What are the easiest ways to learn German?
German is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a co-official language of Luxembourg, Belgium and parts of southwestern Poland, as well as a national language in Namibia. German is most similar to other languages within the West Germanic language branch, including Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German, Luxembourgish, Scots, and Yiddish. It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, although these belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language after English. One of the major languages of the world, German is a native language to almost 100 million people worldwide and is spoken by a total of over 130 million people. It is the most spoken native language within the European Union.
With a multitude of benefits accompanying the language, German is a language constantly demand. Similarly, if you have decided to learn German but aren’t sure where to start? Then I can help. In my opinion, when we learn a new language, we must be logical with our expectations. So, to begin your learning journey first set logical and reasonable goals and then build on them. Through this, you can clearly identify the time, effort and dedication that you can’t invest into the subject.
Once you’ve set these goals, you can now choose from the three most effective ways of learning any language:
Self-Learning
Specifically meant for those, who either do not have a lot of time on their hands or simply would like to learn in the comfort of their home. This method includes:
- Reading books and other literature in German, practice writing through copying and reading and speaking by reading them aloud.
- Watching German movies with English subtitles or previously watched videos but now in German with subtitles.
- Listening to German music and podcasts while you work.
- Conversing with others learning German.
Immersion Method
This is a method meant for people who wish to truly immerse themselves into this language learning process. This method is a tough one and requires extreme dedication. This is further divided into two other methods:
- Immersion through travel: This involves travelling and staying in the country where your target language is spoken most.
- Immersion through classes: This involves enrolling into those classes that specifically teach and speak in your target language. With that said you will be provided with notes and literatures to be able to understand.
Online Classes
This the easiest method of learning German. Through this method, you enrol into online classes teaching German and learn under the guidance of professionally certified trainers. These trainers provide you with quality study material and feedbacks and also easily clear your doubts. There are many online platforms that provide these online classes like Multibhashi, Preply and FluentU.
Finally,
These are the three different methods of learning German. As previously mentioned, at the end of the day, the difficulty or ease faced by you during the process of learning the language, truly depends on how dedicated you are and how much effort are you willing to put in the process of learning German. Hence setting appropriate goals and choosing a method makes a huge difference in the process of learning German.