Life is too short to learn German?

My German learning journey — part 0

I’m starting to learn German this week; partly out of boredom; partly because I love the idea of being a polyglot; and partly because ever since I heard someone said “Life is too short to learn German” I’ve always been intrigued by this language.

I’ve attempted to learn languages before. I don’t think I’m particularly good at it; although I always find the process of learning a new language itself interesting. I’ve learnt English (since secondary school), French (in college — but hardly retain much of it), Chinese (also in college; and currently I’m at basic conversational level), Spanish (in order to experiment a new method: ALG).

People often say German is a hard language to learn, and my motivation in learning German is not primarily to master the language (although that would be a nice bonus); but rather I want to know what exactly make it hard. So I may probably lose interest once I’ve figured out what make German hard. If I stick around longer, I could probably learn how to overcome those challenges; which will be nice. I’ll think about it when the time comes.

Anyway while the going is still good, I’ll use this blog to document my learning journey. It will help me reflect on my learning, and probably some people may find it useful to get started.

Resources

1. A book: “Speak Read Write German” by Christine Sutton that I’ve got from an old bookstore. It’s a very simple and basic book.
2. The Wikipedia page on German IPA to help with pronunciation.
3. The app Duolingo. They have gotten a whole lot better than when I first tried out; the gamification has evolved significantly and I keep discovering new ways they have invented to keep me hooked in the learning game.
4. Taking notes with this blog.

I’ll update this section as I find more useful resources — and there are a lot of them, but I won’t need them at this stage yet.

The Process

Beginner Level

Since this will be just a hobby, I’ll keep the spirit of MVP in mind. I won’t think about other stages of learning until I reach there. So for now, my process will be simply:

1. Take time to go through the German IPA and take note of the differences in pronunciation between German, English, my native Vietnamese, and Chinese.
2. Spend around half an hour a day on Duolingo (try to get at least 300 points).
3. Take notes rigorously.

This stage will probably take 4 to 6 months, which is the estimated time to complete a Duolingo course, according to this Reddit thread.

I’ll also update this section as my process improves over time.

Alright! In Ordnung! Bis Später! See you later!

Read Part 1 — What makes German difficult to learn?