Learning German

All photos and written works copyrighted SStaas

Have you ever noticed that so many publications imply that you can learn new things quickly and easily? Take for example, the 'For Dummies' series. There's Photography for Dummies, Computers for Dummies, etcetera. There's also a series for learning foreign languages that make out that you can learn in a fun and fast way.

I just had my third German lesson today. We're using the textbook in the photo above. It's called "Learn German the Fast and Fun Way". I don't think I'm going to be learning in a fast way at all! It may be fun, however, but I think German is quite difficult.



There are just too many odd things about the German language. Das, die, der - to begin with.



Plural of nouns?! Don't get me started.



Umlauts? Who invented them?! I think they're something to do with forming the plural. So many things to try and figure out. In German, nouns have capital letters. Weird. Thing is, as I translated to the English the German word 'Haus', I wrote 'House' with a capital 'h'. What a silly person!



Anyhow, here's a useful link for beginning students of German. I've visited the site a few times now and quite like it. You can listen to recordings of simple conversations.

Here's another link, which I found at You Tube. It's also for beginners.

Now, if only I could figure out the umlaut, the der, die, and the das.

Guess what? There's also a 'dem'! That's got to do with the dative case. Something like that. I'd just as soon not worry about that type of case and instead have my suitcase packed, ready to travel. Hmm. Maybe I'll go to Switzerland and speak some German? Better start studying! Of course, I could always go to Switzerland and just have good food and wine.



Have you ever studied German?