Ha, a reminder to do my German homework instead of binging UA-cam videos! Have you read Mark Twain's essay on "The Awful German Language"? It's very relatable. And I totally agree with your last point, that excitement is such an important motivator for learning any language.
I am from India and I started learning Spanish & German. I studied German for 8 months and I can feel you. I felt exactly the same and was struggling to make even basic sentences and I realised this language is not for me. Anyways I am continuing with Spanish and it's amazing. Thank you for the video :)
Thank you so much for watching all the way from India! German is definitely tough! I think Spanish is bit easier to understand and certainly more useful!
This is so true! I've been learning German for 2 years now and still struggle to hold a basic conversation. I can understand a good amount but when it comes to speaking, I have a pretty difficult time. That being said, I'm determined to keep trying and hopefully my German will improve this summer as I'm going to Germany for my first Au Pair experience! Thanks for all of your amazing content, it's really helped me take that next step and make my dream a reality :)
Hi Grace! Thank you so much for watching and I am sooo glad to hear that my videos have helped you out. I hear NOTHING but good things from au pairs in Germany, so I'm sure that you're going to have an absolutely lovely experience. Again, thank you so much and I'm sending big hugs your way ❤
I also quit German after spending an absolute fortune on classes, private tutors and travel to Germany. I am a third generation Australian with German heritage and I love German history, culture and philosophy. With hard work, I managed to get up to B1 level. I was at the point where I was engaging in German on a daily basis, I would read nothing but German books, I watched hours of German UA-cam and I changed my phone and computer settings to German. I even sent my daughter to a German speaking kindergarten in order to get us back into using the language. What got me to quit was the fact that Germans are completely dismissive of my attempt to learn their language, they bend over backwards to force any conversation into English and overall I get the impression that they don't give a sh*t that I am making an effort to try and reconnect with my German heritage. What finally got me to quit speaking German was an incident at my daughter's kindergarten. The educators asked my wife if I am German because they see me speaking German, my wife replied "he is not German, he is an Aussie". This made my blood boil with rage, but it also made me arrive at the realization that no matter how much I love learning the language I am not German in any way shape or form. I am 100% Australian and I should stop wasting time and money on learning German. No matter how much I try, I am not connecting to the German community and I am always an outsider. German is a complete and utter waste of time.
Yeah, it can be really difficult to get into the community. In the German's defense, I've had the same problem in Spain with C1 Spanish and a pretty deep knowledge of Spanish culture. For me, I wouldn't say German is a useless language or a waste of my time, but I think unless one needs it for a specific reason, it's probably not worth spending too much time on.
I started learning German for about a week now but found out how complicated the language is and decided to stop learning this language. I learned Spanish and I've been learning Italian recently. But German isn't practical and it seems so complicated. BUT I would like to learn a Germanic language so I am stuck between Norwegian or Swedish. BUT I need to find out which has a better selection of literature and TV shows available before selecting one.
As a native German speaker who's currently learning Japanese for 2 years, to be totally frank, as a foreigner I wouldn't want to study it either X'D Just let me tell you one thing about German.. This language is darn hard, even for natives at times, but once you get into a like native++ level, then the language's puns and extremely creative possibilities in compounding words together (that shouldn't even exist in a dictionary) can be a really impressive way (for folks listening to you) in expressing your thoughts so harshly direct and charmingly, that it would just lack the overall deeper impact while trying to express the same thought in English, or many other languages that just lack the underlying 'roughness'. German is known as The Language of philosophical thinkers, and while it recently became an internet meme to nitpick on German because of its long and really unrelated-seeming words and the (somewhat dry-sounding) style of pronunciation, you're getting a true gem in terms of playing with words or spreading black humor in a way that has yet to be seen in most other languages~ Aber naja - wer nicht will, der hat schon :] edit: But yea your point got me with the lack of sunshine within the spirits of german folks XD In Japanese, the Kanji for Germany is represented by this one 独 - and guess what.. Its meaning besides "Germany" is "single" or "alone" - all coincidence..? X'DD
As someone that studied in Germany for a time, I understand. I knew a grand total of zero German phrases when I arrived. I would speak German even though I was not confident at all. I learned phrases online like you’ve mentioned. The biggest help was that I would observe my German friends having conversations. The speech patterns and social phrases were more beneficial. I didn’t worry much about the difficult grammar rules like the Die, Das, Dem, etc. In Spain, I imagine German is not common being that Spanish is the national language. If you go to Germany, you’d probably get around just fine.
That's encouraging to hear! I do practice it on a daily basis with my host family and we do speak almost entirely German at home, but I can imagine that living in the country would be entirely different. Did you find it difficult to understand the sentence structure?
@@grahamcargle I did find the sentence structure difficult to learn. I got good at guessing what people were saying because I didn't know any German upon arrival. Previously, I mentioned that just listening to German friends talk helped me. Google Translate helped with common things. The Germans are quick to correct me if I used the wrong grammar; this can be helpful. German students often want to practice English. The lingua franca among the international students was, of course, English. I do not understand the German-speaking Swiss people. There are notable differences that I am sure your host family is aware of. Your German language skills are probably better than mine because you practice with a family daily. I was simply an international student. I did not take a formal German language class because it conflicted with my business courses. I also lived in rural Germany and English was not common with the locals. I had to read and speak German out of necessity. For cultural things, watching Meet the Germans on Deutsche Welle is something that I found interesting.
@@kirkjorgensen7724 Alright, thanks for the advice, I'll definitely take it into consideration! I understand what you're saying how it can be difficult to practice, as everyone wants to use English, but it seems like you found a way! Best wishes and thanks for watching!
Glad you enjoyed it 😅 It's been really difficult to practice German with my native-speaking friends, as they all speak near perfect English. Thanks for watching!
He visitado Alemania muchas veces es un país extraordinario me encanta, creo que tienen una mala fama el carácter de los alemanes, pero no es para tanto, es un poco injusto.
Nunca he visitado a alemania, pero vivo con una familia alemana aquí en Sevilla y la mayoría de mis amigos son alemanes. Son muy buena gente, pero su lengua no es tan buena, jaja. Gracias por ver y un besito!
Ha, a reminder to do my German homework instead of binging UA-cam videos!
Have you read Mark Twain's essay on "The Awful German Language"? It's very relatable. And I totally agree with your last point, that excitement is such an important motivator for learning any language.
I LOVE this essay!! It's one of my favorite works of his! German isn't easy, hahaha
I am from India and I started learning Spanish & German. I studied German for 8 months and I can feel you. I felt exactly the same and was struggling to make even basic sentences and I realised this language is not for me. Anyways I am continuing with Spanish and it's amazing. Thank you for the video :)
Thank you so much for watching all the way from India! German is definitely tough! I think Spanish is bit easier to understand and certainly more useful!
Thankfully there are much better languages out there that dont deserve to die out for eternity. Spit on this one.
This is so true! I've been learning German for 2 years now and still struggle to hold a basic conversation. I can understand a good amount but when it comes to speaking, I have a pretty difficult time. That being said, I'm determined to keep trying and hopefully my German will improve this summer as I'm going to Germany for my first Au Pair experience! Thanks for all of your amazing content, it's really helped me take that next step and make my dream a reality :)
Hi Grace! Thank you so much for watching and I am sooo glad to hear that my videos have helped you out. I hear NOTHING but good things from au pairs in Germany, so I'm sure that you're going to have an absolutely lovely experience. Again, thank you so much and I'm sending big hugs your way ❤
I also quit German after spending an absolute fortune on classes, private tutors and travel to Germany. I am a third generation Australian with German heritage and I love German history, culture and philosophy.
With hard work, I managed to get up to B1 level. I was at the point where I was engaging in German on a daily basis, I would read nothing but German books, I watched hours of German UA-cam and I changed my phone and computer settings to German. I even sent my daughter to a German speaking kindergarten in order to get us back into using the language.
What got me to quit was the fact that Germans are completely dismissive of my attempt to learn their language, they bend over backwards to force any conversation into English and overall I get the impression that they don't give a sh*t that I am making an effort to try and reconnect with my German heritage.
What finally got me to quit speaking German was an incident at my daughter's kindergarten. The educators asked my wife if I am German because they see me speaking German, my wife replied "he is not German, he is an Aussie". This made my blood boil with rage, but it also made me arrive at the realization that no matter how much I love learning the language I am not German in any way shape or form. I am 100% Australian and I should stop wasting time and money on learning German. No matter how much I try, I am not connecting to the German community and I am always an outsider.
German is a complete and utter waste of time.
Yeah, it can be really difficult to get into the community. In the German's defense, I've had the same problem in Spain with C1 Spanish and a pretty deep knowledge of Spanish culture.
For me, I wouldn't say German is a useless language or a waste of my time, but I think unless one needs it for a specific reason, it's probably not worth spending too much time on.
I started learning German for about a week now but found out how complicated the language is and decided to stop learning this language. I learned Spanish and I've been learning Italian recently. But German isn't practical and it seems so complicated. BUT I would like to learn a Germanic language so I am stuck between Norwegian or Swedish. BUT I need to find out which has a better selection of literature and TV shows available before selecting one.
As a native German speaker who's currently learning Japanese for 2 years, to be totally frank, as a foreigner I wouldn't want to study it either X'D
Just let me tell you one thing about German..
This language is darn hard, even for natives at times, but once you get into a like native++ level, then the language's puns and extremely creative possibilities in compounding words together (that shouldn't even exist in a dictionary) can be a really impressive way (for folks listening to you) in expressing your thoughts so harshly direct and charmingly, that it would just lack the overall deeper impact while trying to express the same thought in English, or many other languages that just lack the underlying 'roughness'.
German is known as The Language of philosophical thinkers, and while it recently became an internet meme to nitpick on German because of its long and really unrelated-seeming words and the (somewhat dry-sounding) style of pronunciation, you're getting a true gem in terms of playing with words or spreading black humor in a way that has yet to be seen in most other languages~
Aber naja - wer nicht will, der hat schon :]
edit: But yea your point got me with the lack of sunshine within the spirits of german folks XD
In Japanese, the Kanji for Germany is represented by this one 独 - and guess what..
Its meaning besides "Germany" is "single" or "alone" - all coincidence..? X'DD
As someone that studied in Germany for a time, I understand. I knew a grand total of zero German phrases when I arrived. I would speak German even though I was not confident at all. I learned phrases online like you’ve mentioned. The biggest help was that I would observe my German friends having conversations. The speech patterns and social phrases were more beneficial. I didn’t worry much about the difficult grammar rules like the Die, Das, Dem, etc. In Spain, I imagine German is not common being that Spanish is the national language. If you go to Germany, you’d probably get around just fine.
That's encouraging to hear! I do practice it on a daily basis with my host family and we do speak almost entirely German at home, but I can imagine that living in the country would be entirely different. Did you find it difficult to understand the sentence structure?
@@grahamcargle I did find the sentence structure difficult to learn. I got good at guessing what people were saying because I didn't know any German upon arrival. Previously, I mentioned that just listening to German friends talk helped me. Google Translate helped with common things. The Germans are quick to correct me if I used the wrong grammar; this can be helpful. German students often want to practice English. The lingua franca among the international students was, of course, English. I do not understand the German-speaking Swiss people. There are notable differences that I am sure your host family is aware of. Your German language skills are probably better than mine because you practice with a family daily. I was simply an international student. I did not take a formal German language class because it conflicted with my business courses. I also lived in rural Germany and English was not common with the locals. I had to read and speak German out of necessity. For cultural things, watching Meet the Germans on Deutsche Welle is something that I found interesting.
@@kirkjorgensen7724 Alright, thanks for the advice, I'll definitely take it into consideration! I understand what you're saying how it can be difficult to practice, as everyone wants to use English, but it seems like you found a way! Best wishes and thanks for watching!
Hahaha this is great 🤣 You made some great points that for you there’s not much point to learning German especially when most Germans speak English!
Glad you enjoyed it 😅 It's been really difficult to practice German with my native-speaking friends, as they all speak near perfect English. Thanks for watching!
He visitado Alemania muchas veces es un país extraordinario me encanta, creo que tienen una mala fama el carácter de los alemanes, pero no es para tanto, es un poco injusto.
Nunca he visitado a alemania, pero vivo con una familia alemana aquí en Sevilla y la mayoría de mis amigos son alemanes. Son muy buena gente, pero su lengua no es tan buena, jaja. Gracias por ver y un besito!