How hard would it be to learn German, if I can speak English and French?
I’m in high school, and im trying to decide if I should take German 1 next year along with French 3. I really like the German language, but it seems really different from French. Im also afraid if I take two languages , I’ll get confused. How hard is German to learn, and would it be a bad idea to take it next year?
I think it won’t be that difficult since German and English are both Germanic languages. You will find along your learning process a lot of similarities between these two languages.
My native language is Spanish and have never in my life learn anything about Portuguese and Italian, but since these languages are all Latin, is very easy to understand a Portuguese or an Italian person and viceversa.
Greetings.
it is really different.
the thing here is, how much do you LIKE languages ?
If you like it, it isn’t really hard. but German certainly isn’t something one learns fast.
the 3rd year French will be easier. German has almost nothing in common with the romance languages. verb endings are different.
BUT YOU WON’T GET CONFUSED between the 2. i can’t explain how it works, but i was taking Latin 2, French 1, and had already had Spanish.
somehow, they don’t get confused. it is like each language is stored in a different file folder in your brain.
Mark Twain said you can learn English in 30 hours,
French in 30 days, and German in 30 years.
that is an exaggeration of course - but it does reflect the complexities. (I actually would bet that learning French would take LESS time than learning English.)
References :
Comment by nickipettis — August 17, 2009 @ 2:41 am
I speak fluent English (my first language) and have an excellent understanding of the French language (and Italian) and when I went to learn German, I was terribly confused by all the clauses and verbs etc. German is incredibly different to French, and despite having many similarites with English, you have to remember that English has a lot of very complicated grammar, that we don’t even think about, and so it doesn’t really help much with German…
However, if you are sufficiently eager to learn German, and put a lot of work into it, you’ll be able to do it. After all, I wasn’t taking a class, I was teaching myself. As for getting confused, because French and German are so different in spelling, grammar etc., I don’t think it’s particularly likely!
Good Luck, whatever you do!
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Comment by Mossy42 — August 17, 2009 @ 3:17 am
I think it won’t be that difficult since German and English are both Germanic languages. You will find along your learning process a lot of similarities between these two languages.
My native language is Spanish and have never in my life learn anything about Portuguese and Italian, but since these languages are all Latin, is very easy to understand a Portuguese or an Italian person and viceversa.
Greetings.
References :
Comment by Ole GS — August 17, 2009 @ 4:05 am
zomggg! :O YAMAAAA!! xDD
ur actually asking a question on here o.o ZOINKS! o.o haha xDD
anddd it IS diff from french, not too much from english…umm! \ but i dont think u’ll get too confused
(i only know one language… -_-)
haha xD
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Comment by Xx$asu サスケ の天使™- wuvs OLI SYKES! — August 17, 2009 @ 4:40 am
" think it won’t be that difficult since German and English are both Germanic languages"
I am from Austria (Austria, not Australia) and I can tell you that’s not true. English grammar is much easier than the german one, and they don’t have much in common. At least I think so.
You don’t have to worry about mixing it up with French - first of all the languages are totally different and secondly: I speak 4 foreign languages and have never had a problem. You just have to study enough =)
I guess at the beginning German’s difficult to learn, but once you understand the basics it’ll get easier.
Bah I just read through what I’ve written and I guess I really need another english course…haven’t spoken english for months.
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Comment by Petzi — August 17, 2009 @ 5:03 am
I heartily recommend Rocket German.
It’s a fun, effective way to learn the language.
http://learn-german.notlong.com/
And it’s much more cheaper than other options…
Good luck
References :
http://learn-german.notlong.com/
Comment by Isabella B — August 17, 2009 @ 5:29 am
I heartily recommend Rocket German.
It’s a fun, effective way to learn the language.
http://learn-german.notlong.com/
And it’s much more cheaper than other options…
Good luck
References :
http://learn-german.notlong.com/
Comment by Lukas A — August 17, 2009 @ 5:44 am
just get some revsion books and grammer books, there is a slew of them online. Rosetta stone porbably being the most popular, however it does cost about $500. This one is just as good but doesnt cost as much http://quickfrench.notlong.com
References :
http://quickfrench.notlong.com
Comment by Mikayla R — August 17, 2009 @ 6:29 am