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Posts Tagged ‘Speak German’

It’s a fact that if you learn to speak German you will be giving yourself huge advantages in your professional career not to mention expanding your personal horizons. Popular reasons for people to start learning German are to make the most of holidays in Germany, be able to chat with German relatives and prepare for study exchange programs in Germany. But there are in fact so many other great reasons to learn to speak German that people never consider. These are some that come to mind:

Germany is the most populous European nation and German is the most widely spoken language in Europe. German is the third most popular foreign language internationally and by learning German you are able to connect with 120 million native German speakers. So German will not only allow you to build relationships with people in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein but also German speakers all over the world.  

Germany has one of the strongest economies and is one of the world’s top export nations. Germany’s international trade earnings are proof of the high demand for German goods. Germany’s economic strength means business opportunities not only in Germany itself, but also throughout the European Union as well as in the United States. The Germans are great innovators and Germany is on the frontline of new technologies.

While German workers are highly productive, it is clear they know how to play just as hard as they work. If you are a world traveler, you are sure to encounter Germans wherever you go since nearly 3 out of every 4 vacations by Germans are spent in other countries. Tourism companies, airlines, hotels and car rental businesses that can communicate in German will profit from the German tourism industry.

Don’t fool yourself by thinking that German is a language of the past. In number of books published, Munich is second in the world only to New York. As very few German books are translated into English, the only way to appreciate these books is by learning to speak German.

The cultural heritage of German speaking countries is very rich. Germany is known for being a country of poetry and great thinkers. 10 Nobel prizes have been awarded to German, Austrian and Swiss German authors. The philosophies of Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche and numerous others have had lasting influences on modern society. Knowing German allows you to access the works of these people in their original language allowing you a more in depth appreciation of their work.  Even if your not so interested in Germany on an intellectual level the high quality of life in German speaking countries may well be of interest to you.

You’re probably thinking that’s all well and good, but German is too hard to learn. Well you’re wrong! If English is your native language then you already have a huge advantage when it comes to learning German. Due to their common heritage, German and English share many similarities in both vocabulary and grammar. Also convenient is that German words are spelled phonetically. Also learning German can be really fun when you use resources like this free learning German podcast..

Like most studying, when it comes to learning German, there are two types of people and they suit two different ways of solving the problem. Some people have little spare time but are prepared to spend money and those that may have less budget but plenty of spare time.

A person with plenty of money can afford to spend a lot of money attaining their goal to be fluent in German. A person with plenty of time will use this spare time but avoid spending money on becoming fluent. Both approaches will give you success but they work in different ways and have benefits and disadvantages unique to them.

For instance, someone that is prepared to spend a bit of money on learning German may fly to Germany and take part in an intensive, immersion type course for a month or even longer. Immersion is often cited as being the best way to learn a foreign language. The chief advantages of the immersion method are that you are living in the country where the language is spoken.

Thus you have acces to it 24/7. Although this is not strictly true as you might do some sleeping during that time, but you know what I mean. You will hear German all the time and you will be given ample opportunities to practice what you have learned in the course with people that you meet in shops, bars or at social events. This will dramatically improve your abilities and get you to a level of German fluency or good conversational German in a short space of time. But this is an expensive option and many people cannot affors this cost to learn a language.

For these people the alternative is to take their time learning German with other methods and thus save the money that would go towards an immersion course. There is no flaws with this method and with a bit of time and effort you will attain a good level of conversational German.

Typically, you would buy a home study course or attend night classes. In effect, you would be working your German studies round all the other things you have to do each day.

If you go for a home study German course, comprising of some audios or a software package, then you would probably use it in between your responsibilities at work or spending time with your partner. Of course this method would be cheaper than going to Germany or another German speaking country and taking a course but it would also take a bit more time to get the adequate German language skills to become fluent.

So how do you put both together ? How do you learn quickly yet not spend a huge whack of cash in the process ? This is a tough problem but the solution is to bring the immersion method to you.

You may live in the back of beyond and rarely see a person, let alone a German speaking person so how can you immerse yourself in German if this is the case.

This is where you will find things like books, TV, radio, DVDs and the internet extremely useful.Dive into the language by listening to German music and watching German TV programs or films as much as possible. Use all the resources that the internet offers to learn German quickly. Go to places like youtube or google videos and search for German language videos. You can find all sorts of stuff like interviews, music and documentaries. Some are even subtitled with English.

You may also think about interacting with other people by using the online forums and chatrooms. Look into podcasts that feature German language courses. Checkout other popular websites that have German courses, many of which can be accessed for free. There are many sites popping up that allow you to have a one on one lesson with a professional language teacher via skype or some other voip service. Whilst this is potentially expensive, you can do it from you front room and it is a lot cheaper than flying to Germany.

Listen, speak and learn elements of the German language as much as poosible. Devote a whole day or a weekend to this task. Weekends are best because you have less commitments and more free time. Turn your home into a little part of Germany each weekend and you will notice how your skills in German improve at a good rate.

Interested in getting a German course, then visit http://rocketgermanreview.com . The site has reviews on three popular German courses, including the buy Rocket German course and Rosetta Stone versus Rocket German.

For those thinking about learn a new language, German isn't the first one that trips off the tongue, despite this, you may be surprised to know that German is a widely spoken language throughout the world, especially in central and eastern Europe. It is spoken in Germany of course, which is one of the largest countries in Europe in terms of population. It is also used in countries like Austria and Switzerland. You will also find that many people in the nations that surround Germany to the east, like the Czech Republic spreading to the Balkans, speak a bit of German.

It is a useful language to understand if you want to travel to some of these countries and do not want to speak English. companies in the automobile, information technology and financial services. Speaking the language can open doors in terms of a career opportunity or potential business partner.

So, if you want to learn German with a learn German software course then it may not be such a simple process of elimination. There are many out there and you might find yourself going round in circles trying to get the right one.

It is often very hard to give a definitive answer when it comes to recommending a particular course because everybody learns in different ways and have different objectives. I would say that you should want this software to be able to teach you the four key skills to learning a language. You want it to be able to teach you how to read, write, speak and understand German.

As you can imagine, learning these skills can take time and commitment so not everyone want to make this commitment - they may not want to learn all these skills. For instance, you may have plans to vacation in Berlin for the summer and only want to be able to communicate. You want to concentrate of speaking and comprehension without worrying about reading or writing.

So understanding what you really want is the first question you have to ask yourself. After that, you want to understand how the software teaches you the language.

Some software chooses to simply tell you what to do without explaining how it is done. The idea behind this is that we pick up languages intuitively and by hearing a language enough it will start to sink in. This method is the approach behind immersion learning. Immersion is effectively living in a German speaking country without access to English speakers. In this way you stay motivated and get constant chances to hear and use German.

This is good in theory and most people agree that immersion is the best way to learn. So the software that tries to replicate this process is a good idea but it falls down because the person learning has to be self motivated. So the individual has to use the software often for this method to truly replicate the process. And even if they are fairly self motivated, it is impossible to cut off your ‘real’ life that entails speaking in English.

More straightforward courses will take the approach of explain why something works as opposed to just what to say. Thus they will explain what to say or how to say a phrase and then go on a break the phrase down. Grammar may make no sense, nor the vocabulary at first. In some cases you just have to learn it or get the basics of it and then you can start being more practical by speaking to people.

Looking for a good German course …then visit http://rocketgermanreview.com . The site has reviews on three popular German courses, including a comprehensive Rocket German review .