Does anyone here speak German?

[Liz]

My DS wants to take German in high school. I was wondering as far as languages go how difficult this one is to learn?

Thanks!

 

[daughter_of_amid_chaos]

I've taken it for 6 years.
I highly recommend it. It is a language that not many people speak as most high schools only teach french or spanish.
It is somewhat of a difficult language because of a lot of the grammar but a lot of words are similiar to english words as well.
It's an amazing culture to study and being able to speak this language gives me a chance to speak with someone i normally wouldn't be able to talk to at all.
When I hear that someone speaks german I pipe up and say hey ya know i've studied it for 6 years because i as a high school student rarely come across someone who speaks german.
After 6 years, I can't speak it very well but i can read and write it and I've seen incredible improvement.
If you have any questions or your son does, feel free to PM me.

 

[luv2nascar]

I took 3 years in school
that was like almost 20 years ago so I have lost most of what I learned
Maybe I should take a refresher course at the community college
I am German so I always thought it would be need to travel to Germany someday
Spanish is probably more practical considering how many people in this country speak spanish
but I had plenty of friends who took Latin. They were interested in Law or Medicine as careers
so to each his own

 

[christineann]

My kids both opted to take German instead of Spanish or French in high school, and both love it. I was concerned about Michael's decision to start German in 9th grade because foreign language had not been easy for him in middle school, but he has excelled in it and is taking a fourth year honors German course this year. My daughter began German in 8th grade (new foreign language track at their school) and also loves it. They love to speak it at the dinner table to drive me nuts! Michael is going to college next year and has been contacted by the German professor there about joining their German club, and he hopes to do a semester abroad. Both say it's a very interesting course of study.

 

[KarenB]

Glad you posted this! My DS just signed up for German as his foreign language when he enters high school next school year.

Karen

 

[Blondie]

I found German relatively hard, but French easy...go figure.

 

[Mskanga]

Actually I find German quite easy.

 

[Sheree Bobbins]

I studied it on my own for personal growth and enjoyment. Being of a Germanic background, it was fun to pick out what my relatives were talking about. I used it when playing the organ for two different German churches in Vancouver as a teen. I haven`t used it much lately though.

 

[Micca]

I took it for two years in high school and loved it. My dad could speak german so it was helpful to practice with him after school.
It also curtailed my dad and my uncle telling each other dirty jokes in german, but not till I heard a few

 

[Talking Hands]

I found German quite easy. Of course I was living there at the time. It is one of the languages I am fluent in.

 

[loisg1]

I took German four years in HS and two semesters in college. I found it very easy to learn and agree that many of the words sound similar to their English counterparts. I took French for a year in HS and did well in that, also. I really enjoyed studying both of them.

 

[Rajah]

I took 3 years of German in High School, then 3 semesters of German in College -- I loved it, and didn't find it too difficult.

 

[EltonJohn]

I have taken German (1 year HS), French (2 years college), and Portuguese (1 year college).

All of the above langauges were difficult for me to learn. In fact, it took me a lot longer than my peers for me to learn my native tongue, which is English, so language is difficult for me anyway.

If the French course uses the text "French In Action" by Pierre Capretz than I highly recommend that your child take French. It is one of the best French texts to learn from. I know more French than I do German or Portuguese because of the method that this book uses.

diane

 

[Sharon A.]

English is most closely related to German because both languages are derived from the same original language, Proto-Germanic. English is not Latin-based like the romance languages even though there many Latin words have found their way into our language over time. German is, in my opinion, the easiest language to learn.

 

[Carl]

German is not too difficult as far as learning the basics. However, if you take the advanced courses, it becomes fairly hard, because of the tenses of the verbs. Many English words are similar, so the vocabulary is fairly easy.
Zum Beispiel (for example) Haus = house, Schul = school, Kommen Sie hier = come here. I travel to Germany frequently (going again this summer,) so I try to keep up with my German enough to get by. Until Napster was shut down, I chatted frequently with people in Germany about German folk music. Each town has it's own Blastkapelle (village band.)

 

[Buz]

I took German in HS over 25 years ago. I was stationed in Germany in the Air Force and played in the village band. We lived in a town on the Mosel called Zeltingen. The band played at the town's wine festival and up/down the Mosel. It was a blast. Knowing how to speak made it easier.

Buz