The german lanaguage?

Question

i'm an 18 year old who first experienced traveling and touring at age 16. i spent two months in france and learned the language very well..and quick..i then went to italy, hated the language, i went to luxembourg, too much of a confusion with luxembourgoise, german and french, so gave up on that..earlier this year i went to germany for two weeks and OMG the language was a disaster..the only thing i learned were bad words..like seriously..fall of 08 i will bea freshman in college and planning on taking german..all the people doign the registration for me just gave me the eyes and look that said, seriously? why? is german that hard? will i never learn it? the only languages spoken in my family are khmer, french and english! how will i practice my german? germans, can i please have a view? is it worth taking german? or shouldi just drop it?

Answer 1

German is a wonderful language (well, I'm native). If you took French, German will be easy for you. Four cases, verbs and nouns do flex, and all the tenses and irregularities will be much like in French. You might encounter gender problems, as German has three of them, male, female, and neuter. But don't be too much afraid of that: Even if you ask something like "Wohin kann ich nach das Bahnhof gehen?", which is really bad German, everybody will understand and show you the direction.

[The correct phrase would be: "Wo geht es hier zum Bahnhof?"]

Answer 2

To compare todays German to Shakespeares english is really idiotic... I haven`t heard of anything that stupid in ages.

Even for a native german like me reading Goethe is hard.

I don`t think German is such a hard language to learn. My parents came from Poland in the 70s. They learned it in a year. I think the key to learning german is not to compare it too much to english. Since there are many differences. The best way to learn a foreign language is to speak it. And practise speaking it, by talking to others only in german. Of course it`ll be hard for you to move to Germany and speak it...but you could go abroad for a semester. I went to the US for a highschool year, and thats where I learned english. That worked well for me. German isn`t more difficult than other roman languages. Because its related to english and french for example. You will get used to it. Just because it doesnt sound as fancy as french , doesnt mean it is as rough as it sounds to foreign ears...give it a shot !

Answer 3

take it from somebody who learned english and german and is now fluent in both: if you did not get it from the first answer :) german is really really really hard. even the maajority of the german population can't get it 100% right. here is a good example for you: you probably red Shakespeare in school, notice how his english is different from today's enlglish? i had to read Goethe in german school, well it is not that different from todays german. so imagine you would be learning english as a foreighner, but shakespre's english.

however there is a big big pro in learning german, opposing to let's say french. reading and pronouncing is very straight forward. no matter how funny you will pronounce, people will most likely understand you.

so think for yourself, and here is another little something to consider: there are onlly a couple of german speaking countries in europe in the world, compared to let's say.. spanish.

Answer 4

French is not really so different than german

i think german is worth learning it. it is my favorite language ;-)

why was the language a disaster?

i think german is a very honest language

german can be very hard for english native speakers but not always

i have already written a text about our vocabulary and i think it might be useful for you

Our vocabulary often consists of smaller parts.

We combine two or more words to a new one or we use small words infront of the main word to indicate the meaning.

Here i will list most small words(23) being used infront of main words.

This might be very usefull for beginners.

This will get you a better understanding of the german language.

For example:

Stören=to disturb

Zerstören=to destroy

Verstören=to unsettle

I will only list the most important translations to make it shorter and hopefully less irritating.The words can have other meanings too.

I would like to start with my favorite small word.

Ur-

The partverb Ur- is thousands of years old and hasn´t been touched in it´s meaning(not like most other old words)

You can attach Ur- to every noun.

It can also be attached to one verb and a few adjectives.

Ur- indicates that the attached thing is very very old.

For example:

Knall =bang(sound)

´´Urknall´´ is the Big Bang causing the expansion of the univers.

Groß =big

Vater =father

Urgroßvater=great-grandfather

Alt =old

Uralt =very very old

Teilen =devide

Urteilen =judge

Zer- infront of a word indicates that you do something extreme to something/someone which means it´s end in it´s previous shape.

Zerstören =destroy

Fetzen =frazzle

Zerfetzen =to frazzle,to shred

Hauen =to beat

Zerhauen =to beat something into little pieces

Ver- i can´t explain.You will have to develope a feeling.

Jagen =to hunt

Verjagen =to hunt someone/something away

Schrecken =scaring thing

Verschrecken =scare someone

Stehen =to stand

Verstehen =to understand

Laufen =to run

Verlaufen durch=to pass through [route, road, etc.]

Sich verlaufen =to go astray

Gift =poison

Vergiften =to poison,to contaminate

Er-

Finden =to find

Erfinden =to invent

Zählen =to count

Erzählen =to tell

Langen =to grab something(mainly the moving hand)

Erlangen =to attrain, to achieve

Ein-

Reden =speak

Einreden =trying to make someone believe something

auf jemanden einreden=to bring someone to rationality

Füllen =to fill

Einfüllen =to pour in

Fallen =to fall(in battle or normal things fall down)

Einfallen =to fall in(strong army invading enemy land)

Aus-(out)

Reden =speak,talk

Ausreden =finishing the spoken sentence

Tragen =to carry

Austragen(ein Kampf,a fight) =to go into fight with no purpose of leaving)

Ein Spiel austragen = to stage a game

Hang =hang

Aushang =notice [announcement displayed on a board]

Unter-(under)

Stehen =stand

Unterstehen =to be subordinate to OR

Unterstehe dich =dont dare to

Sagen =to say

Untersagen =to forbid

Ab-(at,from)

Schrecken =scaring thing

Abschrecken =to discourage

Wiegen =to weigh

Abwiegen = to weigh something against something else precisely

Knallen =to bang(shoot),to pop

Abknallen =to shoot sb

Hacken =pick [pickaxe]

Abhacken(an arm) =to hack someone´s arm off

De-(de)

Stabilisieren =to stabilisise

Destabilisieren =to destabilise

Mut =bravery,courage

Demut =humbleness,humility

An-(on,to,by,upon)

Geben =to give

Angeben =to show off OR to adumbrate

Halten =to hold

Anhalten =to stop moving or to stop a process

Greifen =to grab

Angreifen =to attack

Un-

Mut =courage

Unmut =displeasure,chagrin

Glück =luck

Unglück(Pech is same= accident,disaster,bad luck

Vor-(ahead,before)

Teil =piece

Urteil =judgement

Vorurteil =prejudice

Singen =to sing

Vorsingen =to sing infront of audition or to show how something is sung correctly

Reiter =rider

Vorreiter =the person who rides infront of you

Nach-(after,following)

Fahre =Ich fahre( i drive) or fahre(you, start driving)

fahren cant really be translated with drive.

For example: Die Seelen fahren gen Himmel(The souls drive to heaven.Do you see the difference?)

Nachfahre =descendant

Speise =noble form of food

Nachspeise =dessert

Bei-(by,with,at)

Nahe =near

Beinahe =almost,close

Spiel =game,play

Beispiel =example

Drehen =to turn

Beidrehen =to heave to

Mischung =mixture

Beimischung =addition

All-(all,every)

Wissend =knowing

Allwissend =omniscient

Gemein =usual,crudely

Allgemein =generally

Zweck =function,purpose

Waffe =weapon

Allzweckwaffe =universal weapon

Gegen-(against)

Satz =sentence,can mean a little jump too

Gegensatz =antagonism,contrast

Wehr =lasher,defense

Gegenwehr =resistance

Stand =booth,position ,´´Stand´´ describes a caste too.Ritterstand=knightcaste

Los =free,not bounded

Gegenstandslos =redundant,unneccessary

Be-

Wasser =water

Bewässern(Land) =to water land

Jammern =to wail

Jemanden bejammern =to bewail someone

Hin-

Knien =to kneel

Hinknien =to kneel down

Fällig sein =to be due

Hinfällig =obsolete

Her-

Fallen =to fall

Herfallen =to infest

Her

Raus

Fallen

Herausfallen =to drop out,to fall out

Ge-

Fühlen =to feel

Gefühl =feeling

Setzen =to sit down

Gesetz =law

Schoss Es schoss=Everything very fast moving.Not only projectile

Geschoss =projectile

In-

Aktiv =active

Inaktive =inactive

Folge =consequence

Infolge =resulting from

Stand =booth,position ,´´Stand´´ describes a caste too.Ritterstand=knightcaste

Setzen =to sit down

Instandsetzen =to overhaul

Über(over)

Weisen =wise people(old)

Überweisen =transfer money

Treten =kick,step

Übertreten =river raising and flowing over dams

Übertreten(law) =a law can get übertreten by people

Morgen =morning

Übermorgen =in two days

Ent-

Haupt =head,chief

Enthaupten =to behead

Zwei =two

Entzweien =to devide a piece of wood into two peaces

Stehen =to stand

Entstehen =to be formed

Not all germans are able to explain these small words but everyone is able to use them with best knowledge and sense.

Nehmen =to take

Entnehmen =for example to take the tabac from a tabac box from the box to your hand....

Vernehmen =to interrogate,to examine someone

Abnehmen =loose weight,taking something away from someone

Benehmen =behaviour

Annehmen =to accept,to suppose

Vornehmen =to take someone to your brest(when you want to teach someone a lesson),to put something on your to-do-list

Unternehmen =to do something big

Ausnehmen =to disembowel

Passen =to fit,to suit

Anpassen =to adept

Aufpassen =to pay attention

Verpassen =to miss

Wurzel =roots

Verwurzelt =enrooted, rooted

Entwurzelt =removed roots

Entwurzeln =removing roots

Lieben =to love

Verlieben =to fall in love

Sprechen =to speak

Entsprechen =to comply

Versprechen =to make a speech impediment

Ansprechen =to start conversation with someone

Absprechen =to arrange terms

Vorsprechen für eine Rolle =to read for something [audition for a part]

Besprechen =to discuss

Strahlen =to radiate

Verstrahlen =to contaminate with radiation

Erstrahlen ( im Lichterglanz erstrahlen=to be ablaze with light)

Anstrahlen =to illuminate

Bestrahlen =to irradiate something

Richten =to judge

Entrichten (Eine Gebühr entrichten = to pay a fee

Verrichten =to perform

Unterrichten =to teach

Abrichten =to drill

Errichten =to build

Anrichten (Verwüstung anrichten = to cause devastation)

Nachrichten =news

Herrichten =to prepare

Hinrichten =to execute

Berichten =to report

Ausrichten (Richte ihm das aus = Tell him this message from me)

It can be easy too:

Fordern =to demand

Unterfordern =giving someone homework which doesn´t challenge him

Überfordern =giving someone homework which challenges him too much

There is a sense behind these small words.They have been set in the past regarding the ideology.

Every german is able to use these small words with completely new words too.Everyone would choose the same small word for a special meaning.

To understand this sense you have to know most words and understand the literal sense.

Not all words can get all of the small words.When to use what is strictly determined.

I havent listed many word combinations with other people/things and i may have forgotten some words.

At the end i will list some words which contain two or more of these small words.

Reden =to speak,to talk

Sich mit jemanden verabreden =to arrange to meet somebody

Ein

Ver

Standen = (Wir standen=we stood

Einverstanden =okay,agreed

In

Be

Griff =hold(holding someone tight)

Inbegriff =embodiment

Groß =big

All

Zu

Allzu groß =overly big

Her

Über

Komm herüber =come to us

Ver

An

Lassen =to let

Veranlassen =to arrange

Raten =to advise

Hineingeraten =to blunder into a thing

All

Ein

Ver

Tretung(s)

An

Spruch =saying

Alleinvertretungsanspruch =to claim to sole representation

Answer 5

as someone already wrote, any new language can be hard to learn, but it´s always worth it! And there is no language you can "never learn" if you´re determined to do so. That aside, German is actually not that different to English, in terms of vocabulary. The grammar is a different story, but hey, you learn that too.

A good idea is certainly to practice a lot, find someone to talk to, possibly a native speaker. If you´re going to take German in college there´s sure to be someone who already speaks it right?? And btw, German isn´t such a rare language;)

Good luck!!

Answer 6

Well learning German can be difficult but learning any language is. German's grammar is almost impossible to get perfect, and German's have 16 different words that mean the and if you use the wrong the word people kind of look at you funny, besides that I find the actually German words easy to learn and remember. I had started by taking Spanish then after a year of Spanish I changed to German I personally like German better then Spanish. At first German Can seem a little overwhelming but it does get easier.

Answer 7

I have been learning German for 20 years and still cannot speak it perfect and make small mistakes still.

It takes shear will and determination and desire to want to learn it.  It also helps to have a Native helping you as I do. The Grammar will be your hardest part to learn, try to build a vocab base and learn how to make sentences with them correctly.

Their are a few schools, tutors and such that could assist you with this in Germany or where you are possibly.

I like the language I am just not a Master of it, but I learned fast as you did French. I think it also has to do with the desire and practise too!

Viel Gluek. Good Luck.