Introduction:

Young kids between the ages of 2 and 8 learn German as a foreign language much faster than older children. In fact, children under 6 years of age learn a second language as easily as their mother tongue. This is because children at this age are highly motivated and enthusiastic about learning a language. They learn the language through songs, nursery rhymes, engaging games, cartoons, and stories. Children are not worried about wrong grammar or pronunciation. They quickly pick up an accent of another language and their grammatical skills develop subconsciously. Therefore, they acquire another language naturally without any foreign accent or typical foreign mistakes. In addition, learning a second language early in life promotes brain development and general learning skills, boosts self-confidence, and helps kids develop an interest in other cultures.

Bilingual children tend to be better learners with more advanced reading skills, greater confidence, and a bigger sense of the world we live in, with its varying countries and cultures. It’s also worth bearing in mind that there are 228 million German speakers worldwide, making German the 10th most spoken language in the world. Plus Germany is the world’s fourth-largest economy, so speaking German brings with it many opportunities. There are plenty of resources available online that you can use to introduce the German language to your child.

• Hear and repeat German Letter Sounds 

Make your child listen to how each letter sounds on its own compared to letter combinations. Listen for differences between English and German letter sounds, and try to repeat it with them. Just like in English, two letters together can sound quite different from either of the two letters by themselves.

• Make them watch cartoons in German 

Once your child is able to understand basic German words, you could be creative with your child’s learning style and play a cartoon they’ve previously seen in German. They could even use English subtitles to make it easier. Once they start enjoying the German cartoons, they’ll feel like they’re really getting a hang of things when they see “Shinchan” in German with some English subtitles and they recognize half the words.

• YouTube German channels for kids 

The main aim of these channels is to teach children the basic German vocabulary. Lessons are short and focus on teaching individual words from a certain category such as colors, body parts or animals, and simple sentences.  They can recognize many of the songs’ melodies and lyrics as being actually originally English. Therefore, some children will already know the English versions of these songs.

• Interactive Games for Kids Learning German

Children can play most of the games alone just by clicking on the objects on the screen and listening to the sounds and words. But, in order to read the flashcards, young kids will require assistance from their parents. However, the games are quite self-explanatory and many children will be able to play them with no explanation needed just by hovering a cursor over the images and listening to the words, and then answering yes/no questions with mouse clicks.

• Use mobile apps

The aim is to help kids learn 1,400 German words and simple phrases in an entertaining way. Although these apps are primarily designed for children to develop basic vocabulary and are also suitable for practicing listening comprehension and writing skills. It is needless to say that it works on iPhones, iPads, and androids.

• Online courses 

There are many websites, applications, and software that offer online classes in many foreign languages for all age groups and are designed for every level i.e., beginner, intermediate and advanced. Everything is available for a free demo. This platform also offers materials and recommendations for German-language teachers.