German is the first foreign language I have learned by myself
I had already learned English and French at school
and it is where I discovered my love for language learning, and the time had come
to learn a new foreign language outside of the school context.
Hi, my name is Luca from LucaLampariello.com and today I will tell you why and how
I have learned German, and which difficulties I had to face
when learning this language.
First off, let's talk about the "why"
An old friend of my parents spoke 5 languages fluently, and I was fascinated
by all the conversations about history, philosophy and language learning, as well as all the other interesting topics
I used to hear when my parents invited him and his family over dinner.
I will never forget the moment when I stumbled upon an old, dusty grammar book
in my grandmother's bookshelf.
I was overjoyed that I had found some learning material for German, but in hindsight
I have to confess that that book was not the best introduction to the language.
It was rather a..punishment!
First, it was as dusty as it was boring, and it contained only
grammar explanations and exercises.
Second, the whole text was written in old, gothic letters!
And of course, there was no audio!
But the truth is, that was the only resource I had in my hands
I had almost given up on my plan to learn german when by pure coincidence
I stumbled upon a new language course called "Il Tedesco Per Te"
This course had interesting and colorful content with a lot of images and to top it all off, it came with audio!
Suddenly I wanted to give it a shot again
I started learning every day
The course was fantastic and I had so much fun learning, so much in fact that every time, when I came back
from school, the first thing I did was learning German,
one or even two hours a day.
At the beginning I was clueless as to how I had
to use the course.
But my desire to learn the language was just too big.
When you know exactly why you are doing something, you will find a way to achieve your goal.
After a few weeks, I had developed a technique which was extremely effective for me
and which I have been using to learn all the other languages: the bidirectional
translation.
When you want to know more about it, click on the link in the description box.
Almost 2 years later I finally had the chance to use German
with native speakers.
I was at a summer camp in Sardinia and there were a lot of Germans!
And I mean a LOT.
I had never spoken a word of German with anyone, but thanks to all that input
I had gotten in those 2 years - and to my big surprise - I started to
speak the language, and I spoke a lot!
All that input, all that passion, all that enthusiasm that I had put
day after day, finally paid off.
My German skills literally flourished.
The more surprised the Germans where at how I spoke German, the more
excited I got about learning, listening to the language, and speaking it.
People were asking me on the beach the whole time "how come do you speak German so well?!"
"You live in Germany, right?"
The funny part is that, as I said before, before that summer in Sardinia
and I had never spoken German with anyone!
I did not really know how to answer
their qustions.
And something else happened during that fateful summer: I got to know
a German girl.
We had a great time together, and after the summer
we started to exchange long love letters.
I still remember the excitement I felt went I checked my mail box
and when I was writing back to her.
After that experience, German has become part of my daily life
Ok, enough with my summer adventures, let's talk a bit
about the language itself.
German has a couple of quirky features that can cause problems to learners.
First, German has grammatical cases.
You say "Der Mann ist groß" (the man is tall), but then if you add the verb "sehen" (to see)
then you'd say "Ich sehe einen großEN Mann" (I see a tall man)
The case is reflected mainly in the article, but there also words
that change form according to the case.
For example "Der Philosoph ist weise" (the philosopher is wise)
but: "Ich spreche mit einEM weisEN PhilosophEN" (I speak with a wise philosopher)
As you can see, in the case it is only the noun that changes, but
also the adjective and its accompanying article!
But here is some good news: in general, grammatical cases are not much
of a problem especially in comparison with other heavy-case languages such as
Russian or Polish.
When it comes to pronunciation, thanks to various reforms
that the German spelling system has undergone, the system has become simpler and simpler.
In other words, you write as you speak.
Once you figure out how the system works, it is relatively easy
to learn and use.
German pronunciation is a fascinating topic, which unfortunately I don't
have time to elaborate further here.
If you are interested in the topic, I can make a more specific video
about the various features of German pronunciation.
What about vocabulary?
German is infamous for his long words.
For example: Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften” (The legal expenses of insurance companies.) oder “Betäubungsmittelverschreibungsverordnung” (Narcotics prescription ordinance)
My favourite word is: Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz,
a word that won the prize for the word of the Year 1999!
Apart from this, I have to say that the real challenge for me
has been German syntax.
Why is German syntax so difficult for native speakers of languages such as
English, Italian or Spanish?
German syntax - as the word itself suggests - is the way you form sentences, that is
how you put together words in order to convey meaning.
In German the whole thing works a bit differently than in Romance languages
or in English.
When you have only the main clause which starts with a subject,
that poses no difficulty.
For example, in German you would say "Berlin ist eine coole Stadt" (Berlin is a cool city)
Fiuu, that was relatively easy!
But then when you add "Ich finde, dass" (I think that) by adding a relative clause, then you can have
some problems, since you will have to put the verb at the end of the sentence:
"Ich finde, dass Berlin eine coole Stadt IST" (I find that Berlin is a cool city)
Ok, that's still feasible.
But listen to this sentence, which was taken by the novel "The Metamorphosis"
"He lay on his armour-hard back and saw, as he lifted his head up a little,
his brown, arched abdomen divided up into rigid bow-like sections.
From this height the blanket, just about ready to slide off completely, could hardly stay in place".
As you can imagine, the word order can be confusing and you need tme
to get used to manage it in real time,
when you will engage with native speakers.
Again, a great topic for another video!
Ok, now, should you come to the conclusion that German is impossible to learn?
No, not at all!
In fact, every language has its own specific features.
If you want to learn it, when you learn exactly WHY, and if you find a method
that works for you and that is fun, then all these grammatical difficulties
will be no obstacle at all.
And when you learn German with passion,
your brain will absorb the language quickly.
Trust me.
In 2010 I sat the infamous C2 exam of the Goethe Institut, and
I focused on perfecting my skills, because
I got accepted at a prestigious Conference school in Paris, where a very high level in the language was required.
In order to improve my skills, I started listening to news and podcast every day,
and I started reading a ton of books and magazines, and I used to watch at least 3 times a day episodes from "Tatort",
a crime series that every German knows.
You can find a lot of links and resources in my blog,
which I have left for you to enjoy.
During that time, I also made friends with native speakers
and I learned a few colloquial expresions that you won't get
from TV or dictionaries.
And I think that that is what made the difference: I started using the language for real
When you want to speak a language, it should become part of your life.
I am incredibly happy that German has become part of my life.
It is a beautiful language which has allowed me to get to know interesting people
read incredible books, watch movies and
have unforgettable experiences.
Without knowing German all that would not have been possible.
So, here is my story with German.
I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope that it has inspired you.
If you are interested, I can make other videos about German
and explain to you more in detail how to manage grammar, syntax, prepositions and
other tricky features.
And to conclude, a question for you
Are you learning German, or do you already speak it fluently?
What were the biggest difficulties with the language and which topics
would like me to address?
Let me know in the comment section!
And as always, thank you for watching, and see you in the next video!