Does your knowing English language help you learning German language?

Question

Does your knowing English language help you learning German language?

Jamie1605 · Answer

Yes the vocab and grammar in Germanic languages are very similar to English

ButtersStotch · Answer

No, tried learning German and gave up. I find Mandarin to be much easier.

Jamie1605 · Answer

@ButtersStotch What?? O_O What is your secret xD

ButtersStotch · Answer

@EmperorIguana42 no idea mate. 2 months of learning Mandarin I'm more proficient than after 4 years of French at school. It's probably because I wasn't really interested in learning French and it was kind of forced onto me to learn it. Did it for that English Baccalaureate, which after theu scrapped so me learning French was a waste of fucking time. I think self teaching yourself a language feels like a hobby so you enjoy it and really try to learn whilst studying a language is more like a chore so an annoyance. I think if you really want to learn a language the best choice is to either learn whilst you're really young, such as that English/Mandarin school in London from the age of 4. But if you're older, just self teach, then if you want to become some god in the language go to university and just skip past GCSE and A-Level.
I have also learnt Spanish for 1 year at school and tried self teaching German for 1 month. I have recently started to learn Japanese and Korean seeing as I have a knack with Oriental languages. However, whilst some words are similar they are completely different. No tones used in these 2 whilst Mandarin does. Also, the writing systems are all different. Easiest to read in order is Korean, Japanese, Mandarin. Easiest to speak is Mandarin, Japanese, Korean.
Learning 3 languages at once stops you getting bored of learning plus it is more efficient.

Jamie1605 · Answer

@ButtersStotch Thanks for that, that really helped!

I do completely agree with you though, I made more progress in Spanish/German in 1-2 months than 3 years in French and made more progress self-teaching myself in French than doing at school.

I'm thinking about going back to learn some German because my goal is to be fluent in Spanish, French and German. Would you say that it's important to prioritise languages?

ButtersStotch · Answer

@EmperorIguana42 I try to keep them at an even amount of learning. I'm more proficient in Mandarin than the others so at the amount I have stopped Mandarin until I have caught up to the same proficiency with Korean and Japanese. When I am the same I will divide my time equally. So, I think you should prioritise the one's you find most difficult. 
Another reason to prioritise is if you are planning to go and live there.

Jamie1605 · Answer

@ButtersStotch Yeah, Spanish is definitely my top priority because it's the language I use the most after English and the language I wanna achieve the most in.

Thanks for your reply!

ButtersStotch · Answer

@EmperorIguana42 you ever heard of YouTuber LaoShu? He's honestly the best Polyglot I ever seen. A lot of YouTuber's claim to be fluent but are clearly fake because they edit the video hundreds of time and are just reading off the screen in front of them. Then they just choose the best pronunciation after several takes.

Jamie1605 · Answer

@ButtersStotch Yeah I love his Level Up videos. Although he doesn't speak many of his languages fluently it still is really inspiring and entertaining. He doesn't claim to speak his languages fluently either whereas a lot of polyglots do even though they only know the basics.

ButtersStotch · Answer

@EmperorIguana42 he's very modest and that's what I like. You seen the one where he's waiting for his order in a Chinese buffet and he speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Tagalog and Spanish to the staff?

Jamie1605 · Answer

@ButtersStotch I've seen a lot where he orders in a Chinese restaurant xD But yeah I think I have. My favourite reaction is when he is speaking to some Chinese fisherman and then he speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and the Fuzhou dialect to them.

ButtersStotch · Answer

@EmperorIguana42 that was the first one I saw. Best mis-translation he did was when he asked about a young girl to her parents in Japanese "how old is she?" but said "how much is she?". They couldn't get away quick enough lol. Then he realised why they looked worried.

Jamie1605 · Answer

@ButtersStotch xD That would be embarrassing. We've all made embarrassing mistakes in languages :/

Harriet23 · Answer

@ButtersStotch I find whichever is easier to speak depends on the person - but I agree I have been learning German for 4 years and have to take it as one of my GCSE and I’m not that good, but self teaching yourself, like I am with korean, is better as like you said if you have an interest and enjoy it, it is more like a hobby rather than a chore - which makes it quicker to learn I think

Does your knowing English language help you learning German language? See a translation

Yes the vocab and grammar in Germanic languages are very similar to English

No, tried learning German and gave up. I find Mandarin to be much easier.

@ButtersStotch What?? O_O What is your secret xD

@ButtersStotch Yeah, Spanish is definitely my top priority because it's the language I use the most after English and the language I wanna achieve the most in.Thanks for your reply!

@ButtersStotch Yeah I love his Level Up videos. Although he doesn't speak many of his languages fluently it still is really inspiring and entertaining. He doesn't claim to speak his languages fluently either whereas a lot of polyglots do even though they only know the basics.

@EmperorIguana42 he's very modest and that's what I like. You seen the one where he's waiting for his order in a Chinese buffet and he speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Tagalog and Spanish to the staff?

@ButtersStotch I've seen a lot where he orders in a Chinese restaurant xD But yeah I think I have. My favourite reaction is when he is speaking to some Chinese fisherman and then he speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and the Fuzhou dialect to them.

@EmperorIguana42 that was the first one I saw. Best mis-translation he did was when he asked about a young girl to her parents in Japanese "how old is she?" but said "how much is she?". They couldn't get away quick enough lol. Then he realised why they looked worried.

@ButtersStotch xD That would be embarrassing. We've all made embarrassing mistakes in languages :/

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Does your knowing English language help you learning German language?

@ButtersStotch Yeah, Spanish is definitely my top priority because it's the language I use the most after English and the language I wanna achieve the most in.

Thanks for your reply!