How I learned German in a year. How not to learn German - learn from my mistakes. Immerse yourself in the tongue

Some asked how I learned the language so quickly (from zero to C1 in ten and a half months). I am happy to share my experience, as well as tips and tricks that helped me.

I hope they will help you too, but I warn you - there will be no easy recipes.

To begin with - the initial data

When a couple of years ago I had a dream - to go to university in Germany - I knew, at best, a couple of phrases from Rammstein songs. It so happened that neither at school, nor after it, I never had the need to learn German. True, I wanted this for a long time, but there were always other, more important things to do.

When I found out that I needed a TestDaF certificate for admission, there was not much time left.

Simple arithmetic: submission of documents for the winter semester - before July 15 (as a rule); the exam is held several times a year, and it takes 5-6 weeks to wait for the result; before the exam, it would be good to take a special course that lasts 4 weeks. That is, in total - 10 weeks. Let's add another two weeks to prepare and send documents (at least, although this is very short) - 12 weeks.

It turned out that at least three months before putting my signature on the coveted Zulassungsantrag (application for a place at the university), I had to speak German at a level not lower than B2.

Cozy courtyard Uni Stuttgart

Advice. Find out as precisely as possible how much time you have. Find out in advance all the deadlines at the chosen university, exam dates and terms of registration for courses (sometimes you need to sign up several weeks in advance and undergo preliminary testing). Do not forget also that all this time you will have many other worries related to admission - preparation of documents, financial and organizational issues, and in addition - basic studies or work. What? Oh yes, privacy. You will have to forget about it. Okay, just kidding - it's not all that scary.

So, I had less than a year. I've read other people's stories before about learning a language at an accelerated pace. This one, for example, inspired me a lot - four and a half months, it's impressive, isn't it? But I had to proceed from the fact that there is - I could not afford any classes in the morning and afternoon, daily five-hour intensives and the like. I had to work five full days a week, if only then, to pay for the courses. Therefore, the program was as follows.

On June 2, 2012, I came to my first lesson, A 1.1, at the Kiev Alpha-Intensiv center (hello, beloved school!). The name speaks for itself - intensive short courses, four to six weeks per sublevel. I did not study anywhere else, only preparation for TestDaF took place at the Goethe-Institut. Studied according to textbooks Hueber - Schritte International... At the first level, there were three classes a week, three hours each.

Advice. Choosing the best school you can afford will pay off, especially if you're really short on time. Look for group activities with a focus on communication, language use and lots of exercise. Yes, and you don't need to feel sorry for yourself - the more you have to work, the better :)

Hueber Tutorials

From the very first days, I determined for myself some rules that I followed throughout my studies, so I can recommend them as effective. Here they are:

1. ALWAYS do ALL your homework.

I had to study my homework at night, on the subway, at lunchtime at work, and even in a dark train carriage, writing almost by touch. I often did even those exercises that were not required, and I still find it indecent to come to class with unfulfilled or unfinished homework.

2. Do what the instructor says.

The teacher, as a guide, must be trusted, without this nothing will work. Repeat the question "What is your name?" and saying your name ten times in a row, singing a children's song, playing sellers and buyers - all these seemingly simple exercises are actually very important. In the classroom, I often noticed that adults are trying to ignore them - they say, we already understood everything, we are not children. In vain. What you hear is forgotten, and games and dialogues make you feel like you are really using the language. So if they say to write a letter to a fictional friend about how you spent the weekend, sit down and write.

3. Obvious, but not so easy in practice - don't be afraid to say something wrong.

I still painfully perceive my mistakes, because I do not like careless handling of languages, and even more so with my beloved German. But I noticed that when I happened to say something completely stupid in class, and they corrected me at the same time, I memorized the word or rule very well. Hence the conclusion - it is better to say stupidity and be corrected than to remain silent, tormented by the consciousness of one's own imperfection, and continue living with mistakes.

4. Learn not only from textbooks.

I also got hold of the book Wortschatz & Grammatik A1 and when I finished my homework I did the exercises from there. There are answers, so you can check yourself.

Advice. Even if you don't live in a German-speaking country, there is a lot of German around you, believe me. Labels on trucks, goods in the supermarket, labels, instructions, signs ... Carry a dictionary with you and open it when you see a new word. A little trick - if you are using an electronic dictionary, then resist the temptation to select a word from the drop-down list of suggestions. Always type a word in its entirety - this way you will remember it faster.

Classes on A1.1 ended at the end of June, and A1.2 began in July. I continued to study in the same mode, but I realized that this was not enough - I still would not have time to pass all the levels in a row. In addition, I did not get to A2 in August according to the schedule (it was during the day during working hours).

Then I decided to go straight to B1 (there was just a suitable group). I found two books Schritte International A2.1 and A2.2 and during July I went through them on my own, analyzed grammar, did exercises and learned words. I didn't manage to go through everything, and then, for several more weeks, I had to fill in the gaps.

Honestly, I still do not think that doing this is very good and right.

If possible, you need to go through all the levels one by one, especially the initial ones, because it is there that there is a lot of important, fundamental knowledge.

I was sorry that many topics had to be looked through quickly and superficially - this way a significant part of the pleasure of learning a language is lost, and the knowledge gained in this way is unstable. Something was forgotten, I had to go back and repeat. But there was no choice.

From the end of July, B 1.1 began. At this level, rather long, complex texts are already written, such as life stories or reviews of films and books. At night I wrote essays, and at the same time tried to finish learning the missing grammar. At first it was not easy, but now I am glad that everything worked out this way - it was a serious incentive, I had to stretch all the time in order to keep up, and the group was excellent then, it was very interesting to study.

So the summer passed. Work during the day, German in the evening and on weekends. In September, B 1.2 started, and then I met a native speaker for the first time - our classes were taught by a teacher from Germany, Kord Peters. Starting from this level, we studied with the EM Neu textbooks. The first two or three lessons were a serious test, but then I got used to it, and here I was already convinced that I did not lag behind my classmates.

Autumn intensive 2012

The long-awaited moment came when the accumulated knowledge began to form into something whole, and it was very pleasant - to feel how the language being studied becomes an obedient instrument.

Along with the study of textbooks, I constantly tried to find some additional sources of inspiration for myself. I really like the songs in German and I translated the lyrics.

I will tell you a secret that my favorite songs became less and less. It turned out that there is such nonsense sometimes ... but how it sounds :) At the same time, I was preparing to enter the university, in this connection, I had to read a lot on this topic (rules for submitting documents, course descriptions and much more). This was important information, so you had to study it very carefully, and at the same time, vocabulary was accumulated.

Advice. Please yourself with something. Love fairy tales - buy a beautiful book of fairy tales in German. Crazy about music - go to a concert of your favorite band. Watch good films in the original, find friends with the same interests. After all, you’re learning a language for a reason, but in order to do what you like - study, work, communicate. Feel that your dream is getting closer.

Fairy tales are good language learning material. Both benefit and pleasure :)

In the process of studying, from the first classes, I kept something like a diary - a notebook with notes on what I learned in the day. I wrote down rules with examples, new phrases, drew diagrams. Another important point - I never write a translation of German words into Russian or another language, but I try to explain new words with familiar ones. At first, when words were still lacking, she drew or pasted pictures.

At the senior levels, I switched to word cards - and then I really appreciated this method, which I had previously neglected. The fact is that cards are often misused. Write one word, and the translation is on the back. I did not use the translation, but replaced it with a synonym in German or an explanation, and also added a couple of phrases for example, which definitely evoked the necessary associations. Now I can say that this method turned out to be quite effective. During the preparation for TestDaF, I learned the phrases necessary for the written and spoken parts in the same way.

Advice. You need to not only make the cards and be glad that you have them, but constantly carry them with you and sort through them in your free time (how, do you still have it?), Until you remember the word, barely glancing at its designation.

2012 ended with course B 1.3. There were three and a half months left before the exam, but in fact, even less - the preparatory course began in March, and in order to get into it, you needed a B2 level.

Then I went to courses B 2.1 and B 2.2 in parallel. One course was three days a week, the second two. A total of 60 hours each. Two more days remained to prepare all the tasks that I did not have time to do in the process.

In January and February, I didn't seem to have a single free minute. In the morning, before leaving the house, I read aloud, which I hung in my room in a conspicuous place. On the way to work, I learned words or repeated grammar. During the break and after work, before leaving for the course, I did the exercises. In the evening I ran to classes. After class, late in the evening, I would come home and sit down to do my homework. On weekends, in order to relax a little and at the same time not to waste time, I watched films in German.

Saturday morning in class. A short break - and back to study!

The end of winter was not very successful. I got sick and spent about a week at home with a high fever. The situation was complicated by the fact that it was necessary to pass the test in order to enroll in the TestDaF course. I didn't think very much then, and squeezed into the framework of the requirements with a terrible creak. When I saw my test essay, with a huge number of mistakes, I wanted to say "This is not mine, they threw it to me." This did not add confidence.

Advice. Learning a language at an accelerated pace is hard work that requires not only discipline (there is no perfection in it), but also strength. Simple physical strength, a limited resource that can end at the most inopportune moment. Therefore, think about how to save energy. Take a shortcut to your home or school, put projects on hold, or let someone else take care of you. Not being able to do everything - you have to choose and be content with what you get.

It is also worth giving up any activities that take a lot of energy, and, even more so, bring stress - it will be enough anyway. Strenuous training, dieting, showdown - all this you cannot afford. This may seem obvious, but you need to eat well and get enough sleep.

It is very important not to cross the line, after which fatigue kills interest, and you just do not want to do anything. Having spent energy, the body will draw them “on debt”, and you will have to pay off.

So B2 was finished and the exam preparation course began. And then fear overcame me. Not even fear - horror-horror! I must say that I have always been very calm about exams, but here everything was different. I realized that there was almost no time left, that my knowledge, acquired at such a pace, was still very shaky, that I was making many stupid mistakes, and there would be only one attempt - there was no time to retake.

Once I even woke up from a nightmare - I dreamed that I mixed up the verbs in the description of the graph steigern and stagnieren... All my answers seemed so weak and uncertain to me that the first two or even three sessions took a lot of effort to force myself to speak. Neither the fact that I understood the course taught in German without any problems, nor quite successfully completed assignments, nor the teacher's approval - nothing helped me to overcome the growing panic.

Fortunately, I realized in time that if this continues, I will not pass the exam, and it does not matter what my level of preparation is. Fear does not help you to do something better. It makes it impossible to use what is - although this is usually enough.

Advice. Do not be afraid. Exams and interviews are, of course, very important events, but fear can ruin everything. Don't give him that opportunity. If you studied conscientiously, if your homework did not cause you any special difficulties, you took into account all the recommendations and, in principle, you can speak and write on any topic so that you will be understood - then you have every chance of success. Almost everything that can be found in tests is passed in the learning process. So it is unlikely that something extraordinary awaits you - the main thing is to calm down and lay out the already existing knowledge to the maximum.

Extreme Student Pack:

1. Die Lehrbücher (Textbooks)
2. Warum nicht? (Audio course)
3. Die Hausaufgaben (Homework)
4. Wortschatz und Grammatik (additional manuals on vocabulary and grammar)
5. Schriftliche Aufgaben (compositions, letters, etc.)
6. Das Lerntagebuch (Study Diary)
7. Die Tablette (tablet - to constantly carry a dictionary, textbooks and reference materials)
8. Die Kärtchen (Cards with words)
9. TestDaF Vorbereitungskurs (exam preparation materials)
10. Starke Verben (Table of Strong Verbs)

I would also like to say about communication with others during the period of such extreme studies. I was lucky - those close to me treated my fanaticism with understanding, supported me as best they could, or, at least, did not interfere. It is important. Explain to your friends that you are fulfilling your life's dream, so do not be offended if you do not watch the series with them or comment on their photos on social networks.

Perhaps there will be those who will say that nothing will come of it. That there is little time, but at school in Ying-language you always had triplets. That you need a special talent and superpowers, inaccessible to mere mortals. Don't argue. Just practice, every day, every free minute. And with those who with a clever look say “Do you need it?”, It is better not to talk at all.

It all ends one day. Yes, you need to learn all your life, but otherwise, fortunately, there are deadlines. On April 18, I passed the exam. When I saw the results, at first I could not even be happy - I just wanted to lie down and sleep for a whole year.

Outcomes

What happened next? After all, getting a certificate is not an end in itself, but only the beginning of the journey. To what extent do the grades correspond to the real level and how do excellent extreme sportsmen, like me, feel when it comes down to business - that is, before coming to Germany and studying at the university?

I hasten to reassure you - the knowledge turned out to be real. In a new place, I had to independently solve many important issues - to enroll in a course (pass immatriculation), get insurance and a bank card, find permanent housing and conclude an agreement. And also to face a thousand everyday trifles, in which one cannot do without German - writing letters, going shopping, asking for directions ... And everything worked out. Yes, it’s not that easy. Even now, a year later, I still make mistakes in simple constructions, when I am very tired or in a hurry, and when they quickly speak Swabian or (horror!) Bavarian dialect, sometimes I don’t understand anything at all. But in the vast majority of cases, from the very first days I felt confident and knew that I would not be lost.

Studying is a little more difficult, but if you think about it, the language barrier has nothing to do with it. In the beginning, there was a lot of disorientation associated with different organizational issues (the German teaching system is very different from ours). Also, some subjects are not easy for me in my native language - for example, mathematics. Not all teachers have perfect pronunciation and Hochdeutsch - this also takes some getting used to. It took courage to go to the board for the first time. And the second time. And the third. But Übung macht den Meister, and the lack of knowledge is quickly compensated for, there would be a desire.

A reward for good work is another job. The coveted student has been received, and soon TestDaF will seem like child's play

And the last thing. A good school, good textbooks, extra interesting activities, high goals and self-discipline - all this, of course, helps to achieve success. But there is one more, very important component. Her name is Love.

I really love German. I love the sound of this language, its strict beauty and harmony, as in classical music, and even its oddities - detachable prefixes, articles, irregular verbs.

When I still did not understand a single word, I was fascinated by the texts written in German - they seemed to be a delightful, mysterious pattern, the meaning of which I really wanted to unravel. And all this year, my motivation was based on this love, which turned out to be stronger than fatigue and fear. Every minute of the class gave me so much happiness and inspiration that it was enough to cover such expenditure of energy. I rejoiced at every new word, feeling that I was gaining wealth, incomparable to anything, and it would remain with me, no matter what the result of the exam or something else.

Therefore, I can not advise anything to those who are just trying to force themselves "because it is necessary." Maybe it will work out. But if you find love in your pursuits, and not obligation, then it will work out for sure.

Olga Chumakova, Deutsch-online

Many people have already doubted or asked how well I learned German.
And today I decided to tell you what I did to learn German before entering Austria for the first time on a work visa in 2009.
Prerequisites - zero knowledge of German, English at school from 8th to 10th grade. After that, within the framework of the institute's program, technical English on the topic "electronics and microelectronics", reading technical literature without a dictionary. The last lesson in "English" was in 1999. I was not noticed in the ability to languages. Everything.

So what helped me to master German in the framework of colloquial, but with a bias in a certain subject - "skiing".

First, and the most important thing that I had was a dream. In 2008, I realized that I wanted to live in Austria, and this gave me the strength to work with a tutor or on my own in Russia. I know many people who came to Austria by chance, they still do not know German.

Second... Tutor. I was lucky .... or not lucky, how to say, but my mother-in-law was my tutor. She is also the Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages ​​and International Communication (FIAMC) and lecturer at the Department of German Studies at Tver State University. My teacher was harsh and impartial with me. Or not, just with passion.

I had the first part of the classes since February 24, 2008. to April 4, 2008 And after another 10 days of self-study. I studied with a tutor every other day, plus three hours of daily self-study.

The book we studied was Deutsch - Warum nicht? (Part I). You can watch it in full, download and listen to it on the manufacturer's website.

I admit that I was a completely deranged student. I asked a thousand questions, like: "why do you give the article der in the infinitive and here it says des?" Larisa Mikhailovna, not accustomed to shouting strongly at students who violate the standard curriculum, patiently explained to me that "I don't need to know yet." For every statement "German is a very logical language" that completes every next rule of the language, I found exceptions that, as you already know, I don't need to know yet. Further in a circle.

As a result, in a month and a half, I definitely completed the program three times more than the planned volume.
We didn't put much emphasis on pronunciation or grammar - the main thing was not to be afraid to communicate on all issues at a basic level.

An important point that I did not apply - I wrote down EVERYTHING in a notebook-dictionary. I parsed all the words down to the root form, found articles for nouns, and the plural form. For verbs, I wrote out all the forms.

Here is an example of my workbook. The first sheet is the newly written words I met, the second and third are already processed words.

For a month in my vocabulary there were about 500 clearly fixed words and more than 2 thousand words in principle. A month later, I could compose texts, albeit with errors, and passably tell who I am and where I came from.

WITH My first tutor we completed DWN teil1 before the 17th lesson. And that was the end of it. After that there was a 2 week break, and for another 10 days I successfully completed my homework.
But .... New ideas began to fascinate me, then I became the director of an insurance company and I simply had no time to study German, and I simply had no strength left.

Since April 14, 2008 Until October 25, 2009, I had no classes and no effort to learn German. The only thing that happened was that I paid attention to the German words. On packs of detergent, on the packaging of cat food, on cookies. Everywhere. And he carefully collected these scraps of packages. This kind of gathering looked real. "quirk".

Let's omit all my adventures in these one and a half years. The main thing that happened was what we received on October 25, 2009. confirmation that my wife and I will be given jobs at a ski school.

From that moment on, my German studies continued. However, there was no time to learn grammar.
Now my wife Masha was studying with me, she is a certified translator and teacher of German. Masha found a unique document in German, I publish for the first time, the theoretical part of the training of ski and snowboard instructors.

I did not understand everything, Masha - everything connected with professional terminology. Therefore, every day, the two of us made our way through the jungle of terms, classes were about three hours a day.
We read this presentation until the departure on December 2, 2009. At the airport was our penultimate lesson with Masha. Upon arrival, we drove into the hotel and READ this presentation to the end.

ALL. My study of German and my work with a tutor from Russia are over. This is the complete story of my acquaintance with the German language.

After that, there was training in the country - as it was described in my opus, the first 180 days of a ski instructor. Sorry for not transferring this book to LJ in any way.

The written exam in German was a nightmare for me, but I passed it, as well as practice. This is how I became an Austrian ski instructor.

I didn't learn German anymore, the first season I worked mainly with the Germans and I taught them skiing, they corrected me in German.

After 1.5 years, the headmaster said, well, Max, now I can at least talk to you.

In December 2012. without preparation I passed the Austrian state exam in German at level A-2

Finally, I can note that before and during training I forced myself to count in German in my head, for example, when I was solving Sudoku, you will see this in my opus "180 days". I tried to do any thoughts in my brain in German, and if my head was empty (in theory), then I simply repeated what the teacher said like a mantra. And he always tried to communicate as much as possible with the Germans.

I had a brain plug when I couldn't get a sound out of myself. It was a nightmare day on December 3, 2009.

I had a couple of months of stupidity when it seemed to me that I had ceased to understand German. It turned out that this was a sign of a transition to a new level of understanding.

But I really began to understand German quite well when. But this is needed much later, certainly not at the beginning.

And in addition to everything, there are a couple more comments, I already wrote them once to the user's LJ question "Is it worth learning English if I don't use it yet?"

Basically, all my German learning took place in Tyrol, by communication.

I was recently at the open house of the BIFI language school in Innsbruck. There were 18 language masterclasses, and I could attend any language I was interested in.

And just like I was stuck in German, when I realized why I needed it, now I also liked Italian. And maybe Spanish too. I was still at the Norwegian masterclass, it didn’t go, it’s ugly.

This is what I mean. Good Language you will be able to learn only when you understand why you need it. Using my English as an example. I don’t need him, and I don’t know him at all.

It will be interesting for you to learn the language when you like the language itself. for me these languages ​​are Italian and German. French seems to be beautiful, but the illegibility of a bunch of beeches in words completely blows my pleasure from the logicality of the language.

And the last thing ... until you change the internal paradigm of your attitude to the language "what if you need it" to "I need it" - it will be much more difficult to motivate yourself.

Trust that you will succeed and that you will speak a completely different language.

And yes, I forgot to say ... Austrian is not German at all. Hello to Mom.

P.s. Share your language learning stories in the comments. It can really help a lot.

I am at the KDS knowledge level. In Germany for 2 years. I started here to learn the language from the alphabet. Attended exclusively Intensivkurse at VHS: Grundstufe and Zertifikatstufe in Velbert, Mittelstufe, Oberstufe and KDS in Düsseldorf. I was extremely lucky at all stages with the teachers - everyone was a pro! I talked with many fellow students from different countries, including those who studied German at home at the Goethe Institutes or foreign languages: everyone absolutely agrees that German taught abroad and German taught in Germany are two very big the difference, with all due respect to the honored teachers. Here we were taught grammar very carefully, so as not to frighten and overfeed. Everything happened gradually and methodically flawlessly: we, as they say, ourselves did not notice how we spoke German! We began to receive schemes similar to yours at about the level of Mittelstufe, but they were much simpler and not as comprehensive. Nobody tried to give us some rules for memorizing when what kind of articles is used (the exception was the groups of words known to you, which often belong to one genus or another), because this is practically impossible: there are an innumerable number of options for the development of events and the same lot exceptions. My technique is to ask right away if something is not clear. Not to be afraid to speak (even if it is very scary to make mistakes!), To read a lot (what is really interesting), to use the dictionary as little as possible (Russian-German, starting with Mittelstufe, is simply categorically not recommended, only Deutsch-Deutsch; all are very good at that. volumes of Duden, especially with an explanation of the meaning of words), television and radio only in German, the Internet, correspondence with German friends, more contacts in various spheres of life, for example, Sportstudio or some Verein, etc. For me, there is no such way of learning as cramming; memorization of articles and the method of forming the plural I completely and completely carry out visually and soundly: when you meet one word 20 times in the text or you hear it in a conversation, the genus will be remembered by itself. At some stage, this very "click" happened, and I just realized that the main picture of the "German language" puzzle was already in place, now I am just completing the individual missing elements: this is no longer a study, as you correctly noted, but improvement, which lasts for life.
I admit that learning German was easier for me than for the rest of my classmates - I have some experience in learning new areas of knowledge.

Other related materials

Today is exactly 10 days since I have been learning German. Rather, UCHU is said loudly. As I listen to the dialogues, this is the first exercise of the entire beginner program. In my readers of this blog, I wished each of you to make a list of realistic goals for this year and write out an action plan to achieve them. I have 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 didn’t want to learn the language the old way and I won’t. I don’t want to get bogged down in a heap of textbooks and notebooks, as it was at the university, where I studied English for 5 years. And if you also remember the school, the desire to learn a foreign language disappears completely!

I went the other way... Last year, I wrote about my impressions of the visit, where polyglots spoke and talked about various methods of learning languages.

None of them got hung up on books, as we used to study at school. In my opinion, this is where the dislike for learning languages ​​comes from - it was completely uninteresting to read about some kind of Ivan Petrov, John or Steve and Mr. Smith, who get up every day at 7 in the morning, 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 at all))

In our time, thank God, a lot has changed: audio and video tasks have been introduced into the methodology for learning foreign languages, and the textbooks, of course, which are now being published, we did not even dream of at that time. 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, let alone 2 hours a day not ready to give. I know that many go to courses about 2-3 times a week and spend 1.5-2 hours studying in a group or individually. I DO NOT WANT!)))

And I am also not ready to follow some of the advice of polyglots speaking on that one - for example, a very popular method is to communicate with a native speaker via Skype. Being an absolute zero in German, I still have no idea how I will communicate on Skype, for example, with a real German)))) I'll leave this method for later. I decided to postpone this, tk. I have absolutely no base, in general NOTHING. I did not learn German and by ear, as they say, only 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, it's enough to devote 30 minutes a day to this! This is what I need !!! You can always find half an hour. But there is one BUT and a very important thing: 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 give up in a week!

In the meantime, to lay the base, I bought a CD with the "Talk to Me" Platinum series for beginners. They release such discs for the study of 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 1. The program is installed on a computer - everything is intuitively simple. You can even set your own individual language learning plan. But I didn't, I started from the very first exercise. When you pass it, the next flashes, and so on in turn, until you complete everything. Naturally, as you progress through the material, they will become more complicated.

First exercise- these are mini-dialogues on the topic of getting up, greeting, getting to know each other, how who is doing, who is how old, finding out the details of the family (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 gone through 13 such dialogues, I think there are 3 or 4 left to complete this first exercise. I really like and so far, indeed, this method of study is suitable. Completely relaxed: you listen and memorize words, intonation, you can watch the translation, there are pictures for the topic (photos), there is also an opportunity to practice phonetics by listening and repeating words.

It's very difficult for me personally with phonetics: somehow it’s not very good to repeat everything correctly - sounds difficult in the German language ... Or is it just for the time being out of habit? Something is given, but something is not very ((There are differences from English .... By the way, the correctness of your sound reproduction is displayed by a 7-point scale (I usually have an average of 4-5 points, rarely which words go as much as 7 points!))) Well, nothing, phonetics is certainly not the biggest problem in learning foreign languages, although you want to speak beautifully! Apparently, I will work it out with foreign native speakers, looking into their mouth and watching the movement of the language

Naturally, grammar is also touched upon here. And by clicking on the word of interest, you can see information about it, for example, the conjugation of verbs. But I don't pay attention to it, but I teach 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 he conjugates 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 any explanations, declensions and conjugations. I decided to follow the same path and not clog my head with grammatical rules. Let everything go on as usual.

Maybe in this program there will be separate lessons on grammar, I will tell you later, because decided to describe the whole process of learning German right on the blog. It's kind of an experiment!) I have set a goal and I want to achieve it: in a year to 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 spoken German.

So, during these 10 days:

• I spent a minimum of my time (I studied 30-40 minutes a day) listening to dialogues and repeating words after the speaker (by the way, the rate of speech in the exercises is fast, 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 did not listen to new dialogues and did not repeat old ones, but these days I arranged a dictation for myself and wrote down the words I had already learned so as not to miss a day in the study. Thus, the allotted 30 minutes were actually worked out every day anyway. And here I made one important conclusion for myself: if I want to quickly achieve the desired result and start talking as soon as possible, then, of course, I need to quickly go through all the exercises (and there are sooooo many of them, I can no longer afford to stretch the performance of each exercise for 10 days), so I increase the daily time for learning German instead of 30 minutes to exactly 40 minutes. 40 minutes is also quite a bit a day, but on the other hand, for these additional 10 minutes, you can repeat each sentence 10 more times, and it will definitely be remembered))))
• Words must be learned! They themselves will not crawl into your head. Therefore, after each dialogue, I write down the words and “learn” them throughout the day - not that I’m learning, 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, second word, so they are remembered, i.e. I don't cram 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 I check. This must be done if you want not only to be able to speak, but also to write words correctly. For me, writing is also important, so I remember how words are spelled.

My vocabulary is 66 words... Of course, this is very little and I will actually increase my German learning time 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 work)) 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 German, and if I hadn't started learning it, I would have remained at the same level, not knowing where to start and how start learning a language ... I would put it off all the time.

• And there is another important point in the study of a foreign language - this is the creation of a linguistic environment around oneself, which was also discussed at the conference. I started by listening to the radio, but little German is spoken there, of course, there is a lot of music, and moreover, it is English-language songs, unfortunately ((So, I went ahead and set up an online television on my computer (though not everything goes online) broadcast, many programs are recorded), 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 do not understand.

PS: I really like Austria, so I listen and watch radio and television broadcasts from Vienna. I don’t know if the Austrian language is much different from classical German, but I think that on radio and television the language sounds very close to pure German, although it doesn’t matter to me ... I’m just more interested in the Austrian version of German

Read on to continue learning German.