5 tips for speaking German.

Hey!! Guten Tag..!!

Wie geht‘s dir? 

Sehr gut Danke. Und dir? 

Auch gut. So was hast du am Wochenende gemacht?

Ich….? Umm hab, bin aaaa. 

Nichts 

It seems like a battle to speak a foreign language. A battle that you mostly end up giving up. Why is that? 

Can I not speak the foreign language I’m learning? Or is it just too difficult? 

The words fly away and the tongue becomes heavier. The thoughts are clouded by confusion, doubts, fear and on top of that the thunder of correct pronunciations rumble. Which is why we just focus on clouds and thunder..! 

Here are some tips that helped me get speaking German.

1. Take baby steps: speaking to impress doesn’t really work here, rather you should speak to be understood. You don’t have to speak perfectly from the first day. Make your sentences as simple and as Short as possible. When you make a complex sentence, most of the time the meaning is lost and then there are just words. Start with phrases then the basic questions and finally answer them in the easiest way possible. Once you achieve the goal of speaking the language, you can then beautify your language.

2. Pronunciation: it’s a task getting the pronunciations right for a foreign language. It is not something that you master in a day or two, but you must pay attention towards it right from the first day. Often the learners neglect it but it is that part of the meal that you have to cook the longest. Patiently wait till you get the zest of it.

3. Self-talk helps: it may sound a bit weird and funny but you are the best person to talk to when you want to practice the foreign language you’re learning. It not only makes you confident but also makes you realize your own mistakes and you self correct yourself. Feel no shame in doing so. Talking to one’s own self is good in most of the cases.

4. Be alert while speaking: being able to share your views and opinions or even the thought of it can make you go all excited and in that excitement you tend to forget all rules, sentence constructions and vocabulary. Soon the excitement turns into anxiety. So it’s better to be a little cautious while speaking until it becomes a habit to speak correctly. 

5. Don’t just speak imitate too: a language is not just words. It’s not just the correct construction, rules and vocabulary. Yes it is a bit contradictory to what i have mentioned above but how tasteless Joey’s ‘how you doing?’ would be if it were not said that way. Similarly your language will taste bland, if it doesn’t have the proper intonation.

These tips have really helped me a lot 

Please do try them and let me know how it goes 😊