German for Beginners
Lerntipps/Learning Tips
Ein paar Lerntipps!
Here are a few study tips and some practical advice to help make your learning of German more effective:
· Use your first language to learn the second! German and English are both Germanic languages with a lot of Latin and Greek thrown in. There are many cognates, words that are similar in both languages. Examples include: der Garten (garden), das Haus (house), schwimmen (swim), singen (sing), braun (brown) and ist (is). But also watch out for "false friends"—words that appear to be something they're not. The German word bald (soon) has nothing to do with hair!
· Avoid language interference. Learning a second language is similar in some ways to learning your first, but... there is one big difference! When learning a second language (German), you have interference from the first (English or whatever). Your brain wants to fall back on the English way of doing things, so you have to fight that tendency.
· Learn nouns with their genders. German, like most languages other than English, is a language of gender. As you learn each new German noun, learn its gender at the same time. Not knowing whether a word is der (masc.), die (fem.) or das (neut.) can confuse listeners and makes you sound ignorant and illiterate in German. That can be avoided by learning das Haus rather than just Haus for "house/building," for example.
· Stop translating! Translation should only be a temporary crutch! Stop thinking in English and trying to do things the “English” way! As your vocabulary grows, get away from translating and start thinking in German and German phrases. Remember: German-speakers don't have to translate when they speak. Neither should you!
Learning a new language is learning
to think in a new way! - Hyde Flippo
Das Erlernen einer neuen Sprache ist
das Erlernen einer neuen Denkweise.
· Get a good German-English dictionary (40,000 entries or more) and learn how to use it! A dictionary can be dangerous in the wrong hands! Try not to think too literally and don't just accept the first translation you see. Just as in English, most words can mean more than one thing. Consider the word “fix” in English as one good example: “fix a sandwich” is a different meaning than “fix the car” or “he's in a fine fix.”
· Learning a new language takes time. Learning German—or any other language—requires a long period of sustained exposure to German. You didn't learn your first language in a few months, so don't think a second one will come any faster. Even a baby does a lot of listening before talking. Don't get discouraged if the going seems slow. And use all the resources at your disposal for READING, LISTENING, WRITING and SPEAKING. This site can lead you to those resources.
The United States is the only country
where people believe you can learn
a foreign language in two years.
Hyde Flippo
· Passive skills come first! A period of LISTENING and READING is important before you can expect to use the active skills of SPEAKING and WRITING. Again, your first language was the same way. Babies don't start talking until they've done a lot of listening.
· Be consistent and study/practice on a regular basis. Unfortunately, language is NOT like riding a bicycle. You DO forget how to do it if you get away from it too long!
· Language is more complex than we realize. That's one reason computers are such lousy translators. Don't worry about all the details all the time, but be aware that language is much more than just stringing a bunch of words together. There are subtle things we do with language that even linguists have difficulty explaining. That's why I say, "Learning a new language is learning to think in a new way."
· Sprachgefühl is vital! You have to develop a "feeling for the language" to master German or any language. The more you get into German, the more this hard-to-describe Sprachgefühl should develop. It's the opposite of a rote, mechanical, programmed approach.
· There is no "right" way. German has its own way of defining words (vocabulary), saying words (pronunciation), and putting words together (grammar). Learn to be flexible, to mimic the language, and to accept Deutsch the way it is. German may do things differently from your point of view, but it isn't a matter of "right" or "wrong," "good" or "bad." Learning a new language is learning to think in a new way! You don't really know a language until you can think (and dream) in that language.
· Recommended reading: Graham Fuller's How To Learn a Foreign Language (Storm King Press).
回答者：pfau_cn - 举人 四级 12-17 10:48
