Screen cap of the Duolingo language learning app.
Welcome to another installment of So you want to learn German – So können Sie Deutsch lernen wollen! According to this amazing app, which Victor Anibal Rodriguez pointed me toward, I am trucking right along in my lessons. I haven’t gotten a headset yet, so that I can start the Rosetta Stone software lessons, but I will review my progress with that resource when I am fully equipped.
17 days! (That was about two weeks ago)
In the meantime, I’ve switched my i-Phone assistant (Siri) over to German. This helps me figure out if my pronunciation is correct and a native speaker would understand me clearly (damn you, #12 – Zwölfe). Quite a useful trick. However, this has led to quite a bit of hijinks. Hijinks are what keeps us all going, isn’t that true? It’s true. The amount of fun you’re having on a project directly affects your likelihood of sticking with it. Learning a language can be daunting! Make it fun, by having fun with the culture that gave us the language and the products available to learn it. Duolingo is free! If you’re fortunate enough to have a computer or smart phone, you can learn a new language. How cool is that? Don’t forget to hit up YouTube for videos pertaining to your choice of language. There are many native speakers who love sharing their language and culture. And, do you have any idea how marketable another language is in the workforce? So, get exicted and have fun learning a new language. You can even document it, like I am doing here on my blog. (This also makes me accountable to all of you, so I will continue my lessons and not shag-off on the idea).
17 Days in – Where am I? Still learning basics. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The articles are troublesome, and you have to learn them per word, because the rules about them have so many exceptions that this is literally easier (I refer you back to installment one of this series and Dominic’s advise in the Get Germanized! Video Lesson 1).
Although I am still only learning the basics – I have learned the alphabet, numbers and several basic phrases. Think about that in terms of how quickly a child learns to count, learn all the letters of the alphabet (the German one has five more letters than the standard English alphabet), and basic conversation. I’m texting daily, with little help from translator software and carrying on conversations that go for several rounds. I’d say Duolingo and my strategy are working!
Besides, now I can say bunnehs! in German: Die Hasen!
