Any way I can learn german, except Duolingo? Moved to Switzerland some time ago, and my dad keeps bothering me that in 5 months here I cant speak German yet, even thought we’re already been to a ‘German intensive course’ (his words) and 2 months where we learned the basics for grammar back in my old country. i can’t learn german at school, cuz they have a curriculum they go by, they don’t learn German, they learn what everyone would learn in the 9th class, for example how to make an argument (what they were doing most recently). Right now, Duolingo is my only option, and if I don’t take classes that are specially made for people who are learning German, with only duolingo, I wont get anywhere soon. He thinks with only a course that lasted like 2 or 3 months I can learn to speak enough german to understand stuff they teach in the 9th grade at school.
By - Kimy_tel
You could begin by reading our [FAQ](/r/German/wiki/faq) and then the rest of our [wiki](/r/German/wiki/index). There's a lot of info there to get you started.
Don't stress yourself out too much, it's really easy to get overwhelmed with language learning. Whilst Duo Lingo is great for building vocabulary, it's not often you'll get a fluent speaker who studied on Duo Lingo alone. I've lived in Germany for a few years now and I didn't pick up the language as fast as I thought I would. Some people just struggle more with languages and thats just a fact. I have a math brain so languages are particularly hard for me. I've only just reached a B2 level and even then, I still make grammatical mistakes. What I find helps the most is just speaking as much as you can and absorbing as much as you can. There are tons of Facebook groups where people are looking for speaking partners of all different levels. Confidence is key 🔑 Don't worry about making mistakes when speaking. Natives are generally very sympathetic. If you speak to your dad about your struggles, maybe he can help find a 1 on 1 online tutor to help you grasp the basics. Once you get past that A2 level and you have a good handle of the flow, it becomes alot easier and alot faster. Don't be discouraged, especially if you've moved here from a non-German speaking land. Cultural shock is a very real thing and can take quite a toll on you mentally without realising it. Please google it and read what it says about the peaks and timelines and see if this could be what youre feeling. I think i was about 8 months into living in Germany when the culture shock hit me and I became really down and had less and less desire to learn the language every day. Talking about it really helped me work through that and my German excelled after getting past that wall. I wish you all the best and I'm very happy to share some resources and books that really helped me if you would like that. Good luck!
It’s really sad strangers online support me more than my parents 🥲 thank you for the kind words, and yes, I would like to know your resources. Also, me math brain too.