I’ve just finished my second week of MA Audiovisual Translation with French and German. My BA was in single-honours French, but I really wanted to incorporate German into my postgraduate study too. I originally started my undergrad with both, but I had to drop German as I didn’t complete my year abroad. I always found German tricky yet I always loved it, so I knew I’d have to dedicate plenty of time to German if I wanted to study it at Master’s level.
When I finished my last uni French exam, I started doing exactly this. Over the three months between my undergrad and my Master’s, I relearnt my love at first sight language to the point that I’m probably better than when I last learnt it at uni. It highlighted to me that learning, or relearning, a language is no easy feat since progress can be hard to see, but I’m proud I stuck at it – the others in my class said they couldn’t tell I don’t have a German degree!
This post will walk you through some of the things I did to help me relearn German. Please note, however, that my study was focussed on translation since that was always my goal. If you’re (re)learning a language to become conversational, my approach might not work for you.
- I switched my phone to German
I’ve mentioned this before, but I find changing my device language so helpful for picking up vocab. My phone had been in French for years, but I thought that making it German would be a good start to the learning journey. It exposes me to plenty of ‘tech’ vocab, though its benefits stretch beyond this since many words have several uses.
This also means my car satnav is in German, which has made for some interesting trips. It always confuses my passengers but I like to see it as a little quirk of the language learner! Following directions in a different language really helps to improve aural comprehension, so I’d highly recommend switching your phone’s language to the one you’re learning.
2. I consumed fairly basic and previously used media
When I was preparing for my German journey, I rushed to the foreign language section of Oxfam Books. The shop offered a wide range for every level of German, but I purposely chose the most basic books. The first one I read, Der kleine Nick und die Nachbarn, is a kids’ book that perfectly suited my level at the time. In my opinion, it’s better to start with material slightly below your level than slightly above because it reaffirms what you already know and thus makes you feel more confident.
Once I’d reacquainted myself with high-frequency vocab, my next step was revisiting media I used when I last learnt German. I practised A-Level past papers, which showed that my German was better than I thought, and listened to podcasts I used to enjoy (shoutout to Easy German). As well, I recently reread Der Vorleser, the book I studied at A-Level, which re-awoke the love I had for it five years ago. Suffice to say, reusing old resources is a great way to jog your memory of what you think you’ve forgotten.
3. I looked up words straight away
When encountering unknown words, it’s very easy to make a mental note to look them up… and never think about them again. This means you might have lost an important word you’ll need in the future. That’s one of two reasons I believe that looking words up straight away is vital. The other reason, is that you’re much likelier to retain the word if you also remember the context in which you saw it.
As for active vocab learning, I added five words that I deemed most important to flashcard sets every day. I made sure not to add more than five since sitting down to learn hundreds of words is both boring and ineffective. The flashcard site I use, Knowt, has a spaced repetition feature that shows you the same word after certain intervals, which is scientifically proven to improve long-term retention. I also remembered more than what I learnt from the flashcards through regular encounters, so my vocabulary has increased by hundreds in the past three months.
4. I made ‘fluency islands’ for speaking
While I found my German comprehension came back fast, my speaking abilities were almost non-existent as I hadn’t been practising it. Speaking is the hardest skill to improve, especially if studying independently, because you don’t have someone to speak to. I went to a language exchange event in Leeds but there wasn’t a single German-speaker there besides me, so I spoke French instead. I still got to practise my other language so it wasn’t wasted, but it made me wonder “where are all the German speakers?!”
That’s when I discovered a speaking strategy called ‘islands of fluency’. This involves recording yourself telling a story for two minutes, checking it all makes sense and flows well (which I’d correct if it didn’t), and repeating the same story every day until it sounds natural. The key is telling the story from memory, as opposed to reading it from a page, so you don’t end up reciting a memorised story. Not only does this encourage a fluent style of speaking, but it allows you to internalise grammatical ‘chunks’ that can be reused in a myriad of ways. While it still isn’t the same as an interactive conversation with another person, I still use this exercise to make my speaking more natural.
5. I had a consistent yet varied schedule
If you’ve learnt pretty much any skill, you’ll know about the importance of consistency and how it’s better to practise for 10 minutes daily than 3 hours at once. It’s especially true for language learning because there’s so much to learn yet it happens so slowly. Because of this, I practised pretty much every day with a variety of activities to keep up momentum while avoiding boredom.
My favourite activity was translating parts of German news articles every day. A lot of people would find this boring, but I personally love the process of translating. I also transcribed podcasts, wrote book summaries, did grammar exercises, among many other things. The range of resources I used ensured that I stayed motivated and could always do something. Naturally, there were low-energy days when I wasn’t in the mood, but I’d tell myself I can at least listen to a short podcast or read five pages of a book. In my opinion, the key to staying motivated for anything is taking tiny steps, even when you don’t feel like it.
As I’ve said many times and will continue to say, learning a language requires finding resources that work for you. Some people enjoy learning from a textbook, while others find it boring and should steer away from traditional resources. Some people, like me apparently, are able to learn independently, whereas others prefer the structure of regular classes or tutoring. There’s no harm in getting it wrong the first time – I’ve certainly tried things I hated – so test out different approaches and see what works best.
Though I still have far to go, I’m glad I made this decision with German. It’s reopened a door I thought was locked, and I now get to study it as part of my Master’s. Noticing my progress has been so incredibly rewarding and I’m wishing that for you too. So I hope you found this post helpful, and good luck on your language learning journey!
Leave a Reply