What are YOUR tips for learning a language or learning German specifically? Let us know in the comments! 👇 I’d also like to add a disclaimer that I forgot to mention in the video: Everyone is different and that applies to learning languages too. We have different strength and weaknesses and study methods that work for others might not work for you, so it’s important to find the right way for YOU and also making the language learning process as much fun as possible to stay motivated! 😊 ++Sign up for the Link EUS language classes here ▸www.link-eus.com/language and use the code *GGIA60* for a $60 discount (=20%)!++
English speakers have an advantage, i believe as the roots of our language has a lot in common with the older versions of the German language. Speaking of mistakes I once caused a lot of amusement in Plön by asking for a Kübelschreiber instead of Kugelschreiber at a bar.
@@anonymousnamerealpicture9675 Reminds me of a saying in French : l'oreiller est le meilleur professeur de langues = the pillow-case is the best language teacher.
On apps vs classes I 100% agree that classes are best. I've used all the apps out there and while they can be good for practicing vocabulary, they are no substitute for learning from a professional teacher. Practice dialogues with a teacher will expose you to different colloquialisms or regional vocabulary that your app won't have and classes allow you to learn in a "safe" setting where mistakes are okay and even encouraged because we can learn from them. Then when you speak in the "real" world you will have a bit more confidence. I've done both private lessons and group classes. Private lessons are great for the personal attention and the teacher is able to focus on your problem areas. Group classes are also good because you learn a lot from the other students' questions and mistakes. Group classes are also a bit more structured which I find helps keep me honest when it comes to doing homework outside of class.
People learning German: Man, learning that language is freaking hard! Turkish: Haha, I accumulate entire phrases into one super-compound word! Polish: Haha, I have grammatical cases like German, but I have seven instead of four! Hungarian: Haha, I basically do what Turkish and Polish do COMBINED! Icelandic: Haha, I'm basically Ancient Norse with all the grammar rules that come with it, but my pronunciation is also total gobbledygook! Finnish: Haha, behold my super-massive gramatically diverse compound words and vocabulary that is totally different from any other European language! (sad Estonian noises) Arabic: Haha, my standard language is virtually never really spoken and my dialects are almost unintelligible to each other! "Vote now on your phone for your dialect of choice" go BRRRRR!!! Chinese: I'm a freaking TONAL language so even if you know every single sound, depending on your voice pitch you could say "horse" instead of "mother". All of the previously mentioned: Man... that last guy's scary...
How do you know all of this? I´m assuming you do not speak all these languages. An amusing anecdote is that, I understand, those classes teaching Arabic cannot bear to teach any form of Arabic but its pure classic style, which makes non-native speakers sound like they are reciting Shakespeare. _(“Thee, thy, thou, ...“)_ Also, the form of Japanese taught to foreigners is of the “smooth“ form spoken by women, not men, so all foreigners who speak in Japan sound like _geishas_ to the native ear. (Oh, one more thing: Hungarian and Basque are two examples of the last surviving languages of their respective linguistic families).
@@brianhiles8164 Of course the comment was meant to be humorous which is why most of the things mentioned are pretty exaggerated, but still they are not far off the truth. And yes, I don't speak any of these languages myself (except for German), but I am very interested in how other languages work so I picked up several things over the years when native speakers talk about their language or via documentaries. Yet again, the comment was supposed to be a joke rather than a linguistic research paper abstract, so please don't be offended. :D The horse-mother-thing from Chinese is actually true however, both words are pronounced "ma", but mother has the constant upper pitch tone that makes it sound like it is sung while horse has the falling-rising lower pitch tone that makes it sound like your're annoyed or indecisive. I had an office colleague from China a couple of years ago who told me this which I found rather intriguing but also "frightening" if you would actually want to learn that language. :P
@@mr_bottomtooth : I am not offended; my curiosity was genuine. I am aware of this aspect of the Chinese language. I too have been interested in linguistics, but not speaking Chinese either I can only offer a clever classic Chinese poem in which every word is a tonal variation of the word _shi._ wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_Den
@@brianhiles8164 Oops, sorry, I wasn't particularly referring to you with the being offended thing but I rather meant anyone who MIGHT feel this way. The way I said it was a little confusing though, but no worries. :)
My biggest regret is that when I was endeavoring to learn German, was not writing down the words. There was a fellow soldier in my unit who carried a small note pad and pen all day and disciplined himself to write down five different German words, each day, each word 20 times. Consequently he learned faster than the rest of us and developed his reading and spelling skills. That I didn't do that, I think is the reason I have lost so much of the language. I am trying to re learn and endeavor to at lest return to the skill level that I once had, not so much that I intend to have an opportunity to use it, but mostly as a brain strain exorcise because I am now at the age when I could start to lose mental cognition. So hopefully it will be an exorcise that keeps the neurons firing in my brain lobes.
I might try this for vocab. I like flashcards except they pile up after a few months then you have to do like 100-200/ day and if you miss 1 or 2 days it's like 300-400. One thing I try (emphasis on try) to do is write a few sentences using the word. Then I can also practice all the different grammar rules as well
Good tips. 40 years ago, I had a job with a german company. I was needed to communicate with americans and sound like an american. German was not a requirement, but I knew it would be better for me and more fun if I picked it up. When I had time, I read what german I could find and listend to my mitarbeitern. When I had a break, I would speak with a german who needed to improve in english. We both improved in each others language as we stumbled through our conversations. This was a great opportunity. Another tip was singing Oktoberfest songs and drinking beer. That was 40 years ago. Since then I have noticed some of my german has been forgotten, a sort of lingunistic.alzheimers disease. The songs are still there but I need to brush up on my conversation.
Always talk to your cat in the language you're learning. They may think you pronunciation is terrible, but they don't expect anything more from you anyway.
Hexalingual language coach here. Yes, Felicia, I agree 100% with all these points. I would go even further and say that even IF you - got into the habit of pronouncing something wrong - ended up traumatized by previous classes or teachers - or even just can't seem to learn a language concept right Just keep it up. Find other ways to visualize / learn / experience / practice the language. Another couple of things I'll add here: when listening to the language, be sure to pay attention to the pronunciation, vocabulary and expressions being used. This will help you pick them up much faster. Yes, you would eventually pick them up after years, but if you're able to consciously and intentionally pay attention to this as you listen, you will improve a hell of a lot faster. Another important trick - when learning a language that has some similarity with your own - is to not hesitate and improvise words based on words you know. For example, if you know that words in -tion in English become words in -ción in Spanish or -zione in Italian or -zion in German or ção in Portuguese, just take the word you're trying to translate and tack on the right ending and see how that goes. True, you won't always get it right. But if the languages are close enough, it should work most of the time, and give you a hell of a lot more vocabulary in the new language than you previously thought you had. Where this doesn't work, people might help you learn the correct word. And yes, as mentioned in this video, even if you do get it wrong, so what? Mistakes are part of how we learn, and the consequences aren't nearly as bad as some teachers would have you think. I have more such tips in some blog posts I wrote on the subject, if you're interested feel free to check them out! bit.ly/TW-Languages
There are three types of learning: Visual learning (looking at the words), auditory learning (listening to the words), and tactile learning (muscle learning) (writing the words). Each type of learning is handled by a different part of the brain. Using all three types of learning together increases effectiveness of learning considerably.
An advice I heard a couple of years ago on some other youtube channel about pronunciation, and that I've found true (especially if tired). Being sloppy with the pronunciation increases the risk of the languages in the mind to blend together, increasing the risk of slipping from one language to the other. By working on the pronunciation, they are kept more distinct. His advice was actually to even imagine a different persona to make it even more distinct, but I haven't gone that far myself.
I took 4 years of German in High School prior to going to Munich. I found my education lacking! However, I met several Germans around my age who were very entertained listening to me try to speak German. I made several friends in Germany that all started with me butchering the language. Don't be afraid to mess up!
Thank you so much for the playlist, I love coming home from Germany with a few good songs. a few of my favs: Jeans Team - Das Zelt Jeans Team - Du Bist Hamburg Jeans Team - Wandern
Thanks for the tips. I started learning German last March when we had locked down and I got laid off from work, because I always wanted to learn German and I thought that would be a good time to start. I really enjoyed listening to German music, even though I don’t always understand all of it. I recently found a native German speaker to practice with since there’s no language class in my area, so hopefully that works.
The idea that you’re picking up something while listening to lyrics in your second language, is definitely a thing. I started listening to Elvis at age 11, about at the time when I started to learn English. I got so familiar with some of his lyrics (although I didn’t understand most of them), that when I was humming Elvis songs ten years later, I suddenly recognised meaningful sentences among the lines I knew by heart, but just by the sound of their words. It was a great experience! ^^
What I found very useful was the Visual Grouping approach to learning German articles. So imagine, for example, a man with a dog near a tree in a park. Those all happen to be masculine nouns in German (der Mann, der Hund, der Park, der Baum). So you can essentially see the gender, as opposed to having to memorize it. That's how the Stress Free German podcast does it. I'm sure others have caught on.
Rolling your R is actually totally fine if you can't do the regular German R. In many German dialects, people roll their Rs too and can't do it any other way. Check out people speaking the dialects Fränkisch or bairisch! :)
@@alexj9603 we can’t win 😅 lol. Try flicking your tongue up and letting the air flow when you pronounce the R. A lot of native speakers also struggle rolling the Rs. Don’t give up, I’m sure you’ll get it. 💪🏼
I am relearning my 3 years of high school German of 50 years ago by listening daily to "Der Deutsche Hitmix" while doing my morning exercise. And I am now a polka fanatic, and absolutely Love German musicians, groups, and vocalists. Specifically traditional German-Austrian-Slovenian polka. I love performers Stefanie Hertel, Karl Moik, Andy Berg, Alexandra Schmeid, Geraldine Olivier, Die Fetzig'n aus den Zillertal, Oberkrainer Polka Madels, Twinnies, Die Geiwaidler, Corinna Zollner......and on and on, so many wonderful performers I remember many verbs and nouns, some verbs...but those darn sentence structure rules are tough.
Thank you so much! I love all your tips. I have 2 kids at the German School of NY, but me and my husband do not speak it. We are American and my kids sound like native German speakers now (pretty cool). However, I would love to learn more German myself. That's my goal for this year.
-just get started! you have to start and find out what works for you instead of waiting for the right opportunity. -take classes, whether its online, in school, or a simple one like duolingo! feli recommends taking an actual class for the real-life experience. (lingoda und/oder EUS) -listen to the language as much as possible whether moving to the language-speaking country oder consuming music, movies, the news, und podcasts in the target language -speak it as much as possible! even if you make mistakes, the whole purpose is to learn from them so you don't have to spend 5 minutes fueling the perfect phrase inside your head. practice makes perfect. try out some native-speaking people whether it be classes, friends, or natives online. even just talk to yourself. -repetition is very important. you need to review the old and new words you learned and repeat them in order to remember them. you have to review what you've learned at different periods of time. studies show you have to review words 6-20 times to remember them. you can use flash cards! you can also print out words of the target language and stick them on simple household items to remember what they're called. -writing by hand is proven to be better for study. write notes in a notebook, keep it organized, and note things you want to remember. use different highlight colors for grammatical things like genders. -learn articles with nouns! when you learn a noun, always learn an article with it. e.g. don't just learn the word "Hund," but learn *"der* Hund" with it. -try to pronounce things correctly and learn from your mistakes. its better to learn the sounds beginning so you dont keep remembering the wrong pronunciation. (pronounce "ich" like "eessh" not "itch" "z" is pronounced "ts" "ei" is pronounced "eye" not "ee" Germans always pronounce the ending of the word do don't try to drop the "e" whenever a word ends on "d" or "t," don't worry about the pronunciation because it doesn't differentiate. it is always pronounced like "t") -once you know the pronunciation in German, it's gonna be a lot easier to pronounce things because German spelling is very consistent. danke, feli! tschüss!
Howdy. Nice vlog. I don't know when this was produced, but you have more of a German accent than I have noticed since I started listening to you. Love the sound.
For my part, I still can't hear a distinctive accent. All I can hear is maybe being a bit too proper with pronouncing things (pronouncing T's properly as T's, rather than as soft D's like native speakers do xD). Her foreign language skills remain impressive :D.
@@ArgusStrav You're right about the final T's. I noticed the same thing today. Most Americans don't pronounce them so carefully. I also agree that she does not have a distinctive accent.
When I moved to Germany for work, my office environment and friendship groups were exclusively English-speaking, so my opportunities to practice German were limited. Then I booked a safari holiday through Condor-Lufthansa, and spent two weeks in a minibus speaking only German. Arguably I learned more German during 2 weeks in Kenya than the previous 6 months in Germany! Even if you don't live in Germany, there is no reason why you can't book a place with a German tour group - you just need to take a connecting flight to their point of departure.
I have recently started learning Esperanto. Its so easy and a real confidence boost, especially when I translate something that Google Translate can't.
Ich habe Duolingo für zwei Jahre benutzt, und jetzt habe ich German Pod 101 auch benutzt. Ich mag German Pod 101 weil ich eine deutsche Lehrerin habe. Ich liebe es, und ich habe so viel in eine kurze Zeit gelernt. Ich liebe deinen Kanal! ❤️
Awesome information and links to help with the language! I've followed you for about a year and a half now and this is one of my favorite videos in regards to the content covered and advice given. This one is going to help a lot of people!
I would say don't be discouraged initially as you might feel overwhelmed. It will get better and you will reward yourself for being able to get past the hard parts of learning a language. Just keep speaking even if it's to yourself.
I could've used something like coloring coding der/die/das, and even videos back when I learned German in highschool (1990s - No public Internet yet! Although, there was this one local station that used to air German videos for learning the language.). A few tips I've learned along the way through college, and even thinking about it now - 1 - Prepare yourself mentally (know what you want to learn and plan ahead) and physically (or at least financially). If you're gonna go "all in", then go "all in". The first few months, or even year is the most important when learning vocabulary and grammar. Kids learn about 800 words per year (learning 10,000-20,000 by college), which comes to 2 or 3 words per day. 2 - Memorizing themed vocabulary in groups of 5 words. In a few of my college courses (math, foreign language, computer science) we memorized things in sets of 5 by learning the first half of the set, then the 2nd, then the whole set. So, "1. 2. 3. 1 2 3. 1 2 3. 4. 5. 4 5. 4 5. 1 2 3 4 5.", where each number is a new item in the set learned in sequence. I found that to be pretty good at learning things, and even used that in learning Japanese in college after learning German (and French!) in highschool/college. So, for vocabulary, maybe pick 5 things in your room, and that's your list for that day (or session if you're doing multiple per day). Another thing my other language professor did (the Japanese class) was to teach the alphabet and grammatical constructs at the same time by having us memorize simple grammatical phrases along with the characters and syllables. Something similar could be done with the definite articles and the different past/present/future tenses, as well as word gender usage. That's something I wished I had done in my German classes from the start. 3 - THINK in the language (along with speaking it) and each time you discover a new word, then think about how to describe that word with the words you know. It'll sound simple at fist (i.e., for Die Sonne, you might think "Die Gelbe Kugel", but then you have a word association in the language rather than a simple memorization of "X means Y". So, taking from #2, if I learn 10 words of objects in my room, I might try and describe those objects using German words I already know, kind of like how a child would ask their parents "What is that round thing in the desk?" "Oh, it's a computer speaker", but in German, so "Was ist Schwarz und runden an der Tisch" = "Der Lautsprecher". 4 - When learning a new grammatical construct, don't just learn the phrase you've learned in the book, but start adding the vocabulary you've learned previously, and use that word in different tenses. "Gestern, habe ich ein Buch gelesen, aber am Morgen, werde Ich andere Buch lesen". (Pretty sure my German is rusty after 20 years!)
I am using a lot of the advices you just gave. In march I am starting my B2 Dutch class. What also helped me was reading books at the level you speak the language. They are available for probably every level. Honestly I have to admit that I am lucky with learning vocabulary. Reading a word 2-3 times is enough to save it. If you struggle with that, write it down via hand and then add it to a sentence. The connection to a senseful meaning will help to brain to remember it correctly.
I recommend listening to You Tube music in a foreign language with lyrics posted. If you come across a word you don't know, write it down and look it up after.
You are a Brilliant Teacher/ speaker...I absolutely love all your videos and learned more from you than previous teachers I had lol I was born and raised in Stuttgart and my mom was German and my Dad was an American Soldier, so my mom would always speak to me in German and dad in American lol been living in New Jersey since 1984 and I still make mistakes with words lol Thanks for the Great Videos!
Based on my experiences learning Italian I’ve learned that real learning happens when you are forced to speak the language. Equally important is when you are totally immersed in the language. If you aren’t fortunate enough to live in the country where the language is spoken then daily study and interaction with the language is the next best thing.
Just getting started is a tip that applies to many things! You remind me of the fact that I learned English mainly through TV. When you said you switched the language on your phone to English, I was *so* tempted to switch my phone to Esperanto! Yes, I actually found Esperanto in my iPhone as an option! I can still hardly believe it. Btw, no, I did not switch the language to Esperanto, even if I was very tempted. I just tried to switch to Esperanto, but I ended up getting mainly Dutch.
Thank you so freaking much for the spotify lists!!! I have been trying to learn german since a while now and I´m sure I haven´t been able to pick it up just yet because I haven´t found enough german music that I really like, you really just did me a solid !!
Great tips! I only took a little over a year of German in high school (I’m 22 now) and still retain most of what I learned because I learned it in real life with people to help enforce what I learned. The summer before though I used Duolingo to give me a boost beforehand. I still use it today but it’s definitely nowhere as good as having others around to learn with. Also, I think I’ve retained my German because I’m always talking to myself in it just like you mentioned. Sometimes I ask or answer other people’s basic questions in it too so I can teach others when they’re like ??? Sounds weird but it really helps!!!
Very interesting video thanks. I keep meaning to learn German properly. I have a very basic understanding from all my trips to Germany, that is I can order 1 2 or 3 beers! :) Kidding, it's a bit more than that, but I do end up starting a conversation in German and then suddenly not understanding the answers. Of course it's a long time since I've been able to go there, I do miss my trips.
Hi Feli !! Lots of good practical information given !!! Thank you for this----- Sometimes I'll go through a day having all my "Internal Conversations" (with myself) in German (or sometimes Slavic languages, but I'm limited in these)----- this works well until I have to actually speak out loud to another person here in Texas and speak out loud in German by mistake---- and they don't understand a thing I'm saying
I am new to learning German. My son signed up on Duolingo a while ago and convinced me to do it too. So I did 20 days ago! I have to say although it is difficult to remember the genders, I am still having a blast! And there are discussion groups that help you if you can't understand why you got something marked incorrect. I keep everything in excel such as the word in German, in Englisch, pronunciation and notes. I highlight and colour words according to genders which helps me alot. I am on das wetter. My son and I try to text each other in German (he is so much better at it than I am... but he listens to music and videos in German). One thing I would say against Duolingo is they do not have choices of English- it is all american English.... so you're marked incorrect for putting a U in colour or say aeroplane instead airplane. I love your tip about downloading your favourite show in the language you're learning. I think I may do that. :)
Writing by hand is a great suggestion. I have taken three years of Chinese and one year of Japanese, and you absolutely will not learn those without writing the characters by hand. I developed my own ways of practicing, always involving writing by hand, and I think you're absolutely right that there's a hand-to-brain connection.
Definitely write stuff down if you’re learning Chinese/Japanese (and In the proper stroke order). That way if you forget a character, your hand will remember it for you. There are also apps for practice.
I would also recommend listening to audiobooks or even reading at the same time. (it's a tip for improving from the YT channel "English with Lucy"). If you're an intermediate German speaker (B1+) and a fan of computer games (like me), listen to "Gothic: die Welt der Verurteilten" from KG Voice Overs (YT, Spotify, ...). Gothic is one of my favorite games of all time and I used it to learn both German and English. On the 20th anniversary of the release of Gothic 1 (March 15 2021), the second audio book is going to come out. Feli recommended setting the language you want to learn on your phone. Change the language of the social media and TH-cam on your PC too. It helped me with some words that I used everyday when I worked in Switzerland. Look around yourself (especially when walking outside) and try to name and describe everything you can see. If you don't know something, look it up in a dictionary and remember it for the next time.
In learning Polish, I find using graded readers to be extremely helpful. Graded readers teach grammar, vocabulary (context helps you guess at meanings) and sentence structure.
Danke Feli, this was very helpful! I only started learning German a couple of months ago (excited to commit) but I’ve been lost on finding different ways to continue. Right now I’m only using Duolingo, which I’m using for starting those basics words and sentence structures (like you were saying). My thoughts/hopes were that maybe this could help before I attend classes. Maybe it would give me an edge on the class lol. Also never even consider watching a movie or song I already knew, but in German!
My German isn't fluent, but I improved it by finding a subject that I was interested in, buying German magazines and books on that topic and reading them. But I found that I have to concentrate harder than when I'm reading something in English, so if there's a radio on I can't do it because the background noise distracts me. If you're in a foreign country, you can pick up the local free newspaper at the railway station and try to read that. At one point, I set the voice on my satnav to German, to practice listening to directions. When I'm in a restaurant in Germany or Austria, I always get the German menu, not the English menu. Actually, I often get the menu in the local language in most countries, even if I only know a few words of the language, because I like to know the local word for a dish, and the translations into English are sometimes rather flakey. And sometimes there's no direct translation in English, for instance "Zander" is often translated as "pike-perch", but the fish isn't found naturally in England, so this translation is meaningless. I knew a student who did a couple of industrial placements in Germany as part of his course. The second time, he got lodgings with a German family who didn't speak English, rather than live in the company's Wohnheim for students. Because there were students from a lot of different countries living in the Wohnheim, and because a lot of them (e.g. the Dutch and the Scandanavians) spoke English better than German, the lingua franca was English rather than German. By living with a German-speaking family, his German had to improve...
My main tip I guess is just listen to the language like your life depends on it and all the time, this also makes it easier to do your tip 1 of just start now- it requires no real additional time and commitment. I agree that classes are often a good idea but often they are taught quite badly- delivery in english, lots of grammar etc...they definitely shouldn't be replacing your input via listening and reading
Regarding tip #5, I write out my shopping lists in German. And if I forget the English translation while in the store, I have to guess (What recipes did I meal plan for? Am I missing something I usually buy?) or not buy it at all.
Enjoyed your tips....Took German, and lived in Germany (Stationed there), but never was good at picking it up - could understand better than speaking. Reminds me of a quote attributed to Mark Twain who supposedly quipped that he once read a German novel, but didn't know what was happening until he got to the last page where all the verbs were. :-)
I'd love to hear your tips for English speakers on what ö and ü sound like and the proper way to pronounce them. Also, any clarity you can provide in the differences between the German past tenses would be fantastic! #askagerman
I'm moving to a new school soon, and I'm very excited because they have a German class! As for now, though, Busuu and Duolingo will do - my current school only offers French and Spanish
Polish learner here too! I want to take classes cuz I feel like I've missed alot teaching myself, but don't know what and its hard to practice sometimes without just repeating the same stuff over and over
@@tomrogue13 I'm married to a Polish lady but I take online lessons because her teaching me Polish is like me teaching her how to drive if you get my meaning :)
@@ГлебСтепанов-е1ъ especially slavic languages in Roman alphabet. I found a blog once where the author said Polish really should use Cyrillic but as much as they hated the Russians they went with Roman letters, and it has all those slashes and accent marks. I speak very basic phrase Russian having been to the USSR in 1989 and as a stamp collector I saw many different languages in written form. Granted, Turkish is probably saying "hold my pivo".
I have just recently heard of an app called italki where you can learn a new language 1on 1 with a teacher even ones certified in language teaching. You pay per lesson. I’ve used Duolingo and it’s good. Though, it’s a good idea to have a notebook handy to write down new words and take notes on grammar so you can review it later.
I do think that there is a subtle difference in the pronunciation between words ending with t or with d, but it's so subtle that it varies in different parts of Germany, so it will be fine either way. The "always t" ending seems to be more dominant with the southern German accents.
One of your tips had taught me some German even though I wasn't planning to --listening to your favorite genre of music. Since I watched your channel, TH-cam provided me several videos featuring German musical acts and that eventually led me to discover Eisbrecher, a German metal band. Now, I know what was ist heir los? means and what da ist noch mehr zwicshen uns means. I'd think fakk is german word, though.
I guess similarly, I should probably do the same, though most German bands that speak German that I know of are industrial metal or black metal, pretty sure the only exception I know of is We Butter The Bread With Butter which is a deathcore band, so much more style.
I studied German for years as a high school and university student. I'm sorry to say I wasn't very good at it. What I recall wrestling with more than anything else was grammatical genders for nouns. As you know well, I'm sure, there is no such thing in English. That bit of grammatical complexity got stripped out fairly early on in the evolution of English. And so, if I'm not mistaken, English is the only Indo-European language that does not have grammatical genders for nouns [correction--it's one of the few]. Generally-speaking, I am very glad for this. Seriously--"der," "die," "das" ....how many ways can there possibly be to say "the"? I found that absolutely maddening as a student. I have come to think that English speakers are disadvantaged in trying to learn a language like German because one of the first things the learner has to do is become acquainted with the concept of grammatical genders for nouns--a concept that will be totally unfamiliar to them at first. I have to think that its easier for people who are native speakers of a language with grammatical genders for nouns to learn another language that also has grammatical genders for nouns.
So I am a german and I've learnt french and am currently learning dutch. The only advantage I have is that I know that there can be different words for the and different genders. The problem is that these gebders are different in every language. And German has 3 genders, while french just has 2 (le, la) and one for plural (les). In german the word for plural is the same as the word for female nouns (die). In the nethwrlsnds there aren't genders but therr are de and het words. Short: It doesn't really help you, you have to learn this by heart in every language
I'm German and I failed at learning the gender of french nouns completely. So, yes, I do understand the concept of the genders, but french has gendered its nouns different. The sun - die Sonne (f) - le soleil (m), the moon - der Mond (m) - la lune (f). There are almost no rules, so you have to learn them by heart.
I always found it easier to understand the news vs. movies. The latter use more colloquial language and speakers are not always trying to be understood well. So for me understanding a movie presents always a challenge.
I learned a few words from watching Schlager music videos off you tube . Marlene of Marlenes leben taught me mega schone and schnee . I have picked up a few more from the geister jagers and urbexers ( both are in a bunch of lang.s )
Great video, very reassuring! Until.... i speak with my German friends who instantly stop speaking German and switch to English! I understand my German is bad... but i need to practice!
I double majored in Russian and French in University and my teacher was FROM moscow. Was at her house for breakfast and dinner and had to speak Russian there. I graduated with highest honors in Russian. Lost quite abit in speakiing and writing as havent used it in awhile. Noone to use it with and I would like to regain speaking and writing in it.
Also, for German Learners, all nouns, that end with - chen and - lein are neutral, like, das Kätzchen (the kitty) or, das Kätzlein (which also means kitty, but you can use both, it makes no difference if it's - chen or - lein).
If you want to see German films, it can help to have a VPN. The German TV stations have their program to watch for free (ARD Mediathek, ZDF Mediathek, RTL, SAT1 ...), but it is only available from Germany, Austria or Switzerland.
Ich hab Englisch komplett durch Input gelernt. Stundenlang täglich englische YT-Videos schauen und dabei nicht Englisch lernen is fast schon unmöglich. 😂
I took German in high school, then continued in college, going through German 4. So I had 6 years of German. I struggled with it throughout my studies. Many years later, I tried again, without success. I finally gave up and just resolved myself that my brain just doesn't get it.
deutsche welle has a lot of great free material. their course "nico's weg" goes through b1. also, "learn german with anja" on youtube is very good. she's great at explaining things.
Feli, Love your videos. you speak so fast in english. I was wondering are you thinking in German and then translating to english before you speak. Always wonder how the brain switches between native to learned languages.
If you want to listen to spoken German, the Tagesschau (the main evening news program on ARD) is on TH-cam each day. The good thing is that with video, there's context to help you figure out what's being said. th-cam.com/users/tagesschau
jesus what a smile. I got on a better mode just to look at this women. I am going to try to learn German. I tryed i school but it did not work out do to our school teacher.
I’m using duolingo at the moment. I practice everyday but I know I can’t learn from only duolingo. I plan to read small books after and listen to slowed podcasts etc. I still need to work on my pronunciation and accent but I’m getting there😅
An dieser Stelle vll noch der zusätzliche Tipp eines VPN, das eventuell mit Streaming-Diensten wie Netflix kompatibel ist. Ich hab letzes Jahr mit Spanisch angefangen und in meinem Mexiko-Urlaub mit ner mexikanischen Serie begonnen, die ich nur mittels VPN in Deutschland weiter gucken kann ;) Just a little hint ;)
What are YOUR tips for learning a language or learning German specifically? Let us know in the comments! 👇 I’d also like to add a disclaimer that I forgot to mention in the video: Everyone is different and that applies to learning languages too. We have different strength and weaknesses and study methods that work for others might not work for you, so it’s important to find the right way for YOU and also making the language learning process as much fun as possible to stay motivated! 😊 ++Sign up for the Link EUS language classes here ▸www.link-eus.com/language and use the code *GGIA60* for a $60 discount (=20%)!++
English speakers have an advantage, i believe as the roots of our language has a lot in common with the older versions of the German language. Speaking of mistakes I once caused a lot of amusement in Plön by asking for a Kübelschreiber instead of Kugelschreiber at a bar.
@@anonymousnamerealpicture9675 Reminds me of a saying in French : l'oreiller est le meilleur professeur de langues = the pillow-case is the best language teacher.
@@anonymousnamerealpicture9675 . Lucky u!
@@Name-kd5jj Switzerland then? 😜
On apps vs classes I 100% agree that classes are best. I've used all the apps out there and while they can be good for practicing vocabulary, they are no substitute for learning from a professional teacher. Practice dialogues with a teacher will expose you to different colloquialisms or regional vocabulary that your app won't have and classes allow you to learn in a "safe" setting where mistakes are okay and even encouraged because we can learn from them. Then when you speak in the "real" world you will have a bit more confidence. I've done both private lessons and group classes. Private lessons are great for the personal attention and the teacher is able to focus on your problem areas. Group classes are also good because you learn a lot from the other students' questions and mistakes. Group classes are also a bit more structured which I find helps keep me honest when it comes to doing homework outside of class.
People learning German: Man, learning that language is freaking hard!
Turkish: Haha, I accumulate entire phrases into one super-compound word!
Polish: Haha, I have grammatical cases like German, but I have seven instead of four!
Hungarian: Haha, I basically do what Turkish and Polish do COMBINED!
Icelandic: Haha, I'm basically Ancient Norse with all the grammar rules that come with it, but my pronunciation is also total gobbledygook!
Finnish: Haha, behold my super-massive gramatically diverse compound words and vocabulary that is totally different from any other European language! (sad Estonian noises)
Arabic: Haha, my standard language is virtually never really spoken and my dialects are almost unintelligible to each other! "Vote now on your phone for your dialect of choice" go BRRRRR!!!
Chinese: I'm a freaking TONAL language so even if you know every single sound, depending on your voice pitch you could say "horse" instead of "mother".
All of the previously mentioned: Man... that last guy's scary...
Good comment
How do you know all of this? I´m assuming you do not speak all these languages.
An amusing anecdote is that, I understand, those classes teaching Arabic cannot bear to teach any form of Arabic but its pure classic style, which makes non-native speakers sound like they are reciting Shakespeare. _(“Thee, thy, thou, ...“)_
Also, the form of Japanese taught to foreigners is of the “smooth“ form spoken by women, not men, so all foreigners who speak in Japan sound like _geishas_ to the native ear.
(Oh, one more thing: Hungarian and Basque are two examples of the last surviving languages of their respective linguistic families).
@@brianhiles8164 Of course the comment was meant to be humorous which is why most of the things mentioned are pretty exaggerated, but still they are not far off the truth. And yes, I don't speak any of these languages myself (except for German), but I am very interested in how other languages work so I picked up several things over the years when native speakers talk about their language or via documentaries. Yet again, the comment was supposed to be a joke rather than a linguistic research paper abstract, so please don't be offended. :D
The horse-mother-thing from Chinese is actually true however, both words are pronounced "ma", but mother has the constant upper pitch tone that makes it sound like it is sung while horse has the falling-rising lower pitch tone that makes it sound like your're annoyed or indecisive. I had an office colleague from China a couple of years ago who told me this which I found rather intriguing but also "frightening" if you would actually want to learn that language. :P
@@mr_bottomtooth : I am not offended; my curiosity was genuine.
I am aware of this aspect of the Chinese language. I too have been interested in linguistics, but not speaking Chinese either I can only offer a clever classic Chinese poem in which every word is a tonal variation of the word _shi._
wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_Den
@@brianhiles8164 Oops, sorry, I wasn't particularly referring to you with the being offended thing but I rather meant anyone who MIGHT feel this way. The way I said it was a little confusing though, but no worries. :)
My favorite saying is “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.” I think that fits well with the first tip :)
My biggest regret is that when I was endeavoring to learn German, was not writing down the words. There was a fellow soldier in my unit who carried a small note pad and pen all day and disciplined himself to write down five different German words, each day, each word 20 times. Consequently he learned faster than the rest of us and developed his reading and spelling skills. That I didn't do that, I think is the reason I have lost so much of the language. I am trying to re learn and endeavor to at lest return to the skill level that I once had, not so much that I intend to have an opportunity to use it, but mostly as a brain strain exorcise because I am now at the age when I could start to lose mental cognition. So hopefully it will be an exorcise that keeps the neurons firing in my brain lobes.
I might try this for vocab. I like flashcards except they pile up after a few months then you have to do like 100-200/ day and if you miss 1 or 2 days it's like 300-400.
One thing I try (emphasis on try) to do is write a few sentences using the word. Then I can also practice all the different grammar rules as well
Thank you Feli!!! I'm taking a German Class in college the spring semester!!! Wish me luck 🍀
You got this! 💪 Auf geht's!
@@FelifromGermany Hopefully in the future I'll understand you when you're speaking German!🥂
@@FelifromGermany Danke Feli!
I am learning German too. 😄
@@airborntruck6263 good luck to you too!!!🍀
6:30 - Feli grows up learning English listening to English songs on the radio.
David Hasselhoff: "You're welcome..."
When I get discouraged I imagine my great grandparents looking down at me saying "Now Karl, we spoke German so you can too. Just keep going".
Try MIA (mass immersion approach) and check out "refold" site
Good tips. 40 years ago, I had a job with a german company. I was needed to communicate with americans and sound like an american. German was not a requirement, but I knew it would be better for me and more fun if I picked it up. When I had time, I read what german I could find and listend to my mitarbeitern. When I had a break, I would speak with a german who needed to improve in english. We both improved in each others language as we stumbled through our conversations. This was a great opportunity. Another tip was singing Oktoberfest songs and drinking beer.
That was 40 years ago. Since then I have noticed some of my german has been forgotten, a sort of lingunistic.alzheimers disease. The songs are still there but I need to brush up on my conversation.
Always talk to your cat in the language you're learning. They may think you pronunciation is terrible, but they don't expect anything more from you anyway.
Were you aboard the USS Trenton LPD14 in the early '90's? I knew a Dick Todd then. We'd argue over Brazilian soccer.
@@johnvelas70 That's a different one from me. There's a lot of us, though I've only met one.
Yeah cats are savage haha
I tried this. All went well until I tried to say achtundachtig… he thought I had a hair ball 😮
Hexalingual language coach here. Yes, Felicia, I agree 100% with all these points. I would go even further and say that even IF you
- got into the habit of pronouncing something wrong
- ended up traumatized by previous classes or teachers
- or even just can't seem to learn a language concept right
Just keep it up. Find other ways to visualize / learn / experience / practice the language.
Another couple of things I'll add here: when listening to the language, be sure to pay attention to the pronunciation, vocabulary and expressions being used. This will help you pick them up much faster. Yes, you would eventually pick them up after years, but if you're able to consciously and intentionally pay attention to this as you listen, you will improve a hell of a lot faster.
Another important trick - when learning a language that has some similarity with your own - is to not hesitate and improvise words based on words you know. For example, if you know that words in -tion in English become words in -ción in Spanish or -zione in Italian or -zion in German or ção in Portuguese, just take the word you're trying to translate and tack on the right ending and see how that goes. True, you won't always get it right. But if the languages are close enough, it should work most of the time, and give you a hell of a lot more vocabulary in the new language than you previously thought you had. Where this doesn't work, people might help you learn the correct word. And yes, as mentioned in this video, even if you do get it wrong, so what? Mistakes are part of how we learn, and the consequences aren't nearly as bad as some teachers would have you think.
I have more such tips in some blog posts I wrote on the subject, if you're interested feel free to check them out! bit.ly/TW-Languages
Stops are always voiceless in German. So the same goes for t,d p,b and k,g although a final -ig is often pronounced as "ich"
There are three types of learning: Visual learning (looking at the words), auditory learning (listening to the words), and tactile learning (muscle learning) (writing the words). Each type of learning is handled by a different part of the brain. Using all three types of learning together increases effectiveness of learning considerably.
An advice I heard a couple of years ago on some other youtube channel about pronunciation, and that I've found true (especially if tired). Being sloppy with the pronunciation increases the risk of the languages in the mind to blend together, increasing the risk of slipping from one language to the other. By working on the pronunciation, they are kept more distinct.
His advice was actually to even imagine a different persona to make it even more distinct, but I haven't gone that far myself.
I am learning Spanish. These tips were so helpful!! I did take 2 years of German in high school. That's what drew me in to your channel.😄
I took 4 years of German in High School prior to going to Munich. I found my education lacking! However, I met several Germans around my age who were very entertained listening to me try to speak German. I made several friends in Germany that all started with me butchering the language. Don't be afraid to mess up!
Hey Feli your channel was mentioned in article about local TH-camrs in the Cincinnati Enquirer today! Yay!
There's an amazing moment when you're learning a language when your favorite songs suddenly start to make sense.
Unless it's a Rammstein song ...
Thank you so much for the playlist, I love coming home from Germany with a few good songs.
a few of my favs:
Jeans Team - Das Zelt
Jeans Team - Du Bist Hamburg
Jeans Team - Wandern
Great Video! Gute Tipps! Notizbuch und verschiedene Farbstifte kann ich auch sehr empfehlen!
Thanks for the tips. I started learning German last March when we had locked down and I got laid off from work, because I always wanted to learn German and I thought that would be a good time to start. I really enjoyed listening to German music, even though I don’t always understand all of it. I recently found a native German speaker to practice with since there’s no language class in my area, so hopefully that works.
For me as a russian german, is german music hideous. But I also hate most of the people here in Germany, so it doesn't matter. XD
The idea that you’re picking up something while listening to lyrics in your second language, is definitely a thing.
I started listening to Elvis at age 11, about at the time when I started to learn English. I got so familiar with some of his lyrics (although I didn’t understand most of them), that when I was humming Elvis songs ten years later, I suddenly recognised meaningful sentences among the lines I knew by heart, but just by the sound of their words. It was a great experience! ^^
What I found very useful was the Visual Grouping approach to learning German articles. So imagine, for example, a man with a dog near a tree in a park. Those all happen to be masculine nouns in German (der Mann, der Hund, der Park, der Baum). So you can essentially see the gender, as opposed to having to memorize it. That's how the Stress Free German podcast does it. I'm sure others have caught on.
I'm trying to learn German and English and this video is so useful ❤thanks
Du bist wirklich sympathisch. Macht Spaß, deine Videos anzuschauen.
As a Mexican trying to learn German it’s really hard not to roll my Rs. 😂
Rolling your R is actually totally fine if you can't do the regular German R. In many German dialects, people roll their Rs too and can't do it any other way. Check out people speaking the dialects Fränkisch or bairisch! :)
@@FelifromGermany danke Feli. ❤️
Well, as a German learning Spanish, I still struggle with rolling my Rs...
@@alexj9603 we can’t win 😅 lol. Try flicking your tongue up and letting the air flow when you pronounce the R. A lot of native speakers also struggle rolling the Rs. Don’t give up, I’m sure you’ll get it. 💪🏼
I'm an English native speaker living in Costa Rica. The R's in both languages are hard for me. 😂
I am relearning my 3 years of high school German of 50 years ago by listening daily to "Der Deutsche Hitmix" while doing my morning exercise. And I am now a polka fanatic, and absolutely Love German musicians, groups, and vocalists. Specifically traditional German-Austrian-Slovenian polka. I love performers Stefanie Hertel, Karl Moik, Andy Berg, Alexandra Schmeid, Geraldine Olivier, Die Fetzig'n aus den Zillertal, Oberkrainer Polka Madels, Twinnies, Die Geiwaidler, Corinna Zollner......and on and on, so many wonderful performers I remember many verbs and nouns, some verbs...but those darn sentence structure rules are tough.
Thank you so much! I love all your tips. I have 2 kids at the German School of NY, but me and my husband do not speak it. We are American and my kids sound like native German speakers now (pretty cool). However, I would love to learn more German myself. That's my goal for this year.
-just get started! you have to start and find out what works for you instead of waiting for the right opportunity.
-take classes, whether its online, in school, or a simple one like duolingo! feli recommends taking an actual class for the real-life experience. (lingoda und/oder EUS)
-listen to the language as much as possible whether moving to the language-speaking country oder consuming music, movies, the news, und podcasts in the target language
-speak it as much as possible! even if you make mistakes, the whole purpose is to learn from them so you don't have to spend 5 minutes fueling the perfect phrase inside your head. practice makes perfect. try out some native-speaking people whether it be classes, friends, or natives online. even just talk to yourself.
-repetition is very important. you need to review the old and new words you learned and repeat them in order to remember them. you have to review what you've learned at different periods of time. studies show you have to review words 6-20 times to remember them. you can use flash cards! you can also print out words of the target language and stick them on simple household items to remember what they're called.
-writing by hand is proven to be better for study. write notes in a notebook, keep it organized, and note things you want to remember. use different highlight colors for grammatical things like genders.
-learn articles with nouns! when you learn a noun, always learn an article with it. e.g. don't just learn the word "Hund," but learn *"der* Hund" with it.
-try to pronounce things correctly and learn from your mistakes. its better to learn the sounds beginning so you dont keep remembering the wrong pronunciation.
(pronounce "ich" like "eessh" not "itch"
"z" is pronounced "ts"
"ei" is pronounced "eye" not "ee"
Germans always pronounce the ending of the word do don't try to drop the "e"
whenever a word ends on "d" or "t," don't worry about the pronunciation because it doesn't differentiate. it is always pronounced like "t")
-once you know the pronunciation in German, it's gonna be a lot easier to pronounce things because German spelling is very consistent.
danke, feli! tschüss!
Howdy. Nice vlog. I don't know when this was produced, but you have more of a German accent than I have noticed since I started listening to you. Love the sound.
Haha I recorded this right after coming back from a 5-week long stay in Germany
For my part, I still can't hear a distinctive accent.
All I can hear is maybe being a bit too proper with pronouncing things (pronouncing T's properly as T's, rather than as soft D's like native speakers do xD).
Her foreign language skills remain impressive :D.
@@ArgusStrav You're right about the final T's. I noticed the same thing today. Most Americans don't pronounce them so carefully. I also agree that she does not have a distinctive accent.
Hey Feli, that was awesome. Thanks so much for sharing...Tommy
When I moved to Germany for work, my office environment and friendship groups were exclusively English-speaking, so my opportunities to practice German were limited. Then I booked a safari holiday through Condor-Lufthansa, and spent two weeks in a minibus speaking only German. Arguably I learned more German during 2 weeks in Kenya than the previous 6 months in Germany! Even if you don't live in Germany, there is no reason why you can't book a place with a German tour group - you just need to take a connecting flight to their point of departure.
Helpful to focus on phrases and words that go together. Thanks for the Spotify playlist!-
Recently added German to my Duolingo courses on the back of subbing to your channel Feli, thank you so much for all your content
I have recently started learning Esperanto. Its so easy and a real confidence boost, especially when I translate something that Google Translate can't.
Ich habe Duolingo für zwei Jahre benutzt, und jetzt habe ich German Pod 101 auch benutzt. Ich mag German Pod 101 weil ich eine deutsche Lehrerin habe. Ich liebe es, und ich habe so viel in eine kurze Zeit gelernt. Ich liebe deinen Kanal! ❤️
Awesome information and links to help with the language! I've followed you for about a year and a half now and this is one of my favorite videos in regards to the content covered and advice given. This one is going to help a lot of people!
I would say don't be discouraged initially as you might feel overwhelmed. It will get better and you will reward yourself for being able to get past the hard parts of learning a language. Just keep speaking even if it's to yourself.
These songs are AMAZING! Thank you so so much!!!!
*** Just started learning German and your advice about listening , writing and immersing yourself is spot on, Thanks!
I could've used something like coloring coding der/die/das, and even videos back when I learned German in highschool (1990s - No public Internet yet! Although, there was this one local station that used to air German videos for learning the language.).
A few tips I've learned along the way through college, and even thinking about it now -
1 - Prepare yourself mentally (know what you want to learn and plan ahead) and physically (or at least financially). If you're gonna go "all in", then go "all in". The first few months, or even year is the most important when learning vocabulary and grammar. Kids learn about 800 words per year (learning 10,000-20,000 by college), which comes to 2 or 3 words per day.
2 - Memorizing themed vocabulary in groups of 5 words. In a few of my college courses (math, foreign language, computer science) we memorized things in sets of 5 by learning the first half of the set, then the 2nd, then the whole set. So, "1. 2. 3. 1 2 3. 1 2 3. 4. 5. 4 5. 4 5. 1 2 3 4 5.", where each number is a new item in the set learned in sequence. I found that to be pretty good at learning things, and even used that in learning Japanese in college after learning German (and French!) in highschool/college. So, for vocabulary, maybe pick 5 things in your room, and that's your list for that day (or session if you're doing multiple per day). Another thing my other language professor did (the Japanese class) was to teach the alphabet and grammatical constructs at the same time by having us memorize simple grammatical phrases along with the characters and syllables. Something similar could be done with the definite articles and the different past/present/future tenses, as well as word gender usage. That's something I wished I had done in my German classes from the start.
3 - THINK in the language (along with speaking it) and each time you discover a new word, then think about how to describe that word with the words you know. It'll sound simple at fist (i.e., for Die Sonne, you might think "Die Gelbe Kugel", but then you have a word association in the language rather than a simple memorization of "X means Y". So, taking from #2, if I learn 10 words of objects in my room, I might try and describe those objects using German words I already know, kind of like how a child would ask their parents "What is that round thing in the desk?" "Oh, it's a computer speaker", but in German, so "Was ist Schwarz und runden an der Tisch" = "Der
Lautsprecher".
4 - When learning a new grammatical construct, don't just learn the phrase you've learned in the book, but start adding the vocabulary you've learned previously, and use that word in different tenses. "Gestern, habe ich ein Buch gelesen, aber am Morgen, werde Ich andere Buch lesen".
(Pretty sure my German is rusty after 20 years!)
I am using a lot of the advices you just gave. In march I am starting my B2 Dutch class. What also helped me was reading books at the level you speak the language. They are available for probably every level. Honestly I have to admit that I am lucky with learning vocabulary. Reading a word 2-3 times is enough to save it. If you struggle with that, write it down via hand and then add it to a sentence. The connection to a senseful meaning will help to brain to remember it correctly.
I recommend listening to You Tube music in a foreign language with lyrics posted. If you come across a word you don't know, write it down and look it up after.
You are a Brilliant Teacher/ speaker...I absolutely love all your videos and learned more from you than previous teachers I had lol
I was born and raised in Stuttgart and my mom was German and my Dad was an American Soldier, so my mom would always speak to me in German and dad in American lol been living in New Jersey since 1984 and I still make mistakes with words lol
Thanks for the Great Videos!
Your English is superb! You don't even have any foreign-sounding accent! Brava!
Based on my experiences learning Italian I’ve learned that real learning happens when you are forced to speak the language. Equally important is when you are totally immersed in the language. If you aren’t fortunate enough to live in the country where the language is spoken then daily study and interaction with the language is the next best thing.
Just getting started is a tip that applies to many things!
You remind me of the fact that I learned English mainly through TV.
When you said you switched the language on your phone to English, I was *so* tempted to switch my phone to Esperanto! Yes, I actually found Esperanto in my iPhone as an option! I can still hardly believe it. Btw, no, I did not switch the language to Esperanto, even if I was very tempted.
I just tried to switch to Esperanto, but I ended up getting mainly Dutch.
Thank you so freaking much for the spotify lists!!! I have been trying to learn german since a while now and I´m sure I haven´t been able to pick it up just yet because I haven´t found enough german music that I really like, you really just did me a solid !!
Great tips! I only took a little over a year of German in high school (I’m 22 now) and still retain most of what I learned because I learned it in real life with people to help enforce what I learned. The summer before though I used Duolingo to give me a boost beforehand. I still use it today but it’s definitely nowhere as good as having others around to learn with.
Also, I think I’ve retained my German because I’m always talking to myself in it just like you mentioned. Sometimes I ask or answer other people’s basic questions in it too so I can teach others when they’re like ??? Sounds weird but it really helps!!!
Very interesting video thanks. I keep meaning to learn German properly. I have a very basic understanding from all my trips to Germany, that is I can order 1 2 or 3 beers! :) Kidding, it's a bit more than that, but I do end up starting a conversation in German and then suddenly not understanding the answers. Of course it's a long time since I've been able to go there, I do miss my trips.
Hi Feli !! Lots of good practical information given !!! Thank you for this----- Sometimes I'll go through a day having all my "Internal Conversations" (with myself) in German (or sometimes Slavic languages, but I'm limited in these)----- this works well until I have to actually speak out loud to another person here in Texas and speak out loud in German by mistake---- and they don't understand a thing I'm saying
I am new to learning German. My son signed up on Duolingo a while ago and convinced me to do it too. So I did 20 days ago! I have to say although it is difficult to remember the genders, I am still having a blast! And there are discussion groups that help you if you can't understand why you got something marked incorrect. I keep everything in excel such as the word in German, in Englisch, pronunciation and notes. I highlight and colour words according to genders which helps me alot. I am on das wetter. My son and I try to text each other in German (he is so much better at it than I am... but he listens to music and videos in German). One thing I would say against Duolingo is they do not have choices of English- it is all american English.... so you're marked incorrect for putting a U in colour or say aeroplane instead airplane. I love your tip about downloading your favourite show in the language you're learning. I think I may do that. :)
It's easy, just marry you! 👍❤️😎
Best wishes from London England
Writing by hand is a great suggestion. I have taken three years of Chinese and one year of Japanese, and you absolutely will not learn those without writing the characters by hand. I developed my own ways of practicing, always involving writing by hand, and I think you're absolutely right that there's a hand-to-brain connection.
Definitely write stuff down if you’re learning Chinese/Japanese (and In the proper stroke order). That way if you forget a character, your hand will remember it for you. There are also apps for practice.
I would also recommend listening to audiobooks or even reading at the same time. (it's a tip for improving from the YT channel "English with Lucy"). If you're an intermediate German speaker (B1+) and a fan of computer games (like me), listen to "Gothic: die Welt der Verurteilten" from KG Voice Overs (YT, Spotify, ...). Gothic is one of my favorite games of all time and I used it to learn both German and English. On the 20th anniversary of the release of Gothic 1 (March 15 2021), the second audio book is going to come out.
Feli recommended setting the language you want to learn on your phone. Change the language of the social media and TH-cam on your PC too. It helped me with some words that I used everyday when I worked in Switzerland.
Look around yourself (especially when walking outside) and try to name and describe everything you can see. If you don't know something, look it up in a dictionary and remember it for the next time.
In learning Polish, I find using graded readers to be extremely helpful. Graded readers teach grammar, vocabulary (context helps you guess at meanings) and sentence structure.
I've been using some as well for polish
Imaginary arguments in the shower, haha 😂 I’m not the only one!
Danke Feli, this was very helpful!
I only started learning German a couple of months ago (excited to commit) but I’ve been lost on finding different ways to continue. Right now I’m only using Duolingo, which I’m using for starting those basics words and sentence structures (like you were saying). My thoughts/hopes were that maybe this could help before I attend classes. Maybe it would give me an edge on the class lol.
Also never even consider watching a movie or song I already knew, but in German!
I discovered your channel few weeks ago, but I like it, you do a great job, I'm crazy about German, a wonderful language.
My German isn't fluent, but I improved it by finding a subject that I was interested in, buying German magazines and books on that topic and reading them. But I found that I have to concentrate harder than when I'm reading something in English, so if there's a radio on I can't do it because the background noise distracts me.
If you're in a foreign country, you can pick up the local free newspaper at the railway station and try to read that.
At one point, I set the voice on my satnav to German, to practice listening to directions.
When I'm in a restaurant in Germany or Austria, I always get the German menu, not the English menu. Actually, I often get the menu in the local language in most countries, even if I only know a few words of the language, because I like to know the local word for a dish, and the translations into English are sometimes rather flakey. And sometimes there's no direct translation in English, for instance "Zander" is often translated as "pike-perch", but the fish isn't found naturally in England, so this translation is meaningless.
I knew a student who did a couple of industrial placements in Germany as part of his course. The second time, he got lodgings with a German family who didn't speak English, rather than live in the company's Wohnheim for students. Because there were students from a lot of different countries living in the Wohnheim, and because a lot of them (e.g. the Dutch and the Scandanavians) spoke English better than German, the lingua franca was English rather than German. By living with a German-speaking family, his German had to improve...
My main tip I guess is just listen to the language like your life depends on it and all the time, this also makes it easier to do your tip 1 of just start now- it requires no real additional time and commitment.
I agree that classes are often a good idea but often they are taught quite badly- delivery in english, lots of grammar etc...they definitely shouldn't be replacing your input via listening and reading
Thank you for your videos! I like learning about Germany, its culture, and its language.
Regarding tip #5, I write out my shopping lists in German. And if I forget the English translation while in the store, I have to guess (What recipes did I meal plan for? Am I missing something I usually buy?) or not buy it at all.
Very good tip (with colors). Thank you!
Enjoyed your tips....Took German, and lived in Germany (Stationed there), but never was good at picking it up - could understand better than speaking. Reminds me of a quote attributed to Mark Twain who supposedly quipped that he once read a German novel, but didn't know what was happening until he got to the last page where all the verbs were. :-)
I'd love to hear your tips for English speakers on what ö and ü sound like and the proper way to pronounce them. Also, any clarity you can provide in the differences between the German past tenses would be fantastic! #askagerman
Love your enthusiasm, Liebling! 🤠
Excellent tips! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I'm moving to a new school soon, and I'm very excited because they have a German class! As for now, though, Busuu and Duolingo will do - my current school only offers French and Spanish
Another great resource for learning any language is Anki. It's a really good smart flash cards method.
I'm taking Polish lessons😬After lesson I have smoke coming out of my ears!
yeah, slavic languages are insane.
Polish learner here too! I want to take classes cuz I feel like I've missed alot teaching myself, but don't know what and its hard to practice sometimes without just repeating the same stuff over and over
@@tomrogue13 I'm married to a Polish lady but I take online lessons because her teaching me Polish is like me teaching her how to drive if you get my meaning :)
Steve Miller, you should take Slovak lessons instead ;) Slovak language is basically the key language to understand other Slavic languages :)
@@ГлебСтепанов-е1ъ especially slavic languages in Roman alphabet. I found a blog once where the author said Polish really should use Cyrillic but as much as they hated the Russians they went with Roman letters, and it has all those slashes and accent marks. I speak very basic phrase Russian having been to the USSR in 1989 and as a stamp collector I saw many different languages in written form. Granted, Turkish is probably saying "hold my pivo".
I've been learning German for 3 months im doing great love your videos
Spreche schon Deutsch. Schreibe trotzdem mal nen Kommentar für den Algorithmus
Bleibt nur noch Englisch zu lernen😂.
Das ist zumindest mein Grund diese Videos zu sehen 🤷🏼♂️😅
Great video. 🙂
Back in the day mtv was most of the time in english with german subtitels. Thats how I got a feeling for that and some vocab as well.
I have just recently heard of an app called italki where you can learn a new language 1on 1 with a teacher even ones certified in language teaching. You pay per lesson. I’ve used Duolingo and it’s good. Though, it’s a good idea to have a notebook handy to write down new words and take notes on grammar so you can review it later.
You are very nice and Always smiling ....thanks Phelicia!
I do think that there is a subtle difference in the pronunciation between words ending with t or with d, but it's so subtle that it varies in different parts of Germany, so it will be fine either way. The "always t" ending seems to be more dominant with the southern German accents.
Welcome back to the US. 💙🙏🏻
One of your tips had taught me some German even though I wasn't planning to --listening to your favorite genre of music. Since I watched your channel, TH-cam provided me several videos featuring German musical acts and that eventually led me to discover Eisbrecher, a German metal band. Now, I know what was ist heir los? means and what da ist noch mehr zwicshen uns means. I'd think fakk is german word, though.
I guess similarly, I should probably do the same, though most German bands that speak German that I know of are industrial metal or black metal, pretty sure the only exception I know of is We Butter The Bread With Butter which is a deathcore band, so much more style.
Culture immersion is a great tip as well. Basel was a great in a Platz @ a McDonald's what i said zwei apfel kuchen. Ich liebe fussball.
I studied German for years as a high school and university student. I'm sorry to say I wasn't very good at it. What I recall wrestling with more than anything else was grammatical genders for nouns. As you know well, I'm sure, there is no such thing in English. That bit of grammatical complexity got stripped out fairly early on in the evolution of English. And so, if I'm not mistaken, English is the only Indo-European language that does not have grammatical genders for nouns [correction--it's one of the few]. Generally-speaking, I am very glad for this. Seriously--"der," "die," "das" ....how many ways can there possibly be to say "the"? I found that absolutely maddening as a student. I have come to think that English speakers are disadvantaged in trying to learn a language like German because one of the first things the learner has to do is become acquainted with the concept of grammatical genders for nouns--a concept that will be totally unfamiliar to them at first. I have to think that its easier for people who are native speakers of a language with grammatical genders for nouns to learn another language that also has grammatical genders for nouns.
So I am a german and I've learnt french and am currently learning dutch. The only advantage I have is that I know that there can be different words for the and different genders. The problem is that these gebders are different in every language. And German has 3 genders, while french just has 2 (le, la) and one for plural (les). In german the word for plural is the same as the word for female nouns (die). In the nethwrlsnds there aren't genders but therr are de and het words.
Short: It doesn't really help you, you have to learn this by heart in every language
@@lannaweasley533 Fair enough. Thanks for the reply!
I'm German and I failed at learning the gender of french nouns completely. So, yes, I do understand the concept of the genders, but french has gendered its nouns different. The sun - die Sonne (f) - le soleil (m), the moon - der Mond (m) - la lune (f). There are almost no rules, so you have to learn them by heart.
@@kilsestoffel3690 I feel your pain, Kilse. I was never able to master very well the gender of your German nouns.
@@ericmkendall1 we're used to foreigners who mix them up, so don't worry.
I took German in high school and didn't do too well, I didn't have a good teacher. How much for a private lesson?
You can take lessons on a website named italki. And lessons can be as cheap as $10-15 USD per hour depending on the tutor
@@matthewsmith6913 I want a private lesson from Feli
@@michaelhurley3171 you wish ;-) XD
@@annathevideoviewer I do wish and so would you. I have a few thousand dollars to make it happen if she's interested
I always found it easier to understand the news vs. movies. The latter use more colloquial language and speakers are not always trying to be understood well. So for me understanding a movie presents always a challenge.
I am a huge F.C Bayern München fan and when i heard Thomas Müller (my favorite player) speak Bavarian i was shocked on how Bavarian is so different
I learned a few words from watching Schlager music videos off you tube . Marlene of Marlenes leben taught me mega schone and schnee . I have picked up a few more from the geister jagers and urbexers ( both are in a bunch of lang.s )
Great video, very reassuring! Until.... i speak with my German friends who instantly stop speaking German and switch to English! I understand my German is bad... but i need to practice!
I double majored in Russian and French in University and my teacher was FROM moscow. Was at her house for breakfast and dinner and had to speak Russian there. I graduated with highest honors in Russian. Lost quite abit in speakiing and writing as havent used it in awhile. Noone to use it with and I would like to regain speaking and writing in it.
Thank you for all your learning German language tips, German Girl in America!
Also, for German Learners, all nouns, that end with - chen and - lein are neutral, like, das Kätzchen (the kitty) or, das Kätzlein (which also means kitty, but you can use both, it makes no difference if it's - chen or - lein).
Ist mir bitte aufgefallen😬.
Man lernt nie aus😅
If you want to see German films, it can help to have a VPN. The German TV stations have their program to watch for free (ARD Mediathek, ZDF Mediathek, RTL, SAT1 ...), but it is only available from Germany, Austria or Switzerland.
It's so easy to use a VPN to watch German-language TV. The ARD/ZDF Mediathek is a great source of shows, it's like a German-language Netflix.
Ich hab Englisch komplett durch Input gelernt. Stundenlang täglich englische YT-Videos schauen und dabei nicht Englisch lernen is fast schon unmöglich. 😂
I took German in high school, then continued in college, going through German 4. So I had 6 years of German. I struggled with it throughout my studies. Many years later, I tried again, without success. I finally gave up and just resolved myself that my brain just doesn't get it.
Don’t give up! Keep trying! Try out Pimsleur and Lingvist for speaking and Vocab. You can do it! Happy learning
deutsche welle has a lot of great free material. their course "nico's weg" goes through b1. also, "learn german with anja" on youtube is very good. she's great at explaining things.
Feli, Love your videos. you speak so fast in english. I was wondering are you thinking in German and then translating to english before you speak. Always wonder how the brain switches between native to learned languages.
Hi Feli! Are you still in Germany or back in the US?
Back in the US :)
If you want to listen to spoken German, the Tagesschau (the main evening news program on ARD) is on TH-cam each day. The good thing is that with video, there's context to help you figure out what's being said. th-cam.com/users/tagesschau
jesus what a smile.
I got on a better mode just to look at this women.
I am going to try to learn German.
I tryed i school but it did not work out do to our school teacher.
I’m using duolingo at the moment. I practice everyday but I know I can’t learn from only duolingo. I plan to read small books after and listen to slowed podcasts etc. I still need to work on my pronunciation and accent but I’m getting there😅
Good luck!
An dieser Stelle vll noch der zusätzliche Tipp eines VPN, das eventuell mit Streaming-Diensten wie Netflix kompatibel ist. Ich hab letzes Jahr mit Spanisch angefangen und in meinem Mexiko-Urlaub mit ner mexikanischen Serie begonnen, die ich nur mittels VPN in Deutschland weiter gucken kann ;)
Just a little hint ;)