Tips for studying German at home
BlogLanguagesGermanHow to Learn German at Home: Tips for studying German at home
Index
Places to study German
How to prepare a German class at home
How to review between class and class
Downloadable tools for learning German at home
The 44% of students Spanish resort to private lessons to reinforce the education they receive in schools, colleges and universities, the second highest in Europe behind Greece (74%), and families often spend an average of 700 euros per student , according to a report prepared by the educational platform Euteri.com, according to which, there has been a “significant expansion of the use of private lessons” around the world.
All school subjects are taught: Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, History, Geography, Language and foreign languages, including German. In fact, there are many students who learn German at home and their motivations are varied:
Solve the doubts that arise in class
Improve your level of German
Discover the German language and culture
Eliminate school difficulties
Prepare a trip to Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, etc.
Learning a foreign language at home has many advantages: there is no stress, there is no anxiety, no one judges you, and you can progress at your own pace.
How can you motivate yourself and work regularly to study a language on your own at home? First of all, keep in mind that you are not alone. Superprof shows you in this article how to learn German at home.
Places to study German: Tips for studying German at home
Learning a foreign language is not an easy task.
Are you sleepy? Well, skip the bed to brush up on your German class!
As for Goethe’s language, the student is faced with unusual sounds and unfamiliar vocabulary and knows neither pronunciation nor grammar. However, Goethe’s language is an Indo-European language that is written with the Latin alphabet, and has a 60% lexical similarity to English.
Although German is not our mother tongue, at least it involves fewer difficulties than learning Japanese, Chinese, Arabic or Hebrew, or worse still, Burmese, Thai or Vietnamese …
That said, it is important to study German in a warm, calm and relaxed environment. First of all, let’s see how to better memorize German grammar and vocabulary and improve your pronunciation:
Make flashcards: include the drawings of everyday objects (table, chair, pencil, wall, ceiling, floor, garden, trees, etc.) with their translation into German.
Make mind-maps : make trees of the lexical field of the house, the rooms of the house, the action verbs, such as reading, writing, touching, working, cleaning, sleeping, eating, cooking, drinking, etc.
Study in a quiet, orderly, clean and bright room.
Avoid distractions (video games, television, computer) to stay focused.
Break with the routine: study a topic in your room, another in the living room, another in the kitchen, another on the terrace …
Learning German at home has the advantage of being able to study wherever you feel comfortable. You can study in your room (at your desk, on your bed), on the living room sofa, on the terrace, on the garden lawn, on a deck chair, while eating in the kitchen, anywhere with your mobile, etc.
It is important that parents congratulate and reward their children for progress and encourage their desire to learn. And they should help them with homework:
Have oral conversations in German with your child.
Play games in German to learn in a fun way.
Guide you to be independent and self-confident.
By learning or reviewing the lesson between classes, you will be able to progress faster and learn German for free on the Internet ( deutsch lernen kostenlos in German). To do this, you can study German in other places:
In the library
On the terrace of a cafe
In a public place (park, bench, green spaces).
If you want to learn German A1 with a private teacher, why not use our service?
Also discover our German classes for children .
How to prepare a German class at home
How to avoid panicking when you have a German class shortly and you haven’t reviewed anything? Tackling your next class and being ready to greet your teacher requires a dynamic of learning.
And a learning dynamic also involves taking care of your breath!
Many studies show that there is a positive relationship between sports and academic performance : students who engage in regular physical activity obtain better grades than those who do not. Playing sports eliminates stress and lack of self-confidence and stimulates concentration.
Here are some basic tips to prepare for a German class at home: Tips for studying German at home
Go out to clear the mind, to preserve physical and mental health.
Breathing correctly to oxygenate the brain.
Stretch your muscles after a study session.
Have a healthy and balanced diet .
Drink water regularly and get a good night’s sleep.
Have good posture while studying.
Maybe the German courses easier than Chinese classes, but a general trick to better memorize a new language it is to review the classes regularly and make summaries of the most important.
Make a summary by topic (irregular verbs, pronouns, adjectives, diphthongs, or a glossary of idioms) to summarize each lesson. Stay with what is important so that the brain memorizes and later activates the notions you have studied.
If you rewrite the concepts seen in a previous tutorial, the brain will memorize the graphemes, the order of the words and the spelling of the words in German. By reading or rereading the lesson, you will be able to improve your pronunciation.
Finally, finding time to review and anticipating the next class is an incentive to learn German quickly, or at least faster than practicing only during the private class. By studying for ten or fifteen minutes at night when you go to bed or in the morning when you wake up, or for an hour every other day, you will be able to repeat, digest, mash and memorize the concepts.
When you absorb the previous lesson, why stop there? Isn’t it better to try to anticipate the next lesson? To do this, you can search for German exercises on free pages. What supports can you use? There are many:
Watch German TV online
Download and listen to podcasts in German
Review free online lessons
Speak German online with a tandem
Improve your level with a mobile application.
How to review between class and class
Students studying German realize one thing by doing the grammar exercises: Goethe’s language is pronounced as it is written, unlike English or French.
Going to Germany for a weekend? Why not?: Tips for studying German at home
To study German at home between classes , in addition to reviewing lessons and summarizing, you can do the following:
Repeat simple oral conversations: «Hello! Welcome! How are you?” ( Guten tag! Wilkommen! Wie geht’s? )
Read the German press
Learn to conjugate German verbs
Read simple books in German
Join the Goethe Institut to complement your private lessons.
Since Germans use the same alphabet as us, reading German books is not only affordable, but necessary: even if you don’t understand anything at first, you can improve your pronunciation and get your ears used to the sounds of German.
Books Graded readers help find a literary style that corresponds to your level. This well-conceived method speeds up the process of reviewing German between classes. Why? Because by reading in German, you will significantly expand your lexical field and your vocabulary.
If you like the Internet, you will know that online learning is an excellent complement to private lessons. With online classes , which are usually free, you can read or watch videos to improve your written and oral comprehension. Therefore, the online classes are suitable for both those with an auditory memory and those with a visual memory.
Some pages where you can learn German online are: YouTube, Duolingo, Deutschekurse, Deutsche Welle, Loecsen, Babbel, Detscheakademie and many others. You will find many explanations without needing the help of your teacher, which is ideal to progress more quickly in the learning program. Stimulate your memory, move faster … but not only that. The digital learning aids will also be useful to immerse yourself in German culture.
¿ Go to Germany between classes? It can! A stay of a few days will be a unique opportunity to speak with native Germans and explore German culture: from Frankfurt to Berlin, from Hamburg to Dresden or Munich!
Downloadable tools for learning German at home
Is it reliable to learn the most widely spoken language in Europe with your mobile or your computer? The question of all learning involves reliability and expense.
What tools to use: videos, podcasts, books, web pages, applications?
And how long does it take to learn to speak German? It is considered that around a hundred hours of classes are needed, to which must be added the necessary time of personal work, to memorize and achieve a level of the European mark in German.
It is during personal work that digital learning makes sense: downloading German applications, videos, podcasts and books will be a perfect complement to your private lessons.
Wherever you are, whenever you want, and moving at your own pace. Here is a list of some digital tools for learning German :
Aprenderalemán.com
LingQ
Duolingo
Babbel
Goethe Institut
Memrise
Since YouTube has become the favorite page for users to watch audiovisual content , why not use it to learn German? There are many tutorials and videos of German teachers who transmit their knowledge of the language for free, such as Andrea Thionville (children’s videos) or channels such as Learn German Free with Rodrigo (all levels), Wort Schatz (vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation) or German in 5 minutes.
You can also download German podcasts on various topics. For example, the Deutsche Welle page , dedicated to learning German, offers very good podcasts , progressive and adapted to all levels. Other sites where you can find podcasts are: Slow German, Warum Nicht, Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten and Lichte Momente.
Finally, you can also use e-books to improve your German:
In the Play Store : select the “free” option and download books in German. There are for all levels, even for beginners.
On Amazon Kindle : You can download millions of e-books . There are many literary works that are in the public domain, and therefore are free.
Read German blogs , a great way to expand your German vocabulary.
Learning German at home has never been easier!
