The Leopard (1963)

1. Always learn the article / gender with the noun and don’t assume the gender only basing on the word’s form. It’s true that many words that end on -e have the article “die” and are female, but not all! - “der Affe”, masculin and “der”

But also learn the general rules that exist for the articles, like: Every noun ending on “-heit” goes with the article “die”: die Krankheit, die Freiheit, …
Every noun ending on “-ung” also goes with “die”: die Heizung, die Versammlung, …

2. Always put new words into sentences to see them in context. That’s actually my advise for every language. I never only study words, I always try to put them into easy sentences. In German you can train the form of the words like that, since they change a lot due to genders: “Ich habe einen Vogel”, aber: “Ich habe eine Katze”.

3. Learn Modal Verbs first: can, must, might, may. With those verbs you will be able to communicate a lot of things.

4. Learn with texts. Take a German text and underline the different kinds of words in different colors, for example nouns in red, verbs in blue and adjectives in green. Get familiar with the forms of those words until you recognize them and how they work in sentence structure. 

5. Get familiar with sentence structure and word order. Look at sentences and translate / repeat them.

6. That’s kind of obvious, but watch German movies / shows and listen to German music, to get used to hear the language.

7. The most important thing for learning a language is repetition and repetition doesn’t have to take long or be complicated. Just grab a piece of paper and write every German word or sentence you can remember - maybe give yourself a timer, like 5 minutes are enough. Then go check what you did right and where you do have to repeat the rules etc. This is like I learned most languages and like I studied for university. I have heaps of paper on which I just randomly write things I remember. Then I correct the mistakes and do it again … It’s easy and it does help.

✨ Master Post of German Resources ✨

I’ve been learning German for almost 6 years and have collected a LOT of resources! I’ve finally compiled most of them into a master list. (With links to past posts I’ve made with tons more!)

In the end, it’s more than 100 German specific resources 🇩🇪

Worksheets, exercises, apps, games, books, podcasts (with my fav true crime podcast included!!), etc.

Most are explicitly for learning, but quite a few resources are to just enjoy life in German. Like fun podcasts, a recipe site, a tech site, YouTube channels, etc.

If you are learning German, I really hope this helps you! Viel Glück!!

(P.S if you’re learning Korean, check out that master post here!)

“i don’t like writing about my day, but i want to keep a journal”:

• quotes and copywork. when reading, if you find something you enjoy, just copy it into the notebook. you can copy a whole chapter if you wish, highlighting what caught your attention the most.
• definitions. look up on a dictionary and copy it. you could write your own dictionary as well, making up definitions for words.
• lists. a classic, write movies to watch, books to read, the playlist of the month or just the groceries you have to buy.
• maps. when going somewhere, you could draw the route you took or just a map of the place itself. just look up the place on google maps and copy it. you can draw a little map of all the places you have lived or the schools you have attended as well.
• photos
• take “notes” as you watch movies / documentaries. write down phrases that caught your attention or doodle.
• illustrations and clippings. if you see an image or piece of art that you liked, put it in your journal. if it’s from a book or from a magazine I would recommend scanning it, tho’. it will serve as a record of what kind of art you enjoy through the years.
• newspaper clippings from the day.
• tickets and pamphlets. from movies, museums, transportation.
• postcards
• records. you could record for a month what the temperature was when you woke up and when you went to sleep. if you do that for a year, it gives you a better notion of the passing of seasons. you could record rainfall and other seasonal changes as well. you could choose something (an animal, a plant, an item or object) and write down every time you see it.
• rubbings of leaves, coins, landmarks.
• count. there’s a scene in the movie Coraline (2009) where Coraline’s dad tells her to go count the windows. you could do the same type of counting game if you are bored and write down.
• mindmaps/sketchnotes + timelines of books, movies, music albums.
• collages
• pressed leafs and flowers
• your collections. if you collect anything you could write down an inventory or maybe try to draw the items.
• recipes. write down recipes and give it a score every time you try it. you could do the same for drinks you try out.
• stickers
• comic strips. you can find a bunch of it online, glue your favorites in your notebook.