Question for everyone
  • Hunter1234 November 2013
    I think i have decided that for my third language, as much as i want to learn Portuguese and Italian, and many more haha, that it will be German, because we have a German foreign exchange student coming next semester and i found that i didnt start becoming fluent in Spanish (Im not quite there), until i started speaking it daily with my friends from Mexico and family in Spain. My question for all the German learners out there is, is German a hard language to learn, compared to any other language you might have tried to learn?
  • wmunshower November 2013
    Hunter,

    IMHO, German is much easier than English.  If English is your mother tongue, German gender, cases, and conjugation can be a little daunting.  

    Viel Glück lernen deutsch. Tschüss!

    Will
  • Hunter1234 November 2013
    Danke!
  • Grace_R November 2013
    Hunter,

    Whether a language is hard or easy to learn is all a matter of perspective.  English and German are both Germanic language group under the Indo-European language family, but English has been influenced by the Romance languages.  For me, some aspects of German are easier than English:

    -Pronunciation: for the most part, German is pronounced the way it is spelled, much more uniform than English.  I often learn new words by figure out how it is spelled and look it up in the dictionary after hearing it once.

    -Vocabulary: English and German have a lot of same or similar words because they belong in the same language family AND subgroup.  Of course, a lot of English words have made their way into German in recent years.  Also, German compound words might be long, but they are very logical!  I don't find it difficult to learn those words at all.

    What I find occasionally annoying but not difficult about German?  I would say gender, plural form, and cases.  These same aspects are way more simplified in English.  But it's really no big deal if you are relaxed and realistic about the process of language learning. 

    Ich spreche gern Deutsch :)  Ich hoffe, dass Sie Deutsch lernen werden.  (I like speaking German.  I hope that you will be learning German).

    Grace
  • JAW November 2013
    Hallo Hunter, hallo Grace,

    yes, indeed - a matter of perspective for sure. I feel it totally depends on what language you grew up with in order to determine whether German is a hard language to learn or rather easy. German has definitely a complex grammar structure compared to English, but seems to be learned for us Westeners more effortlessly compared to Chinese. Then there is also the question of what elements of learning come easy to you - pronunciation, written German, conversational skills or vocabulary storage brain power.
    It sounds like you are right on with your choice of learning German due to your arriving German exchange student - that gives you a grand opportunity to dive deep into the Germanic field - enjoy! Wishing you an amazing experience - Julia.
  • Hunter1234 December 2013
    Grace, thank you very much for the comment i feel a lot better about learning it now, the more i learn the more that i begin to see how close English and German really are. So far i have only found the gender with the articles difficult, my friend said you'll just have to learn them. Danke:)

    Julia, i really hope German isnt as hard as Chinese haha. I feel that i will be able to do this without it being too difficult thank you very much:)

  • sogovia December 2013
    Hi, i am new here and i am English.  German is the only language i have ever started to learn in my whole life so i cant' comment too much but i am just amazed that people are learning several different ones.  I am trying to learn German and i am finding it frustrating but thats just me.  Don't let me put you off lol 

    sogovia
  • Jam92 December 2013
    German is a easy language to learn if english is your native tongue. I found however that Italian was much easier to learn but if you have someone you can talk to in a language, I suggest you go ahead and do that one because it makes the process much easier
  • sogovia December 2013
    Thank you Jam92.  I wanted to hear that German was easy and up to now, everyone said it is really difficult but hey, i am up for a go :)
  • sogovia December 2013
    By the way, nice to meet you.
  • Grace_R December 2013
    Hunter/Julia,

    I also happen to speak Chinese!  I am a native speaker of both Chinese and English by the time I started learning German.  I suppose I could've chosen a Chinese/German program, but I opted for an English/German program (from Living Language in this case).  The reason is that certain grammar concepts and words are just  better explained in English than Chinese....in my opinion anyway :) 

    Grace
  • Hunter1234 December 2013

    I am having some troubles but that is only because I haven't broken through the "barrier" yet, because I haven't really had a lot of time to study it. Once I learn how to hear and then write it, German will become a lot easier

    Hunter

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