BEGIN WITH BASICS

Start from the beginning, the alphabets. Some languages share the alphabets with some exception. Like German has same set of alphabets like English, with an exception of Umlaute (ä,ö,ü) and sharp s -ß. The difference is that in German, each alphabet is pronounced different than in English. So I knew, I have begin with level-1 of pronunciation and learn pronunciation of each alphabet. Once I could do that, I went to level-2 of pronunciation which was learning sounds produced when two or more alphabets are put together, e.g. ‘S’ and ‘T’ in English make ‘ST’ – ssttt, but in German ‘S’ and ‘T’ in make ‘shhhtt’. So thw word STOP in English is pronounced as SHTOP in German, but written exactly like in English STOP. Even though I did not know much, I gained confidence as my pronunciation was almost up to the mark (leaving away my accent 😉 )

DAILY ROUTINE WORDS

This was my next step. I started to learn 10-15 words a day. Words that I would use in daily routine like Bus, Obst, Gemüse, Guten Tag, Gute Nacht, Dankeschön, Morgen. The benefit of such words was that they helped me increase my vocabulary quickly. As these were which I heard almost everyday everywhere. Within weeks I had a good vocabulary that consisted easy, short and handy words that I could use even with English sentences. I never began with difficult words with difficult meanings since I knew I anyway wouldn’t remember them so why waste time?

SHORT SENTENCES

My final chapter to form basics for my German were short sentences. Once I had command on pronunciation and had vocabulary of daily words, I began making short sentences like: Ich bin Nikita. Ich komme aus Indien. Ich bin 23 Jahre alt. Ich studiere an der Uni. Here, since I could make these sentences I could begin any conversation with anyone. Naturally, I made huge grammatical and vocab mistakes, but I kept going. I spoke and requested every native German speaker to correct me on their encounter with any mistake.

I am 7,5 years in Germany now. I have an official B1 certificate with 95% score. I studied for my B1 on my own, just with the books and rehearsed the exams. Today, I can speak German fluently, at least I’d like to believe that ;). However, I still have huge grammar issues, I still get confused in words like benutzen vs nutzen, an and auf, bieten and beten and so many more. I am still struggling, but I am still into it and will keep going.

muchlove

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