How To Speak German

If you are looking for info on How To Speak German, You have come to the right place.

My name is Ralph Heinz and I am a German Language Enthusiast. Strange, huh? Well, you see; I am of German heritage but my family moved to the US in the early 1950's and they were so ashamed by their German roots that they denied to teach me the German language. I was borned a couple of months before my family moved to the US and once we came to the "land of opportunities" my family changed family name to Hansson after my grand-grand-father who was Swedish. When my mother passed away a couple of years ago, I started searching for my roots, changed my name back to Heinz and started to learn German.

There is a miss-conception among most people that learning how to speak German, or any other second language for that sake, is much easier when you are a kid.

That is so wrong! It is not true at all.

One and a half year ago me and my wife, Laura, decided that it would be nice to visit German for the first time, bring our kids to search for our roots. Like a family trip, sort of...

The problem; We had heard that Germans were not too good in English and we didn't know any German word besides "Guten Morgen", "Guten Tag" and similar phrases like that.

We were all caught up in the miss-conception that learning a new language was too hard for grown ups. No-Way!

All it takes is the WILL TO LEARN , A PLAN, A REASON WHY you want to learn to speak German and A TIME FRAME!

Those points are important and is also the reason why most grown-ups fail in learning new languages, even after paying huge sums for "after-work-tutoring".

Here is what we did and here is what YOU can do if you want to know How To Speak German in the shortest time possible:

*You need to really WANT to learn. We certainly did because we had a PLAN...

*Our Plan was to study German 2-4 hours every day for the 30 days prior to leaving. Our goal was to be able to keep a 15 minute conversation with a German. == Concentrate on what is important. Grammar is NOT! ==

*Find a reason WHY you want to speak German. Maybe you want to visit a German speaking country (Switzerland, Austria, Germany...), maybe you want to read a book by a German in its original language, maybe you want to chat with a new internetfriend... For whatever reason you might have... Having a REASON is the key to effective and efficient learning.

*Time Frame. What happens if you set no time-limits? The answer: NOTHING! Most people will post-phone whatever can be done later. We set a deadline 30 days ahead and we HAD to learn how to speak German by that time as that was the day for our departure!

The "Time Frame" point is also why it is easier for grown-ups to learn a second language than children. Sure, children learn faster, but they are not structured. A child cannot learn a language because they "have to" - they learn by listening and repeating what they hear. You, as a grown up, has the possibility to set a side 2-4 hours for 30 days (or preferably 60 days if you want to be good at grammar as well) or 15 full-days to really do some hard-core studying and digg into the material. Also, important for FAST LEARNING is learning by doing things you like, and things you will have USE for. No use in learning German by reading poems or reading about the German school system if that is of no interest to you whatsoever and you will not be using it when you i.e travel to Germany. This is another reason why so many fail to learn languages efficiently. I am really found of German Weiss-Bier (a kind of light and often sweet beer) so I decided to read a book, in German, on German Weiss-Bier. I learned about the history, how it was made, I learned about the different German regions, culture and a lot of other usefull stuff. My wife read about German cousine. My daughter love martial arts, so she found a german Krav Maga club, and asked if they could send her some info in German. They pointed her to a site with some 50-60 pages in German on Martial Arts and Krav Maga in Germany. My son, Jacob, went to our local library and found a Austrian book by Freud that he started reading. It was heavy reading so he changed to reading websites about model ariplanes instead :)

The point is; Learning should be fun!

So how did we get the basic knowledge to read these books and magazines in German? We bought a really great software/Website membership. The German Rocket Program is in our view superior to any other learning when it comes to learning high quality German in short time. You can do step-by-step learning through practical exercises online and you can test your self. The software will tell you if you failed or passed immediantly and you can easily see which parts of your skills you need to improve.

I remeber trying to learn Spanish once at an "evening-school" and I never got any good at it. If I had known of these methods then, I would be superior in Spanish as well :)

When we arrived in Germany we all, in fact, managed to make our way by only speaking German and we got better for every day of the 3 weeks we stayed. All the good food, the unforgettable sauerkraut, the nice beer and white wine and the beatufull slopes of the Rhine Valley are all memories we will have for life and I just cannot wait to get back there some day.

It really doesn't matter what YOUR reason to learn a new second language is because as long as you are really keen on learning you will learn fast with the methods described above and I also recommend getting the Rocket German Program. It's Superb!

So, Go ahead. Don't post-phone it any longer.... Learn How To Speak German Today!

Best of luck! Ralph... ;o)