Why Learning German is Easier Than You Think

Many language students at the introductory level believe that German is an absolutely hard language to master. Compound words that seem to stretch on forever and the idea of noun genders are frequently enough to put people off learning German completely.

Contrary to popular belief, German is not very difficult to learn. It is difficult to find English speakers who are not familiar with the German language. And for a good reason… because the two languages share so many similarities.

While German does not rank among the simplest languages to learn, it also does not rank among the top ten most difficult. If you’re wondering whether learning German is truly as difficult as you’ve heard, the answer is yes and no.

English and German Cognates

Words that are spoken or spelled similarly in two different languages and have comparable meanings are called cognates. And many of them are accessible in both English and German!

Languages are defined by their vocabulary and words. When it comes to German, the good news for English speakers is that many terms are highly similar because the two languages have a common “ancestor” language.

Even though English words are derived from Latin, French, and Greek, over 80% of the most regularly used English terms are cognates of German words, and approximately 40% of all English words are comparable to their German counterparts.

A Global Standard

The fact that German has a standardized form termed Hochdeutsch, which is taught and used in all German-speaking nations, is a huge plus (with some small variations). If you think about it, English is significantly more complicated than Spanish, with its variances in American and British spelling, completely unexpected pronunciation, and unlimited regional diversity!

This isn’t to say that regional distinctions in vocabulary, dialects and other aspects of the language don’t exist, but Hochdeutsch, or Standarddeutsch as it’s also known, is generally understood. Learning German not only lets you interact with people in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland- but also Liechtenstein, Belgium, Slovakia, and South Tyrol. You can also use the language to communicate in some towns and villages in Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, and Argentina as well.

How Long Does it Take to Learn German?

The easier a language is to learn, the sooner you’ll reach fluency. This can save you time in the long run and greatly improve your chances of being successful. We can evaluate how easy it is to learn a language by looking at how long it takes to learn it. While it’s not possible to give a precise answer, we can provide you with some approximations.

Keep in mind that with the correct motivation, approach, and language learning method, you can always make your studies faster and easier. As a result, take the numbers below with a grain of salt.

The US Foreign Service Institute created a difficulty score that can be used to estimate how long it takes to learn languages. German is the only language in Category II (out of five) and is the only one in this category.

It is said that mastering German takes 30 weeks or 750 hours of study. In comparison to other languages, learning the German language is not difficult at all. With the appropriate methods, you may learn it quickly and effortlessly.

Conclusion

As previously stated, German is fairly similar to English. Thus, you’ll come across a number of cognates or words that look or sound alike but have the same meaning. This means you may quickly improve your German vocabulary without putting in a lot of effort. There are also many technologies to help you on your journey to learn the German language. You can use text to speech German tools to understand the pronunciation of words that you see on screen.

Learning German is cumbersome but not as difficult as everyone seems to think it is. With the vast amount of resources and help available online, if you put your mind to it, it shouldn’t take that long to get the hang and flow of it.