Learn to Speak German

With about 100 million native speakers, German is one of the major languages of the European Union. German is the official language of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Belgium, Lichtenstein and Luxembourg. German is also spoken by about 80 million people as a second language and is one of the most translated languages in the entire world. As a language frequently used in the technical, automotive and business world, German is a highly valuable and potentially profitable language to know. German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish.

German is classified as a West Germanic language along with English and Dutch. Because of its similarity to English, German is a language usually fairly easily learned by native English speakers to learn. In addition, German pronunciation and spelling are regular and predictable, making learning German much easier than the Romance languages of some of its European neighbors. There are three categories of German nouns (masculine, feminine and neuter) and nouns are always capitalized in the language, regardless of where they occur in a sentence. Pronunciation for non-native German speakers is also made easier with some vowels having an accent called an umlaut (two dots above the letter), which help show how the letter is pronounced in the word.

Because German is one of the most taught second languages in the United States, there are many different ways to learn German. Taking some sort of introductory course at a community college or private institution could be a great way to start. With so many German speakers also readily available in the U.S. , hiring a private tutor and/or joining a German conversation group can also help you develop your language skills. However, the fastest, most efficient and best way to learn German (and any other language for that matter) is to totally immerse yourself in it. Travel to a German speaking country and learn how to communicate. Eat, sleep and dream in German. A few weeks of speaking German on a daily basis is worth a year or more in the classroom. Of course, if you don't have the opportunity to travel to a German speaking country, programs like Rosetta Stone can help you work on your pronunciation and accent as you learn basic German vocabulary and grammar.