1. Create a study plan for yourself and set short and long term goals that are clear, realistic and measurable.
You can’t learn German overnight. But planning well in advance makes your journey easier. The study plan also helps you to monitor your performance and manage your available time. Divide the entire study content into smaller chunks to learn step by step, create a list of all the topics you want to master and figure out when and how you want to start with each one. Avoid being overambitious. Do not stress or burn yourself out with pressure. Have complete clarity about your personal goals and why you are learning German. Get them written on a plaque and ensure to place this at a place you see the most in your home, near the clock for example.
2. Make time for a regular study schedule to improve your German
There will be some days of low energy with no interest in studying as compared to some days where you are enthusiastic and full of energy you can study vocabulary and grammar for hours. In reality, it is critical to research on a regular basis. Every day, try to learn German in shorter bursts but more often. You can click via German grammar lessons – online and for free – at deutsch-lernen.com/learn-german-online/. For example, you could do one lesson and the exercises every day. If you study German for one hour a day instead of five hours once a week, your language skills can develop faster.
3. Avoid all possible disruptive factors when learning
Ensure you have no distractions around you to disturb you. Turn off your phone and let your friends know that you are not available for the next hour. Even though it may sound a little rude, eventually you will realise the importance and see that your study sessions become more efficient.
4. Make it a habit to learn German words with their correct article
Articles are very popular in German, as you’ve probably heard. As a result, always consider the right article when studying vocabulary. It’s “das Haus” rather than just “Haus” (English: home). That will save you a lot of time later if you do it right from the start. I’d also suggest learning the plural form right away. That would be “das Haus” and “die Häuser” in this instance. (The English equivalents are “the home” and “the houses.”)
5. Create some helpful study tools for yourself
Start to write a journal or a diary so that you can capture the new words and phrases that you hear being used in day to day conversations. This will also help you build your vocabulary or important phrases that would further enable you to hold your first conversation with a German speaker.
Label all the objects in your home with their respective German words so that you do not have to translate the name of the object in your native language before you can get to its respective German name. This will ensure that you are able to think of situations and objects in the German language itself.
Sometimes no matter how much we learn certain things, phrases or words from the vocabulary, we are just unable to memorise them. This can be best accomplished by using Mnemonics.
I also recommend you to use spaced repetition system apps such as Memrise, Anki. You could choose to use the existing Flashcards in the German language or make your own decks.
You can use a post-it or a large poster for that. Now, place this magic list all over your apartment. Choose places where you spend a lot of time like: next to the coffee machine, above the stove, on the toilet or on your mirror. Whenever you are at one of these places, you will automatically have a look at the list and will be surprised how well it works.
Visual learners could actually sketch around something relevant to the word learnt so that it gives them an approximate reference to know what that word stands for. In order to learn all the parts of the speech, A learner could actually colour code them so as to make each word stand out on its own and be recognised with its colour code. For example
Nouns – blue
Verbs – red
Adjectives – green
