Hello friends! Welcome back to Unjaded Jade Unjaded Jade My YouTube channel So you want to learn German? Here you will learn how I managed to learn German in 60 days And I'm not a pro I don't speak fluently But last year I couldn't speak German Just a tiny little bit and I could only have simple conversations So now I'm much better I'll show you my routine for learning to speak and give you tips on how to learn new languages Verb thing in German.
I have to think thing verb I'm not going to the park with my brother Volker instead. I Park with my brother. I'm going If you've been following me for a while, you would know that I studied in Berlin for the total of about a year I spent a summer there. I spent two semesters there and I love that city.
I also love the German language. I'm half Dutch so German just sounds very intuitive and natural and almost homey to me because of how similar it is to Dutch. In my first semester in Berlin I didn't really commit to learning German but I then did a Lingoda sprint and that was just really life-changing because suddenly I could read graffiti in Berlin and understand it and have very basic conversations like introducing myself and then fast forward two years to the start of this year where i decided to really commit to my language learning journey i really wanted to become conversational this year and today i'm going to show you how i've made this progress everything from my notion system for reviewing vocabulary regularly to the videos that i watch the podcast that i listen to and the incredible lingoda course lingoda sprint which is like the bulk of my language learning journey and I feel so grateful that this video is also kindly sponsored by Lingoda, like genuinely the best language learning school that you can ever imagine.
I learned Spanish with Lingoda when I moved to Buenos Aires during my degree and yeah it's just really taken me from like literally I know zero German to a place where I feel quite comfortable having you know basic conversations with people and navigating Deutschland. I hope this video helps you wherever you are in your language learning journey. Hello friends! Okay, so how do I structure my German learning process? If you've ever tried to learn a language but never created a formal system around it, the odds are that you probably didn't keep learning the language.
That is what has happened to me so many times. But this January, when I decided to be more serious about learning German, I decided to put it all on Notion. If you see my other Notion videos, you'll be familiar with my life hub.
This is basically where my entire life happens, so it's where I keep track. of my goals. It's where I planned all my university work, it's where I plan my videos, it's how I planned my book.
And so of course I needed a German language learning hub. My German hub is inspired by a template by my friend Anna Lenks. She has this whole video on the template and how to use it if you're interested. I'll put it in the link in the description.
I changed the cover to make it feel more me. I included these quotes about why you should learn languages. And here I have a calendar view of everything that I'm going to do to learn German this week. I normally sit down on a Sunday, look at my next week ahead, schedule in all my Lingoda classes. book those, look at other work commitments that I have and see how much time I could realistically dedicate to my German learning.
So like today I have Lingoda class in half an hour actually. This morning I listened to a slow German podcast about walks. Yesterday I did a few more episodes of Nico's Weg which is like this wonderful learning resource and I have all my potential resources here so that I can just remember what I can use to learn German. Like I don't feel too stuck or too limited.
Some days you just want to do something more passive. Other days I'm like, let's do multiple online classes with Lingoda, why not? Here I have some of my goals, which I haven't really thought too deeply about. Like, my goal is to just become conversational in German, and so to try and make that metric feel a bit more tangible, I said to be able to hold a 30-minute conversation with my really good friend.
I want to reach the end of B2 level classes on Lingoda, but maybe even B1. We'll see. Like I've got the whole 2024. Oh guys, I'm so excited. I'm gonna travel around Germany in June and I'm gonna stay with the German family for a week and practice.
One of my biggest tips is to have a journal where you force yourself to write your thoughts in the target language. Some days I'm literally just practicing what I learned in a Lingoda class, but other days I'll be really dramatic and try and actually talk about my feelings and what happened that day. But it's really good practice to try and get your inner monologue to you. think in the target language and you have the time to be able to look up words that you might need or that come up a lot. Here is the bare bones of my German travel trip.
I'm so excited! I booked some of it but I haven't booked all of it so it's still open to change. Oh, it should be Konstanz. But I'm mainly focusing on South Germany because I haven't been yet.
So exciting! Okay, so now that I've shown you my notion and how I organise my resources, I kind of want to go through all the resources that I use and how I use them, how useful they've been, tips that I have. Because I think I'm quite efficient.
I don't put... that much time into language learning but I think my progress has been pretty good considering the amount of time that I've put in. So here's everything that I wish I knew.
Today I have a grammar course on prepositions with dative. I find German grammar very difficult, but that's why I love the Lingoda class. In the class there are usually three to five students from all over the world and we talk a lot.
My teacher will correct my pronunciation. On the upper floor... On the upper floor?
No, on the upper floor are many little doors. Yes, okay. It's true, thank you.
Before class, I always learn the vocabulary. And it's very easy with Lingoda. Lingoda added the most game-changing flashcard function where you can go over the vocabulary from past classes, from your current class. And it uses all the principles of learning to really get you to learn the language, like spaced repetition, putting words in the context of sentences. And because you're reviewing words that you've done in previous classes, you're literally building such a deep foundation of knowledge.
I think this is. what's so different about Lingoda from like a Duolingo or like one of these apps where you're just like learning random words out of context. Hello, yes I'm fine, thank you. I'm Jade, I'm from England, near London. West of London, yes. Oh no, for me the bread looks so disgusting.
But I'm vegan. Yes. Okay, the blueberry marshmallow cake is under the cheesecake. I think there is nothing harder than knowing whether it's ein, eine, einen... The preposition that you put in front of a noun is a total guessing game, a total mystery.
because it depends on four things. Can you believe that? It's not just like the gender of a noun, it's also whether or not it's plural, but then you also have to think of the case, like where it lands in the sentence determines things about. it and don't even get me started on like tenses and how that affects it like there's just so much to think about all the time this is why you need a teacher because you would never know if you're right or wrong like even if you finally learned the gender of a noun that's not enough you also need to know about where it fits in a sentence and as a learner it's so helpful having someone correct you Must du Lingoda ausprobieren? Okay, I'm gonna try and describe it in German.
It's probably gonna be wrong, but whatever. Um wirklich schnell gut zu sein, kannst du denn Sprint machen. Lingoda Sprint.
Pro 60 Tage hast du eine Klasse jeden Tag oder jeden zweiten Tag. Und wenn du jeden Klasse machen, du hast keinen Verpass, dann erhalst du 50% of your money back Or you get class credits where you can go and take more classes with Lingoda to keep your language learning journey, which is what I did when I completed my sprint in February. So I did Jan-Feb.
I did that. And if you do every single class, every class works out as only six euro, which is unfathomable given the quality and how you literally learn a whole language. Literally all my university friends at Minerva have done a Lingoda sprint.
Like it is, it's a rite of passage for the people I know. It is the best way to learn a language. Guys, one of the easiest ways to keep learning a language is to just keep playing content in your target language.
Like I'm eating my breakfast. I don't have to pay full attention. I'm just going to watch some easy German.
I'm just going to hear more German. I'm going to hear how words are pronounced. I'm absorbing it.
I'm learning new words. I can pause. I'll sometimes re-watch the same video like three times across three different days to use space repetition. So if there's a word that I don't know on the first day.
then I'll re-watch the same video like two days later and be like, oh, like what was that word again? I think I remember it. And then I force myself to remember and I'm like, oh yes. And then I'll watch the same video a few days again. And then I'll watch the video for like a third time.
And that piece of vocabulary is just, it's natural. Like I know it now. I need more recommendations of good German shows. So if you have any recommendations, let me know. I'm watching Babylon Berlin right now.
And I definitely need the subtitles. Like I didn't understand what was going on in the first episode. But watching content is good. Also we love a German YouTuber.
I learned a new word, HALTSCHMERZEN. Sore throat. I am so curiously, I am so curiously, just great, just great. One of my scariest but most important tips is to try and find friends who speak German. You can use free online apps and websites to meet other language learners but I also recommend going to language learner meetups.
These have been so life-changing. for me and I've been able to make friends in Lisbon and in London and even in Taiwan who were also learning languages. Two of my best friends who I visited in Cape Town are German and literally it's my goal to just be able to talk to them fluently in German. It helps so much when you have people to practice with.
I also just want to remind you that not giving up is the most important thing. We're human, we go through phases, sometimes we're really on it, our whole life priority is learning a language we're doing the hours we're making the progress and then sometimes like me you go through a breakup and you don't pick up German for months and that's okay because as long as you you know you don't let your pride and your ego get in the way and you're happy to maybe go back a few steps and to just get going again you will make progress again like that's the way things work and if you've ever learnt something in the past, it's there, it's deep in the long-term memory and it can come back. I really invite you to clarify your motivation, why are you learning this language, set yourself some kind of goal or accountability. Like for me, I knew that my goal for this year was that I was going to travel around Germany, stay with the German family and have an opportunity to practice and for me it's booked, I'm going in June and so even though I had a blip because of my mental health and motivation. I've got this goal, this accountability, so I eventually picked German back up again.
Be kind to yourself, it's okay to do the bare minimum at times, like just listen to a song in that language that you like over and over and over and you're still learning, you're still being exposed to it. I'm really excited to keep learning German and to keep improving and I'm so open to advice for how you guys learn it. Like so many of my resources are just from recommendations from you guys.
So thank you No matter where you are. I hope you have a gorgeous rest of your day Thank you guys so much for watching Please give it a thumbs up if you want to hear more about my german learning journey and bye