If you are part of a military family in the Canadian Armed Forces, you know that every transfer to another city and province is fraught with difficulties. But when this transfer is outside your home country, you know that this challenge will be of a different scale. As a military spouse, I am currently living this fabulous adventure with my spouse, Yohann and my two children, Luna 4 and Louis 9 months. We left Canada on June 30, 2018 to go to the Geilenkirchen military base in Germany. The first thing that strikes us when we arrive is obviously the language spoken in the country, which is, in our case, German. In order to immerse myself in my new home, I used several tips to learn this language, which may seem difficult at first glance, but which is surprisingly very easy to learn. Here are my top 5 best ways to learn a new language.
1. Rosetta Stone
Each spouse is entitled to free entry to the Rosetta Stone Apprenticeship Program. This online course has 20 activity modules on the chosen language and gives you a fabulous base on vocabulary, gender and number chords, verbs, conversations with others, writing and speaking. With 30 minutes a day of this program, my understanding of German has improved at breakneck speed. If you wish to receive your access to the site, contact our Virtual Program Coordinator.
2. Netflix
When you arrive in Germany, your Netflix account will include a wider selection of German-language films and TV series. As I am a big fan of series, I continued to listen to my favorite shows, but in German with the subtitles in German as well. That way, I was really interested in understanding, and becoming familiar with common phrases and syntax. And don’t be afraid to try some new stuff! There a lot of good German series on it like Dark , Babylon Berlin or Charité . https://www.netflix.com/browse
3. Breaking news tv and radio
If you have chosen to subscribe to the cable, I strongly advise you to listen to the regional news channel in the morning, either while having breakfast or when preparing the children for the school. When you take the car, switch on your radio to hear news, weather and traffic in German. Exposing yourself as much as possible to German culture will greatly help you associate words and phrases in the long run without any effort.
4. Translate a child's book
Another fun thing to do is to translate a story book for kids. For my part, I bought a book with pictures to better understand and give me clues. I use Google Translate for long sentences and linguee.fr for words that have multiple meanings. Thanks to that, I added a lot of new words to my vocabulary and after, I enjoy reading the story to my daughter at night. Join the useful to the pleasant as they say!
5. Dare to speak
When you are out, at the grocery store, bakery, market, mall or park, do not be afraid to talk to people. Often, when out in the community with your children or even your dogs, people are likely to want to start up conversation. Even if you are not able to pronounce every word correctly or you do so with an accent, know that locals appreciate that you are making an effort to speak their language. Never underestimate real human contact, you will learn much faster than any other method, believe me.
Now, it's your turn to play. Good luck!