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Are you planning a trip to Germany or Switzerland? Working on your German family history? Is your company sending you on that very important business trip? Do you even know how to greet someone in German to begin with? Whatever your reason, if you’re reading this, you need to know how to learn German fast.

It’s really not as difficult as you might think. Part of learning any language is cultivating a good ear. Listen to native German speakers as they talk. You’ll notice that there are many sounds in German that aren’t precisely like their English counterparts. “Th” in German is pronounced like an English “T.” The letter “G” is never soft, either. Features like this make German sound harsh and hard to the English ear but the more you listen and identify them, the easier it will be for you to learn German fast, because you’re internalizing the sound of the language.

Now, rent a movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, or any actor or actress with a pronounced German accent. Practice speaking some of the actor’s lines, mimicking the accent as closely as possible. You’re still speaking English but you’re using your newly-trained ear to teach yourself what German feels like on the tongue. This familiarity with the feel of German will help you learn German fast, much faster than you would if the language felt completely strange to you.

Of course, neither of those steps really teaches you German. For that you need some kind of course. Many people nowadays enjoy online learning, because they can study at their own pace and repeat lessons until they’ve mastered them. Others prefer learning from CDs or through taking a class. Whichever way you choose to study, however, make sure your coursework emphasizes oral conversation. Learning German is a dynamic activity, and you can’t learn to speak the language from a book because the book can’t speak back. You will learn German fast only if you speak it and hear it spoken.

Here’s a very important tip as you study German: remember that all German nouns have genders they are either masculine, feminine, or neuter. This isn’t something we have to worry about in English, so gendered nouns may be new to you. Masculine nouns include dog (der Hund) and coat (der Mantel). Feminine nouns include blanket (die Decke) and vacation (die Ferien). Neuter nouns include house (das Haus) and pig (das Schwein). As you can see, the article “the” can be translated as either “der,” “die,” or “das” depending upon the gender of the noun it accompanies. There’s no way to predict whether a noun is going to be masculine, feminine, or neuter, so if you want to learn German fast, always remember to learn the proper article at the same time you learn the noun.

Finally, here is the most important way to learn German fast: find a German friend to talk to! Dialogues on tapes or CDs are great, but to really get the feel of a language, you need to speak it just as you would your own. For that you need a partner. You’ll not only learn German fast that way, but you’ll improve your social life at the same time!

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Gerrit runs the popular language learning site http://www.rocketlanguagecourses.com/
Do YOU want more ways to learn German fast? Visit the Rocket German download site for more info and get your FREE 6 day German course.

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