Hey guys, welcome to my channel.
Today is another interesting topic.
I'm going to talk about German language.
As you know my native language is Russian
and I speak English pretty well,
I guess.
And I also speak German.
ich spreche Deutsch
for the German who watch my video.
My story with German is very compicated.
When I was 12 years old,
we had to choose a second language at school.
So my first language was English
I started to learn it when I was four.
But then I had to choose a second language.
I had to choose between French and German
I don't really like how French sounds
The choice was pretty obvious but
I also didn't really like German language
because I didn't get why would I need it.
I totally understood why I needed English
because English is everywhere
I wanted to go to States or UK to study
but why would I need German?
But my mum was like "You have to learn German"
because education in Germany is free.
I don't remember how old I was. I think I was 12
I thought I start studying in five years
I'd be able to learn my German
but she was like "Go ahead and learn it"
So I went there
I wasn't interested at all
I spent three years at school learning German
And I couldn't say a word.
I knew some basic phrases like
Ich hei?e Marina
All the basic stuff
if you learn German
When I realised
I might actually need German language because
higher education is free in Germany
if you know German, it's easier to find the program
They actually have 3 programs in English as well
If you know German the choice is wider
And you can work during your studies
You wouldn't be able to work with your English
in Germany.
I started private classes
with my friend's mother
That was better but she was so kind to me
and told me "I know you so busy at school
It's not a problem you haven't done your homework"
It was like that till I was 17
and when I was 17 I went to Russian University
I realised that if want to transfer to the German University,
I really need to start studying German now.
I went to Goethe-Institut
which is an amazing place
because they have small groups,
they have amazing teachers.
And once I was in a group
This is when I started studying
because when I was alone
with a private teacher I didn't have any competitors
and I'm very competitive.
When I saw people speaking better German than me
I thought I really need to move forward
And here is my first tip
what I did to learn new words.
I listened to Tokio Hotel
I know many people hate this group
sorry, hate this band
They think they are for teenagers
they used to be for teenagers
and they used to be so mainstream
so everybody would hate them
but I loved them
I loved every single song
I would transate everything and I would learn words
and I was so proud of myself
when I understood their new songs.
This is what really motivated me
to learn German.
And when I started to watch German series
which is like German for beginners
this is actually German TV series
it's not really for foreigners
it's just about a family in Germany
and ther's a girl who's like 15
she falls in love with her stepbrother
something like that
And I was really excited about those series
I learnt a lot of new words
because I watched it in original
with subtitles
My German was A2-B1 by then
And when I turned 18
I realised the only way for me to start speaking German
would be to go to study German abroad.
I already went to the UK
two years before that
I knew how the sytem worked
I went to the local agency in St.Petersburg and asked them
how much would it cost me to go to Germany for 2 weeks
to learn German.
They calculated everything and said like
2 thousand euros.
I was like really, so expensive.
I started to Google everything myself
And I actually found my school
Which is BWS German Lingua
It's in Berlin.
I went to Berlin
I googled my school
I realised that the price is much lower
then the price that the agency offered
It was 650 euros for 2 weeks.
I stayed with an amazing family
I booked everything myself
it was very difficut because
I had to do all the bank transfers
I had to fill in all the application forms
and it took me 2 weeks to figure everything out
but I was able to do it
this is actually how the idea of Linguatrip
the booking platfrom for all language courses abroad
this is when it came to my mind
this is when I realised I want to do this business
back when it was just an idea
so I booked everything myself
and I went to that German school
and I stayed with an amazing German family
they didn't speak English with me because
they didn't know English
they only spoke German
and it was amazing
because the first word that I leant was Haferflocken
which is porridge
because I eat porridge for breakfast
and I was trying to explain like
Can I have porridge?
She doesn't speak English
and I was like okay
I googled it and it was Haferflocken
This way I learnt a lot of basic words.
that I had to know
but I didn't know
but because I had to communicate with my hostmother
and I've leant all of these words and they were useful
When I went to school
this is where the best part started
because they didn't have any Russian speakers
When you come to a language school
and you realise
50% of your class speaks your own language
this is not really full immersion.
My class was 19% Swiss, 10 % Russian
We had 9 people from Switzerland.
50% of them was speaking Italian,
50% of them was speaking French.
I was the only Russian.
I made a lot of friends.
I made friends with Swiss guys,
with Italian guys,
and we went to Berlinale together,
which was a festival
like film festival.
We did a lot of things without teacher
because he would take us to excursions
And this is when I fell in love with German history.
especially Berliner Mauer
which is a German wall
Berlin wall
when they separated Berlin into two parts
separated families
Very tragic story.
I was very interested in all of that.
I went to all of the museums,
and talked to a lot of people.
And so 2 weeks.
Just 2 weeks in Berlin.
I left in ahead B1 level.
I was at Goethe-Institut
Then 2 weeks passed
I came back to Russia
My German was so fluent
I came back to my group
and said "Hey, I think this is too easy".
But guys at Goethe-Institut told me
"We need to re-test you
in order to evaluate your level now".
They test it again and my level was C1!
If you know it's like B1, B2 and then C1.
So I jumped over one level
just in two weeks.
They all were amazed with my progress.
They like "really, you just went to Germany for 2 weeks".
I was like "yes"
And this is what full immersion does to you.
I had a lot of words in my brain
I had a lot of things which I knew
But because I didn't have a chance to practice it with native speakers
I wasn't in a stressful situation
when I had to use everything I know. 0:08:06.346,0:08:05.923 This situation happened in Germany
because nobody would get what I am saying in English
And this is when all of the words started to come out
and everything started to form
real language
And I was so happy I did it.
Because in two years I got accepted into German technical University
of Dresden.
And I studied maths in German
And I was amazing.
Well,
I wasn't amazing in all of the subjects
But I got very good grades for trigonometrics 0:08:41.906,0:08:39.325 I guess if you're watching this video, you learn German,
you get some of my words.
When I was studying the University
I went back to my host family in Berlin
and talked to them and they were amazed by my progress
Because when I came to Germany to study it was even faster.
My recommendation number one.
Listen to the songs in German
find the band that you like
and translate all of their songs.
Second - watch YouTube bloggers in German
I'm watching Nilam
You can just google her
She's German, she's amazing.
Her German is very easy to understand.
I watch her every now and then
in order to brush up my language.
Third - find TV series in German
I really recommend Deutsch fur Anfanger
Amazing TV series.
Just watch them in original with subtitles.
And fourth go to Germany or Austria or Switzerland.
Whichever accent you like.
BTW Swiss accent is so difficult, I don't get it.
Go there at least for two weeks to study
And you can go to my school, I'll leave the link below.
So you can check out the prices and book it if you want.
Thank you guys for watching this video
Please share your experience of learning German
I'd be really happy to hear your tips because
I'm starting to forget my German now
because I mostly use English for my work and life
Please share your tips,
please tell me if this video was helpful
Subscribe to my channel
I'd love to see you in my other videos as well.
Have a good day, bye!