Ich bin vor einigen Tagen auf Deine Seite gestoßen und lese sie mit großem Vergnügen!
Ich habe die meiste Zeit meines Lebens im Ausland gelebt. Zumeist in Ländern, in denen kein Deutsch oder Englisch gesprochen wird. Die Sprachen lernte ich also zunächst aus reiner Notwendigkeit. Später wurde es soetwas wie ein Hobby. An Dein Niveu von Systematik komme ich allerdings nicht annähernd heran Dennoch habe ich mit Freuden einige Deiner Ansätze in meiner Art zu Lernen wiedererkannt. Beispielsweise das “hinein Stürzen” in Unterhaltungen, egal ob man die notwendigen Vokabeln kennt, oder die anfängliche Konzentration auf die wichtigen Verben.
Inzwischen bin ich bei Russisch angelangt, wo ich Deine geschilderten Erfahrungen gut nutzen kann.

Ich finde es herrlich, dass Du Dir für Dein Projekt Berlin ausgesucht hast! Nach einigen Jahren im Ausland zog ich nach Berlin. Alle hatten mich gewarnt, dass die Berliner recht ruppig seien, was mich ein wenig ängstigte, denn ich konnte nicht wirklich Deutsch. Ich bin zwar Deutscher und zu Hause wurde immer Deutsch gesprochen. But to be honest, conversations weren’t very colloquial with my parents, and whatever slang they applied was a bit out-of-date. Aber ich empfand die Berliner trotz aller Warnungen als ungeheuer geduldig mit “Sprachschülern”, auch mit mir, obwohl ich keinen Akzent habe, nur nicht “normal” sprechen konnte. So waren meine Freunde auch sehr hilfsbereit, wann immer ich im normalen Leben mit Gesprächen komplett überfordert war

Keep up the spirit and all the best wishes!

Hi Benny,

I got fluent in three months before it was cool.

I spent a couple of years in Germany as a soldier, and settled down permanently in 1993. I had to learn German with almost no prior study of the language, and quick. It took me about three months until I was fluent, but I still feel that I am learning the language today, seventeen years later.

I can't wait to see how you do on the Goethe-Zertifikat. I can't imagine that I would have been up to it after just three months!

Viel Glück!
Jody

Nat (from Barcelona, by the way )

In bocco al lupo! ))

You can resolve a lot of this learning even when only half-listening to content whilst doing something else, your brain will alert you to the interesting bits. the key is that you have to avoid focusing on the things you don't know, it takes a little guts and practice to do this, just pay attention to the things you almost know. It is quite shocking how much you can learn without actively learning it.

Of course the same listening can equally be applied to when listening to someone in a conversation and this only scratches the surface.

The only problem is, if I made a video now it would be mostly stumbling, umming and making a huge number of mistakes, rather than speaking a language. I'd rather not make such a video public. I think you can imagine what someone with high school level of a language sounds, although I'm just speaking the little I've got confidently

I will make a video (or several most likely) at the end though, and may try to have an audio interview too so people can hear my conversing skills rather than just talking skills as I show in most videos. Hopefully this will prove that I've made huge progress in these 3 months!!

I think you should make a “before” video showing off your German accent as it is now, and then an “after” video to show your progression!

About that part of listening to news or reading newspaper, I had tried that when I learned German some one or two years ago. The improvement I got from listening to news was slight and unimpressive. Probably because the words were too difficult for a beginner. I could catch up a few words, but the progression was super slow, and I don't think it is an effective way to learn a new language (at least for me). As for reading newspaper, I spent most of the time checking the dictionary for meaning. At the end, I got a bunch of new, big words. I don't think that would be helpful for a learner in my level, so I gave up reading German magazine at the end. Maybe I should have chosen some simpler materials to start with.

Learning German has me think that English is really a very easy language. At least, there is no gender in English nouns. I am now revamping German. With my past failure, I hope this time the journey would be easier.