Tips for Learning German
Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2024 5:13 am
I posted a version of this on RODOH a while ago, but figured it would be good to have here as well. Below are some of my thoughts on the topic. Please share your own tips and experiences.
Is It Worth the Bother? Reasonable Expectations
If you have some interest in research and think of it as a long-term investment, I think it is worth considering. In the near term, it probably won’t be immediately useful since it takes a while to get any good and machine translation lessens the need. But machine translation is not really a panacea since some sources aren’t in a format where you can easily run it through Google translate. See the Hans Frank diaries below, for example. Realistically, you need to know German pretty well to work with this source effectively (scanned microfilm).
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6104281
[Tip: Even with a physical book or image, there is a way to use the Google app on a smartphone to translate the page. Open the app. Click the camera icon in the search bar. This opens your camera. Point the camera at the page. Then at the bottom press translate. You would not want to read a whole book this way, but for a page or two, it usually works okay.]
There’s also secondary literature that has never been published in English translation (or where the English version is long out-of-print and hard to find). Pressac’s 1993 book, for example, was published in German and French. Or on the revisionist side, Udo Walendy’s Historische Tatsachen series was published only in German. To use these sources, you need some German. In theory, with basic German you could get through any text with a dictionary, but not in a reasonable amount of time if you have to look up dozens of words every page.
I myself started studying German here and there around the time I started getting into revisionism. My level is still very limited, but I definitely know a lot more than I did (which was roughly zero). I am not able to read native texts easily, but I have found that even having “schoolboy German” can be useful for things like double-checking document translations, following linguistic arguments, or working through a short passage with a dictionary.
So, the bad news is that it will require quite a bit of time and effort to reach even a pathetic level of German. The good news is that the Romance and Germanic languages are relatively easier languages for English speakers to learn, so learning German is certainly doable.
Getting Your Feet Wet
For a nice gentle introduction, here is a fun series of video lessons with an energetic teacher. It won’t get you too far, but it will get you started.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOtqMNK ... W7pkwUMHXy
I would pay special attention to the pronunciation right from the very beginning. Below are some useful video series. Most German books (bilingual dictionaries, grammar books, etc) will have a pronunciation guide in the beginning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-e4cXg ... e6nTKLVL_K
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DnNVi1 ... QVa2sN7jJ6
Duolingo is a very popular language learning app. I'm sure there are tons of them. I would say these are optional. The main benefit is that they are easy to use (game-like) and you can pick up some basic vocab. But I would be looking to move on to other materials sooner rather than later.
Another decent source that is totally free is Nicos Weg which was sponsored by the German government to help foreigners learn German. It’s a little movie where you learn German along with the main character. There’s also an online course with it. It could be used either as a primary course or you could use it as a supplement and just watch the movie to get some additional content.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-eDoThe6qo
Grammar
I would get some sort of course book that is designed for self-study. Teach Yourself, Hugo, Colloquial, Living Language. Something like that. These are “courses” which means they have structured lessons. They aren’t reference grammars. The grammar/course book I liked the best for German was actually a super old edition of Teach Yourself (linked below). The older books tend to have more grammar. Newer ones tend to avoid it/water things down.
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dl ... 8/mode/2up
Some people don’t like grammar and find it derails them. It might be better in that case to go as light as possible. Personally, I find it helpful. And with German in particular I think most people will need to study the grammar at least some to get a handle on the declension and verbal systems and some of the syntax.
The webpages below can be used for supplemental grammar reference. It can be helpful to read explanations of a concept from multiple sources.
http://germanforenglishspeakers.com/
https://www.dartmouth.edu/~deutsch/Gram ... matik.html
https://resources.german.lsa.umich.edu/
Here are some video lessons (for an alternative format)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oy6VbE ... GqYapbSRIF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNA3YSR ... Rbekvfx7px
Simplified Readers
These are books intended to be read by language learners. i.e., they are much easier than regular books. These seem relatively effective. They are usually short stories. After working through some other material first (say half of a course book) these can be introduced.
https://www.amazon.com/Learn-German-Sto ... 1511565276
Native Materials
It’s always a big jump going from learner materials to native materials. But you can't get very far if you avoid the real stuff. You can use a crutch like having the German with a full English translation and the audio. Below are some examples of sources one might use. But I would pick whatever you’re interested in.
The Bible
Parallel text with audio
https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/para ... german.htm
Brothers Grimm
Complete list of stories
https://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/list
At the bottom, you get parallel texts like this.
https://www.grimmstories.com/language.p ... n&r=de
Audio
https://librivox.org/kinder-und-hausmae ... m-grimm-2/
Mein Kampf
Thomas Dalton has published a dual language edition.
https://www.clemensandblair.com/product ... tion-vol-1
There are also audiobooks available
https://archive.org/details/adolfhitler ... chdeutsch/
https://archive.org/details/adolfhitler ... uchdeutsch
YouTube
Here is a little tip with YouTube. If you have a regular account you use to watch videos, you can add additional pages/channels attached to that account. Add a new channel and watch only German videos on that channel. The algorithm should keep recommending you German videos. This way you have a pure German YouTube. Otherwise, the German will get diluted with English content and there's no way to control it.
Overall Program
I would not try to use too many resources all at once. That is a common tendency. It's better to pick a few, select things at a time and make sure you actually use them.
Sample Program
-An audio-based course/program, usually dialogue-based (like Nicos Weg)
-A grammar book intended for self-study lessons
-Some reading material (graded readers, parallel texts)
-Miscellaneous things (videos, songs, apps, whatever)
Is It Worth the Bother? Reasonable Expectations
If you have some interest in research and think of it as a long-term investment, I think it is worth considering. In the near term, it probably won’t be immediately useful since it takes a while to get any good and machine translation lessens the need. But machine translation is not really a panacea since some sources aren’t in a format where you can easily run it through Google translate. See the Hans Frank diaries below, for example. Realistically, you need to know German pretty well to work with this source effectively (scanned microfilm).
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6104281
[Tip: Even with a physical book or image, there is a way to use the Google app on a smartphone to translate the page. Open the app. Click the camera icon in the search bar. This opens your camera. Point the camera at the page. Then at the bottom press translate. You would not want to read a whole book this way, but for a page or two, it usually works okay.]
There’s also secondary literature that has never been published in English translation (or where the English version is long out-of-print and hard to find). Pressac’s 1993 book, for example, was published in German and French. Or on the revisionist side, Udo Walendy’s Historische Tatsachen series was published only in German. To use these sources, you need some German. In theory, with basic German you could get through any text with a dictionary, but not in a reasonable amount of time if you have to look up dozens of words every page.
I myself started studying German here and there around the time I started getting into revisionism. My level is still very limited, but I definitely know a lot more than I did (which was roughly zero). I am not able to read native texts easily, but I have found that even having “schoolboy German” can be useful for things like double-checking document translations, following linguistic arguments, or working through a short passage with a dictionary.
So, the bad news is that it will require quite a bit of time and effort to reach even a pathetic level of German. The good news is that the Romance and Germanic languages are relatively easier languages for English speakers to learn, so learning German is certainly doable.
Getting Your Feet Wet
For a nice gentle introduction, here is a fun series of video lessons with an energetic teacher. It won’t get you too far, but it will get you started.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOtqMNK ... W7pkwUMHXy
I would pay special attention to the pronunciation right from the very beginning. Below are some useful video series. Most German books (bilingual dictionaries, grammar books, etc) will have a pronunciation guide in the beginning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-e4cXg ... e6nTKLVL_K
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DnNVi1 ... QVa2sN7jJ6
Duolingo is a very popular language learning app. I'm sure there are tons of them. I would say these are optional. The main benefit is that they are easy to use (game-like) and you can pick up some basic vocab. But I would be looking to move on to other materials sooner rather than later.
Another decent source that is totally free is Nicos Weg which was sponsored by the German government to help foreigners learn German. It’s a little movie where you learn German along with the main character. There’s also an online course with it. It could be used either as a primary course or you could use it as a supplement and just watch the movie to get some additional content.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-eDoThe6qo
Grammar
I would get some sort of course book that is designed for self-study. Teach Yourself, Hugo, Colloquial, Living Language. Something like that. These are “courses” which means they have structured lessons. They aren’t reference grammars. The grammar/course book I liked the best for German was actually a super old edition of Teach Yourself (linked below). The older books tend to have more grammar. Newer ones tend to avoid it/water things down.
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dl ... 8/mode/2up
Some people don’t like grammar and find it derails them. It might be better in that case to go as light as possible. Personally, I find it helpful. And with German in particular I think most people will need to study the grammar at least some to get a handle on the declension and verbal systems and some of the syntax.
The webpages below can be used for supplemental grammar reference. It can be helpful to read explanations of a concept from multiple sources.
http://germanforenglishspeakers.com/
https://www.dartmouth.edu/~deutsch/Gram ... matik.html
https://resources.german.lsa.umich.edu/
Here are some video lessons (for an alternative format)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oy6VbE ... GqYapbSRIF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNA3YSR ... Rbekvfx7px
Simplified Readers
These are books intended to be read by language learners. i.e., they are much easier than regular books. These seem relatively effective. They are usually short stories. After working through some other material first (say half of a course book) these can be introduced.
https://www.amazon.com/Learn-German-Sto ... 1511565276
Native Materials
It’s always a big jump going from learner materials to native materials. But you can't get very far if you avoid the real stuff. You can use a crutch like having the German with a full English translation and the audio. Below are some examples of sources one might use. But I would pick whatever you’re interested in.
The Bible
Parallel text with audio
https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/para ... german.htm
Brothers Grimm
Complete list of stories
https://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/list
At the bottom, you get parallel texts like this.
https://www.grimmstories.com/language.p ... n&r=de
Audio
https://librivox.org/kinder-und-hausmae ... m-grimm-2/
Mein Kampf
Thomas Dalton has published a dual language edition.
https://www.clemensandblair.com/product ... tion-vol-1
There are also audiobooks available
https://archive.org/details/adolfhitler ... chdeutsch/
https://archive.org/details/adolfhitler ... uchdeutsch
YouTube
Here is a little tip with YouTube. If you have a regular account you use to watch videos, you can add additional pages/channels attached to that account. Add a new channel and watch only German videos on that channel. The algorithm should keep recommending you German videos. This way you have a pure German YouTube. Otherwise, the German will get diluted with English content and there's no way to control it.
Overall Program
I would not try to use too many resources all at once. That is a common tendency. It's better to pick a few, select things at a time and make sure you actually use them.
Sample Program
-An audio-based course/program, usually dialogue-based (like Nicos Weg)
-A grammar book intended for self-study lessons
-Some reading material (graded readers, parallel texts)
-Miscellaneous things (videos, songs, apps, whatever)