Today, I am thrilled to offer my little slice of internet over to Julia, a friend I met in Germany over six years ago. Despite the time and distance, we remain close. In fact, Julia agreed to be one of my beta readers for my Christmas novella because I knew it needed to be read by a couple of German speakers! Anyway, Julia is multi-lingual (German, English, and Arabic), and she wanted to share some of her language learnings with you all.

7 things I Learned About German While Teaching It

I recently started a new job where I teach foreigners my own language which is German. I didn’t study this. I’ve never taught before, and yet, here I am helping people to get by in their new country.

It’s not a strict German class like you might imagine. There’s no curriculum. It’s completely oriented towards our clients, evaluating their skill and working from there. As for me, I’m free to teach what is necessary without having the clock ticking against me.

There are a few things I’ve learned so far about the quirks of my language. I’d like to name a few and I hope you enjoy!

1. The needed resources are out there!

Before I started teaching on my own, I looked up to my colleagues who have been in this job longer than me. I was surprised how many resources they used! In addition to books, there are tons of online resources available for free!

Oftentimes, they are even provided by the German government to help you settle. You can find resources on YouTube or on specific homepages and they offer everything from basic classes to advanced ones. You can download texts, exercises, and explanations. Downloading explanations has helped me so much in teaching! Here’s why:

2. Teaching my language makes me wonder…

…why things are the way they are. As a native German speaker, I never really wondered about my own grammar. Yes, I had to learn it at school, but using it every day, I get blind-sided. Teaching leaves me no choice but to ask questions in order to prepare well.

English has one definite article (the). An article indicates information about a noun. While the English language has one of them, German has six (der, die, das, dem, den, des)! “Why does it sometimes say “dem Tisch” when it’s usually “der Tisch”?” Ah yes, German articles. Therefore, be prepared to be asked. In explaining, I try to refer to the mother tongue of my students which I’m lucky to have studied. So far, it’s worked. 🙂

3. Language fascinates me

Languages are so complex. All these words, all these nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions… they are fascinating! Last week, I explained the word “Dunstabzugshaube”. In German, it’s a compound noun and consists of three words: Dunst, Abzug, and Haube.

The literal English translation could be “fume sucking hood”, and what it’s referring to is a thing on top of something that sucks away the steam. An everyday example would be the kitchen hood over your stove with the mechanical fan that removes fumes, heat, and smoke from the air. I loved explaining it and was once again amazed by the variety of German words.

4. Language reflects culture

It seems obvious but said (or written) aloud, it was a surprise for me. The way we say or write things not only shows our emotions or intentions, but it also reflects our culture. Sometimes, expressions imply a certain habit that was oftentimes used in the past. Some idioms shouldn’t be taken literally though. You can find a fun compilation of them in the following video:

5. Language influences other languages

Let’s stick with an example here. Take the word “television.” In English, the abbreviated version “TV” is used many times. I was surprised that the Arabic word is exactly the same: television. While it’s written in Arabic letters, the pronunciation is the same.

In German, we say “Fernseher” which is hard to spell for foreigners. It consists of two words: Fern-Seher and can be translated as tele-vision. You see, television is the Latin form which means that someone is able to see far in the distance. Fernseher means the same thing, just not expressed in Latin but in German. Isn’t it crazy how different languages influence each other like different foods influence each other, too?

6. Learn from my students

I teach German for two hours every day. The students have to learn many new words, difficult grammar, and weird sayings. Meanwhile, I try to learn something from them, too. I want them to teach me new words in their mother tongue. That way, I learned to say and write “Dunstabzugshaube” in Arabic.

To be honest, they smile at my attempts to speak and write their language. At the same time, they are amazed I can. I want them to know that we’re all learning and that making mistakes is not something to be ashamed of.

7. It makes me a cheerleader

All of the above leads me to love my native language even more. I love the complexity of it, the variety of the words, new and old. As a German, I can still learn to understand my own language with each new teaching session. As a teacher, I want to cheer people on. Yes, German language is tough but yes, it definitely can be learned!