I agree it will probably take years to become an effortlessly fluent speaker - but you can enjoy a sense of effortless understanding long before that (even if you don’t understand a lot of the details of what you’re listening to). About a month after I started with LingQ, I saw a few films at the annual German Film Festival that they hold in my city. I would say I understood less than 5% and I made a mental goal that by the next festival (end of March next year) I wanted to be able to understand around 80%.
I am not confident that I’m going to reach that now, but at the same time I care less, having gotten a more realistic idea of what it takes and that I’m still making progress that I’m fairly happy with. Plus understanding varies so much even among films - I’m sure there are some (e.g. lots of extended dialogue, background noise, slang etc) that will take me 4 or 5 years to understand, others, not too much more than a year.
The other night I decided to watch a film (a thriller with not much dialogue and simple plot) without any subtitles to see what I could still follow. Maybe it was 50% literally or even more - but I FELT like I grasped 80% in terms of understanding the plot and it felt almost like I was watching a movie in English in terms of not feeling distracted/confused by the bits I couldn’t understand (admittedly, the dialogue was probably less crucial to the plot). Like nateg said, it made me think that English subtitles can just distract from the listening and being in ‘German mode’. So planning to watch a lot more films without subtitles now.
My points is, I think these time frames can be good general motivators but in my experience so far, there are also pretty vague as comprehension is so context-dependent. The good flipside of this is that it’s not like you can’t feel some of the pleasure of being fluent until you reach that ‘golden point’. The difference with independent language learning is that it’s not like a uni degree where you can expect to walk out with your qualification in 3 years or whatever then get a job (even if you happen to have forgotten half of what you learned). But surely it’s better in many ways because you can design your own degree and have a skill for life (if you keep with it)? Even 4 or 5 years doesn’t seem that long to me when you’re enjoying the journey and little epiphanies along the way.
It was great being in Germany this time - for the first time since LingQ. I’ve been 4 times in the last 5 years as we visit my mother-in-law nearly every year. But this time felt so different because I had more German. Even though I’m pretty far from fluent just being able to understand at a basic level and take part in simple conversations took away all the frustration of feeling like I was surrounded wall of noise…so nice to feel like conversations were an opportunity and actually enjoyable rather than something to endure/avoid (and it’s hard to hide from the neighbours in a small German village).
Yes enjoying the journey are the right words to use. At the moment I plan on learning German the rest of my life so its not a race. I’m more of a believer in the hare and the tortoise mentality.
Maybe I’m a little jaded by the schemers out there promising great returns with little effort. Goals are important and like you said those little epiphany moments are great.
The other day I was looking at DW and I was tickled pink at how much I could understand compared to just a month or two ago. Like Lucas said, its like a bucket filling with water, one drop at a time, with patience and perseverance we can achieve what we are striving for.
Hey guys. Thanks for chiming in. Don’t get me wrong. I am enjoying the journey. I just posed the question because I’m learning German for work purposes - so when I may or may not be able to understand German is key. But it’s good to hear that so many people, while they may not be able speak fluently, can understand a good deal after only a few months. Thx.
I’m definitely a tortoise but not to say I don’t feel impatient at times! That’s a good philosophy nateg. Funny, I was thinking about that exact bucket metaphor the other day.
dwayne: Oh that sheds more light on things re work. One thing I use and would recommend is DazPod. They have quite a few lessons/podcasts with a work/office scenario theme - so it may be handy to help learn vocab related to that. It’s aimed at intermediate level but if you import into LingQ you could read it from beginner stage (I started with it after maybe 3 months). I really like it because it breaks down and explains the dialogue in a lot of detail about usage, subtleties etc (great if you feel you must understand EVERYTHING )
Hi ! =)) My native is Russian, I’m in Moscow. And I also know German. Believe it or not, Russian acquired a huge lot of German words in the 17th century, hence we have quite a number of German words in Russian, and they became russianized to such an extent that most Russians do not even know they use German words in everyday speech! =)))
" I just posed the question because I’m learning German for work purposes - so when I may or may not be able to understand German is key"
That’s very different than for the reasons I’m learning it. For me it’s a hobby. If I was learning it for work I would have to take a totally different approach as I would need to be at a pretty high level fairly quick. I guess the advice your looking for is from someone who’s actually achieved a decent intermediate level in under a year, and not some newby like me throwing in there 2 cents.
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