My Method for Learning a New Language

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I just reached 20,000 known words in German, and I want to share the way I have been learning recently.

I started learning Spanish in high school and had traditional classroom lessons with a lot of grammar. I find this style of learning really cumbersome, stressful, and boring. However, I was motivated to learn. I found Steven Kaufmann’s videos on comprehensible input (CI) and was really intrigued by his method, so I began applying it to Spanish with great success. I went from a C to an A+ in that class and became even more motivated to learn the language.

I mainly read and listened during that time, which was fun, but I ran into an issue: I could not speak comfortably, and my confidence and motivation took a big hit. I am sure that, had I continued, it would have improved. I reached 35,000 known words, and I am planning to come back to it. However, I decided to study a new language: German.

My goal in German is to be able to read an advanced book without needing to look words up and, of course, to be able to have comfortable conversations in German.

To achieve this, I am focusing on these four elements:

READING

I started out by reading simple stories, mainly translated children’s books that I had already read in my own language. At about 5,000 known words, I began reading the Harry Potter books. I really like reading these because the language becomes progressively harder, I already know the plot, so if I lose track, I can quickly get into the groove again, and they are really enjoyable reads. My daily goal is 150 known words per day. This takes about an hour or so.

LISTENING

For listening, I just try to listen while I am doing things like cooking, going to uni, or cleaning. I really like the Easy German podcast. It can be a bit boring, but that is just how it is with CI. I also like shadowing YouTube videos to help with my pronunciation. I do this daily for about 15 minutes.

WRITING

For writing, I have just started journaling in German. I abuse Google Translate for this, haha. Journaling is a habit I have had for a while, and I really enjoy it. I try to write one A5 page a day. Sentences I want to remember, I put into my Anki deck.

SPEAKING

Speaking has been the hardest part for me, but recently I have made a breakthrough. I started speaking German with OpenAI’s new GPT Live. I have tried using AI before, but it has always been too awkward and boring. However, this new model is great for speaking practice. I try to speak for about 15 minutes a day. I have tried italki, but I just don’t stick to it… I am interested in finding a speaking partner (I speak Danish and English, by the way) but I just haven’t gotten around to it. I also do speaking preparation, mainly in the form of sentence memorization with Anki. This has been a game changer.

I hope this is useful to someone, and I would really appreciate your tips and recommendations.

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I have reached a simple and perhaps absurd conclusion: just invest time trying methods and stick with the one that works for you. CI this, CI that… I don’t know. For me, having a German grammar book helps immensely, just as writing in Portuguese keeps me from ending up speaking Portuñol. I neither enjoy nor benefit from relying solely on CI; I like reviewing how the language works—grammar guides me. Nor am I arrogant enough to claim there is only one way to learn, if there even is one. In the end, it’s all about time investment: studying and practicing as you see fit, but putting in the hours.

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Yeah, the method that works is the one you stick with. Personally, I find grammar really boring, but I know that a basic understanding of it can save you a lot of time.

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Wow, that was ambitious. Once, I read the first Harry Potter book im German with a student, who passed B1 and it was VERY difficult for them, because the German translation uses a lot of idioms, collocations and B2/C1-words*. But a lot of these more refined words are latin based and resemble the English translation, so that makes it easier to understand for people, who understand English.
As you are now far more advanced in your German studies, I wonder whether it was hard for you to read HP. I stuggled with the books in French, when I passed B1, but (in comparison) the Italian and Catalan versions seemed easy at A2 level.

[* Edit: I guess, that is a reason for why I often heard German parents say that the book is interesting even for adults.]

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I agree completely with your views. I have a German grammar book, but it is too hard to use for reference. Which do you use?

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As another datapoint, I read it at 11,000 or so LingQ words. I had also tried starting it earlier a few times but I think I got distracted. I do remember it being very difficult at first but much easier halfway or so through the book. I think I just picked up on some of the common vocabulary used. Also, roughly knowing the story (from the movie) helped a bit too I’m sure.

The great thing about Lingq or any translation tool…You can keep up with the story very easily, even if you don’t know a good chunk of the language to start with. Just got to keep pushing through and not dwell on trying to make sure you understand every word. Sentence mode is great for this. One will start to pick up words the more times they see them in the story. Without LingQ I believe it would be too cumbersome for my taste until a much higher level.

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The first book is hard, but it gets easier as you progress through the series. I’ve read all the books in Spanish, English, and Danish, so I’m very familiar with the story. If you haven’t read Harry Potter before, I wouldn’t recommend reading it in your TL. Just pick other books that you’re already familiar with.

(I also had German classes when I was younger, but I didn’t take them seriously, so I ended up not making much progress.)

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I am using “Grammatik Aktiv” by Cornelsen. I can send you its PDF if you want to see how it is structured.

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Thank you, I was able to read an excerpt on Amazon.

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I agree with you. Reading HP at 5K is ambitious! I am around 45k known words in German, and I have a really hard time reading Harry Potter.

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Took over 7 months to read the 1st HP book in Japanese with a word count of 7k. Key thing is going to be consistency (and for me A LOT of re-reading sections and re-listening to the audiobook). 2nd book feels better now. Still difficult but more manageable.

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I don’t really focus on understanding everything I read. I just try to get as much input as possible, and I don’t reread things because I find that a bit boring.

I’d say I understand about 85–90% of what I read right now. I’m on the fifth book.

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Yeah im at about 3600 spanish known words and lingq tells me the Harry potter books are all 18-22% unknown words. So i definitely wouldn’t enjoy that process. Would be great lingqing process but slow reading.

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I like the reading parts and the new idea of journalism with g translate. A low stress way to create real L2 content appeals to me.

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