Learning German: Speaking from experience

The best part this time around? I was to put it into practice immediately. Right after wrapping up the last of the three back-to-back two-month courses, my wife – a native German speaker fluent in English – and I made the decision to start speaking only German at home. That was when it all came together. That was when I really, for the first time, started learning a second language.

After a year and eight months I am by no means an advanced speaker of German. While I can get by in most situations, I make many errors, and I spend a lot of time trying to talk around words I don’t know. And I still have to hit the books, studying grammar, doing the exercises, and working with a private German teacher who comes to our office once a week for 90 minutes.

But the light at the end of the tunnel is looking brighter and brighter with each new word and phrase I learn. Getting a grip on the grammar in a classroom setting gave me some much needed confidence and helped me to see the bigger picture, but the vocabulary that comes everyday is what makes the progress easier to see.

What’s particularly interesting is to look back on my first few months and think about those people I used to speak English with, but with whom I now only speak German. Because we are speaking in their language I am getting to know the real ins and outs of their culture – and getting to know the real them. It makes the entire journey all that much more pleasant.

Also great is that the learning process is now more enjoyable. With my comprehension quite strong, I can watch movies in German and read a translated Harry Potter book with my wife to learn new words – or simply strike up a conversation at a local beer garden. A lot more fun than relying purely on dry text books.

It essentially means my German-language learning process has essentially taken on a life of its own, and when I look back on 20 months worth of study, I can’t say that it was all that painful or that the progress was all that slow.

So for those of you who are also in the middle of the learning process, my words of advice are to stick with it – it will pay off.