Whether you are interested in traveling to Germany or just purely immersed with its rich culture, the language is always the first area to touch. Learning to understand and speak the language might seem daunting at first. But you need not be scared of the vast difference from English since there are methods that can teach you how to learn the German language in 30 days.
While 30 days seem short to pick up a new language, it’s actually feasible with the right hacks.
Why would you want to learn the German language?
Determining why you want to learn a language is one of the many steps to ensure that you remain motivated throughout the entire learning process.
The German language is the second most commonly used scientific language. The language is widely used in the Western world’s most important scholarly works in the realms of philosophy, literature, medicine, sciences, engineering, and so on.
But if you just want to dive into Germany’s rich culture, you can never go wrong with learning the language first. You might be traveling soon or working in Germany, and knowing how to speak the language will come in handy once you are there.
Here are a few examples of “whys” that many people have behind their desire to learn German:
- To talk with German-speaking colleagues, friends, or family members
- To work in Germany or find work at a German company
- For travel purposes -to be able to speak with natives in Europe
- Studying German literature such as classics like Franz Kafka or Herman Hesse
- To better appreciate German culture better
How to learn the German language in 30 days
Here are the ways on how you can pick up the language in as short as a month.
1. Set your goals.
Thirty days is enough to understand how the German structure works fully. It’s up to you on how you will break down the objectives you want to meet before the 30 days end.
When starting a study plan, you need to have a schedule to follow. This way, you can commit yourself and your time to learning the language. Most people trying to learn a language just wing it without tracking their progress. Don’t fall into this mistake and set your own objectives.
A great example of daily goals is learning at least 20 German words. These might seem easy, but when they add up in 30 days, it’s impressive. Keep track of these learnings on your notes as you progress.
2. Take up a comprehensive German class.
Enrolling yourself to a German class is a must when you need guidance from an actual German speaker. Self-studying can be tedious and will bore you out along the way since there is no clear direction of where you’re headed. Whereas if you enrolled in a German class, everything’s laid out for you.
Taking up classes to learn a new language is easier these days due to the wide availability of options. Not only are they compact, but also extensive enough to cover the fundamentals you need to know. Some well-recommended German classes to take with you include:
German for Beginners
This beginner-friendly course tackles all of the basics with quality and depth. In the course, you will encounter fundamentals such as pronunciation, grammar, the German alphabet, numbers, date and time, words and phrases for basic conversation, greetings and goodbyes, time and date, and other useful vocabulary.
3 Minute German
If you want to learn German fast, you can’t get any faster than this 3 Minute German course. The course is especially designed to fit just about anyone regardless of age, educational level, or learning aptitude.
What sets this course apart from others is that instead of “feeding” you with what you can say, it shows you how the language works. You can expect minimum input from the course, but you can do a world of things with them –maximum output!
Learn to Speak: Conversational German
From words, to sentences, to full-on conversations; this course has got you covered. That makes it the perfect course whether you have absolutely no experience with learning German before, or you’re just polishing your German before a trip to Europe.
3. Find a German-speaking folk.
There’s no better way to learn to converse the language than talking to a person who actually speaks it. While it may not be easy to find a German-speaking partner, you can scour through online German communities to approach someone who can help you. This, of course, should hold a mutual benefit for each other.
Here are a few services you can find online so you can easily connect with German speakers so you can learn German in 30 days:
Italki
This community boasts of having more than 3 million language learners. They hook you up on a 1 on 1 with a language teacher so you get special customized attention that meets your learning needs. Taking up personalized lessons ensures that you learn the best way that you can, since every person has unique learning needs.
It is also very convenient and affordable. You can learn German in 30 days right at the comfort of your won home. You also have a wide range of choices from among hundreds of native German speakers who teach the language professionally.
MeetUp
Meetup helps you find meetups in major cities from all around the world. Does that mean that you may have to fly to Germany to attend a German meetup? Not necessarily. With the help of this app, you can scour for German meetups in your place or anywhere nearby.
Couchsurfing
By definition, couch surfing is temporarily staying in a series of different homes with improvised sleeping arrangements. The app CouchSurfing is a social medium that specializes in global hospitality exchange. Their company slogan is “stay with locals and meet travelers”
Basically, the app helps you carry out the act of couch surfing. Members of the website community can publicly or directly request lodging from other members, hang out with each other, and join or create events where members can meet up.
It is a very useful app for language learners, including those who want to learn to speak German. Immersing in a German community and lodging with a German member, or even just simply hanging out with someone German will allow you to learn so much about the language and the culture.
HelloTalk
If you think you don’t have the time or the funds to travel somewhere else to do language learning, HelloTalk will allow you to directly chat with native speakers with just your smart phone. Just like iTalki, it allows you to connect with other language learning members from all around the world. You can easily learn German grammar, words, and pronunciation this way.
What makes this effective is that you get to practice with someone adept in German pronunciation, grammar structure, and colloquial terms. You can even role-play to help you improve your German speaking skills.
4. Start with the easy phrases and daily expressions.
Some people feel easily intimidated by this language. It may have something to do with the long words and unusual pronunciation and spellings. However, German is actually quite easy to learn. Here are a couple of reasons why language learning for German in 30 days is totally possible:
- You don’t have intonations to learn like you will have to with Chinese or Thai
- There are no liaisons between words like in French
- The words are spelled in mostly the same letters as the English alphabet, unlike Japanese or Arabic
- No suffix postpositions or prepositions like in Turkish
- No difficult phonotactics that are hard to pronounce like in Czech
- German is highly phonetic, meaning you say the words exactly as they are spelled most of the time. That also makes spelling quite easy
- Much of German grammar is similar to English
You will reap more value in immersing yourself with the most basic phrases and well-used expressions in another language. Starting with the easy and most common phases is only logical since they are used every day.
Some common phrases to start with include:
- Hallo! – Hello!
- Danke! – Thank you!
- Guten morgen! – Good morning!
- Guten abend! – Good evening!
- Willkommen! – Welcome!
- Wie geht’s? – How are you?
- Mir geht’s gut – I’m doing well
- Alles gute zum Geburtstag – Happy birthday
5. Watch German movies and TV shows with subtitles.
If you can’t find someone whom you can talk to in native German, you can opt to watch a bunch of German content with subtitles on it. You can also do a vice versa of watching an English movie or show with German subtitles.
This method can be complicated at first, as most speakers talk fast. However, binging on these makes you familiar with the Germans’ right tone, structure, pronunciation, and conversational patterns.
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6. Learn German songs.
No, you don’t have to sing them in perfection to pick up some valuable words. But learning a pocketful of German songs help you expedite your learning curve. You only need to listen to them religiously and immerse yourself with the lyrics to remember them.
You can add learning a couple of songs on your daily goal to accumulate progress. This method’s beauty is that you can listen to these songs even when you’re outdoors doing errands. It’s convenient and productive even when doing something else.
7. Get a German dictionary.
Dictionaries are your best friend in learning a foreign language. You can easily pick them up when you encounter new words or get confused with similar terms.
And in this digital age, you can easily download apps to secure a beginner-friendly dictionary. You can even use Google Translate to translate a German word to your language quickly. There is a vast array of resources online that you can use in your learning journey.
8. Keep track of your learned words.
Keeping tabs on your learned words will help you see how far you’ve progressed in your studying. It’s motivational to see a breakdown of all the words you have familiarized yourself with overtime.
You can set a tracker using Google Sheets that you can update daily. You can even set your goals here to outline what needs to be done on your 30 days of learning the language.
Also, it is possible to lose your language skills if you don’t use them often enough. You don’t want to have rusty German while in the middle of an important business trip in Germany. Here are a few tips to help you retain the vocabulary that you’ve worked so hard to earn:
- Online newspapers can be a great resource to help you keep what German you already know, while further expanding your existing vocabulary bank. Papers such as Die Zeit, which has an online platform can be very helpful not just to your language learning, but also in keeping up with current events in Germany.
- Listen to music. Singing the words can make it easier to remember them than just reading them aloud. That’s because your brain is stimulated by the melody that the words come with. Listening to and singing German songs can help you retain the language.
- Read books. Reading books can have the same effect as reading the newspapers. Some people may find that news it too boring or too tedious. If you’re not a fan of current events, a good fiction or adventure story might pique your interest instead.
- Speak it every day. You might have a colleague or family member that speaks the language. Make it a habit to speak to them in German everyday. If you don’t personally know anyone, chatting someone up online and befriending a native speaker might work for you.
- brush up with a refresher course. Maybe you feel your German rusting up but you have an upcoming Euro-tour or business trip. Taking up online courses (just like the ones we mentioned above) can help you polish off the rust and blow off the dust.
9. Change phone and PC settings to German.
This hack can help you normalize the usage of the German language in your daily activities. You may have already memorized what’s written on your gadgets, making it easy to understand the German terms.
While it may seem tricky, you’ll eventually adapt to it once you get the hang of it.
Keep these tips by heart as you study a new language. Don’t overpressure yourself on how to learn the German language in 30 days. With the right approach, you can definitely nail the German language.
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