German: how I learnt the language
Tuesday, 4th May 2010
In all honesty, there’s nothing particularly different or remarkable about the way that I learnt German, but learning doesn’t always have to be exciting to be effective…
I learnt German in a distinctly shabby mobile classroom at my secondary school in rural Lincolnshire. Yep - nothing remotely exciting about that!
It was the beginning of the second year that I had my first German lesson, that fantastic time when a wide-eyed new intake fill your place at the bottom of the food chain and you can once again walk around with a hint of a swagger! Metaphorically speaking obviously, I’m not James Dean, or even a boy for that matter…
I’d be lying if I said I was excited about learning German – nothing to do with the language or culture itself, simply because of the reputation that preceded my German-teacher-to-be! As is so often the case with these things though, it turned out that his bark was much worse than his bite, and it didn’t take long for me to start enjoying the lessons.
Although I remember being warned that German was more difficult than French, I found that the similarity of so much of the vocabulary to English made it easier in a sense. Of course, vocabulary doesn’t go incredibly far without any grammar to back it up...not unless you’re great at mime anyway…but there’s no doubt that knowing a lot of vocabulary makes you feel confident that you are making progress, and as time went on the grammar got easier too.
At first, I can remember feeling very daunted by the array of linguistic terms that were being thrown at us in our German grammar lessons – tenses, auxiliary verbs, past participles, cases…it was mind boggling, and I don’t think anyone in our class had the faintest idea of what they meant. As I got more used to using and seeing the language though, it all started to fit into place. I had often heard the expression ‘ the penny dropped’, and can honestly say that I have never experienced this feeling other than with German grammar – one day it just happened, like my brain suddenly gave a drawn out ‘Ahhhhh…., now I see’.
From that point onwards, German became easier and easier and my marks improved constantly. As a result, I really started to enjoy it and genuinely looked forward to my lessons each week. When it came to choosing university courses, there was no doubt in my mind that I’d opt for languages, and I ended up studying for a BA in French and German at Nottingham University.
As it is often acknowledged, there is a certainly a limit to the level of fluency that you can achieve in a language without actually spending time in a country where it’s spoken, and this was exactly what I discovered.
My third year of studying had to be spent abroad, and I was fortunate enough to be sent to Heidelberg to study at the university there for 6 months. Heidelberg is an absolutely beautiful city that has a massive student population and plenty to keep you occupied of an evening! Whilst I did spend time with other British students when I was there, I was really lucky to be placed in a shared flat with 10 German students…
Although I spent the first few weeks hiding in my room eating pretzels and becoming rapidly vitamin C deficient, I eventually braved the communal kitchen with its strict rubbish-disposal instructions and fridge full of name-labeled items (I’m sorry, but there are some German stereotypes which are just so true!), and I never looked back.
My flatmates were friendly, fun…and hugely helpful with my German. When I look back now at how I studied the German language in lectures with German students – the equivalent of English students taking English at university- I’m very proud of the level of proficiency that I actually managed to achieve, but at the time it didn’t seem quite so impressive.
Since leaving university, I have really tried to keep up my German, which has been easier working for a multilingual company like Cactus, but it’s certainly not as good as it was. I love Germany, and go whenever I can, but failing that watching films and reading German books are a great way to get back in the German ‘zone’.
I’m hoping that one day I’ll be able to use the language on a regular basis once again, and am sure that, thanks to the fantastic grounding that I received at school and at university, it will still be lurking at the back of my brain somewhere…just in need of a good dusting off I would think!
Cactus offers German courses in a range of exciting and vibrant cities in Germany, including Heidelberg. If you aren’t able to spend time abroad to brush up your German skills, there are plenty of short and part-time German courses available all around the UK.
Tags: german, culture, germany, language, cactus, heidelberg
Posted by Laura Harrison under Attitudes to Language Learning,
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Posted by language course on 05/17 at 06:42 AM
Hi, such a nice article :) I really liked it .. Thank you for sharing.......