hey kitkat! hope you're doing well! so im trying to teach myself german as im going there for studies, and i was wondering do you have any resources you can guide me to for learning a new language? since you've taught yourself gaelige. i have been doing duolingo but i want something more intensive if you're aware of anything like that. i try listening to german music and stuff but im not at the level yet where it makes any sense to me lol, but yeah any resources you're aware of aside from duolingo that would be free or cheap?
oh hello, what a lovely question!
my language-learning resources tend to be Very Specifically Irish - i can't really rec any centralized hub of language lessons other than duolingo, bc almost none of the big ones HAVE irish. the online gaeilgeoirΓ community is Heavily DIYed because so few resources exist. so my personal stuff is mostly gaeilgeoirΓ making their own sites and lessons and forums specifically for teaching irish.
if anyone reading is a native german speaker or german second language speaker with good resources, PLEASE rb or reply!!
with that said: i CAN give you tips for how to get a good foundation. these are going to be annoying but i swear to god they work:
immersion really is that important. i wrote up a long paragraph about why & then decided it was too wordy, but suffice it to say: during the weeks that i listen to raidiΓ³ na gaeltachta while i'm out driving, even when i can't understand 80% of the conversation, it is suddenly 10,000 times easier to construct sentences n learn new irish vocab. despite not following a damn thing!
treat yourself like a baby who is experiencing language for the first time & your brain will respond like a baby who is experiencing language for the first time.
switch your computer/phone and browser language to german. this will be vexing at first but will pay off i promise LMAO
do you play video games?? if any of your games have a german translation in settings, try that! (amogus has an official irish translation. it rocks)
do you like any mainstream book series?? if they're popular enough, there's a good chance there's a german translation. see if you can get your hands on a german copy of a familiar comfort story.
bonus points for simple elementary school / YA level lit.
do you listen to podcasts? if so, see if you can find any german language podcasts about your hobbies/interests!
EXTRA bonus points if there is an official (not AI) transcript that you can use to follow along. god i wish podcasts as gaeilge did this.
similarly, look for german youtubers who make content about your hobbies/interests!
do you watch any mainstream english language movies/tv shows? keep the english audio & use german subtitles (when available). if you wanna rewatch stuff you can also swap to german dub + english subtitles (when available). or graduate to german dub AND german subs!
hmu off anon if you'd like some decent π΄ββ οΈoptions that often have multi-language subs available.
see if there are any german shows or movies that pique your interest. i like to try to parse things without subtitles first, then go back and rewatch with english subs to see how wrong i was. DJSJDH
and yeah keep listening to german music!
you will learn any language MUCH faster when it's your main road to connection with someone. english is pretty commonly spoken in germany afaik, but you Gotta find some non-english-speaking german friends who will make your life difficult on purpose (read: patiently let you muddle through conversations with them without machine translating everything).
obviously you will make friends once you're studying in germany. in the meantime, though, start online!
does anyone have a list of german language subreddits?? and/or forums??
also, does your school have an online community? official or unofficial, it doesn't matter. anywhere you can see what students are chatting about.
i think the most important thing here is finding people who share your interests. so you're not talking about the german language with them, you're talking about your common ground IN german. you will pick up vocab faster when it's related to your interests!
tying back into the last point. you gotta start speaking and writing right away. there is no point at which you'll think "okay, i've done enough vocab lessons" and then magically be able to pull full essays out of thin air. you gotta speak and write. badly. you gotta make peace with being bad at it. and with awkwardly translating phrases & then getting weird looks bc what you said makes no sense....
post on german learning subreddits. see if you can find a buddy who's willing to DM on the daily! that's a great boon for writing, even if it's harder to find someone to speak with aloud.
oh, and see whether there are any free german classes in your area? or events for german learners! with irish there are sometimes "pop-up gaeltachts," which are social events people attend to practice their clumsy irish in person :)
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