The Key To Learning To Speak German Fluently

Have you always dreamed of visiting Germany or Switzerland? Interested in learning more about your German ancestry? Getting ready to take an overseas business assignment? Do you even know how to greet someone in German to begin with? It's a good bet that if you're still reading this, you need to learn to speak German fluently - and fast!

Cheer up - learning German isn't as hard as all that! You just have to develop an ear for the German language. Listen to native German speakers as they talk. Can you hear the sounds in German that do not resemble the same vowel or consonant in English? In English, the letter combination "Th" is soft, pronounced with the speaker's tongue between his teeth; in German, it's pronounced just like "T." German speakers always pronounce "G" as a hard sound, whereas in English, it's sometimes pronounced like a soft "J." Features like this make German sound harsh and hard to the English ear. But as the sounds of your new language become a part of you, it will become easier and easier to learn to speak German fluently.

Now I'm going to ask you to do something a bit unusual - watch an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie! Try saying the actor's lines in as close an approximation of his accent as you can muster. You're still speaking English but you're using your newly-trained ear to teach yourself what German feels like on the tongue. As you learn to speak German fluently, you'll use these sounds to perfect your accent.

Obviously, learning German involves more than faking a German accent. To learn German, you'll need a course. If convenience is a factor, you may enjoy studying online. On the other hand, you may opt for classroom study or a course on CD. Just remember to choose a method that emphasizes conversation rather than reading! Learning German is a dynamic activity, and you can't learn to speak the language from a book because the book can't speak back. You will learn to speak German fluently only if you speak it and hear it spoken.

One of the challenges you'll face in learning German is its three genders - feminine, masculine, and neuter. English nouns have no gender, so this may be the first time you've encountered them. Dog (der Hund) and coat (der Mantel) are considered masculine in German. Blanket (die Decke) and vacation (die Ferien) are considered feminine. House (das Haus) and pig (das Schwein) are considered neuter. All three words - "der," "die," or "das" - mean "the," but they show the gender of the noun they accompany. There's no way to predict whether a noun is going to be masculine, feminine, or neuter, so if you want to learn to speak German fluently, always remember to learn the proper article at the same time you learn the noun.

In the end, though, the best way to learn German may be making friends with German people. Learning from formal language study is fine, but it won't teach you to speak German like a native. For that you need a partner. Human interaction will help you learn to speak German fluently, and you'll make a fast friend, too!

If you want to speak German fluently in your own time and place, then Rocket German Premium is what you need. Read our review of Rocket German today and discover how you can master the German language in no time.