To support you and to make improving your German speaking skills a little easier, we have gathered here:
- lots of useful hints and tricks
- effective learning strategies and methods
- links to other helpful language learning sites on the internet
Mistakes & Accents
Everybody makes them, everybody has one. Mistakes and accents are always part of speaking a second language. Don't put yourself under too much pressure because you will make mistakes and have your own little dialect even after years of practice. Perfection is boring!
Pronunciation
Everyone hast to start out small. Focus on improving your general pronunciation by always learning the correct pronunciation of every new word you learn.
Talking to Yourself
You are not feeling ready for conversations with real people? Then try practicing on your own and talk to yourself in German. You could, for example, write a short dialogue, which you then practice reading out loud before memorizing and taking on the roles of the speakers.
Tandem Partners
Learning by doing! Whether in a café or over Skype, try to find a tandem partner that is a native speaker and start chatting away. This is definitely the fastest way to actual fluency. You can often find tandem partners on the website or bulletin board of a university, through your school, or on special tandem websites.
Groups & Clubs
Look for groups and clubs in your area that communicate in German. You could, for example, join an German theater group, get involved in a cultural center, or join a book club.
Common Phrases & Expressions
Whenever you learn new vocabulary, try to also memorize the appropriate context, in which that vocabulary is used. Being able to use words and their matching phrases and expressions will make speaking a lot easier for you.
Paraphrasing
It happens to the best of us: You are right in the middle of a conversation and you realize you have forgotten an important word or phrase. This problem is easily solved if you have mastered paraphrasing. This is the skill of learning how to say certain things using different words. Practice this often, and it will be a great tool for the future! You could even turn it into a fun game with friends!
Summarizing
Being able to summarize a text is an essential skill for real-world conversations and communication. That is why you should train to do this as often as possible. An example exercise could be explaining the content and plot of a movie, novel, or article to someone.
Thinking in German
To really start mastering a second language, you have to start thinking in it. Actual fluency is within reach as soon as you don't have to constantly translate every single word between your own language and the one you are learning. This goal is only achievable if you are able to immerse yourself as often as possible in the German language – be it via movies, music, audio books, or stays abroad.
