say UH but in a very embarrassed tone. That one works for both sides of the Atlantic. To cement it, the old standby for Ü is to form your mouth like you’re saying OO but say EE, and for Ö form the mouth like OH and sat EE. Go back and forth between the two tricks for each sound and it’ll click. I’ve seen it work wonders!!!
+BallawdeQuincewold pretty sure you're native german. it's not so much as English of course but german is not the same as it looks . and if you do read it how it looks it will be understandable but you notice how others pronounce different words different in part they are written the same .
BallawdeQuincewold I don't agree. Unlike Spanish German is not pronounced the way it's written. There are phonemes but there are also many, many exceptions.
Here is an example: The pronunciation of chs. In most cases, chs is pronounced as ks (wachsen, wechsel, Fuchs, etc.). But there are also exceptions in which it is not pronounced as ks, as in words with the suffix -sam (gleichsam, wachsam) or word combinations (Fachsimpeln). For non-native speakers, however, this is not always easy to recognize.
Hallo Cari, hallo Dana! Mein Name ist Victoria. Ich möchte ein bisschen über meine Erfahrung erzählen. Als ich Deutsch zu lernen begann, hab ich sofort verstanden, dass irgendwo in meinem vergangenen Leben habe ich etwas mit Deutschland zu tun gehabt, weil ich schon am Anfang alles sehr gut verstand, und vor allem die Aussprache gelang mir wunderbar. Mein Deutschlehrer war sehr stolz darauf, und weiter ist alles super gegangen. Jetzt bin ich Deutschlehrerin, und ich möchte sagen, dass eine Sprache zu unterrichten auch eine Kunst ist. Mann muss dem Lernenden erklären, dass er die Fremdsprache möglichst richtig aussprechen muss, damit ihn die anderen verstehen. Außerdem zeigt man mit der richtigen Aussprache , dass man die Fremdsprache beachtet (Respekt zeigt). Es gibt Leute, die die richtige Aussprache wirklich NICHT SCHAFFEN KÖNNEN, aber es gibt auch andere, die das NICHT WOLLEN!!! Ich bin der Meinung, dass, wenn man will, spricht man schließlich gut aus. Vielleicht bin ich zu ernst, aber das ist ja meine Meinung! Viele Grüße aus Chisinau!
Dana, you are doing very well. I am German and I live in Australia. I still struggle to pronounce with Australian 'o'. Good on ya' and catch ya' later.
Life in Australia Thank you!! Just watched your Moana Beach video -- glad to see there was someone to help pull you out :D Good on ya' too (that was the first time I'd heard that! I like it! :) )
Hey Dana, If you interested, I have also now my own channel. It is not as good as yours or Sam's but it is a start. I try to get more and more videos about how we live in Australia. As I do everything in English so and so much for German Audience, I don't highlight the cultural differences like you guys do. It is rather a mix between a vlog and a that's how things are here down under. I love your channel, your doing really well. All the best! Cheers, Kevin
@@MyAdelaide yeee... but tbh you don't really need to pronounce an Australian o, just make sure it's understandable to Brits. Aussies pronounce everything incorrectly anyway. Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves, Britain never never never....
Ich studiere Germanistik in der Türkei und als ich im ersten Semester war, hatte ich eine Vorlesung, die Einführung in die Literaturwissenschaft heißt. Der Proffessor hat mich gebittet, den Paragraph, in dem das Wort "Bewusstseinsstrom" hat, vorzulesen. Da habe ich zum ersten Mal dieses Wort gesehen. Der Proffessor hat mich korrigiert trotzdem konnte ich nach dem 4-5. Mal immer noch nicht aussprechen, das war für mich ein der schwierigen Wörter im deutschen. Aber jetzt habe ich gut geschafft es auszusprechen.
I think she is just not trying hard enough. We don't have the German 'R' in my language either, but after several tries I can pronounce even the most difficult German words. In my opinion, the whole thing about learning a new language is to copy their pronunciation (to imitate the original speakers) very well. It works for me, at least. :)
P.S. I still am obsessed slightly with pronunciation, which is why I loved this video. My husband tells me to drop my obsession with the Ich pronunciation. I was once criticized about my pronunciation of Ich a a month after I arrived here. I've now moved on! It is one small word. Really, the least of my concerns. Thanks for the video to you, your friend, and the people who contributed on the streets.
Danke Easy German! Ich liebe es.Ich komme aus die wunderbar Stad, Kapstad und ich rede auch Englisch, Die Videos hat wirklich mein Deutsch verbesser. Danke noch mal. Ich mag die typisch Bavarian video. Mein Traum ist, um das Oktoberfest besuchen
Dear Dana. You are genial. You spreak very well German. As a Dutch speaker we alsof have to work hard. And I believe we also have our way of speaking. Dutch and German have the same roots and that make it sometimes difficult. I am really a fan of your way of talking with people with respect. You are really interested in people. Hope that the Easy German team will produce some more videos with you. Great respect for you. I understand you live in Münich as my family in law live there.
As a long time student of the german language, I've shared many of the same struggles as Dana. To be brief, I notice that people often forget to also explain the soft german R often found that the end of words/ syllables. You can think of besser as 'bessa', nur as 'noo-ah' and so on. I think verrückt seems tough because it has both Rs next to each other. The "ur" in wurst can be thought of as the English pronunciation of "oo-ah". This small thing I think will help you sound much more natural.
Dana, I am a beginner with the German language, from Seattle, and your German knowledge is waaaay better than mine, so cheers! You are brave and you are awesome! 👍 By the way, to answer Cari’s question, my difficulty is the “ch” sound, as in kirche or milch. Very hard to get that sound exactly right! 😳
The reason for her pronunciation is that she filters it through American English, so she says the words as though she is reading a sentence in American English.
Sehr gute Episode! Ich, Japanerin, lerne seit fast 3 Jahre Deutsch und habe immer schwierigkeiten, "Bratwurst im Brötchen mit Ketchap" auszusprechen. Der Video hilft mir sehr. Es gibt viele Hunde überall in Deutschland. Ich erwarate einen Video über Hundebesizer!
I just wanna say good work Dana.. at first I did hate your accent but watching this video has changed my mind and its good to see you improving your accent.. thanks for the tips and keep up the great work :) aus australian
honestly from my personal experience, I think the accent the last thing to worry about. It can be hard for the listener sometimes, but using the right words and putting it in a correct sentence structure is wayyyy more important than the way the person sounds.
I can't believe people mock others for their accents when they clearly made an effort to even learn the language in the first place, and to take it to such a proficient level as many do. Have some respect for each other :)
Easy German ist super toll! Danke euch für diese und alle anderen Episoden. Ich habe ein großes Problem mit den Lehnwörter aus Französisch. Restaurant, Bankier, Chance, Engagement und so weiter. Meine Kursleiterin hat mir empfohlen, einen elementaren Französischkurs zu besuchen, um besser auf Deutsch auszusprechen. :D Hingegen habe ich kein Problem mit der Umlaute und "y", weil den ähnlichen Laute im Russisch es gibt. Aber für mehrere meine Kollegen aus anderen Ländern ist es zu schwierig, das Wort "Psychologie" auszusprechen.
I relate to Dana sooo much. I'm super embarrassed by my American accent. My tongue doesn't want to do what I want it to do. Thanks Dana for keeping me motivated!
Dana ist nicht die einzige, die diese deutschen Wörter nicht sagen kann. Obwohl ich vor acht Jahren begann, diese Sprache zu lernen, fällt es mir auch schwer, sie richtig auszusprechen (Trotzdem ich sie den ganzen Tag lang ausspreche). Ich wünsche Euch allen viel Erfolg beim Deutschlernen
Sehr interessant, dass vermeintlich "einfache" Wörter für Ausländer so schwer sind. Ich kenne es selbst, da ich einige Fremdsprachen spreche und einen deutschen Akzent habe. Ich habe auch die Erfahrung gemacht, dass sich Leute über mich lustig gemacht haben, da ich etwas falsch ausgesprochen habe - und zu 99 % von Leuten, die selbst keine Fremdsprachen beherrschten! Ich finde es im Übrigen sehr sympathisch, wenn jemand versucht, unsere schwere Sprache zu lernen - und ein Akzent ist nichts, wofür man sich schämen sollte, sondern etwas, worauf man stolz sein kann. Demnach: Hut ab, Dana! Well done! ;)
Two things that really stuck out to me: 1) The "R" in most cases is pronounced like "UH" not "ER" unless it's in the middle of a word like "Verrückt" then you have to do the German R which admittedly took me a really long time to figure out. Try gargling water. That sort of helped me. 2) She keeps pronouncing the -ch sound like "ish," but it's more of "hihihi" sound (think of like a pregnant woman doing the breathing?). I would just advise her to watch some videos on aussprache on youtube. There are quite a few good ones.
So as an native english speaking American I would say Dana has a slightly grating voice when she's speaking English. I'm not hating, I have a higher voice too and a light lisp so I'm also in no way easy to listen to. Some people have deeper more relaxing voices and others just sound funny or annoying even. This is why there's a whole industry in voice training for news reporters and tv hosts etc. TH-cam is great because some of us with voices deemed less desirable by traditional media can still find an audience. People are talking about losing her accent and I do think that's a shame. Coming from America, I hear English being spoken in many different accents all the time and I find it awesome! My German boyfriend cannot pronounce English anywhere close to how the words should sound without an accent but he's still understandable. If he's not supposed to lose his accent why should I? I will never change it. I am an American English speaker. I am also proud I've learned another language. But I will always have an accent. Nothing wrong with an accent. Maybe Americans are more accepting of accents because we've already always had the big 3, British, Australian, and American.
Hi Dana! I think you can improve a lot your pronunciation just by living the american 'r' out :) For example: "Es war super!" you can just say /es vaa suppa/. Und das klingt richtig deutsch aus ;)
I am an American and I have been learning German for the last year. According to my teacher and other German speaking friends I have a little bit of an Irish accent when I speak German.
She’s quite fluent in German and puts all the right attitude to speaking, no doubt about it. But she REALLY needs to address that strong American accent, because it comes across as a serious limitation. Some people are good at grasping foreign accents and some others struggle big time. Despite the time (I belive she has lived in Germany for some 7 years so far) and effort, our Dana seems to have made zero progress as regards to German pronunciation. Maybe she’s ok with that, as it builds up an identity of her own, but if she really wants to talk like any German in the street one day she should address this issue with a speech therapist, otherwise she can spend thirty+ years in Germany and that American accent simply won’t go away.
Die Episode ist richtig toll und Dana ist so cool. Kannst du nächstes Mal eine Paar Tippen dafür, wie man sich zwichen 'o' , 'ö' , 'u' und 'ü' unterscheiden kann.
She does a fantastic job. It seems her primary trouble is differentiating long and short vowels and has the classic American accent of using short vowels for all vowels. It sounds like rushing through the sentence instead of taking the time to differentiate the vowels, but short vowels are built into the English language so much that Americans don't realize it. I believe that one thing would make a huge difference. Lastly, the German "r"s are VERY easy to learn. Spending 5 minutes dedicated to the "gargle" or trill would make a large difference too. Though whether a German used the gargle or trill for the "r" or "rr" depends on the regional but most Germans wouldn't care if you chose the one that comes easier for you even if it made your Hochdeutsch sound regional in certain words. The American "r" is always a dead giveaway. As an American that learned German while living there,, the "r" was a bit difficult for me because I am from Massachusetts where we pretend the "r" is an "h" or doesn't exist at all and when I would pretend the "r" was an "h" or didn't exist when speaking German it led to some weird looks and even a few smiles or laughs. I recall visiting the same Döner Kebab and ordering my kebab "mit Scharf." which would garner a smile. While that in itself is not proper written German, the Germans use it colloquially. After my 3rd or 4th visit the clerk explained why he smiled or laughed: it sounded like I was saying "mit Schaf." I was ordering my kebab, not with "hots/spices" but "with sheep." At that moment I was hyperaware of my New England accent and NEVER made the mistake again. I spent about 30 minutes drilling both the gargle and the trill (I speak Spanish also, so the trill came easier.) That only happened because I took risks to speak in German to everyone. Thanks for the wonderful video and the two of you making it FUN and enjoyable to watch.
Dana ignorieren die haters .... als James Franco sagt im Interview ... alle u tun musst, um Hasser ist nur lächeln .... weiter hart arbeiten in Deutsch !!! Dana IGNORE the haters....as James Franco says in The Interview...all u gotta do to haters is just smile.... keep working hard in Deutsch!!!
Dana is so cute. (Sag doch bitte mit Curry Soße.) She definitely knows how to communicate in German. I'm new to these episodes and will travel to Deutschland next month with my Canadian accent. Thank you for helping me get up to speed. Alles Vorne!
Wie sehr man ihr auch ihren Akzent anhört, sie spricht - finde ich - super gut und versteht zudem die Deutschen auch klasse! Subtitle corrections: "Deinen amerikanischen Akzent" (-en missing in the subtitles)
Mir macht es immer spaß ein Deutscher hören wenn er auf Spanisch spricht aber es is auch ganz nett. Ich als Argentinischer spreche sicherlich auch komisch auf Deutsch. Man kann darüber praktisch nichts machen außer nach Deutschland umziehen, und es ist so wie so keine garantie. Meine Oma hat in Argentinien 60 Jahre gelebt und am ende sie hörte sich an wie Newcomer.. Dana spricht wunderschön Deutsch. Tschüss.
Hallo Leute! I like this video because I could understand it better I think because me and Dana are on the same level, I'd suggest @Dana to emulate or imitate the accent just like a parrot, it has helped me a lot.
I'm curious, and this may be somewhat off topic, about how you know when certain words can be combined? I've noticed that instead of two separate German words they become one word with the same meaning as opposed to English where the words are still separated and have an individual meaning. It's like two words morph together. Not sure how that works.
***** Good question. I put that on our list for extra episodes to shoot soon - cause that's basically a whole topic for itself :) In case you can already read German you will find the answer here: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durchkopplung#Anwendung Interesting enough I also never knew the rules about it... - so i guess we shall do an episode about that soon! Cheers, Cari
Really funny episode LOL :P Dana might have a bad German accent but her grammar, vocabulary etc when she talks are on point. I'm also learning german myself and honestly for me pronunciation is much easier and I usually have more difficulties on finding the right word to use during a conversation. I think that Dana finds it hard to pronounce some words cause her native language alphabet (English in this case) lacks some vowels consonants and that German has as a language. She will improve eventually but nobody should judge her for that at the moment. It's nice to see her collaborate with Easy German though xP
Yeah her pronunciation isn't the best, but her sentence structure, grammar and vocabulary are amazing!! I don't see why people are so mean to those with accents... Dana is clearly a very bubbly person and I wish her all the best with her German journey!! Die besten Wünsche, Dana! :)
Als Deutschlehrerin in den Staaten muss ich sagen, "höher" oder "höheren" find ich total unmöglich! Mir wurde oft gesagt, dass ich fast wie Muttersprachler anhöre, bis ich zu einem von diesen Wörtern komme. (Ist schon eine Weile, seitdem ich in Deutschland war. Verzeihung für irgendwelche Fehler.) Ich hoffe, diese Video im Unterricht zu benutzen. Vielen Dank dafür!! =)
English is my mother tongue. I began to study German over a half century ago and I still have an English accent which I myself can hear on a video. Englisch ist meine Muttersprache. Ich fing Deutsch mehr als ein halbes Jahrhundert an zu studieren, und ich habe bis Heute einen englischen Akzent, den ich selbst auf einem Video hören kann.
😂 Wie du jedes mal u und ü vertauschst: Bratwürst und so. Ich finds super, dass du es übst. Und die Leute sind ja auch hilfsbereit und hatten teilweise auch gute Tipps 👍
Think people in the comments have it wrong. She's fluent in German - she's not a learner. And people weren't being 'mean' to her, but she's clearly not tried AT ALL to learn pronunciation properly. That's probably why people were having a go. She's learned German to fluency and is pretty much butchering it with a hideous American accent through pure lack of effort. My opinion.
AnonyMouse - I kind of agree... It was a little cringe-worthy for me to listen to it. I'm at best a low-intermediate level in German, but even I could hear her accent... it was really *really* strong. I also thought the comments by her at the end saying you should never be ashamed of your foreign accent were a bit ironic, as it really shows that she hasn't put in very much effort to improve hers. I'm not hating on her, she seems like a nice person, but if you're going to be putting in the effort to learn another language I don't agree that you should just have the attitude of "oh well, I've got an accent, don't feel bad about it". Don't beat yourself up over it, obviously, but if you have an extremely strong accent, you should always be trying to improve your pronunciation rather than having the attitude of "I have an accent, oh well".
beju0506 I have the same impression about her way of speaking, I think it's amazing that she is fluent and understands people, the goal of learning a language should be for communication of any kind. But I also noticed that it's like she wants to have the strong accent and this affects communication sometimes. I am still low intermediate too in German but I always try to pronounce everything the best I can. My native tongue is Portuguese and I got a great American accent through a lot of practice and I intend to do the same with German. You have to keep trying to improve your accent, effort always pays off.
beju0506 Yes - accents are fine and there's not one foreigner who learned a language past the age of 12ish who has native like pronunciation (look at Katja from DFE - she is 100% fluent with a great accent yet you can tell she's not really a native English speaker just by little nuances in some words). This doesn't excuse just blatantly hacking the language up with an American accent though.
My best advice for people who find pronunciation difficult? Find a handful of songs you like in German (or other target language), listen to them over and over while reading the lyrics until you know them by heart, and then start singing along over and over. For me at least, I have noticed that even words that once felt impossible, if I'm singing a song I've heard loads of times, I can magically pronounce them perfectly. Then when I go to speak, my pronunciation has improved there too. I'm a singer and obsessed with music so YMMV, but I think it should probably work for most people. It does bug me when people say "oh it's just too hard" or "pronunciation doesn't matter." It isn't too hard, and it does matter! It's just as important as grammar honestly imo, and I put just as much effort into it myself when I'm learning a language.
I like her confidence. I feel like she was talking to me about the accent thing. I have been studying German for 8 years now and upon moving to Germany, I find myself totally disgusted with myself, the reception I got with my accent and its safe to now say I am absolutely not excited about the language anymore. people are so fast to pop it up that I don't pronounce some words well which in turn makes me nervous and want to keep quiet. funny enough, they have an accent when they speak in English with me and I don't say a thing!
Dana has said , we do not need to feel embarrassed about our accent. But there was an American company founder has tried to push me down because I have accent when I speak English. This world and people are not the same everywhere. I cannot yet change my accent in English, French or even German
Dana's Problem ist, dass sie weiß, wie man die Worte schreibt. Sie hört nicht richtig hin sondern spricht es aus, wie ein Amerikaner es halt sprechen würde. Naja und dann sind da noch die Laute wie die beiden "ch", das gerollte "r", "ü" etc die's im Englischen nicht gibt. Aber sie spricht wirklich gut und ich mag ihren Akzent.
She's fluent in German, just need to practice her pronunciation. By the way, viel Danke für das Video.
Dana is great and should have never been ridiculed like she was in the other episode! She knows the language and she tries and does her best! If people understand, then who cares?! I think the Easy German crew is probably one of the most supportive groups when it comes to learning German (or any language)! Thanks Easy Languages for all of your help and videos. :) küsse von Amerika!
This video was really nice and as a self-conscious language learner I admire her bravery! Sometimes we have the idea that we shouldn't try to speak a language just because of our accents. This is wrong!
Also her German is really good!
They had to start out somewhere y they too made many an error. Chins up y be your natural self.
Any effort to learn any language is extremely valuable. Well done Dana!!
Bravo
An advice for Dana: for the pronunciation of umlauted vowels try the following:
For O: Form the lips as if you were trying to say "o", but say "e" instead.
For U: Form the lips as if you were trying to say "u", but say "i" instead.
Hanan Rosen Vielen Dank für diesen Tipp!
Hanan Rosen diese tippe vergesse ich nimmer!
***** The truth is that I don't know. I pronounce it just like "e", and it seems that people are too polite to make remarks about it.
Hanan Rosen That's a good one!
Thank you! Your advice is perfect! It works wonderfully. Do you have any more tips? :)
It fascinated me how Dana can speak German that well and still sound so instantly recognisably
American😂
Helpful. Dana deserves an "A" for effort. Often the most critical people are those who only speak one language, in my experience. They may not understand the challenge of learning another language.
+Mary Ann Mehegan or they are trolls/not smart kids. been playing game some kids 8-13 yr old just don't get that they're ,,shit talk,, is a stupid, bad thing
i guess Im randomly asking but does someone know of a method to log back into an Instagram account..?
I somehow forgot my account password. I would love any tips you can offer me.
@Donald Jett Instablaster ;)
The German noun
Was ich hier gesehen habe, war beeindruckend......Toll, Dana!!!!
Ich muss euch danken, für alle die Folgen, die ihr hochgeladen habt. Vor gut einem Jahr habe ich Deutsch studiert während ich bei der Uni Rechnungswesen studiere und ich muss sagen, dass diese Videos mir total helfen.
Wie sie einfach mal "verruckt" aber "Bratwürst" sagt :D Dana ist so süß xD
Ja einer meiner besten Freunde aus Bangladesch hat in der Schule vor allem Englisch gelernt und auch gesprochen und hat am Anfang auf Deutsch ganz oft ü, ö und ä mit U, O und A verwechselt :P
TheMillydi du bist auch süß ;)
ich bin an der stelle fast zusammengebrochen.
Ich bin eine Amerikanerin aus Kalifornia. Seit zehn Jahre lerne ich Deutsch und ich habe Problem auszusprechen mit alle Woerter mit umlaut und "r". Sie sind sehr schwierig fuer mich. Ich mag das Video sehr viel. Ich verstehe wie schwierig Deutsch zu sprechen.
Zalina Walton Wir sollten wirklich mehr Videos über Aussprache machen. Ganz bald :)
Zalina Walton A couple people have suggested trying to pronounce the R more like an A. I've been trying that out lately, because I realized that it's true! :D I often hear "oder" said more like "oda" and "aber" said more like "aba." Hope that helps!
Wanted Adventure Danke!
Easy Languages Danke. Ich freue mich auf mehr Videos anzuschauen
Wanted Adventure Danke! Das ist richtig. Ich habe ein problem mit umlaut vowels. Wie sagt man 'vowels' auf Deutsch? :)
Dana, u are amazing! I'm half swiss, half canadian... learing German like u, with an english accent too...........it is not always wasy, so proud of your work!
Angela Mengis Thank you, Angela!! Good luck to you :)
During all the years I've been on youtube. This is by far the first channel I'm suscribing to.
She's very brave! The goal of a language is to be understood. A "native-like" accent is truly just superfluous, and for most people, a pipe dream.
Andrew Feinberg I never quiet understood why so many people put emphasis on the accent. I never really considered it important, since every foreigner I've known all speak English with accents. It doesn't mean that I don't think their English is good, though, it just means that I know they weren't born in America! Having a thick German or Chinese accent doesn't mean that you're English is automatically poorer than someone who decided to master the local accent here (we sound a lot like the Fargo characters where I live, in cast you need a mental reference).
To the people who can blend in perfectly with a "native" accent: good job! That's hard to do and you deserve praise.
+shounenbat510 It's important to be understandable though. Each word has a "'proper" or accepted pronunciation that is understood by speakers of that language.
Danke Cari und Dana dieser Folge! Es war hilfreich für mich. Whenever people with giving Dana tips or suggestion on pronunciation, I was also practicing too!
Being an American and learning German, like Dana, is not easy. I commend her for even taking the initiative for learning another language because many Americans do not care to do so. It was also cool to see the people in Germany being helpful and giving her tips.
Dana ist so toll und positiv! Respekt!
If you want to pronounce a German ü-sound you may try either of the following tricks:
1. Pronounce an u. While you do this, push your tongue to the front of the mouth.
2. Pronounce an i. While you do this, slowly make your lips round as if for an u.
The combination of tongue position and lip shape will get you an ü-sound. The same works for an ö-sound (same as 1 with o instead of u; same as 2 with e (German pronunciation!) instead of i).
Aha, das ist wirklich clever!
Ich finde es echt fies, dass manche ihren Akzent kritisieren. Das ist nun einmal so, sie wurde halt in Amerika geboren und deswegen ist es für sie viel schwerer, als für uns.
Das sehe ich genau so . Ich mag den Akzent von ihr. Alle haben einen Akzent in einer fremden Sprache und das ist gut so. Gruß aus München Tom
Samira Lodin Als deutschsprachiger Amerikaner muss ich gestehen dass sie sich ein bisschen mit der Aussprache anstrengen sollte. Viele Deutsche können mir kaum einen Akzent anhören. Doch ich finde es trotzdem gut dass sie so viele Kenntnisse hat. Allerdings können die meisten Amerikaner nur eine Sprache...
Dan Worden Vielleicht braucht sie da auch noch mehr Zeit als du :) Deutsch ist aber schon eine schwere Sprache wenn man nicht direkt hier geboren wurde :D
Du hast recht. Deutsch ist sehr schwierig doch ich hab's gelernt ohne einmal Deutschland besucht zu haben. Ich habe noch nie Europa besucht. Leider fuer manche Leute, bleibt der Akzent fuer immer. Also wie frueher gesagt ist sie schon viel besser als die meisten Amerikaner :)
Ich stimme zu.
Learning another language is hard enough. Trying to perfect an accent or dialect is just extra. Even in the video it was hard for her to hear the difference between what she was saying and what the germans were saying. Its fine. Shes fluent and is doing well. Kudos to her for learning a different language.
***** Thanks for the support!
This has become my favorite channel from now on.
Well done Dana, but for people learning German it is better if the german spoken in these videos are only by native speakers, that way the viewer will learn the correct pronunciation!
Native/near-native pronunciation is not impossible to achieve in a new language. There are only 2 things that affect this:
1. Natural/Learned ability: if you are naturally talented or trained to listen to small detail in sounds, this will make the process significantly less difficult. People like myself who are musicians and others who might be linguists come to mind.
2. Early and Immediate Exposure: this is the most crucial step. You must expose yourself to the native pronunciation of your new language as often as possible within the first few months. I personally watched a lot of Easy German videos and also began to listen to German music everyday during my commute. It is important that you try to reproduce the sounds that you hear as best you can (sing along with the music, repeat the sentences, etc), paying very close attention to the subtle qualities of the native's pronunciation (this is where part 1 really helps).
**For the pesky sounds like the German "r", there are plenty of videos on TH-cam that explain how to pronounce them correctly. For the "r" in particular I had to practice and listen to it a lot before I got it. If you can't do it yet practice and use a Spanish trilled "r" sound if you can, that's what I did. Using the rhotic American "r" sound is very unpleasant on the ear, sorry Dana.
What are people complaining about? Her German is very good and easy to understand. Sure she has an accent but that is absolutely normal when you are learning a foreign language. I don't want to know how German people sound to native English speakers when they do speak English with their German accent.
Hi! i just found this video and I must to say that your youtube channel is amazing... I am trying to learn German and it's exactly what need... thanks a lot. You are the best!
Dana, deine Aussprache ist viel besser geworden! Ich habe auch Schwierigkeiten mit der Aussprache von ,,r" mit folgenden ,,ch", zum Beispiel ,,Rache", ,,Krach", und so weiter, aber außerdem glaube ich, dass meine Aussprache relativ gut ist.
Cari (und Easy Languages), vielen Dank für alles, was ihr macht!
At least she's learning this hard language. Many props to her! And if any German speakers were talking bad about her accent I can only imagine the sound of your English...respect people that are learning.
Jared Moons In fact many Germans are afraid of speaking English because of their accent ;)
Easy Languages Of course, I am also scared to speak foreign languages because of my accent. Nobody should be put down though or made fun of for trying to learn a language. It's called "learning" for a reason. You also can't expect a British person to perfect the American accent and vice versa. We are all born with accents.
There is no need at all for people to be nasty (that is sad to hear) but the criticism is valid. No one expects her to sound like a native - we all speak German with an accent - but she just pronounces them like they are English words and it sounds to the listener like she has never once tried to imitate the sounds of the new language. Good luck to her and everything, but it is REALLY hard to watch a whole video like that.
She has talked in videos about how she struggles to imitate sounds
@@iRosati aw that's sad. I wrote that comment five years ago though 😅
@@otocan my bad. I just figured I would comment either way.
I can't stop smiling watching the video. Dana is so enthusiastic here. Both girls are actually.
Dana's German is not a "Krach" :-)
hiubhp haha thank you :) Very happy to hear you got a kick out of it!
Congrats on making the effort to improve your accent Dana! Hats off to you! It takes a long time for some. And I think your advice at the end about getting rid of fear and just SPEAKING regardless of the accent was spot-on. Fantastic tip to those who are at any stage of learning to speak a new language!
I think people need to give anyone learning a new language a break. It is a HUGE undertaking (particularly for those of us learning a new language later in life).
Not only are there thousands of new words to remember, but sentence structure varies greatly from English to German. There is a lot of work going on "behind the scenes". I think Dana does an admirable job. Maybe her particular struggle is learning to speak with a more authentic accent. That isn't such a great problem for me, but I struggle a lot with remembering my vocabulary and sentence structure rules. Perhaps I am lucky with my ability to speak in a German accent because my partner whom I live with is German. In short, we all have our strengths and weaknesses.
OMG! Dana! This brought back memories of when I was in Norway as an exchange student from the US many years ago. I had the same problem with the u/ü sound. [Though the spelling is different in Norwegian.] Simply couldn't hear the difference. But I finally learned how to make the sound. Kudos for continuing to try to get the sound right!
As an American who learned German myself, some of these sounds aren't very hard. It sounds like sometimes she's not even making an effort to pronounce certain letters. If you're in Germany try to find a speech coach or take a pronunciation class.
pretty much what i have said about her before.
Yes, exactly the same as I felt, not even the slightest effort to make the right sound or perhaps she's faking it...don't know.
I'm not saying German pronunciation is easy or speaking it with an accent is wrong. However, mann soll immer versuchen, die richtige Aussprache zu sagen. :-D
I enjoyed the video!! Dana is doing a great job!! I am trying to learn German as well!!
Transylvania Girl Thanks! Best wishes to you learning German. Hope the videos here help you :) They really have been a huge help to me!!
I'm an American studying German, and I've noticed that non-German people (especially Americans) dogmatically pronounce "ch" like "sh" -- as Dana (love her!) does in this video -- and they simply will NOT change it when corrected. I heard that this is a dialectic choice; however, it's my biggest pet peeve when non-Germans do this, and it drives me nuts. Which is better though? Thoughts?
Wanted Adventure I'm learning German too, and I think I have a couple tips for you! The sound in Offensichtlich that you (and just about everyone learning German) are having a hard time with is called a palatal fricative. We don't really have it in English, and it is not the same as the English 'sh' sound (not in Hochdeutsch, anyway). Say the English word hue. The air should be hissing from kind of the middle of your mouth between your tongue and hard palate. This sound is made anywhere between here and the soft palate (farther back) where it turns into the Krach sound. (In Brötchen, it IS a little farther forward, I guess. Due to the t right before it.) For ü, start off by saying a really pronounced eeeee, but then round your lips small like you're saying ooooo. KEEP THE REST OF YOUR MOUTH THE SAME! It's almost just like an ee with rounded lips. And ö is almost just like an 'ay' with rounded lips, but don't really pronounce the y. Just say the beginning part that's almost like the e in 'let' if you really listen to it, and round your lips. The r is Bratwurst is really hard, but maybe the best advice is to stop looking for it in the same place as your normal r. It is a lot more like the ch in Krach, but with voicing added. An English z is just an s with voicing. Similarly, a German Bratwurst R is almost just the ch at the end of Krach with voicing. Or at least it's right near it in your mouth. I really had to stop trying to make it in the front of my mouth and just think of it as a whole new letter. Sorry this is so long, but I hope it helps! Keep up the good work!
your grammar is really really good !! Just work a little on the ch and R but everyone understands you and thats what counts! All my respect
Die Leute die sich über Dana lustig machen sind wahrscheinlich die gleichen die "think" wie "sink" (Sinken) aussprechen
cis is rilli truh. :))
I need to work on rolling my r’s. Being an Amerikaner, it’s a problem but I am practicing it. Another great video and a big thank you to both of you!
There’s a great trick for learning how to say Ü. The trick doesn’t work for Brits or Aussies, but it will help Canadians and Americans. Say “poor little ME” and pout like little kid. A similar trick that helps with Ö is to say UH but in a very embarrassed tone. That one works for both sides of the Atlantic. To cement it, the old standby for Ü is to form your mouth like you’re saying OO but say EE, and for Ö form the mouth like OH and sat EE. Go back and forth between the two tricks for each sound and it’ll click. I’ve seen it work wonders!!!
It was a great episode and congrats to Dana !! Your accent is not a problem, I understand perfectly !! And you definitely try your best !
There's no mystery with German pronunciation. Everything sounds how it looks, once you know the rules.
+BallawdeQuincewold pretty sure you're native german. it's not so much as English of course but german is not the same as it looks . and if you do read it how it looks it will be understandable but you notice how others pronounce different words different in part they are written the same .
BallawdeQuincewold I don't agree. Unlike Spanish German is not pronounced the way it's written. There are phonemes but there are also many, many exceptions.
Brianboy9494 Interesting. I don't know any exceptions except for foreign words. can you give me some examples?
Indeed,but the "R''s are still problematic to pronounce.Germans have that guttural sound to it I can not immitate to save my life.
Here is an example: The pronunciation of chs. In most cases, chs is pronounced as ks (wachsen, wechsel, Fuchs, etc.). But there are also exceptions in which it is not pronounced as ks, as in words with the suffix -sam (gleichsam, wachsam) or word combinations (Fachsimpeln). For non-native speakers, however, this is not always easy to recognize.
Hallo Cari, hallo Dana! Mein Name ist Victoria. Ich möchte ein bisschen über meine Erfahrung erzählen. Als ich Deutsch zu lernen begann, hab ich sofort verstanden, dass irgendwo in meinem vergangenen Leben habe ich etwas mit Deutschland zu tun gehabt, weil ich schon am Anfang alles sehr gut verstand, und vor allem die Aussprache gelang mir wunderbar. Mein Deutschlehrer war sehr stolz darauf, und weiter ist alles super gegangen. Jetzt bin ich Deutschlehrerin, und ich möchte sagen, dass eine Sprache zu unterrichten auch eine Kunst ist. Mann muss dem Lernenden erklären, dass er die Fremdsprache möglichst richtig aussprechen muss, damit ihn die anderen verstehen. Außerdem zeigt man mit der richtigen Aussprache , dass man die Fremdsprache beachtet (Respekt zeigt). Es gibt Leute, die die richtige Aussprache wirklich NICHT SCHAFFEN KÖNNEN, aber es gibt auch andere, die das NICHT WOLLEN!!! Ich bin der Meinung, dass, wenn man will, spricht man schließlich gut aus. Vielleicht bin ich zu ernst, aber das ist ja meine Meinung!
Viele Grüße aus Chisinau!
Dana, you are doing very well.
I am German and I live in Australia.
I still struggle to pronounce with Australian 'o'.
Good on ya' and catch ya' later.
Life in Australia Thank you!! Just watched your Moana Beach video -- glad to see there was someone to help pull you out :D Good on ya' too (that was the first time I'd heard that! I like it! :) )
Hey Dana,
If you interested, I have also now my own channel. It is not as good as yours or Sam's but it is a start. I try to get more and more videos about how we live in Australia.
As I do everything in English so and so much for German Audience, I don't highlight the cultural differences like you guys do. It is rather a mix between a vlog and a that's how things are here down under.
I love your channel, your doing really well.
All the best!
Cheers,
Kevin
@@MyAdelaide yeee... but tbh you don't really need to pronounce an Australian o, just make sure it's understandable to Brits. Aussies pronounce everything incorrectly anyway. Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves, Britain never never never....
Ich studiere Germanistik in der Türkei und als ich im ersten Semester war, hatte ich eine Vorlesung, die Einführung in die Literaturwissenschaft heißt. Der Proffessor hat mich gebittet, den Paragraph, in dem das Wort "Bewusstseinsstrom" hat, vorzulesen. Da habe ich zum ersten Mal dieses Wort gesehen. Der Proffessor hat mich korrigiert trotzdem konnte ich nach dem 4-5. Mal immer noch nicht aussprechen, das war für mich ein der schwierigen Wörter im deutschen. Aber jetzt habe ich gut geschafft es auszusprechen.
I think she is just not trying hard enough. We don't have the German 'R' in my language either, but after several tries I can pronounce even the most difficult German words. In my opinion, the whole thing about learning a new language is to copy their pronunciation (to imitate the original speakers) very well. It works for me, at least. :)
P.S. I still am obsessed slightly with pronunciation, which is why I loved this video. My husband tells me to drop my obsession with the Ich pronunciation. I was once criticized about my pronunciation of Ich a a month after I arrived here. I've now moved on! It is one small word. Really, the least of my concerns. Thanks for the video to you, your friend, and the people who contributed on the streets.
Danke Easy German! Ich liebe es.Ich komme aus die wunderbar Stad, Kapstad und ich rede auch Englisch, Die Videos hat wirklich mein Deutsch verbesser.
Danke noch mal.
Ich mag die typisch Bavarian video.
Mein Traum ist, um das Oktoberfest besuchen
Dear Dana. You are genial. You spreak very well German. As a Dutch speaker we alsof have to work hard. And I believe we also have our way of speaking. Dutch and German have the same roots and that make it sometimes difficult. I am really a fan of your way of talking with people with respect. You are really interested in people. Hope that the Easy German team will produce some more videos with you. Great respect for you. I understand you live in Münich as my family in law live there.
I love your production, helpful and useful, Dankeschön :)!
Dana is wonderful in any language! :)
As a long time student of the german language, I've shared many of the same struggles as Dana. To be brief, I notice that people often forget to also explain the soft german R often found that the end of words/ syllables. You can think of besser as 'bessa', nur as 'noo-ah' and so on. I think verrückt seems tough because it has both Rs next to each other. The "ur" in wurst can be thought of as the English pronunciation of "oo-ah". This small thing I think will help you sound much more natural.
Dana knows WAY more than I do but I find that I can say these things pretty well (my Gma is full German)! Viel Gluck Dana
Dana, I am a beginner with the German language, from Seattle, and your German knowledge is waaaay better than mine, so cheers! You are brave and you are awesome! 👍 By the way, to answer Cari’s question, my difficulty is the “ch” sound, as in kirche or milch. Very hard to get that sound exactly right! 😳
The reason for her pronunciation is that she filters it through American English, so she says the words as though she is reading a sentence in American English.
Dana has so much positive energy.
Sehr gute Episode! Ich, Japanerin, lerne seit fast 3 Jahre Deutsch und habe immer schwierigkeiten, "Bratwurst im Brötchen mit Ketchap" auszusprechen. Der Video hilft mir sehr.
Es gibt viele Hunde überall in Deutschland. Ich erwarate einen Video über Hundebesizer!
I just wanna say good work Dana.. at first I did hate your accent but watching this video has changed my mind and its good to see you improving your accent.. thanks for the tips and keep up the great work :) aus australian
honestly from my personal experience, I think the accent the last thing to worry about. It can be hard for the listener sometimes, but using the right words and putting it in a correct sentence structure is wayyyy more important than the way the person sounds.
Hontai Sun pretty much what i wanted to say was that shes doing great!
Hontai Sun Thank you!
Hontai Sun You, Sir, are so damn right!
I can't believe people mock others for their accents when they clearly made an effort to even learn the language in the first place, and to take it to such a proficient level as many do. Have some respect for each other :)
i am the only one to have respect for dana being brave enough to face those comments with such dignity?
i am genuinely impressed
glad i've found an interesting and simple way to learn more conversational German, by means of english subtitles :)
You are lovely Dana! I really really really enjoy your vibe and watch your videos on your channel regularly. Keep doing what you are doing! X
Easy German ist super toll! Danke euch für diese und alle anderen Episoden.
Ich habe ein großes Problem mit den Lehnwörter aus Französisch. Restaurant, Bankier, Chance, Engagement und so weiter. Meine Kursleiterin hat mir empfohlen, einen elementaren Französischkurs zu besuchen, um besser auf Deutsch auszusprechen. :D
Hingegen habe ich kein Problem mit der Umlaute und "y", weil den ähnlichen Laute im Russisch es gibt. Aber für mehrere meine Kollegen aus anderen Ländern ist es zu schwierig, das Wort "Psychologie" auszusprechen.
I relate to Dana sooo much. I'm super embarrassed by my American accent. My tongue doesn't want to do what I want it to do. Thanks Dana for keeping me motivated!
best easy language series is the German one, fast süchtig! :)) People in it make it amazing
Fiskur Danke :D
Fiskur :) Glad you enjoy it!
Dana ist nicht die einzige, die diese deutschen Wörter nicht sagen kann. Obwohl ich vor acht Jahren begann, diese Sprache zu lernen, fällt es mir auch schwer, sie richtig auszusprechen (Trotzdem ich sie den ganzen Tag lang ausspreche). Ich wünsche Euch allen viel Erfolg beim Deutschlernen
Sehr interessant, dass vermeintlich "einfache" Wörter für Ausländer so schwer sind. Ich kenne es selbst, da ich einige Fremdsprachen spreche und einen deutschen Akzent habe. Ich habe auch die Erfahrung gemacht, dass sich Leute über mich lustig gemacht haben, da ich etwas falsch ausgesprochen habe - und zu 99 % von Leuten, die selbst keine Fremdsprachen beherrschten!
Ich finde es im Übrigen sehr sympathisch, wenn jemand versucht, unsere schwere Sprache zu lernen - und ein Akzent ist nichts, wofür man sich schämen sollte, sondern etwas, worauf man stolz sein kann.
Demnach: Hut ab, Dana! Well done! ;)
Two things that really stuck out to me:
1) The "R" in most cases is pronounced like "UH" not "ER" unless it's in the middle of a word like "Verrückt" then you have to do the German R which admittedly took me a really long time to figure out. Try gargling water. That sort of helped me.
2) She keeps pronouncing the -ch sound like "ish," but it's more of "hihihi" sound (think of like a pregnant woman doing the breathing?). I would just advise her to watch some videos on aussprache on youtube. There are quite a few good ones.
Super gemacht... verstehe gar nicht was die Leute gegen dein Deutsch haben .....hoffentlich gibt es noch mehr Videos mit Dana
So as an native english speaking American I would say Dana has a slightly grating voice when she's speaking English. I'm not hating, I have a higher voice too and a light lisp so I'm also in no way easy to listen to.
Some people have deeper more relaxing voices and others just sound funny or annoying even. This is why there's a whole industry in voice training for news reporters and tv hosts etc.
TH-cam is great because some of us with voices deemed less desirable by traditional media can still find an audience.
People are talking about losing her accent and I do think that's a shame. Coming from America, I hear English being spoken in many different accents all the time and I find it awesome! My German boyfriend cannot pronounce English anywhere close to how the words should sound without an accent but he's still understandable. If he's not supposed to lose his accent why should I?
I will never change it. I am an American English speaker. I am also proud I've learned another language. But I will always have an accent. Nothing wrong with an accent.
Maybe Americans are more accepting of accents because we've already always had the big 3, British, Australian, and American.
Hi Dana! I think you can improve a lot your pronunciation just by living the american 'r' out :) For example: "Es war super!" you can just say /es vaa suppa/. Und das klingt richtig deutsch aus ;)
Genau! Das ist die Wichtigste, weil es leicht erreichbar ist
I am an American and I have been learning German for the last year. According to my teacher and other German speaking friends I have a little bit of an Irish accent when I speak German.
She’s quite fluent in German and puts all the right attitude to speaking, no doubt about it. But she REALLY needs to address that strong American accent, because it comes across as a serious limitation. Some people are good at grasping foreign accents and some others struggle big time. Despite the time (I belive she has lived in Germany for some 7 years so far) and effort, our Dana seems to have made zero progress as regards to German pronunciation. Maybe she’s ok with that, as it builds up an identity of her own, but if she really wants to talk like any German in the street one day she should address this issue with a speech therapist, otherwise she can spend thirty+ years in Germany and that American accent simply won’t go away.
Die Episode ist richtig toll und Dana ist so cool.
Kannst du nächstes Mal eine Paar Tippen dafür, wie man sich zwichen 'o' , 'ö' , 'u' und 'ü' unterscheiden kann.
Those two girls were so helpful and friendly.
She does a fantastic job. It seems her primary trouble is differentiating long and short vowels and has the classic American accent of using short vowels for all vowels. It sounds like rushing through the sentence instead of taking the time to differentiate the vowels, but short vowels are built into the English language so much that Americans don't realize it. I believe that one thing would make a huge difference.
Lastly, the German "r"s are VERY easy to learn. Spending 5 minutes dedicated to the "gargle" or trill would make a large difference too. Though whether a German used the gargle or trill for the "r" or "rr" depends on the regional but most Germans wouldn't care if you chose the one that comes easier for you even if it made your Hochdeutsch sound regional in certain words. The American "r" is always a dead giveaway.
As an American that learned German while living there,, the "r" was a bit difficult for me because I am from Massachusetts where we pretend the "r" is an "h" or doesn't exist at all and when I would pretend the "r" was an "h" or didn't exist when speaking German it led to some weird looks and even a few smiles or laughs. I recall visiting the same Döner Kebab and ordering my kebab "mit Scharf." which would garner a smile. While that in itself is not proper written German, the Germans use it colloquially. After my 3rd or 4th visit the clerk explained why he smiled or laughed: it sounded like I was saying "mit Schaf." I was ordering my kebab, not with "hots/spices" but "with sheep." At that moment I was hyperaware of my New England accent and NEVER made the mistake again. I spent about 30 minutes drilling both the gargle and the trill (I speak Spanish also, so the trill came easier.) That only happened because I took risks to speak in German to everyone.
Thanks for the wonderful video and the two of you making it FUN and enjoyable to watch.
Danke fürs Hochladen!
Dana ignorieren die haters .... als James Franco sagt im Interview ... alle u tun musst, um Hasser ist nur lächeln ....
weiter hart arbeiten in Deutsch !!!
Dana IGNORE the haters....as James Franco says in The Interview...all u gotta do to haters is just smile....
keep working hard in Deutsch!!!
Ich liebe Easy German!:) Danke für dieses Video, Dana war super süss!
Dana is so cute. (Sag doch bitte mit Curry Soße.) She definitely knows how to communicate in German.
I'm new to these episodes and will travel to Deutschland next month with my Canadian accent. Thank you for helping me get up to speed. Alles Vorne!
Dana's closing advice is the best..
Wie sehr man ihr auch ihren Akzent anhört, sie spricht - finde ich - super gut und versteht zudem die Deutschen auch klasse!
Subtitle corrections:
"Deinen amerikanischen Akzent" (-en missing in the subtitles)
Diese Episode hat mir sehr gut gefallen und ich finde , ihre Aussprache ist ziemlich schön vielleicht weil meine Kollegin aus Amerika kommt :)
Mir macht es immer spaß ein Deutscher hören wenn er auf Spanisch spricht aber es is auch ganz nett. Ich als Argentinischer spreche sicherlich auch komisch auf Deutsch. Man kann darüber praktisch nichts machen außer nach Deutschland umziehen, und es ist so wie so keine garantie. Meine Oma hat in Argentinien 60 Jahre gelebt und am ende sie hörte sich an wie Newcomer..
Dana spricht wunderschön Deutsch. Tschüss.
Hallo Leute! I like this video because I could understand it better I think because me and Dana are on the same level, I'd suggest @Dana to emulate or imitate the accent just like a parrot, it has helped me a lot.
I'm curious, and this may be somewhat off topic, about how you know when certain words can be combined? I've noticed that instead of two separate German words they become one word with the same meaning as opposed to English where the words are still separated and have an individual meaning. It's like two words morph together. Not sure how that works.
***** Good question. I put that on our list for extra episodes to shoot soon - cause that's basically a whole topic for itself :)
In case you can already read German you will find the answer here:
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durchkopplung#Anwendung
Interesting enough I also never knew the rules about it... - so i guess we shall do an episode about that soon!
Cheers,
Cari
Really funny episode LOL :P Dana might have a bad German accent but her grammar, vocabulary etc when she talks are on point. I'm also learning german myself and honestly for me pronunciation is much easier and I usually have more difficulties on finding the right word to use during a conversation. I think that Dana finds it hard to pronounce some words cause her native language alphabet (English in this case) lacks some vowels consonants and that German has as a language. She will improve eventually but nobody should judge her for that at the moment. It's nice to see her collaborate with Easy German though xP
221rays Thanks for the support and positive feedback! :)
Wanted Adventure Np :D
Yeah her pronunciation isn't the best, but her sentence structure, grammar and vocabulary are amazing!! I don't see why people are so mean to those with accents... Dana is clearly a very bubbly person and I wish her all the best with her German journey!! Die besten Wünsche, Dana! :)
Als Deutschlehrerin in den Staaten muss ich sagen, "höher" oder "höheren" find ich total unmöglich! Mir wurde oft gesagt, dass ich fast wie Muttersprachler anhöre, bis ich zu einem von diesen Wörtern komme. (Ist schon eine Weile, seitdem ich in Deutschland war. Verzeihung für irgendwelche Fehler.)
Ich hoffe, diese Video im Unterricht zu benutzen. Vielen Dank dafür!! =)
English is my mother tongue. I began to study German over a half century ago and I still have an English accent which I myself can hear on a video.
Englisch ist meine Muttersprache. Ich fing Deutsch mehr als ein halbes Jahrhundert an zu studieren, und ich habe bis Heute einen englischen Akzent, den ich selbst auf einem Video hören kann.
😂 Wie du jedes mal u und ü vertauschst: Bratwürst und so. Ich finds super, dass du es übst. Und die Leute sind ja auch hilfsbereit und hatten teilweise auch gute Tipps 👍
Sehr lustig und lustig episode von Easy German. Veil danke!
Think people in the comments have it wrong. She's fluent in German - she's not a learner.
And people weren't being 'mean' to her, but she's clearly not tried AT ALL to learn pronunciation properly. That's probably why people were having a go. She's learned German to fluency and is pretty much butchering it with a hideous American accent through pure lack of effort.
My opinion.
AnonyMouse - I kind of agree... It was a little cringe-worthy for me to listen to it. I'm at best a low-intermediate level in German, but even I could hear her accent... it was really *really* strong. I also thought the comments by her at the end saying you should never be ashamed of your foreign accent were a bit ironic, as it really shows that she hasn't put in very much effort to improve hers. I'm not hating on her, she seems like a nice person, but if you're going to be putting in the effort to learn another language I don't agree that you should just have the attitude of "oh well, I've got an accent, don't feel bad about it". Don't beat yourself up over it, obviously, but if you have an extremely strong accent, you should always be trying to improve your pronunciation rather than having the attitude of "I have an accent, oh well".
beju0506 I have the same impression about her way of speaking, I think it's amazing that she is fluent and understands people, the goal of learning a language should be for communication of any kind. But I also noticed that it's like she wants to have the strong accent and this affects communication sometimes. I am still low intermediate too in German but I always try to pronounce everything the best I can. My native tongue is Portuguese and I got a great American accent through a lot of practice and I intend to do the same with German. You have to keep trying to improve your accent, effort always pays off.
beju0506 Yes - accents are fine and there's not one foreigner who learned a language past the age of 12ish who has native like pronunciation (look at Katja from DFE - she is 100% fluent with a great accent yet you can tell she's not really a native English speaker just by little nuances in some words).
This doesn't excuse just blatantly hacking the language up with an American accent though.
Has anyone here watched the Easy German episode with Shane in Berlin. He speaks like a native speaker and he's American.
ethan intellekt What's your point?
Woow das ist eine großartige episode! Ich mochte besonders die Aussprache des Mannes mit der grauen Jacke! "Tröööö-del" Das werde ich nie vergessen👍🤗😂
My best advice for people who find pronunciation difficult? Find a handful of songs you like in German (or other target language), listen to them over and over while reading the lyrics until you know them by heart, and then start singing along over and over. For me at least, I have noticed that even words that once felt impossible, if I'm singing a song I've heard loads of times, I can magically pronounce them perfectly. Then when I go to speak, my pronunciation has improved there too. I'm a singer and obsessed with music so YMMV, but I think it should probably work for most people.
It does bug me when people say "oh it's just too hard" or "pronunciation doesn't matter." It isn't too hard, and it does matter! It's just as important as grammar honestly imo, and I put just as much effort into it myself when I'm learning a language.
Thank you Dana for that tip :) really needed to hear that.
I like her confidence. I feel like she was talking to me about the accent thing. I have been studying German for 8 years now and upon moving to Germany, I find myself totally disgusted with myself, the reception I got with my accent and its safe to now say I am absolutely not excited about the language anymore. people are so fast to pop it up that I don't pronounce some words well which in turn makes me nervous and want to keep quiet. funny enough, they have an accent when they speak in English with me and I don't say a thing!
Dana has said , we do not need to feel embarrassed about our accent. But there was an American company founder has tried to push me down because I have accent when I speak English. This world and people are not the same everywhere. I cannot yet change my accent in English, French or even German
Dana's Problem ist, dass sie weiß, wie man die Worte schreibt. Sie hört nicht richtig hin sondern spricht es aus, wie ein Amerikaner es halt sprechen würde. Naja und dann sind da noch die Laute wie die beiden "ch", das gerollte "r", "ü" etc die's im Englischen nicht gibt. Aber sie spricht wirklich gut und ich mag ihren Akzent.
As long as people can understand you, I don't see a big problem with the accent.
Aber sie spricht sehr gut.