3 Tips to Learn German Fast – Exploring Switzerland

Hi there. Today I want to talk about a challenge that I and probably most of you are facing – learning the German language. As part of exploring Switzerland and its culture, I also decided to learn one of the national languages – German (and Swiss German with time 😀 ).

I have some experience learning languages. And I have some tips for you to learn German (or perhaps any other language?). 

Of course, the most obvious, probably the easiest, but not the cheapest one is to hire a private teacher or join the group lessons. However, if you want to add to the curriculum offered by your teacher or if you want to study on your own here are some tips for you:

1. 1. Online Lessons on YouTube.
      Yes, YouTube has everything nowadays. You will find hundreds of channels offering pre-recorded lessons, where the teacher will explain to you a certain topic. Some of them actually work with textbooks that you can also purchase or find pdf online and follow along. And since they are on YouTube, they are free. Find one channel you like (you like the teacher, the teaching style, and the curriculum) and follow these lessons.
      YouTube German Lessons (that I use):
      • Learn German – A1| Learn German for Beginners (English – German) 
      • Get Germanized Channel (English – German)
      • Немецкий с Нуля! (Russian – German)

   2. Movies in German.
      No matter your level, watch movies in German. What I like to do, is to watch a movie, that I have watched before and that I know very well, in a language I learn. Since you know the movie, your memory and intuition will help you to understand most of the conversations while learning new vocab and pronunciation. Surprisingly, your mind also creates word-situation connections and associations. So when you find yourself in a certain situation/conversation your brain will remember a word that you learned while seeing a similar situation/conversation in a movie. That happened to me a lot while learning English and Spanish. My favourite movies to watch in German are my childhood movies such as Harry Potter and Disney movies or, honestly, any movie that I can find on Netflix and simply switch the language and add subtitles. Also, you might find movies (or portions of movies) in German with subtitles on YouTube. Sometimes these videos have a person explaining the words and phrases.
      YouTube German-Movie lessons:
      • • German with Marina (English – German) 
        • Вот Это Немецкий (Russian – German)

   3. Books in German.
      Reading is a little harder for me than movies. When I watch movies everything happens quickly and I just watch and try to understand as much as possible intuitively. When I read, there comes lots of new vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation that I don’t know… However, I found an amazing series of books called German Reader by Brian Smith. The books start at level Easy and go up to Bilingual, so you can choose the book that fits your level. These books are full of small stories (3-5 pages for intermediate level, and easy one starts just with prases like “Peter is a child”, etc.). The stories are written in German on one page and then translated to English on the other page. This way, you can read a story and refer to the translation to make sure you understand everything. So even as a very beginner, you can purchase a German Easy Reader 1 and start reading words and phrases gradually learning to read bigger texts and stories. On the author’s website, you can find audio files that read these stories out loud for you, so you can also learn pronunciation. That is so helpful!  

Learning a new language is never easy, but it is possible with some effort and practice! Good luck!