How I learned German. How to learn German? My experience, my story about how I learned German! Follow development

Here I will not tell you any secret way to learn a foreign language, because it’s all about working intensively with the language during all these months. But still, I will tell you in general terms how I learned to speak German fluently (and by this I mean say what I wanted to say or what I needed to say) in about six months. Konjunktiv II ? - No problem. Polite conversation? - Absolute! Scold someone? Well, that too...

Do not misunderstand me. It was very difficult to learn German in six months. I started at level A2 (the second level of entry level) and reached level C2 (the highest level), and I achieved this largely thanks to extracurricular work. It was really difficult, painful, but at the same time even fun and inspiring.

Here is how it was:

My first German lessons

First, in the summer of 2002, I began taking individual lessons with a wonderful teacher at a language school in Frankfurt. In total we conducted 20 classes. I was in Germany at the time and had absolutely nothing to do, so to fill my free time, I took these classes and did my homework. My teacher taught me the basics of the language and German grammar, and when correcting my mistakes, she told me exactly what I did wrong and why.

Another advantage of such classes was that I didn’t listen to and remember other people’s mistakes! I heard only my voice and the voice of the teacher and was completely occupied with improving the quality of my language.

Upon returning home, I repeatedly reviewed the material I had learned and used it to write emails to my friends in Germany. I actually attended classes for a year, from the summer of 2002 to the summer of 2003.

Months 1-2

Then, in the summer of 2003, when I moved to Germany, I went to classes at the Goethe-Institut in Dusseldorf for two months in a row. I attended two intensive courses and the leader assessing our knowledge even noticed that I could formulate a lot, despite the fact that at that time I only had basic knowledge of German, acquired in those 20 individual lessons. The leader's name was Mr. Flukh, and he took me to his intermediate course.

Although there was one small problem... That summer in Germany there was an abnormal heat wave, and the classrooms had no air conditioning, only a couple of fans. And to be honest, I panicked when Mr. Flukh gave us a worksheet with tasks for declensions of nouns, because I knew absolutely nothing about it. It was hot, the topic turned out to be very difficult...

The only salvation was our teacher, Mr. Flukh. He literally filled our consciousness and our studies with the German language. For almost a whole month we persistently studied German and reinforced our knowledge by doing homework. On the advice of our teacher, we went to the library to find additional sources of information. He was very straightforward. I tried my best, did my homework, but still did not understand these declensions. When I handed him the sheet with the completed task, he looked through it, marked something there with a green pen... then marked it again... and said: "Das können Sie besser machen. Schreiben Sie es neu." (You can do this much better. Rewrite).

My heart sank, although I knew he was right. But it was really very difficult. I went home, rewrote the assignment and returned it to the teacher. This time he didn't fix anything for me. I began to believe in my strength.

Months 3-6

After these 2 months I moved to Lippstadt, but I had not yet found a job, so I had a lot of free time. I chose two classes for myself that really helped me learn German quickly:

1. I watched the TV series “Little House on the Prairie” in German dubbing every day for several weeks. It was shown on cable every day at one o'clock in the afternoon, so I had time to prepare lunch at half past twelve, eat it before one o'clock and then watch the episode. While watching, I memorized phrases, idioms and everyday spoken German. It was also great because I had already watched the series as a child, so I knew what it was about when I rewatched it in German.

So great!

2. I turned on the EuroNews channel, which broadcasts around the clock, and listened to it all day. The news there is repeated every 10 minutes, so I heard the same reports several times a day, thereby increasing the number of repetitions of the same material. I tell my students to repeat the same thing, the more often the better! Every time I walked through the living room or did chores in the kitchen, I listened to the same news reports. By the end of the day, I could already understand which words I didn’t remember and looked up their meaning in the dictionary.

I learned some of the subtleties of the language because I went to the bakery every day. I bought bread for a couple of days, so I had a reason to go to the bakery more often and communicate with native speakers. I tried to go there in the morning, so that I could spend about 5 minutes having a pleasant conversation with one of the saleswomen, because she was willing to communicate with me. She, of course, thought that she was only selling me bread and sweets, but in fact she also taught me German!

By the time I got a job 2 months later, I already felt much more confident and comfortable in German-speaking society. I knew that I could already learn what I needed. Then I started teaching English, and I could easily arrange a meeting with the parents of my students over the phone, and I also got a job as a vocal teacher (I perform classical works). Applying for these positions, going through interviews and starting work all forced me to become fluent in German because I needed to communicate a lot, I was out of my comfort zone and I became quite good at expressing myself in German.

I didn’t learn German like everyone else, but on a free schedule, so to speak, but I took advantage of it! And I got everything I could out of him. I tell my students in Germany: you have a responsibility to look for opportunities for yourself. That is:

If you have the opportunity to work remotely (even if only for a short time), definitely try to spend part of your summer in Germany. Pack your bags and get ready for a total immersion in the German language.

Choose for yourself when to practice the language. One of my students downloaded audio tracks from a study disk into his player and listened to them every time on the way to work and back. This is a great way to spend an extra hour a day learning German!

Make everything work for you. If you like to drink coffee in the morning and scroll through the Internet news feed, like me, for example, subscribe to some podcast or automatic newsletter, and every morning you will have something to read in German. I read 3-4 of these blogs in the morning, so I'm aware of things that interest me. If you have level B1 or B2 (Intermediate level), this will be very useful for you.

How do you learn German? Often? Is it difficult for you? Share your stories in the comments!

Translated:
Veronica Khorovinkina,
Start Deutsch team

Today is exactly 10 days since I have been learning German. Or rather, UCHU is a strong word. While I'm listening to the dialogues, this is the first exercise of a whole program for beginners. In my message to the readers of this blog, I wished each of you to make a list of realistic goals for this year and write down an action plan for achieving them. I shared with you some of my goals for 2014, one of which is: to learn German at a level sufficient to communicate with foreigners abroad on general topics.

I thought about the method of learning German and decided that I don’t want and won’t learn the language the old fashioned way. I don’t want to get bogged down in a bunch of textbooks and notebooks, like I did at the university, where I studied English for 5 years. And if you also remember school, the desire to learn a foreign language disappears completely!

I went a different way. Last year I wrote about my impressions of visiting a conference where polyglots spoke and talked about various methods of learning languages.

None of them were fixated on books, as we were used to studying at school. In my opinion, this is where the dislike for learning languages ​​comes from - it was completely uninteresting to read about some Ivan Petrov, John or Steve and Mr. Smith, who get up every day at 7 am, wash, have breakfast and go to school or work . At the university it was already more interesting, of course, but still I don’t want to bury myself in textbooks))

Nowadays, thank God, a lot has changed: Audio and video tasks have been introduced into the methodology for learning foreign languages, and, of course, we never even dreamed of the textbooks that are being published now. BUT, as I mentioned above, I don’t want any textbooks - my childhood memories are too strong))) And, besides, I don’t want to spend a lot of time learning the language: not an hour, much less 2 hours a day I’m not ready to give it up. I know that many people go to courses about 2-3 times a week and spend 1.5-2 hours studying in a group or individually. DON'T WANT!)))

And I’m also not yet ready to follow some of the advice of polyglots speaking at the conference - for example, a very popular method is communicating with a native speaker via Skype. Being an absolute zero in German, I still can’t imagine how I would communicate via Skype, for example, with a real German)))) I’ll leave this method for later. I decided to hold off on this because... I have absolutely no base, NONE at all. I didn’t learn German and, as they say, I only know a couple of words.

But at the same conference I learned that in order to learn a language at a more/less normal level for communication, All you need to do is spend 30 minutes a day! This is what I need!!! You can always find half an hour. But there is one BUT and very important: you need to do this EVERY DAY. Those. Every day for 30 minutes and the result will not be long in coming.

And the most important thing: it is desire and motivation. Moreover, the desire must be very, very strong, otherwise you will give up in a week!

Meanwhile, to lay the base, I bought a CD with a program for beginners from the “Talk to Me” Platinum series. They produce CDs for learning 5 languages: English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. I have the most basic German course, although it sounds like “beginner-intermediate”, but in any case, the number goes to 1. The program is installed on the computer - everything is intuitively simple. You can even set your own individual language learning plan. But I didn’t do this, I started from the very first exercise. When you pass it, the next one flashes, and so on in turn until you complete everything. Naturally, as you progress through the material, they will become more complex.

First exercise- these are mini-dialogues on the topic of getting up, greetings, getting to know each other, how someone is doing, who is how old, finding out family details (who is married, who is single, whether there are children, etc.), who lives where (in which country, who has which house or apartment) and so on.

Each dialogue consists of only 4 sentences, and I have already completed 13 such dialogues, I think there are 3 or 4 left to complete this first exercise. I really like it and so far this method of studying really suits me. Completely stress-free: you listen and remember the words, intonation, you can look at the translation, there are pictures for the topic (photos), there is also the opportunity to practice phonetics by listening and repeating the words.

I personally find it very difficult with phonetics: somehow it’s not very possible to repeat everything correctly - sounds that are complex in the German language... Or is it just out of habit? Something is given, but something is not very good ((There are differences from English.... By the way, the correctness of your sound reproduction is reflected on a 7-point scale (I usually display an average of 4-5 points, rarely do any words reach as much as 7 points!))) Well, never mind, phonetics is, of course, not the biggest problem in learning foreign languages, although you want to speak beautifully! Apparently, I will practice it with foreign native speakers, looking into their mouths and watching the movement of the tongue

Grammar is also, of course, affected here. And by clicking on the word of interest, you can view information about it, for example, verb conjugation. But I don’t pay attention to this, but I teach it as it is in a phrase, without going into details, why a different ending appeared in an already familiar word. I decided to learn the language like a child. After all, when a baby is born, no one explains to him that this word is a verb and it is conjugated like this)))) The child simply hears words and phrases and correlates them with the action, with what is happening around him and remembers ready-made expressions, without all sorts of explanations, declensions and conjugations. I decided to follow the same path and not clog my head with grammatical rules. Let everything take its course.

Maybe this program will have separate lessons dedicated to grammar, I’ll tell you later, because... I decided to describe the whole process of learning German directly on the blog. It's kind of an experiment!) I have set a goal and want to achieve it: within a year I will learn to understand and speak German. In the summer I want to be able to communicate with foreigners on simple topics, that is, now for the next six months I have a subtask - first to master conversational German.

So, during these 10 days:

• I spent a minimum of my time (I studied for 30-40 minutes a day) listening to dialogues and repeating words after the speaker (by the way, the pace of speech in the exercises is fast and lively!). They speak in both male and female voices. In my opinion, during this time I missed 2 days in the program, i.e. I didn’t listen to new dialogues and didn’t repeat old ones, but these days I gave myself a dictation and wrote down the words I had already learned so as not to miss a day in studying. Thus, the allotted 30 minutes were still actually worked out every day. And here I made one important conclusion for myself: if I want to quickly achieve the desired result and start speaking sooner, then, naturally, I need to quickly go through all the exercises (and there are sooooo many of them, I can no longer afford to stretch out the completion of each exercise for 10 days), so I increase the daily time for learning German from 30 minutes to the exact 40. 40 minutes is also quite a bit per day, but on the other hand, in these additional 10 minutes you can repeat each sentence 10 more times, and you will definitely remember it))))
• You need to learn words! They won't get into your head on their own. Therefore, after each dialogue, I write down the words and “learn” them during the day - not that I teach, I just look at them: I put a piece of paper in front of me on the table and no, no, I’ll look at it, read one, two words, that’s how they are remembered, i.e. I don't cram for myself. But I arrange dictations))) I divide the sheet into 2 halves: on the left I write words and expressions from dialogues in Russian, on the right I translate, then check. This must be done if you want not only to be able to speak, but also to write words correctly. Writing is also important to me, so I remember how words are written.

My vocabulary is 66 words. Of course, this is very little and I will actually increase the time I study German to 40 minutes a day to make things go faster. But, if you look from the other side, this is ALREADY 66 new words + brain function)) Learning foreign languages ​​prolongs life and brain activity! And this is already a big step forward, because 10 days ago I had no idea about the German language, and if I had not started learning it, I would have remained at the same level, not knowing where to start and how start learning the language... I would have kept putting it off.

• And there is another important point in learning a foreign language - creating a language environment around yourself, which was also discussed at the conference. I started by listening to the radio, but they speak little German there, naturally, there is a lot of music, and especially English songs, unfortunately ((So, I went further and set up online television on my computer (though not everything works like online broadcast, a lot of recorded programs), but it doesn’t matter, the main thing is that you constantly hear German speech. So, every day I hear this language and ALREADY catch in their speech the words and expressions I have learned. I am very pleased)) The general meaning is still I don't understand.

P.S.: I really like Austria, so I listen and watch radio and television broadcasts from Vienna. I don’t know whether the Austrian language is much different from classical German, but I think that on radio and television a language very close to pure German is heard, although this does not matter to me... I’m just more interested in the Austrian version of German

Read on to continue learning German.

Hello, my dear readers and guests! Let me introduce myself again (in case you don’t know), my name is Marina Schatz.

A1-2. Start.

It all started when I met a handsome young man on the Internet. Later it turned out that he lives in Germany. I fell in love. Head over heels. And I began to become interested in the German language. I decided to learn it on my own, then German appeared in my institute, I tried very hard, did all my homework, but my head was still a mess! So I reached a level between A1 and A2.

Later I passed this Start Deutsch A1 test with flying colors. Certificate in hand. Happy.

B1. Next important step

All this time we actively communicated with the young man (not in German haha). He even came to a meeting in Russia. And then it dawned on me to go to German courses in Germany and at the same time meet him there.

I signed up for the B1 course for about a month. I attended the course for the whole month and met my lover after it... oh, it was a carefree, fun, and romantic time!

After my studies in Germany, I only received confirmation that I studied at that school. I didn't take the exam.

And so... in the winter, before I left home on the bridge, my dear and beloved proposed marriage to me. Wow, I was happy..aaand I had an even greater incentive to learn the language! We started collecting documents (by that time I had graduated from university), received a fiancee visa, having an A1 certificate.

Having moved to Germany, I took integration courses at a fairly good school at level B1. Passed the exam. The certificate has been received. I'm glad. But this was not enough for me. I moved on.

See materials for German level B1 here >>>

B2. It’s a bit difficult, but you work on all your Skills!

I chose the B2 + Beruf course because I wanted to work. And my knowledge in B1 did not give me the confidence in communicating with Germans that I wanted. In general, my poor brain haha.. I studied every day in the morning at school for 4 hours, after 4 hours at home. Plus communication on the street, a la in a store.

Yes, this level was difficult, but it gave me a lot. Much of my grammar knowledge has become well established, the confusion has gone out of my head, and a fairly good (but not ideal) vocabulary has appeared. In general, B2 + Beruf improved my German skills.

C1 + Beruf. Well, wow. For what?

A to ensure that all certificates are in the collection. Haha))))

In fact, I got the opportunity to make this level for free and of course I took advantage of it. Plus, I’ve heard from many people that they hire people with a level of C1 or higher for good jobs. And I needed a good job hahaha...well..

So this level is just AWESOME! I thought I wouldn't give it up! It was very difficult. Yes, this is like a repetition of all the grammar, but there is still a lot of vocabulary, and specific vocabulary for work. It was necessary to compose a lot of dialogues, essays, and talk on all sorts of topics. In general, only a few people passed this level from the course, along with me. I still remember with goosebumps this exam and how stupid I was there. So, there is a certificate!

Articles for levels B2-C1 here >>

C2 Level. Are you completely crazy?

Yes, I must have gone crazy. But I need this certificate. Now I’ll tell you...

After I received the C1+ Beruf certificate, I got a job as a teacher in a German school and am still working here. I teach all subjects that students study. At first it was difficult to integrate into German society. Even though I had this C1, I still didn’t understand a lot of what my colleagues and children were saying. I constantly had to listen to what they were saying with my ears and brain strained. This is tough. But little by little I got used to it and learned a bunch of words in addition, and consolidated other speech expressions. And what can I say, at work or at university you learn German faster and you start speaking not like a turtle, but normally.

Why do I need C2 now? Simply because to improve your level of work. I need it.

Now I don’t even know if I can pass C2 or not, but I’ll try. For now I’m thinking of preparing on my own because I don’t have time for courses due to work and the baby. Eh...I wish I could!

What helped me learn German?

1. Of course, I will put in first place - DESIRE. A huge burning desire. Interest in language.

No interest? Be interested, understand WHY you need this language! If you want to live comfortably in Germany and work at a normal job, then you are interested in learning it, or, well, a necessity. Necessity is also very motivating.

2. German courses in Germany(or at least at the Goethe Institute at the embassy, ​​or alternatively a native speaker teacher). More details about the experience here >>

The courses provide discipline and provide the opportunity to communicate in German not only with yourself and the teacher, but also with other course participants.

3. Reading.

Reading books helped me a lot. I read aloud almost every day. Even my husband forced me sometimes. Poor thing, his ears must have curled into a tube hahaha. Reading out loud greatly improves your speech, and reading silently improves your thoughts in German.

This series is quite lively, light and very informative in terms of vocabulary. I really loved watching it and repeating after them what the characters said. I wrote down phrases that were interesting to me. It is very important to repeat like a parrot (but consciously) after native speakers. Be monkeys and parrots, repeat all the interesting phrases in German that native speakers say.

5. Cards.

I learned a lot using cards that I made myself. These were cards with both vocabulary and grammar. You can practice them every day. I even made my own vocabulary cards for A1-2 for my readers (). They are also very good on the road, you print them out, put them in your pocket, you go and learn them, you attach them.

6. Communication with native German speakers.

This could be a teacher from a course, a friend of your significant other, or best of all, colleagues and work, or a university and students. The best way to learn a language is at work and at university.

7. Additional materials.

I bought various courses, textbooks, both online and in print, audio CDs, downloaded all sorts of word lists, and magazines in German. By the way, I can recommend the magazine Deutsch Perfekt ().

8. Radio and German music.

In the car I constantly listened to the radio, German music, news, radio shows. Yes, at first I didn’t really understand anything. But, believe me, when you listen to the same phrases every day (for example, from show inserts), they are simply already sitting in your head and you yourself pronounce them together with the radio presenters. All radios are here

9. Applications for a smartphone.

There are a lot of different applications for learning German. Just type Deutsch lernen into the search and so many applications will come up! (list of interesting applications)

10. Wortschatz.

Learn words not separately, but in phrases/sentences! So much more efficient! Every day 5 offers! Who can do more - I applaud!

I hope you won’t have this question ‘How to learn German’ again! It would be cool if YOU told us in the comments here about your language learning experience and what your current level is. Thank you and wish you success!

Learn German with interest! And I will try to help you with this 😉

Note: this is a translation of an article by Alexander Svanevik. The author describes personal experience.

This article is a summary of an experiment I started in January 2015: learn German in 30 days.
Before starting, I will make 3 reservations:

• “Learned German” means that I am able to speak on simple topics and understand the language (orally and in writing). I did not learn to speak German fluently during this time.

• I do not claim the originality of all ideas in this text. I was inspired by books by Barry Farber and Benny Lewis.

• My native language is Norwegian. This gave me an advantage since it is linguistically close to German.

If you want to quickly read it. In addition to general tips, I created a couple of useful files for learning the language.

Every day I exercised for 30-60 minutes for 30 days (month), so I didn’t spend that much time.

5 principles for effective foreign language learning

I have a hypothesis that there are 5 principles of language learning. The purpose of the experiment is to test their “strength”. Here they are:

1. Set a clear goal.
2. Talking from day one.
3. Focus on frequently used words.
4. Immerse yourself in the language.
5. Monitor development.

Below I will explain how I used these principles.

1. Set a clear goal.

I followed the goal setting approach. The goal is to learn as much German as possible in 30 days. In detail, I was going to accomplish the following key goals:

1. Learn the 1000 most frequently used words.
2. Learn 10 songs by heart.
3. Be able to talk about everyday topics with friends.

Points 1 and 2 are good because they are measurable. But the main point for me was point number 3, although it is not clearly formulated. To make it tangible, I booked a ticket to Berlin and decided that I would speak only German to my friend for the entire weekend.

Since I decided to follow the plan, I told everyone that I would learn German in 30 days. The purpose of such an act is purely psychological. I followed the plan so as not to look like a complete idiot. For 30 days, I was constantly asked: “How is learning German?” I answered: “Sehr gut, danke!”

(Secretly from others, I came up with the idea that I would record a video in Berlin in which I would speak in Deutsch. Which I did on day 29. But I will spare you the awkward video already posted on Facebook.)

2. Talk from day one.

The biggest mistake I could make when learning a language was putting off speaking it “until I was ready.” The tongue is like a muscle. As long as you go to the gym, you're fine. The rest is procrastination and laziness.

To fulfill point No. 2, I was faced with the task of making friends who speak or are learning German. I warned them that I would be online for 30 minutes every day at 20.00 on the appear.in website and posted my URL. I managed to gather 5 people. None of them were native speakers, but some were fluent in German (which is extremely important!), the rest were just starting out.

To stay within the target language and not switch to English or Norwegian, I created a Cheet Sheet that contained the necessary phrases. This piece of paper kept me on my toes and was useful to me in online conversations.

Following the “tongue is a muscle” analogy, I loudly repeated everything he heard or read in German in independent classes. Compared to passive listening and reading, such repetition is imprinted on the brain.

3. Focus on frequently used words

If you don't know Zipf's law, you'll be surprised by this fact: the 100 most commonly used words make up 50 percent of the vocabulary in German films. Take a moment and reflect on this fact. It means that almost every word in a German film is from the top 100.

Illustration of Zipf's law

I found a list and created a GoogleDocs file with the 1000 most commonly used words. They make up 75% of all words in German subtitles. Task: remember their meaning within 30 days. I memorized 30-35 words a day. As far as possible I used my connections with English and Norwegian to learn them. Once a week I exported them to Anki and practiced them.

The “frequency” sheet is one of the cool ideas that came to my mind. It served as an anchor for my subsequent learning.

To test my vocabulary, I tried reading German newspapers and books, underlining words I didn't know. After reading a page or paragraph, I counted the number of words known and unknown to me (calculating the words known / total words in text ratio). At the end of the training period the coefficient was 80-85% - related words with English, Norwegian and context helped me raise 75% of the top 1000.

4. Immerse yourself in the language.

Changed the language to German on Facebook. Watched a bunch of videos on Yabla.

Once I learned the lyrics, I listened to them and hummed them whenever I had free time. I even recorded my attempts to play songs on the guitar. I just won’t show you the video)

It’s difficult to remember just by listening to the song. Therefore, at first I reread them 5-10 times without remembering them. I used Lingq and easily identified which words in the song were unfamiliar to me when listening to a new song.

5. Monitor development.

The Top 1000 Words spreadsheet was great because at any time I knew how much I had already memorized. Since I knew the frequency of each word on the list, I calculated the “volume” of German that I had already learned.

I also kept a simple diary in Evernote describing my actions during the class period. Only one day out of thirty did I do anything.

Other points in learning German in a month

I took the RocketLanguages ​​course, but only completed the first 3 modules.

On day 27, I installed Duolingo and took the level 10 proficiency test. Class!

I didn't study grammar. It was the right decision. I didn’t have a goal to learn to speak like a purebred German in 30 days. To master the cases, I came up with the following scheme. I memorized a set of 4 sentences like: “The man gave the book to the boy” - one sentence for each gender plus the plural. Memorizing four sentences is many times easier than struggling with a table of cases.

Conclusion

To sum it up, I’ll say that I achieved my goal.

I learned 1000 common words (let's add those that I didn't keep track of in the table).

Now I know 10 German songs by heart.

I went to Berlin and had a great weekend there with my friend Daniel. He taught me how to fly a kite.

If you want to try this approach yourself, here is a table for you.

That's all! Either this article will inspire you to take on a 30 day language adventure, or you think I'm crazy. Anyway, let me know what you think of my experiment!

Ecology of life. People: He is 35, and now he is mastering his eleventh language. Italian Luca Lampariello admits that being a polyglot is cool, but does not agree that it is difficult. Here are some of the lessons he learned while studying languages: English and French, German and Spanish, Dutch and Swedish, Russian and Polish, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese.

He is 35, and is now mastering his eleventh language. Italian Luca Lampariello admits that being a polyglot is cool, but does not agree that it is difficult. Here are some of the lessons he learned while studying languages: English and French, German and Spanish, Dutch and Swedish, Russian and Polish, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese.

I want to take you off the beaten path. There is no need to ask yourself the question of how to learn a language - askyourself, why are you teaching him. Experienced polyglots know that it's all about motivation.

Learning languages ​​is not about spending hours poring over textbooks. It's about traveling to wonderful places, meeting amazing people, savoring delicious food and also getting to know yourself. That's what fuels my motivation. Knowledge of languages ​​helps me bring all this to life.

LESSON 1

A language cannot be taught, it can be learned. It's great if someone helps, but let it be a guide, not an instructor.

I started learning English at the age of 10, in 1991. This was a required subject. At first things didn’t go well: I didn’t like the teacher, I didn’t understand the grammar, the material seemed boring.

When I was 13, my parents hired me a private teacher. She was a charming woman. She was not coaching, but helping me discover the language. There is nothing better for learning a language than teaching it to love.

I began to read English books avidly, watched films without translation every day, and studied with a teacher for two hours once a week. As a result, at 15 I spoke English fluently, with a strong American accent.

LESSON 2

Language opens the door to a new world. You need to forget about all the obstacles and just fall in love - with the language, with the country, with the people, even with the national cuisine.

I started learning French around the same time as English, and I had the same problems with it. Everything changed at 14: every day I started watching French television for two hours. This gave me more than the previous three years of school. By the age of 15, I already knew French quite fluently.

In 2010 I went to France for three years. French culture made a deep impression on me: history, traditions, the entire cultural context.

LESSON 3

There is no such method of learning languages ​​that would suit everyone. Find your own and you can learn any language on your own. Experiment!

LESSON 4

A foreign language helps us better understand our own. When learning a language related to your own, start speaking immediately. It's easier than it might seem.

Italians have a myth that Spanish is a very easy language: you just need to speak Italian, adding an “s” at the end of each word. Structurally they are really close, but there are fundamental differences in pronunciation, intonation and use of idioms.

In 2007 I was on exchange in Barcelona. I was mostly surrounded by Catalans, plus I lived with a girl from Malaga and took advantage of every opportunity to communicate with the Spaniards. And the tongue just imprinted itself on me.

LESSON 5

There are no unnecessary languages: any one will come in handy someday. Do not succumb to stereotypical judgments, be guided by your interests and beliefs.

We met Lotte from the Netherlands in Sardinia. She didn't speak English very well, and although we had a lot of fun together, we were still very upset that we couldn't fully communicate. So I decided to learn her language. And although we broke up, I now have Dutch in my luggage.

I knew that one day I would need it, and I was right. Now I speak it every day with my Dutch neighbor. I improve my knowledge easily, effortlessly and with interest. In a word, you don't have to go to a country if you want to learn its language.

LESSON 6

Work on your pronunciation from the very beginning to avoid making mistakes.

I was thinking about learning some Scandinavian language, and my Italian friend gave me a Swedish tutorial for my birthday. Thanks to its special intonation, it sounds like music to me, but at first I could not grasp it.

In 2004, I went to Stockholm for the first time and was captivated by Swedish culture. I tried to speak more Swedish, watched Swedish films and read books, mainly thrillers, which the Scandinavians are famous for.

What's especially great is if you know Swedish, all Scandinavians will understand you.

LESSON 7

If you're struggling with a language and you're ready to give up, think about how to rekindle your interest in it. Go to the country, find people to talk to, watch a movie, make a video on YouTube. Something will work.

After the Romance-Germanic languages, I wanted something new. Russian seemed exotic: incredibly rich, sophisticated and fascinatingly complex.

Thinking in Russian was like solving a mathematical puzzle. I couldn't fathom how the Russians deal with this every day. There was no one to help me, and after 8 months I began to think that I had made a mistake in choosing this language. I haven't seen much progress. For the next three years I did little. And then I decided to post a video on Youtube where I speak Russian.

The response stunned me. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would receive so many positive comments. Russians consider their language difficult and inaccessible to foreigners, so when they hear someone somehow pronouncing a couple of phrases in Russian, they are delighted. After that, I took Russian seriously and gradually began to master the labyrinth of Russian grammar.

LESSON 8

If you plan everything well, you can study two languages ​​in parallel.

I started learning European Portuguese at the same time as Mandarin Chinese. I had never had to learn two languages ​​at once before, so I set some rules for myself.

Portuguese, like Spanish, came naturally to me. You just had to pay attention to the pronunciation, not everything is simple with him. Unstressed vowels are almost swallowed there, and sometimes it seems that speech consists of only consonants. Therefore, it sometimes sounds similar to Russian.

People sometimes ask me why I chose European Portuguese and not Brazilian, which is much more common. But the thing is that often I don't choose the language. I let the language choose me.

LESSON 9

Travel is a great motivator. Travel anywhere as much as possible: it encourages you to learn languages.

In 2012, I visited Poland for the second time and simply fell in love with this country and its people. In addition to the fact that I used my own translation technique, my Polish friend Michal and I regularly conducted Peer language teaching classes. I highly recommend this approach if you are learning Slavic languages ​​and already know one.

Although Russian and Polish are completely different in many ways, they are structurally very similar, and knowing one makes learning the other much easier.

LESSON 10

Don't be intimidated by learning languages ​​that have a reputation for being "difficult."

I heard that Chinese is terribly difficult, and I didn’t even intend to learn it. But the success of my first YouTube video spurred me on, and I began to look for a new challenge. I started learning Chinese on my own, and it really was a challenge!

But if someone tells you that it is impossible to learn Chinese on your own, do not believe it. It has its difficulties, but some things turn out to be simpler than one might expect. The main thing is to master the tones and hieroglyphs. Otherwise, Chinese is no more difficult than other languages.

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LESSON 11

Some languages ​​are really quite special, so keep a flexible approach. If your usual study method is not working, change it. Do not give up!

I saw learning Japanese as another challenge. But I had no idea it could be so difficult. I couldn’t construct a basic sentence—Japanese’s structure is so different from any other language I know. At first I thought that this problem was temporary and could be resolved by regular speaking practice, but it turned out that this was not the case.

Japanese remains my biggest challenge to this day, but I can still cope with it. You only need reconsider your approaches and immerse yourself in it. published