Deutsch ist nicht so schwer
After a few months studying German (actually not so focused because I was also improving my Spanish and English) and now in vacations at home, I decided to put more efforts and do some studying by reading texts. For me, the main motivation when learning a new language is to be able to comprehend texts in the fields I like to read more (Tech news, cars and design to list the most read ones). So, a considerable part of my studies is not directly related to grammar, conjugation tables, prepositions, adjectives, substantives et cetera, but a daily dosis of input that comes through comics, articles and news. I prefer to do it for some reasons:
1) It is much better to read words in context. If I look to a new word in a text I can correlate it with all the previous and next words, to the meaning of the entire sentence, to the flow of the logic constructed in the text and use this as helpers to my understanding. As recently said by one of my favorite YouTubers, Anthony Lauder (the video is from his presentation at Polyglot Conference this year, it's long, but worth every second), guessing word meaning is an important element for language learning.
2) It is easier to read content in a field that you already dominates. In the mess of strange words you will recognize some, accordingly to your background. English is often a source for names in the technology area, so even if I cannot understand 100% of the line I'm reading, at least I can get a clue if I see a title stating Open-Source-Möbelhaus mit herunterladbaren Bauplänen.
3) Reading leads you to come across commonly used words in a language. I can get a better awareness of the most important words for my learning, which automatically makes me curious about their meaning, or even makes me want to go deeply into grammar rules (blaahhrg!).
The point number 3 brought me to this blog post. Back to my story, I started to read these German articles in technology and noticed that a lot of times I went to the dictionary to look up for the same entries. I kept consulting my dictionary for an entire week and got extremely annoyed by it. One afternoon, while walking in my way to gym, I decided to make a list of these mostly consulted words. Yes, I talked to myself, I'll create an spreadsheet, compose this list and study these words! Then I arrived from my workout a bit tired and decided that Googling these words was a more effective option... (hahahaha). I did it, found here and there some comments in forums over internet about these words and realized that maybe someone already did it in Memrise, so I could only join a course there and start learning. And, yes, I was correct!
Getting Vocabulary Quickly
In past I blogged about Memrise after studying the Cyrillic alphabet and demonstrated briefly how it works (just Google for "spaced repetition memorization" if you wanna learn more), so knowing its successful results, it is my website of choice to study German. All that I can assure is that it is a really good tool to help one acquire vocabulary quickly, actually the best I've used so far.
So, what is this German course?
I joined a course in Memrise called "The 100 most important German words" (and I'm confident it's true, because I did a quick check in Wikipedia just in case...) and immediately started a memorizing session. Although simple, it comprises almost 50% of all occurrences (again, check this Wikipedia link)! My problem started to become obvious, as approximately 50% of all content I got from German reading anywhere was listed at this course. A number of authors also cite these magical quantities of words, and the good news is that you can apply the same technique for a quick start in absolutely any language.
It took me 2 to 3 days to study all the 100 words and 2 or 3 days more to exercise them. Now, I am just "watering my garden" (it's own website slang for reviewing) to maintain what I learned. Only one week to memorize it, wow!
What have I achieved so far?
You probably want to ask me why learn the 100 (or maybe 500, 1000) most used words. I answer: because they represent important pieces of a language, and in the case of German, they are verbs, pronouns (ex: I, he, she, it), possessives (ex: my, your), prepositions (ex: before, for, to), some adjectives and substantives. They compose basic and meaningful human relations that help you absorb phrases like:
- I give it to you
- I am going to Berlin
- I want to go to Münich
- My father is older than yours
And so on... Tim Ferriss did a great job here with similar tips for learners, check it!
The main practical result is my improved ability to read and comprehend texts. Of course, I still need to rely a lot in Google Translate to get 100% of a news website, but by decoding the basics, it is much easier for me to get the rest. This means more than just a hundred new words, is a cascade effect that, the more knowledge you have, the more knowledge you are open to get. I'm gaining momentum in German and fluency is a matter of time!
My next steps for now are:
- Increase the amount of texts read each day
- Train my listening (YouTube, you're my friend!)
- Do pronunciation exercises
- Speak (Soon I'll write about how I do it, even alone)
It's interesting for me to keep all aspects of a language (listening, reading, writing and speaking) evolving together, so they are in my list for future improvement. I also want to study some simple phrases to help me keep up a basic conversation with people.
I'll stop for now. Keep following me for more news on this experience!