Finish Learning German

So, I can already speak some German. The problem is I generally need a dictionary when writing. Conversations I can handle, but I make a dizzying array of mistakes; I can be understood and understand enough to get by.

German is one of the main European languages. It has a history that stretches back throughout most of western history, and a certain period aside, it’s contributed a lot to Europe’s cultural inheritance in many ways.

For a native English speaker, it’s also a good introduction to a language which uses grammatical cases. That makes it a good gateway for learning other languages such as Russian or Greek.

Background + Reasons

A friend of mine had always wanted to learn German. Her mother’s friend spoke it and it had stuck in her memory as an interesting language. I’d not long returned from Switzerland learning French so felt ready to tackle another language.

How wrong I was.

The Americans have a language classification system. It tells you how long it takes a native English speaker to learn a language with 5 hours of class study and 3-4 hours of self-study, 5 days a week. French is category 1 (23-24 weeks). German is category 2 (30 weeks).

The grammar system is a little more difficult than French. It has 3 genders compared to French’s 2. It has a more complicated grammatical case system than French. In short there’s a lot more to memorise and keep in mind when speaking.

I started studying from the BBC Deutsch Plus series, and got through the 2 books and CDs. I learned enough to be able to read simple books and hold a conversation but at the time my understanding of grammar was poor.

My friend didn’t have enough time to continue, and so after completing the series, I moved to reading short stories. Not having anyone to practice with and my friend busy on other things, I stopped and changed to learning Spanish.

I swore to myself to go back to German and get it to a fluent level one day.