Learning German for the first time
As you can see I speak English, but German seems like a tough language to learn on my own. French I could do since I have a base in it, but German has a unique deep sound to the language.
Should I get someone to teach me it, like a qualified lingust? Or should I try that rosetta stone stuff? I'm unclear of what to do to learn it effectively... preferably have a solid grasp (can converse with others) between 3 months (ideally) to 1 year.
Should I get someone to teach me it, like a qualified lingust? Or should I try that rosetta stone stuff? I'm unclear of what to do to learn it effectively... preferably have a solid grasp (can converse with others) between 3 months (ideally) to 1 year.
Comments
I took German classes for 2 years in high school ,Its actually a much easier language to learn than you think. Id recommend getting someone to teach you. Although you can learn the basisc on your own.
Also, a linguist is a studier of language, not an expert in a language.
for instance,
Der = the.
but Der sounds very masculine, you wouldn't say "Der" when talking about something feminine, so they made;
Die = The Feminine.
I really like the variants of "the" in the language,
I've only been taking the language a few months (about 2) but I've gotten very use to speaking and I am able to hold conversations with people, granted, my Typing skills in German are much more lackluster than my actual speaking skill.
Speaking of that, there is one part that might be challenging to you
the German alphabet, it's essentially Identical.
V is pronounced as more of an "f" sound
W is pronounced as more of a "v" sound
you now have to worry about:
ö (O umlaut)
ä (A umlaut)
ü (U umlaut)
und ß (esset)
Esset is the easiest of them all, it's the sound of two 's'. the same sound the two 's' make in the word "Piss"
the umlauts are much trickier. ö makes an almost 'r' sound. it's very awkward. it will likely take you a year or more to get it (My German teacher actually can't really even pronounce O umlauts correctly either)
qft.
I honestly find German a much easier language to speak than English, especially when asking questions. The German language cuts out unnecessary words.
Take for instance, asking about Homework:
English: "Did you do your homework ?"
German: "Machst du Hausaufgaben?"
German to English Translation is: "Do you homework?"
The verbs endings are changed to give it a natural flow.
for instance: "I go to school"
"Ich gehe zur Schule"
"He goes to school"
"Er geht zur Schule"
"We go to school"
"Wir gehen zur Schule"
as you can see "Go" or "Gehen" changes depending on the pronoun, giving it a nice flow.
German gets a bad rap because it sounds 'harsh' but honestly, it's a 'cute' (Excuse my homo-eroticism there) sound to me, Example:
"Leise bitte" or "Quiet please" or any word in the language that ends with and 'e' sounds almost romantic (Again, excuse my woman-esc views)
Computers can't tell you 'why' you do something that way, they just tell you how.