Best 5 Tips to learn German at home

There’s no denying that German does not have the best reputation when it comes to difficulty. With three different genders and four noun cases, not to forget the articles, it’s definitely not the easiest language in Europe.

So if you’re trying to succeed in learning German but could not so far, you’re not the only one.

Millions of others have encountered the same obstacles, but they still managed to succeed. That must mean there’s hope for you, and there’s definitely a way to reach your end goal.

Tips to learn German

Here are some great recommendations, collected from people with experience in teaching or learning German. But do remember that everyone learns differently, so try to choose what works for you:

Set daily goals:

The most essential part of learning any language is commitment. If you don’t make yourself sit and study on a regular basis, you’ll end up delaying it forever. No matter how busy you are, an hour a day is not a lot of time to spare for learning a language. It’s definitely doable.

Besides, studying and immersing yourself in a language everyday, instead of only the weekend, helps you learn better. You’ll also be less likely to forget.

Listen and repeat the sounds:

The internet is full of free videos that teach German for beginners. As a first step, find one that teaches the pronunciation of the German letters.

It’s important to learn pronunciation basics from the very beginning. Otherwise, you’ll build a habit of reading words incorrectly, and it will be hard to reverse these habits later. Listen and repeat, trying to imitate the sounds. If you find it hard, don’t be disheartened. It’s normal at first.

Now, you’ve already mastered the building blocks of language, which are the sounds. But letters may not be pronounced the same in words as they do separately. So in the next stage, start listening to words and short phrases and repeat them.

You’ll see that some sounds may get assimilated with others. Knowing this will help you identify words in listening practice.

Learn words with their articles:

German articles are not as straightforward as English. They change according to grammatical case, number, and gender—German has three of those, female, male, and neuter. Each word has a gender, and not only those referring to humans and living creatures.

For example, the word cloud, Wolke, is female in German and takes a female article. This is why it’s a good idea to learn a word together with its article; You can’t always guess the gender of a word by yourself.

Learn words in chunks of phrases:

When it comes to learning words, it’s better to learn how they appear in context. This will make it easier for you to learn articles and noun case inflections, and you’ll find yourself able to build simple sentences on your own from the early stages.

You’ll also get used to the German word order, so you’ll improve quite fast in listening.

Immerse yourself in the language:

This is the fun part! After you learn basic words and common, everyday phrases, you can start exposing yourself to actual German-language content.

Depending on your circumstances, you may be attending classes where the materials are especially tailored for learners. This is a great idea if you have time and money to spare.

Classes give you practice opportunities for all the language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Of course, these opportunities will be suitable for your current proficiency level.

Trust me, the last part is particularly important. You don’t want to be bombarded by a myriad of intermediate- and advanced-level words when you’re barely at the upper beginner level.

If you don’t have the means to register for classes, you can read and listen to children stories in German. You can then move to young adult ones. You can also start reading magazines and online articles directed at a younger audience.

Some people, on the other hand, immerse themselves in a language by traveling to the country of origin.

This will force them to learn by being exposed to the language frequently. The benefit here is the ability to listen to and learn from native speakers. But traveling is not cheap, and you’d probably need some classes to help you with grammar anyway.

The most fun way of immersing yourself in a language, however, is enjoying entertainment in that language. Movies, TV shows, games, podcasts, and songs are all great for this purpose.

You’ll not even feel that you’re studying. You’ll get motivated to learn more so that you can understand what fans are saying on social media groups, for example. Besides, you’ll learn a lot about German culture, which is a nice perk.

Also read: Deutsch lernen mit Geschichten