Question Hello. I live in the southern United States where I work as a music teacher. I am visiting Berlin for new years. I have been studying German the last 2 months and I can generally speak it basically. I can understand what is being said by a German if they speak just a tad bit slower. But I have to interpret generally sentence by sentence. Even after I return from Germany, I want to continue getting better at German. I feel I will do ok if I have to speak it. But how can I be able to hear faster what is being said to me? I have been watching German movies and television since I don't live in Germany. I also have a student who is from Germany and I have asked her to speak German to me as well. What is the best way to go about hearing and interpreting German? Should I speak it more? Would that be the way to help me be able to hear and interpret faster over time? I expect it to take a while, but would like to be able to sit and watch a German movie and even though I cannot intepret everything, I hope to be able to interpret enough to understand the general idea of what is going on without even looking at the television screen.
Answer Hello
I would suggest different type of readings to widen your range of vacabulary. You have to analyse each time each sentence by vocabulary and grammar structure until you understand each detail.
I would suggest reading
- newspaper articles
- literature (novels)
- poems
- comic strip
- listen to different German radio stations through internet
- songs (write down or find the lyrics)
- TV
- movies
