How to improve my German as an English native speaker?

The language is known today as German is believed to have originated from Proto-Germanic, which began to develop around 2000 B.C., as people began to settle in western areas of the Baltic Sea. The first-ever record of the German language dates back to a time when the Romans came into contact with inhabitants of the Rhine-Danube area during their occupation in the first century BC. Since then German has gone through many changes, from Old High German (from about 700 AD to the eleventh century); Middle High German (from about 1050 to 1350); Early New High German (1350 to 1600) to New High German (from about 1600 to the present). Modern-day German often referred to as “High German”, or Hochdeutsch, used as the language of administration, higher education, literature, and the mass media, is likely to be unrecognisable from the language that the Romans first observed. 

English is the official language in 54 countries that cover Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australasia, and which include countries as diverse as New Zealand, South Africa, Belize, India, Malta, and Singapore. This means that English is a truly universal language that makes communication across the globe easy and convenient. In addition, the British Council estimates that more than 1 billion people are learning English as a second language at any given time. English is taught at school as a second language in hundreds of countries all over the world, from France to Thailand, Israel to Malaysia, in Sweden, China, and in many other countries. 

The history of the two languages connects both the languages with each other. Both the German and English languages are considered to be members of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, meaning they are still closely related today. Moreover, both use the Latin alphabet and have incredible similarities when pronunciation and sentence formation is considered. Let’s understand their similarities in detail: 

First of all, FSI [Foreign Service Institute of languages] classifies all the languages in the world into 5 different categories on the basis of difficulty to learn for an English native speaker, German ranks in Category 2, which is one of the easiest languages to learn due to their uncanny similarities. This means that as a native English speaker, learning German is going to be a cakewalk for you.  Secondly, several German words have been incorporated into the English language. Similarly, multiple English words have also found their place within the German language. Therefore, as an English speaker, you probably already know a decent amount of German. Apart from this both the languages often follow the same grammatical rules and Arabic numbering system. With that said, we can conclude that German and English share major similarities with each other.

Since it’s clear that as an English native speaker, you’re already a few steps ahead of other trying to learn German, it is important you use this advantage to your extreme benefit. Firstly, focus on clearly understanding the similarities and differences practicality. Once you’ve understood the similarities, learn them thoroughly and then move on to the important differences. Once you have a genuine grasp over the understanding of the two languages and how they relate to one another, the road ahead is pretty easy. Finally you can use the following tips: 

Identify and Rectify:

Identification of any errors is extremely important in the process of learning any language. Apart from mere identification, rectifying them is also just as important. Throughout the process of learning German, you should focus on any mistakes you might make and how you rectified them. This will help you further identify your personal areas for improvement which can then be addressed with a much specific method.

Read Daily:

Reading is a gifting habit to develop. I call it gifting because it takes minimum to no effort yet it gives you a variety of benefits in return. These benefits include, better vocabulary, understanding of grammar, understanding of tones used, etc. Apart from just reading, reading the right material is also just as vital. Therefore, reading specific German books or novels written in German or even the German newspaper is likely to benefit you greatly.

Write Daily:

Reading is good habit to develop but so is writing. Writing enables you to organise your thoughts on a piece of parchment and help you figure out, how to frame the same sentence better. Through constant writing in German, you’re bound to get used to arrangement of words and framing of sentences over a period of time. Moreover, there are multiple ways to write, you can maintain a journal or a diary in German or even paraphrase sentences from actual books in German.  

Vocabulary Expansion:

If you’ve, genuinely considered tip 2 and 3, then you already know where this is going. Through constant reading and writing you’re automatically going to improve your vocabulary but there are other methods of expanding your vocabulary as well, these include, watching German movies or shows with English subtitles or previously watched English shows or movies dubbed in German. Furthermore, you can also listen to German music to help expand your vocabulary and read their English lyrics.  

Converse:

Finally, and arguably the most important tip is to simply try being social. Learning on your own is great but what’s the point of attaining theoretical knowledge if you don’t have any practical application for it? Hence, initiate or actively participate in conversations, once you feel comfortable and confident with the amount of German knowledge you possess. 

German which is the official language of both Germany and Austria and one of the official languages of Switzerland, is estimated to have approximately 90–95 million people speaking German as a first language, 10–25 million speaking it as a second language, and 75–100 million speaking it as a foreign language. This would imply approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German is a global language along with English and is extremely popular among students due to the benefits offered by Germany to students who speak German. 

Multibhashi offers amazing online classes in the German language, you can enrol to receive expert guidance.  Click Here to enrol.