Anyone interested in studying German who has English as a first language comes at the task with some advantages. English is a Germanic language, which means that it has its roots in German, that is, many words found in English were originally German words. German also has many cognates, which are words that sound the same in both languages. Some examples include arm, angst, aquarium, and architect. A cognate is a “true” cognate if its meaning is obvious at a single glance. Architect, for example, is “Architekt” in German, but is nevertheless clearly understandable to an English speaker.
A potential student of German also may look forward to the ease of spelling. Although German enjoys combining several words into one long string of letters to form new phrases or ideas, the pronunciation is straightforward. Provided that one follows German rules of pronunciation for vowels and consonants, German is pronounced exactly as it is written.
The grammar is not the easiest portion of the language to learn, as the issue of grammatical gender and case must be learned, and for the native English speaker, these may be very unfamiliar concepts. Nouns, on the other hand, are always capitalized in German, whether or not they are proper (e.g. “Washington” and “people” are both capitalized). Whereas “I” is always capitalized in English, it is never capitalized in German unless it appears at the beginning of the sentence. By remembering these few simple points, it is easy for a new student of the language to quickly identify nouns and words that are similar to English, and helps with pronunciation of even unfamiliar words. A student should also learn the numbers zero through nine, which makes it possible to give a street number, a telephone number, a hotel room number, or other useful information. Combining this basic knowledge with common phrases and expressions, including simple directions, greetings, and simple requests, a student then has an ability to make themselves understood with no difficulty.
Since many Germans also learn English from a young age and have an ability to speak it very well, a student who is struggling will often find friendly assistance offered to them in English even if they want to practice their German skills!
Have you studied German as a native English speaker? Do you have thoughts on learning German from the perspective of a native speaker? We’d love to read your thoughts in the comments!
