How to Face the Difficulties of Learning the German Language

By Benedict Yossarian

The German language is not as popular with foreign language students compared to French, Spanish, or Italian.

You might wonder why, since there are around 100 million speakers of German all over the world. It is the language for most of Eastern European countries and majority of migrants from different countries. German is also a very popular language in business as its country of origin is among the most industrialized countries in the world.

Beyond all these a lot of students still find it difficult to speak German. Surprisingly, native speakers will agree. Below are the main reasons for such.

• Multiple noun construction- unlike English where a dog means dog, or house means house, the German language is not about the noun itself. Its nouns may vary if it's masculine, feminine, or neuter. It takes a while before students get comfortable with the der, or die, or das which denotes the gender of the noun.

• Word Order- The word order does not simply follow a subject verb order. The German language presents the order of words depending on the tense of the sentence. There are complex rules to deal with so you have to be aware to avoid sounding ridiculous.

• Method of Teaching- the approaches of how English speaking native or a Spanish speaking native will teach the German language vary. As you put them under the microscope, you will see flaws in how high schools, universities, or special program deal with inculcating German language to the students' mind.

Study Tips to Make Learning German Easier

Knowing that learning the German language is a daunting task, you have to come up with ways to make learning becomes easier, here are some tips:

• Use your First Language as Tool - Take note of the similarities of your own language to the German language. If you are an English speaker, you will notice that German comes from Latin and Greek origins. For example, das Haus is house in English. Garden in German is der Garten. Recognizing the familiar words will program your brain to recall and store them with ease.

• Fight Language Interference- As much as you want to relate English to German, most of the time you got to think German if you want to speak German. It will be ineffective if you will think English and translate it to German. Be careful when you do this, since the German word bald means soon in English.

• Gender Familiarity- you have to face the fact that nouns in German is gender related. It will be wise to learn German words and learn their genders at the same time. It is important to know when to use the masculine (der), die(feminine), or das(neuter).

• Be Patient- Like any other language, mastery takes a while. It will not take 10 days only to make you an eloquent German speaker. Maybe not even 2 years. You have to realize though that the more you expose yourself to the language the more it becomes part of your system.

Learning the German language is like learning any language, it has its challenging parts. What matters most is your interest in the language and your discipline to devote time to conquer the German language.

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