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how do you fall in love with German? I loved learning English, adored French, but find it impossible to have any feelings towards German. And I cannot do it without attitude.
This is a serious question and i would appreciate no joking around.
Really has anyone overcome such a predicament?
Thanks@blueorange wrote:
how do you fall in love with German? I loved learning English, adored French, but find it impossible to have any feelings towards German. And I cannot do it without attitude.
This is a serious question and i would appreciate no joking around.
Really has anyone overcome such a predicament?
ThanksBlueO,
No joking around.
Do you ever, in your day-to-day go-abouts, hear little children speaking German? Out of their mouths, it’s a really lovely sound. They have a pretty, song-like lilt to their words, and it makes the language sound truly pleasurable.
Deutsch is so… deutlich, oder?
May I ask, what is your mother tongue?
I don’t think German is a language to fall in love with – at least for me it isn’t. It’s a wonderful language for news and reports though; it’s precise and direct. I always found listening to the news in French tedious in the same way that abstract ideas are tedious in German. French is wonderful for conveying ideas and expressing feelings.
Find something beautiful written in German, like poetry or song. If you find a song whose music really attracts you, then learn the text as well and that might foster an appreciation.
@Greg wrote:
Find something beautiful written in German, like poetry or song. If you find a song whose music really attracts you, then learn the text as well and that might foster an appreciation.
That is exactly my way of learning languages. I made attempts with German songs and operas even, but my mind doesnt put music and german into one beautiful flow like it usually does with french and english.
I guess you also have to like the mentality of people, which is a huge challenge 🙂
I know exactly what you mean. I am English, and have just spent the last six years living in Spain. Learning Spanish was an absolute joy, it is a language with “soul”. Speaking to Spaniards was also an enjoyable experience, however many mistakes you made, it was always appreciated by them that you tried to speak in their mother tongue. I have the same problem as you with German. I know that I must learn it, but I just cannot get “into it”. I have an Austrian girlfriend who speaks good English, and when I am out and about on my own it is too easy to just say “Excuse me, do you speak English”? More often than not the answer is “Yes”. None of this is ever going to inspire me to learn German, so I have adopted this approach. I have an interesting profession and hobby and so buy Austrian books and magazines about these subjects, and watch TV when a suitable programme is on. This helps me to knuckle down to some serious learning time in two ways. I am interested in what I am reading/hearing, and I understand what is being said more easily because I already have knowledge of the subject matter. Try it.
drummer, this is it! Thanks a bunch for giving me this idea! Another thing that i will do is watching my favouriteGerman-language movies in German or with subtitles. I also like to read everything on psychology or philosophy as well as interiour design. Though i am a women, i read Esquire and love the style. Do they have it in German – no joking still please!
I wonder if for EMT (English Mother Tongues – just outed myself as an American, eh ?) – learning a Romance Language isn’t more exciting/fun/interesting because they provide a means to express things which are not so easy to express in English, whereas German is somehow more of a perfecting of one aspect of English ?
Just a thought.
immer wrote:Do you ever, in your day-to-day go-abouts, hear little children speaking German? Out of their mouths, it’s a really lovely sound. They have a pretty, song-like lilt to their words, and it makes the language sound truly pleasurable.Quote:Depends if they are yours or not – NEIN, NEIN, MAG ICH NICHT, HOR AUF MAMA, DU BIST GEMEIN!! WILL KEINE STIEFLEN ANZIEHEN !!!!@blueorange wrote:
kavin, it’s now clear as mud 🙂 but anyway why is learning german a career suicide?!
I meant / in the context, where one language becomes an essential component for career satisfaction &/or success as the case may be; then its difficult because unless ‘German’ language is (or can be made into) a ‘Core Competence’ (C K Prahalad) it is bound to be a ‘career suicide’ for the individual concerned ‘generally’ in a ‘German’ speaking Environment.
I also think german is career suicide… most of the people that speak german fluently have taken a loong time off (not working) to take intensive and many times expensive lessons.
If I am going to take all that time an effort, I think about what is it going to bring me… and professionally speaking it is not that much. I think I am in a point in life where either I “make it or break it”, and taking one or two years just to focus on german is not going to bring me a managerial position, not at all, it may open more lower level possibilities (that is clearly a small return on a high investment.
I have not been able to fall in love with german, and like a told an austrian once: the day I get more money for speaking german, perhaps then I will learn… but that is not happening any time soon.
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