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Learning to speak German isn't an excessively difficult thing to do. Relative to Chinese, Korean, or Finnish, it's relatively simple. German is a cognate language to English; they have a common ancestor. You have learned English, so you have a head start to learn German. A bit of history will help (true history buffs will have to forgive my oversimplifications). The English spoken in the United States came from Great Britain. Going far back into the history of Britain, we find the Teutonic and Gallic peoples speaking their languages. The Teutons were Germans, of a sort, coming mostly out of Scandinavia. The Galls were from the area that became France. Later, the Anglo-Saxons started colonizing eastern Britain and spreading west. They spoke a fresh wave of German-like languages. Still later, in 1066, the Normans - a bunch of Norsemen (and Norsewomen and Norsechildren) living in France and speaking French - invaded Great Britain, took over, and started teaching French (a la Viking) as the official language. The Norman-French language imposition never fully conquered the deeply-rooted German-like languages of the island. The result is that English has at least two words for just about everything. The more scholarly and ecclesiastical and administrative words usually have Latin roots, thanks to the Normans. The ordinary things (like body parts, members of the family, and common household stuff) usually have a German origin. Result: many German words will appear familiar to you. Web Design - Small business custom website from EverestWebDesign.com. Rich Christiansen: - Management metaphors at RichChristiansen.com. |
Learning to Speak German
