One minute summary: This article is about my thoughts on learning German quickly and the reasons why learning speed matters when learning a new language. Integrated into my personal experience the main points are:
- We want to express ourselves fully as soon as possible
- We want to immerse into the new culture straight away
- Group learning works with acquiring knowledge, not with learning how to speak.
- We feel much more capable and confident if we achieve things in short time than if we do in long months.
- You can improve your German learning speed by hiring a private tutor and
- You will feel incredibly good about having the full attention of the instructor and hence be a lot more motivated to reach your goal.
Useful to improve your learning speed and to learn German quickly: The LEARN GERMAN FAST COURSE
It all started with frustration
Learning a new language often was very frustrating for me. There I was, highly educated, full of experiences that I wanted to refer to but with no possibility to share these with anyone apropriately because I didn‘t speak their language yet. I don‘t like to be put back to the level of a child, I want to meet new people face to face, fully respecting me for what I am. But how could they find out if I couldn‘t share with them what I know and what I feel?
Learning to swim from books
What would I need phrases like „I would like a double room with a shower.“ for if I never stay in a hotel? Or „My car is in the garage.“ if I don‘t even own one? Language learning books are standardized to meet the need of everybody learning that language. But I am not like everybody. I have very special interests and needs that are not even remotely covered by this kind of material. Of course I got bored talking wrongly about topics that I would never talk about in real life after all without being corrected because the teacher was busy helping others that did worse.
Independence
I can‘t remember a single (language) teacher that showed me how to become more independend with my learning. They all just presented little haps of grammar here and there and threw in a few partner exercises, so it wouldn‘t be too boring. Others just went on speaking in the new language to me trying to explain things in a language that I didn‘t really understand yet. Of course I figured a lot of it out but I should have gotten the credits for that as the teacher didn‘t do more than what a good book could have done: showing me things. Never has any (language) teacher taught me HOW to learn things… in 40 years, they just told me what to learn. The only good one, I will always remember my Turkish teacher Mrs. Ersen-Rasch, at least could explain things to me in such a lovely and clear way that I couldn‘t wait for the next lesson. But that was at university and after two years all necessary courses were accomplished.