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Hello there everyone, I have the opportunity to go on a student foreign exchange trip to either Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, France and Spain. Given that my father's side of my family is German, I would like to go to Germany. The only problem with this is that I have no knowledge of the German language whatsoever.
I am good with being away from home, having spent two months in France on an exchange trip during eighth grade, so that is no issue. The only big issue is the language. My question to everyone is this: is German a hard language to learn, and will it become much easier given that I already know French and English?
Thank you.
Edit: I will be living with a family for three months, so I will be very exposed to the language as it's going to be the only thing spoken around me the whole time I'm there. Also, my partner will be coming to my house in Canada first for three months, so I will have the opportunity to pick up a bit while still here.
 
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Zurich15306 Posts
Defintely not easy to learn. French and English will help you a litte.
When you are saying exchange trip, how long a trip are we talking? You won't have to speak German beyond some basic stuff to get around fine for a couple of weeks / months.
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In general the german language is not that easy to learn when it comes to grammar und stuff. But as usual grammar is nothing that needs to be known to understand you. Anyways with English in your backup you will almost never have any problems in germany as everyone learns it in school and knows at least that much to understand what you want 
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Why not come to austria? 
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On November 08 2011 23:38 zatic wrote:
Defintely not easy to learn. French and English will help you a litte.
When you are saying exchange trip, how long a trip are we talking? You won't have to speak German beyond some basic stuff to get around fine for a couple of weeks / months.
Ah sorry about putting that in the op, forgot to. It's going to be a three month trip, so I have a fair bit of time.
On November 08 2011 23:40 pluu wrote:Why not come to austria?
Because Austria isn't one of the options sadly... but I'm sure I'll visit!
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everyone in germany knows english cause they are baller and super awesome. and imo german is easier to learn as an english speaker than the romance languages. the grammar is hard but so many of the words are similar.
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As one who lives in Denmark (Germany's annoying littlesister) I can tell that even though I have had German in school for 4-5 years, It is really hard to learn if you don't use it in your everyday life. I know that If you have some prior knowledge and lives there for a year you can learn a lot, but for only 3 months it's gonna be really hard to learn more than a few words and basic sentences.
About the french/english.
French and english are both Latin-based, where as German is, well German-based (I don't know is German-based is the correct term, however it is the same family as Danish among others) So there are not too many huge advantages.
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Well, if you're visiting saxony you'll have it pretty easy to get people to understand you :D..
I think 3 months is a bit short, but you're probably able to learn at least some of the basics.. But learning the language as a whole? That would be quite tough.. However, many germans speak english, that won't be too much of a problem.
@Grovbolle:
Modern German has some huge latin influence, so knowing french/english will indeed help. Also, english originated from the anglo-saxons, so there are many similarities as the anglo-saxons obviously also influenced modern german. It won't be enough to be able to learn German in 3 days, but it will certainly help a bit.
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Speaking correctly may be hard to learn, but the language is pretty robust regarding wrong grammar and pronunciation. There are a dozen very weird dialects, and there are native German speakers that sound as if they have a towel stuffed into their mouth, and they still are understandable. If you are a bit bold, you can talk in very broken German and people should be able to understand you.
If you can only speak English, running around Germany should also be no problem for you. Chances are, whenever you need help, you will be able to find someone that speaks enough English to at the very least understand you.
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OK, thanks everyone for the help/advice. From what I understand, since it's only three months I won't have much time to get past basics, but chances are I'll learn a bit. Also that many people speak English so it shouldn't be that bad. So far the consensus is that grammar and vocabulary is really hard, which I find weird because I find I can (somewhat) decipher some written German (on a youtube video, for example). I'm sure however that I'll take some sort of a German-language course, probably online in order to prepare.
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German vocabulary is very easy to learn as a native English speaker because there are so many closely related words in the two languages, but the grammar is very challenging. If the purpose of the trip in your mind is to learn a new language to the greatest extent possible, I would suggest Spain over Germany, because Spanish has much simpler grammar and its vocabulary is similarly easy for a native English speaker to learn (especially since you know another romance language). If you are really interested in seeing Germany, though, I wouldn't worry about the difficulty of the language; you can learn enough to ask for directions and order dinner very quickly, and you'll find that most Germans speak enough English that you can communicate if you need to.
Edited to add: If you really want to speak well, proper German pronunciation is also a total bitch for English speakers to learn. The vowels are all a bit different, there are three vowels (ä, ö, ü) that don't exist in English at all, you have to learn to put glottal stops everywhere, the r's are pronounced like you're gargling water and 'g' and 'ch' require a sort of throat-clearing or cat hiss.
On November 09 2011 00:06 zakmaa wrote:...So far the consensus is that grammar and vocabulary is really hard, which I find weird because I find I can (somewhat) decipher some written German (on a youtube video, for example).
It's way easier to understand German than to speak it. You can probably understand things like "Mein Name ist Benjamin" or "Ich gehe ins Theater" without much trouble because of the similarity to English. But to say the second one correctly, you have to know:
- Theater is a neuter noun rather than male or female
- You go 'in' the theater and not 'zu' (to) the theater
- Since you're moving into the theater, "Theater" is in the accusative case, so you say 'ins' rather than 'im' (which is also 'in' but for nouns in the dative case)
I don't meant to scare you away from German, though - it's very logical, and as long as you take your time and just work through it, the grammar starts to make a lot of sense. I'm just trying to make clear why it's true that you can read and understand a lot of German without knowing the language, and at the same time it's true that the grammar is very hard to learn.
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On November 08 2011 23:53 Grovbolle wrote:
About the french/english.
French and english are both Latin-based, where as German is, well German-based (I don't know is German-based is the correct term, however it is the same family as Danish among others) So there are not too many huge advantages.
Not true. French is indeed Latin based as are Italian, Spanish and Portugese. But English is a so called Germanic language and has the same origins as German, Dutch and most of the Scandinavian languages. That having said: English is the most removed from the Germanic base imo.
A question for the German TL members:
It is stated multiple times above that everyone speaks English in Germany (personally I always speak German when I'm in Germany so I have no first hand experience with this).
If that is the case why are all TV-shows of foreign origin dubbed instead of subtitled?
Or is there a shift happening where more and more is subtitled?
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On November 09 2011 00:12 AmericanUmlaut wrote:
German vocabulary is very easy to learn as a native English speaker because there are so many closely related words in the two languages, but the grammar is very challenging. If the purpose of the trip in your mind is to learn a new language to the greatest extent possible, I would suggest Spain over Germany, because Spanish has much simpler grammar and its vocabulary is similarly easy for a native English speaker to learn (especially since you know another romance language). If you are really interested in seeing Germany, though, I wouldn't worry about the difficulty of the language; you can learn enough to ask for directions and order dinner very quickly, and you'll find that most Germans speak enough English that you can communicate if you need to.
Edited to add: If you really want to speak well, proper German pronunciation is also a total bitch for English speakers to learn. The vowels are all a bit different, there are three vowels (ä, ö, ü) that don't exist in English at all, you have to learn to put glottal stops everywhere, the r's are pronounced like you're gargling water and 'g' and 'ch' require a sort of throat-clearing or cat hiss.
OK I'll definitely keep that in mind. I'm still not entirely set on Germany, the main reason I wanted to go is because my father's side is German and I thought it would be neat to learn some that.
Also, I'm very good with pronunciation in other languages. I have no issue with the 'g' and 'ch' that are a throat-clearing or hiss as that is how I pronounce 'r's in French, just less pronounced than it would be in German. However, if you think the extent I'll learn within three months is directions and/or ordering dinner, I think I'd rather go somewhere where I'll learn more :p
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I can't add much to what others have said. Vocabulary will be relatively easy for you, grammar hard (ie. unlearnable in 3 months past basics). A lot of people here speak basic English enough for you to get by with some minor hassle every now and then.
On November 08 2011 23:53 Grovbolle wrote:
French and english are both Latin-based, where as German is, well German-based (I don't know is German-based is the correct term, however it is the same family as Danish among others) So there are not too many huge advantages.
That's incorrect, both English and German are (West) Germanic languages. The influence of Latin on both languages is equal.
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On November 09 2011 00:19 Golden Ghost wrote:
A question for the German TL members:
It is stated multiple times above that everyone speaks English in Germany (personally I always speak German when I'm in Germany so I have no first hand experience with this).
If that is the case why are all TV-shows of foreign origin dubbed instead of subtitled?
Or is there a shift happening where more and more is subtitled?
Because we have the money to dub it and the audience is large enough?
Also "speaking English" means "he can help you get by" not "you will have a fluent conversation"
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On November 09 2011 00:23 dkh wrote:I can't add much to what others have said. Vocabulary will be relatively easy for you, grammar hard (ie. unlearnable in 3 months past basics). A lot of people here speak basic English enough for you to get by with some minor hassle every now and then. Show nested quote +On November 08 2011 23:53 Grovbolle wrote:
French and english are both Latin-based, where as German is, well German-based (I don't know is German-based is the correct term, however it is the same family as Danish among others) So there are not too many huge advantages. That's incorrect, both English and German are (West) Germanic languages. The influence of Latin on both languages is equal.
That's not true. English has a much more substantial influence from Latin than German does, because a French dialect was the language of the court in England from the eleventh to the fifteenth century.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Jwap4.png)
This image comes from Wikipedia - I'm not sure of its original source, but it reflects what I've learned in English linguistics courses at university.
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True, I didn't take the Romanic language influence in English into account, still it's incorrect to say that English is Latin-based in any way, shape or form (and that German is German-based). Latin (through the French language) had more of an influence on English than German but the similarities between English and German due to them both being West Germanic languages outweighs that influence greatly. English is MUCH more similar to German and vice versa than either language to any 'Latin-based' (Romanic) language such as French or Spanish.
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On November 09 2011 00:06 zakmaa wrote:
OK, thanks everyone for the help/advice. From what I understand, since it's only three months I won't have much time to get past basics, but chances are I'll learn a bit. Also that many people speak English so it shouldn't be that bad. So far the consensus is that grammar and vocabulary is really hard, which I find weird because I find I can (somewhat) decipher some written German (on a youtube video, for example). I'm sure however that I'll take some sort of a German-language course, probably online in order to prepare.
You have to think about the context, when someone says that grammar is very hard to learn. If someone tries to learn German as a foreign language and has to write a text in German, if he has a grammar mistake in every sentence, an imaginary teacher grading that text would put a red mark in every line, and an overall test result would be a failure. But in real verbal communication, if you have enough vocabulary, you could perhaps simply use English grammar and German words. Miscommunication because of the broken grammar would not happen, I think, so mistakes are not really important.
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The biggest problem for an English speaking person trying to learn German in Germany is that everyone of your German friends will try to communicate in English with you. Many people especially students will use you to talk to a native speaker and improve their own English. You wont have any problems to survive and live in Germany without knowing a single German word but it will be hard to find people to pratice your German with.
Might be much easier in France or Spain
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On November 09 2011 00:19 Golden Ghost wrote:
If that is the case why are all TV-shows of foreign origin dubbed instead of subtitled?
Or is there a shift happening where more and more is subtitled?
citing wikipedia:
The Germanophone dubbing market is the largest in Europe. Germany has the most foreign movie dubbing studios per capita and per given area in the world. In Germany, Austria and the German speaking part of Switzerland, practically all films, shows, television series and foreign soap operas are shown in dubbed versions created for the German market.
Basically we grow up never ever seeing subtitled TV or Movies so to most people it is weird to be watching a movie and reading subtitles at the same time. So most people would think it would be rather distracting from the actual picture shown. Also not everybody in Germany can speak good English (especially if they are older) but you'll most likely always find someone around who can communicate decently.
edit: Also I am currently studying one semester in Japan and I barely knew any Japanese before going and I still survived my first month without any problems, so there's always a way. Also doing a semester in a foreign country is almost always worth it. When will you get the chance to easily move to another country for 3-6 months and then resume your normal life so seamlessly ever again?
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EPT
