How to Speak German

1. German is hard to learn.

No. If you believe German is hard for you, it will become hard! If you believe it's easy (like me) it will become easy. It's a matter of perception.

2. Nobody uses German anymore

Nobody except 200 million people? I always laugh when people say this :)

3. German is an ugly language

Try to learn Chinese then =) Every language has it's own beauty. Again, it's a matter of perception.

Now when you know the truth about the German language, let's go on and see why you need to learn it!

Why should you learn German? There are many reasons:

1. German is the most widely spoken language in Europe.

2. 18% of the world's books are published in German. That opens whole world of possibilities

3. Germany is the 3rd strongest economy in the world

4. Germany is also home of numerous international corporations

5. German is the second-most commonly used scientific language

6. German is the native language of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Goethe, Brothers Grimm, Freud and Einstein.

7. If you learn how to speak German you will deepen your employment possibilities. Many jobs today require, except English, knowledge of some other
language like German.

8. The German-speaking countries are very beautiful and interesting places to visit.

9. You get to know the culture, tradition and deepen your knowledge in all areas by learning this language.

10. The sooner you start, the better! It is estimated that the older you get, the more difficult is for you to learn a foreign language.

It's never too late. Start now!

Before you do, let me tell you one interesting this I've seen every beginner makes. It's the reason why most people fail to learn how to speak German...

...is to TRY EVERYTHING AT ONCE. It's just not possible. Try to read 3 texts, listen to 2 podcasts and do 2 more activities won't get you anywhere. The solution?

NARROW YOUR FOCUS.

I am a huge fan of steadily increasing your knowledge. Your 4 essential skills in learning any language, including German are: reading, writing, speaking and listening.

You can do this manually by finding resources for each skill (don't worry, by the end of reading all this useful content I'll give you good websites).

The second option is to get a software that does all this for you, integrates the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in a "virtual classroom" where you acquire the knowledge with ease (check some recommendations below).

Wow, you got pretty good info now. Go and take a look of Rocket German and decide if it's for you.

In a meanwhile, let's see who the biggest names in German history are.

If you learn fluent German, you can even read their masterpieces in the original language!

Let me tell you some of them:
Literature (Goethe, Schiller, Thomas Mann, Kafka, Brothers Grimm)
Classical music (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart)

Art - Kollwitz, Dürer, Klee, Kaninsky
Psychology - Freud, Jung
Philosophy - Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Benjamin, Adorno
Science - Einstein, Kepler, Röntgen, Planck, Virchow
Politics - Hitler (ok, I know he wasn't a good person, but still he's a huge name in history)

Now, let me give you one useful tip many people use to improve their German.

Let's face it, learning German is a long-term process. I have one tip that can help you.

Today many software products have the multilanguage option. That means you can make their menus, and the whole interface in some other language than English. Including German as well. So, why not use that option to your advantage? By doing this, you familiarize yourself more with the vocabulary. That means automatically improving your German.

Make your Windows/Linux/Mac in German and get all your software in German! I guarantee you'll be FORCED to learn it and your brain will become a sponge for getting German words ;)

If you have some unknown word, you can always look for the dictionary. There's lots of German dictionaries online, I recommend you use dict.cc because it's one of the best.

Now, let's get to the most important thing you should pay attention on if you want to learn German efficiently...
Enjoy!

The most important thing about learning ANY language is CONSISTENCY. 30 minutes a day is better than 2 hours every 3 days! I tell you this from my experience and from the experience of many people.

You don't have time? LIAR! There is one top secret I shouldn't tell you...it's called time management. Make learning German a routine, let's say do it every day from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM (ok, if your schedule is flexible, make flexible decisions in what period of the day you'll be learning German). Try this and you'll be amazed at the results. Set a list of things you need to do, set a deadline and DO THEM. It's that simple.

I'm going to tell you one of the most kept secrets in learning German.

The best way to learn to speak German is to......
speak it.

WHAT? ARE YOU MAD? No, I'm not mad nor drunk. I'm just telling you the truth. In the past days, I've realized that the most basic things are often overlooked.

In learning German, you often read headlines like:
LEARN GERMAN IN 3 DAYS!
MASTER GERMAN IN 10 DAYS!
SPEAK LIKE NATIVE in 1 MONTH.

Yeah, if this was true, then I would teach German till now.
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. DO it. Speak it. It sounds simple. And it is the only effective solution.

Have you ever wondered why everyone who went to a foreign country and stayed there longer actually learned the language without any 'grammar rules' or whatever?

The answer is simple: THEY WERE SURROUNDED BY IT. That's right. They couldn't say a thing in their own language so their brain started to adapt to the new environment.

How can you use this knowledge?
If you're sitting in front of the PC, why don't you make your operating system to function in German. Almost all software application today also have multi language option.

I know it sounds hard, but JUST DO IT. It will make your life easier.

But, if you couldn't do this, then...surf on German websites, or watch German movies, listen to German songs. GET A FEELING OF THE LANGUAGE.

Just go to google.de and type some word you know in German. And start reading it. Then you can translate all this with the systrain dictionary (look above this text where I wrote about best German dictionaries).

It's that simple. And you can do it! You just need commitment!

Good luck.

If you asked me for one resource to recommend for a beginner besides Rocket German, that would DEFINITELY be Pimsleur (it's best if you use them combined).

Why? Because it rocks, that's why :)

No, seriously, you should take a look of the reviews out there, they are amazing. I used it, among other language learning programs and I can tell that it's 10 times better than ALL OF THEM OUT THERE.

Listen to the first tape and if you don't like it, well, write me here and I'll give you 1000$, seriously.

You can order it through Amazon, below.

Recently I've been searching through many sites online that can offer you learn the German language for free. I've been searching for sites that provide good combination of speaking, reading, writing and listening exercise.

I've found many, but they were all dependable of text, no listening or speaking skills. Except one. BBC langauges

BBC currently changed their whole engine. They created very useful free online course, a good combination of exercises to help you begin learning German. I haven't found any similar course like BBC on the net. So this is definitely my recommendation to start with.

In order to learn how to speak German, you must first know the German alphabet. I wouldn't bother you writing all the letters here, I'll just give you a site where you have all the letters and the pronunciation of them.
About.com site - The German Alphabet

I'm constantly looking for online and off line ways to improve my German. Today I would like to write about online language communities.
Fact: THERE ARE MANY ONLINE LANGUAGE COMMUNITIES; TOO MANY, EVEN. But I know which ones support German. Because I've tested them. And today I'll make a small review of some of them.

Let's start with italki
This site has very small forum (I don't believe you will find any substantial worth of it).

However, there are many active users there who are trying to learn English, Italian or whatever language, and they are native German speakers. It seems like a great opportunity, isn't it?

To join, you'll have to register and then you can search for friends.

Now, I don't guarantee that you'll always be accepted as someone's official friend when you send a friend request but it's worth trying.

I also found Soziety as good community with lots of members.
Stay tuned for even more reviews!

I've spent a lot of time figuring this out. AND Here Are My Results specially for YOU:

1. Systranbox

It looks like a simple page at first sight. Wait until you type some text and you'll be blown away by the translation results! I have no other words to say, just go and check it out.

Pros: Great translation, great database of phrases, accurate results
Cons: No pronunciation

2. BEOLINGUS

Search for words, get the translation and hear the pronunciation!

Pros: Great search results, pronunciation of almost every word
Cons: It doesn't have feature for translation of whole sentences.

3. Leo

More than 462798 entries, one of the largest German dictionaries available online

Pros: Large database, pronunciation
Cons: No translation of whole sentences. It doesn't have intelligent algorithm like Systranbox

4. dict.cc

It can find almost any word in German. Truly one of the best ones out there.

Now, if you have some word that is unknown for you, you know where to look for ;)

I just found a very good applicaiton from BBC. It's a big help and offers you tips to set goals when you learn German. Here is the site.

This is incredible! I've found something amazing! 99 day podcasts. You can hear them and improve your German. It's so unbelievible what kind of possibilities the WWW offers. For more information, click here

Flashcards are actually proven method to remember words. Why? Well, those 3x5 pieces of paper can work miracles for you. They are much, much better than lists. Qith lists you tend to remember words according to their order. Let's say if "haben" was on the 5th place, you tend to remember it as the 5th word. But with flashcards it is different. You can randomize them, so this possibility is eliminated.

And you can have fun too! You just need 3x5 pieces of paper. Write the German word on the one site, and the translation or some question to associate yourself with that word on the other side. Try both and see which works for you.

If you,re interested in online flash cards, go to this site:
Flashcardexchange
The registration is free.

Every day I seem to find more and more sites that offer true value. Recently I've found a site that is offering a huge list of podcasts to learn German.
The site is called Learn Language Podcasts

About.com just released some parts of the book called: Harry Potter auf Deutsch. It is an entertaining way to learn German. For more information, visit this site

Learning a language through 'translation' is not a good method. The best way to learn ANY LANGUAGE is through practice. Remember that

How did you get a feeling about your own language? By using it every day!

How will you get a feeling about German? By using it (well, almost) every day! :)

So repeat after me: Practice, practice, practice

See ya soon ;)

I just found a site I think you might find useful about getting phrases in German pronunced correctly. Click here to get there. You won't regret it :)

I would recommend going after 2 phrases every day. Anyway, it's your choice.

You read the comments and everything, now go and implement what I told you! Good luck ;)