German Language
From Foreignliving
German (Deustch, pronounced doitch) is the second largest of the Germanic languages, after English, and belongs to the three most learned languages in the world. It is spoken by more than 130 million people in 38 countries—mainly Germany, Austria and Switzerland—and thus belongs to the top ten most spoken languages in the world.
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Is there a need to learn German?
When planning to move to a German-speaking country, the need to have a basic understanding of the language differs from city to city and the purpose of your stay. In large international cities, such as Berlin or Frankfurt, most people speak or at least understand English. This can be sharply contrasted to smaller cities such as Saarbruecken where English is rarely spoken and seldom understood outside of academic circles, not even in the visa office (Auslaenderbehoerde). In such circumstances make it indispensable to have a working knowledge of the German language, at least to the extend of making yourself understood and making sense of what the other person wants from you.
While most routine tasks, such as shopping or travelling by bus, can be managed without any exchange of words, a simple question from the cashier or bus driver can leave you completely stumped and unable to communicate or even understand what's going on (he/she may only have said "have a nice weekend").
Even in German Universities with English Programmes, it is not uncommon for all administrative tasks to be carried out in German only, since English programmes are a rarity in German universities, and students enrolled in them make up only a tiny fraction of the overall university population. This makes students dependent on official help to register for the semester, getting membership for the cafeteria and for other administrative processes. Non-university documents such as the contract for your apartment, bank account, telephone line etc. are of course completely in German.
In view of this it is highly recommended to have a working knowledge of the language before arriving in the country. Working knowledge goes further than memorising typical questions. Although a good idea in principle, the utility of such a technique is severly limited, since the person responding generally does not restrict himself to the handful of vocabulary you are familiar with. According to the experience of one student, his flawlessly constructed question asking for directions to the loo was met by a barrage of alien words fired out at full speed.
Learning German
The German language has a complicated grammar and is not an easy language to learn. However, don't let that deter you, since there are a lot of excellent resources that can take you step by step through the process, often free of cost.
Free Resources on the Web
German courses at Deustche Welle An excellent and highly recommended resource for beginners. Contains various language courses, from beginners' courses to workplace usage. The courses are free, presented as 15-minute radio-programmes following the adventures of a set of characters. Complexity is introduced very gradually, with emphasis on listening and absorbing the new language rather than jumping into the grammatical nitty-gritties.
German Language at About.com This free website contains a vast archive, and you can sign up for a free weekly newsletter (in English), which often discusses current events. Also contains audio samples. Very useful for looking up individual articles, but for an extended course, other sites such as Deustche-welle are better.
Wikibooks The online book available at Wikibooks. Someone who has used this resource should post a review here.
Books
Assimil German with Ease Unlike standard books that begin with grammatical rules, German with Ease follows the Assimil way of letting the user assimilate the language, first by understanding small dialogues and unconsciously assimilating the rules, and later by being able translate from German back into English. The book is based on around 100 small conversation-based lessons (one per day), each requiring 20-30 minutes. The book is very readable, the lessons are interesting, the methodology is very effective (especially when accompanied with the audio CDs) but is also very expensive.
German courses in your home country
Be wary of enrolling in any beginner's course that aims to use German itself as the medium of instruction, or uses a book that is written completely in German. Such methodologies can be very problematic for the beginner, since the language is what he does not know in the first place. Experience shows that many students feel hesitant to ask or raise questions when they do not understand nearly anything, and as a result drift into a passive mode, simply ignoring what they don't understand.
It is much better to find a course that attempts you to explain thing in your native language, or in a language that you know. If you don't even understand the textbook's instructions written in German, your pace of learning will be seriously affected.
Many courses offered in Pakistan, such as in the Defence Library, Lahore, do not expose the student to spoken German (as spoken by the natives) till the very end of the 6-week (or so) course. It is at that time that the student realises he doesn't understand a word of spoken German. If, after having taken such a course, you cannot tell if a train announcement just announced your stop or not (which the author of this paragraph could not), consider your time and money poorly spent. Therefore, it is highly recommended to use one of the audio courses freely available on the internet, if only as support material.
You can enroll for a language course in the following places:
- Defence Library/Goethe Zentrum, Lahore (not Goethe Institute)
- duration: roughly 6 weeks
- provides certificate: yes
- participants' rating: mediocre (1 vote)
- instructor: Amir Rafique
- Goethe Institute
- duration:
- provides certificate:
- participants' feedback:
- instructor:
If you don't speak any German
If you find yourself in a German-speaking locality with little or no knowledge of the language, the following recommendations, which are based on people's experiences, may be helpful to you:
- Many times it's best not to beat around the bush and ask out flatly if the other person can speak English. Many people who can make themselves understood hesitate to switch to English to avoid making a fool of themselves (the very reason you might want to avoid switching to German).
- An even better idea may be to simply start off in Englisch pretending you fully expect the other person to understand. This works well to jumpstart many who otherwise would have declined to speak in English when asked (especially shop attendants).
- If you do ask the other person, asking "Do you speak English?" is known to be more successful than asking the same thing as "Sprechen Sie Englisch?". After all, how would you respond to a person who asks you in Urdu "Kya aap farsi boltay hain? Mujhe urdu nahi ati." If you know enough to ask that, you might be expected to know enough to stumble on a bit farther.
Miscellaneous Information
If you want ask something in any office then first of all you must say "Guten Tag" (Good day) generally, in morning time "Guten Morgen" (Good morning), in evening time "Guten Abend" (Good evening). But if you want ask something from out of office then always start your dialogue with "Entschuldigen Sie bitte" (Excuse me). Prounciation of "Sie" is "Zee" in English.
- Remember you pronounce german word as it is written, for example the sound of "u" is always "oo" (as book) and sound of "ss", "ß", "sch", "st" and "sp" are "s" (as soap), "s" (as silence), "sh" (as sheep), "sht" and "shp" respectively, otherwise sound of "s" is "z" in English and sound of "z" is "s" in English.
Travel Information
If you go to railway station (Bahnhof or HauptBahnhof (main railway station)), then either buy your ticket from a machine (if you find) or find a room "Reise-zentrum" (travel center) and say the following question to the person/lady "Entschuldigung Sie bitte, Ich möchte reise nach XXX" (Excuse me, I want to travel to XXX (your target station, for example Frankfurt hauptbahnhof)). Then you say "Jetzt" (prounce it as Yetst in English) if you want to travel now, or tell him time such as "Acht Uhr" (8'o clock morning) for example, or "Vierzehn Uhr" (14'o clock) (pronounce it "Feyersehn Ooar", in German the sound of "V" is same as "F" in English). You need to learn countings in German. He/She will tell you the price of ticket and then you pay the cost to her/him. That's done.
Shopping Information
If you go to stores like Aldi, Lidl or Plus then you don't need to ask the total amount of your shopping at "Kasse" (cashpoint), since each "Kasse" has a machine that shows you the total amount of your shopping. Otherwise if go to "Flow market" (open market) then you need two senteces "Ich möchte XXX" (I need XXX (name of desired thing in German)) and "Was kostet das?" (What's price of this?).
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