I remember seeing some techniques mentioned here over the years - specifically in response to a question about DuoLingo where the conclusion was there are better methods.
I’m a native English speaker, who at points has had conversational French under my belt and GCSE (high school?) equivalent education in French and German.
I’m looking to pick up enough German over the next 12 months to make better-than-average/expected conversation whilst on holiday in Austria.
So, what’s the best methods to (re)learn a language?
As a comparison, I learned a bit of Italian for a vacation with Duolingo and I'll say it helps, but the moment I stopped after the vacation, it was basically all gone. I did not create a meaningful lasting impression in my mind. It would've been better to try to listen to Italian im parallel through movies etc. Still, my son learns French with Duolingo and I noticed it helps him focus on doing the work, I even have a feeling it's improving his overall learning in school.
Another caveat is that the way they speak in Austria or parts of it can be challenging for non native speakers, and even some native speakers.
You'll find a lot of people encouraging comprehensible input, where you try to receive as much German as possible while understanding about ~90% of it and letting your brain kinda "work it out" the "natural" way.
It's quite cool, and I've made a tool built around it (https://nuenki.app, which selectively translates websites to give you comprehensible input as you browse the web). I'd recommend pairing it with other methods - Anki is effective but miserable, and proper grammar reading (the subreddit has some good links) can have a very high ROI.
I quite like the Easy German youtube channel. They have some clips from Austrians - and that's something to bear in mind, as Austrian German and Swiss German are quite different to the High German ("Hochdeutsch") (edit: see the reply; I'm wrong here) you'll generally be taught.
Nuenki is pretty much what I was looking for - plus it's a good shove to make switch from Safari to Firefox (a change I've been meaning to make).
I've heard of Anki as a learning tool, but not tried it. What makes it miserable?
I'll be sure to checkout the Reddit and YouTube links too. Thanks for the help internet stranger!
I'm a bit biased here. I used it prolifically for years in order to optimise my learning (school, not languages) so that I could compensate for a concussion. I heavily burnt out of it and I've not touched it since.
Nevertheless, if I were to say something more objective, it's that it's very dull. Other learning methods have you going over either somewhat-engaging content or intellectually stimulating learning (e.g. reading about the complexities of grammar).
Anki is just... word. think. click. feedback. repeat. repeat. repeat 200 times. repeat tomorrow.
You can do the whole thing with the space bar and 1-4 on your keyboard.
You can make yourself do that, but be wary of it souring you on the language or burning out.
> Nuenki is pretty much what I was looking for - plus it's a good shove to make switch from Safari to Firefox
I hope you like it! Let me know if you have any feedback etc.
I'd like to add Safari support, but Apple makes it pretty difficult to publish as someone who doesn't have a Mac or lots of money to spend.
Good luck with your German!
That being said, German also has hundreds of distinct dialects - from Viennese to Platt.
From 0: phrase books + spaced repetition + easy recordings for beginners (many webs provide them for lots of languages). Don't forget to work on listening and pronunciation
A1 - A2: add active reading with graded readers + some writing
B1 – B2: keep on graded readers and SRS, add Italki tutor, podcasts and new learning materials. Mix passive and active reading / listening. Start looking at grammar
+B2: lots of comprehensive input + whatever you fancy (eg language exchanges, creative writing, etc)
If you want to know more I wrote a book here: https://thehardway.guide/ (with lots of links to other books / sources)
German sound + English subtitles
German sound + German subtitles
German sound + no subtitles
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If you can get them, some cartons like Dora the Explorer or Pepa Pig have a very slow pace and may be helpful.
