For people learning german or natives

[Qiu]

Hallo~ Ich bin eine Studentin und ich lerne Deutsch. Schön, dich kennenzulernen!

 

Does anyone have tips as natives or as advanced german speakers? Danke!

[Pirine]

Watch german shows and listen to german music. Im assuming you dont live near any native speakers, so try to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible. Getting as comfortable as you can with how the language sounds while learning it really helps.

Also the app Hello Talk is great for being able to speak with native speakers so you can practice. Viel Glück!

[Qiu]

Watch german shows and listen to german music. Im assuming you dont live near any native speakers, so try to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible. Getting as comfortable as you can with how the language sounds while learning it really helps.

Also the app Hello Talk is great for being able to speak with native speakers so you can practice. Viel Glück![/size]

Danke!

[Chuuei]

Hi,

 

i'm a native german speaker. What kind of tips do you like for what topics? Kind of hard to give a general advice when a whole language is concerned^^

[dream thief]

As a native speaker... since many foreigners think that the german grammar is pretty difficult, don't stress too much with it. We understand you fine even if your grammar isn't perfect. 

 

Good luck learning the language and if you have questions, you can always ask! 

[Qiu]

Hi,

 

i'm a native german speaker. What kind of tips do you like for what topics? Kind of hard to give a general advice when a whole language is concerned^^

Hallo! What are some tips to learn the longer words/vocabulary, do they have a specific structure or "tricks" german beginners use? Also, what would you say is the best way to learn German? Reading first or watching movies?

[Qiu]

As a native speaker... since many foreigners think that the german grammar is pretty difficult, don't stress too much with it. We understand you fine even if your grammar isn't perfect. 

 

Good luck learning the language and if you have questions, you can always ask!

 

Danke schön!!

[BLACK CAT]

I'm not really sure about this anymore but my teacher once mentioned something along the lines of that "Sesamstraße" which is a kids show is very good for children since they speak really good/perfect german there l mean you can try watching it if you want to but I doubt it'd be that interesting for you (?)

[Pirine]

As a native speaker... since many foreigners think that the german grammar is pretty difficult, don't stress too much with it. We understand you fine even if your grammar isn't perfect. 

 

Good luck learning the language and if you have questions, you can always ask! 

Yeah as someone who learned/is learning german, theres a big misconception that german is extremely difficult, but I found that when you actually get down to it its really not as difficult as people make it out to be, plus some of the grammar rules make more sense than english ones tbh lol 

[Chuuei]

Are you just beginning to learn german? Then i will keep answering in english, otherwise i could give you an answer in german and you could try to understand it ;)

 

For the vocabulary: Don't be afraid of long words. Basically all long words are just short words joined together and the meaning is often exactly the one both single words mean together. For example Autoverkäufer is Auto + Verkäufer and means car (Auto) salesman (Verkäufer) - just the space is missing compared to english^^ Nothing special with that somewhat longer word. When you learn vocabulary you will come to understand the longer words automatically since you can identify the different parts. So it makes no sense to learn each and every long word, with time you will understand even the most complicated looking words when you just learn the regular vocabulary. 

 

The exposure to german media like others suggested is of course a good idea. There's nothing better than hearing and reading native speakers to learn a language. 

 

The good thing for an english speaking person is, german is the same language family and you will find tons of similarities, no matter if grammar or vocabulary. I think german is a little bit more complex because of different articles and all the things which come with the topic of gramatical gender. There are things that make no sense no matter how you look at it, but in the end, it's not that difficult to build sentences which are easily understood even if they don't sound natural. 

 

Sounding natural is something which is not that easy to be honest and can mean many different things because of the dialects. The high german you will learn most likely is of course easily understood but in a lot of regions this standard german sounds odd in normal day situations.

 

For the pronounciation there are some things you should pay attention to: Umlaute - an Ãœ is pronounced different than an U, an Ä is something else than an A etc. I see a lot of language learners kind of ignoring them and speak the regular U, A etc. - That's not how it works ;) And what you have to master is the CH and the syllables it occures in and the different pronounciations like in Kirche, Kirsche, Dachs etc. If you get a grasp how these sound in the different words, you are so much better understood. 

 

These are just some random points, if you have specific questions, feel free to ask ;)

[Loonathehoe]

I'm also learning   so I'm going to lurk this thread a bit and see the tips they are writing you OP. Hope you don't mind

 

Also, any german show/band (rock/pop if possible) you recomend?

[Qiu]

Are you just beginning to learn german? Then i will keep answering in english, otherwise i could give you an answer in german and you could try to understand it ;)

 

For the vocabulary: Don't be afraid of long words. Basically all long words are just short words joined together and the meaning is often exactly the one both single words mean together. For example Autoverkäufer is Auto + Verkäufer and means car (Auto) salesman (Verkäufer) - just the space is missing compared to english^^ Nothing special with that somewhat longer word. When you learn vocabulary you will come to understand the longer words automatically since you can identify the different parts. So it makes no sense to learn each and every long word, with time you will understand even the most complicated looking words when you just learn the regular vocabulary. 

 

The exposure to german media like others suggested is of course a good idea. There's nothing better than hearing and reading native speakers to learn a language. 

 

The good thing for an english speaking person is, german is the same language family and you will find tons of similarities, no matter if grammar or vocabulary. I think german is a little bit more complex because of different articles and all the things which come with the topic of gramatical gender. There are things that make no sense no matter how you look at it, but in the end, it's not that difficult to build sentences which are easily understood even if they don't sound natural. 

 

Sounding natural is something which is not that easy to be honest and can mean many different things because of the dialects. The high german you will learn most likely is of course easily understood but in a lot of regions this standard german sounds odd in normal day situations.

 

For the pronounciation there are some things you should pay attention to: Umlaute - an Ãœ is pronounced different than an U, an Ä is something else than an A etc. I see a lot of language learners kind of ignoring them and speak the regular U, A etc. - That's not how it works ;) And what you have to master is the CH and the syllables it occures in and the different pronounciations like in Kirche, Kirsche, Dachs etc. If you get a grasp how these sound in the different words, you are so much better understood. 

 

These are just some random points, if you have specific questions, feel free to ask ;)

Thank you~ Sehr gut!

[Lyanna90]

I'm a native speaker as well

 

As the people before have already mentioned, it would definitely help you to watch german series/movies and listen to german music.

If you have Netflix or something similar to it, you can watch something in german with english subtitles. If you are a beginner, it might be a good idea to start with series that are meant for children, even though it might prove to be a little boring. I'll list some recommendations below.

 

TV (for children) : Sesamstrasse, Löwenzahn, Die Sendung mit der Maus

 

TV (for adults) : Berlin Berlin (Romantic comedy about a group of friends), Tatort (crime series), Netflix series

 

Music: Rammstein ( I think they are horrible, but the lyrics are easy to understand and they are super popular abroad, for some weird reason), Die Ärzte (Punk Rock, clever lyrics + good pronounciation), Die Toten Hosen ( also Punk Rock + clever lyrics), Die Fantastischen Vier (Hip Hop, so expect some raps, which might be more difficult to understand), Jupiter Jones (slow indie rock, really nice songs), Mark Foster (haven't really listened to his stuff, but he is super popular, so ...))

 

I could recommend a lot of books, but you'd have to buy them, so instead, you could start with this site http://www.maerchenstern.de/maerchen/where you can read german fairytales for free.

 

Hope that helped + Viel Erfolg ^^;