Consider your strategy and overall approach to German.
If you have been working on German for a while and are only treading water, this episode will help you figure out which parts of your learning approach are getting in your way.
You'll hear three of the most common, problematic approaches I've seen in the last 11 years of teaching German and 18 years of teaching a foreign language.
This is part 1 of 2 because part 2 will then guide you into more constructive territory for German learning. Because what good is it if I tell you what you're doing "wrong" if I don't help you do it better?!
N.B. While the GermanWithNicole.com Podcast no longer exists, you can still hear all of the audios here on the blog. The audios are available on the blog posts published between August 1, 2021 and October 1, 2024. Viel Spaß beim Hören!
How NOT to Learn German:
One. Approach it like a to-do list.
If you approach learning German like a to-do list, then you are only ever fulfilling absolute basic requirements. Way too many people approach German like this:
- watch a video: check!
- read a text: check!
- Look up 10 vocabulary words: check!
To-do lists and check lists are very good for safety checks and for cleaning, but in learning it's the equivalent of fast food, and just like fast food leaves you feeling somehow unsatisfied and kinda grumpy even, whipping through your German activities will do the same.
This is consuming German, and it's not constructive, it's not helpful, and it won't get you very far.
Two. Overwhelm yourself...
...by doing any combination of the following at the same time, which may make you groan when you hear this, because you might be doing it. Any combination of the following:
- take a class for German.
- pick up a vocabulary learning method (that's different from the book you have for class).
- take lessons on the side.
- use multiple apps and websites.
- follow a minimum of six different YouTube channels for German learning.
- follow fourteen different hobby German teachers or “German coaches” on Instagram.
- follow your top 15 favorite German personalities on Facebook.
- follow all the German news publishers on Twitter and each of their top 5 journalists, plus try to read all the articles they all re-tweet.
Boah. It's exhausting just thinking about these things, isn't it? Because it is waaay too much! Would you do all of that if you wanted to learn to cook? Probably not!
Three. Believe the people whose magical, hugely accelerated and totally unrealistic German learning is their claim to internet fame.
In this same vein, it would be a mistake to believe every polyglot who promises you a silver bullet. Just use my method and you'll be fluent in only months!
Would you ever join a program that promises you'd become an expert at something in only a few months?
Plumbing? Airline pilot? Potter? Surgeon? Master gardener?
*whispered* Probably not. /whisper
Plus, if you didn't achieve this mystical, mysterious, totally impossible and implausible fluency in only months, you must have done something wrong, right?! And you need more help?! So you can lay down another X amount of dollars every month, and the cycle begins again...
Yuck. Beware the snake oil dealers!
Here's your homework for today:
- Consider how often you treat German learning like a checklist. Is it rarely? Sometimes? Often? Most of the time? Or is that your usual?
- Make a list of all of the German learning media you consume. Simply make a list—you needn't do anything but make that list and get it out when the next episode is published.
- Consider your expectations: is it realistic to become fluent in German in only a few months? Or is it realistic for some people, and not others, who might need more time and practice?
In the next article we'll cover what TO DO to learn German. It will be in the same line of thought: strategy and overall approach.
Das ist genug für heute. Passen Sie gut auf sich auf!