Is German hard?

Learning German

So what’s involved if you want to learn German… and is it hard?!

• German and English are cousins, descended from the same language!
• A lot of words are similar in the two languages, especially those for everyday things (no prizes for guessing the meanings of “Butter”, “Haus”, “Schuh” or “braun”!).
• There are some striking similarities in the grammar: English has “I sing”, “I sang” and “I have sung”; German has “ich singe”, “ich sang” and “ich habe gesungen”!
• German pronunciation is not that hard, although there are a few unfamiliar sounds.
• The German language is spelt largely as it is pronounced.
• German grammar can seem a bit tough, largely because it is an inflected language, with a lot of different endings on words. But even if you get the endings wrong, you will still be understood, and after a while they tend to become second nature. Also, in the early stages, you can avoid a lot of the harder grammatical points.
• German word order may seem rather strange and takes a bit of getting used to – everything can seem jumbled up!
• There are a lot of dialects in German, but everyone also speaks standard German (“High German” - “Hochdeutsch”). Swiss German is pretty much a different language, but everyone in Switzerland is also familiar with High German.
• If you know German, you can very easily pick up Dutch, and you would have a good start in learning many of the Scandinavian languages; even the grammar of Russian makes more sense!

Under Euroasia style, we have more information about our approach to teaching. If you’re ready to enrol, our German timetable has details of the next German classes with Euroasia! Otherwise, see course options to find out about the types of German courses which we offer. Course outlines might also be useful.