In pursuit of wanting to learn German as quickly as possible, ultimately own consistent effort and enjoy doing it is the KEY!
On the usual way of learning a new language we pay for a tuition which costs at $xxx to $xxxx amount per month. And attending this lessons, on typical basis you have number of students around 20 - 30 person sitting in class practicing just one thing in terms of learning language: listening, writing, reading & repeat. Yet there's one thing that's missing all the time with learning a language in a class: Speak, speak, Speak!!!
In an effective language learning, you need to have both sides of teacher and students to have better balance speaking and listening, not one side speaks a lot (teacher) and another side hears too much (student) and of course vice versa too! No, you cannot have both sides speak too much or listen too long!
Taking a look at baby and small child growing up speaking a language, do you see either mama or papa speaks so much not wanting the baby to talk? No, they keep on encouraging their child by all measures to make their child to speak by knowing when to speak and when to encourage to let them talk:)
So, in terms of choosing a class, teacher or even a friend to learn practicing a language to consider the following as key points to excel in speaking and listening well:) :
Speaking: YES, speaking is vital in improving a foreign language. After all that's how you can prove that you do know the language! So, in going to language lessons, make sure you have spoken at least min. 15 in an hour lessons. And don't worry at all how you will sound, if anything saying something is better than nothing, esp. if you paid for it (Emoji). It's definetely the teacher/tutor job to correct you till you can utter or say the words and/or sentences as accurate as possible, much like how parents correct their kids with words or sentences in their native language!
Listening: Yes there has to be some level of speaking coming from a learning, but what will be the point for someone to just keep on speaking but you never gave your ear or your thought on what the other person is saying? Even worse, do you allow other person to communicate? In attending a lesson, make sure that you have spoken up to certain level and give some room for your tutor or teacher to speak, and when they speak do give the same focus for listening as you do with speaking. I mean think about it, someone who talks throughout the lesson of 1 hour, while the tutor only have spoken like 5-10 minutes, do you consider that effective?
Beyond this two, you do wanna consider these two as well to improve the language learning. No, I'm not talking about reading and writing, although they are important they'll come naturally as you do some reading exercises and later in the end the writing skills comes naturally.
Positive emotional state: Ever wondered if there was a sad baby or a child learning a language and becoming better? It's no difference to an adult as well, no matter how matured or how well we have developed ourselves.
Rather than feeding off on the negative energy via such negative thought (and practically making the tutor's energy & mood down), you got to find something interesting about the language to have you motivated in learning the language. And that lies mainly with the entertainment world. Currently there are a lot of amazing German films and series you can find in Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime and many other entertainment sites. And of course there are no shortages with music's! Currently Germany has one of the highest number of DJs and Hip Hop artists in the world!
Own Initiatives: After spending time in a tutoring session, it's still not over for you to learn the language. Remember, you are only as good as how consistent are you. At the end of the day, the reason that you begin to speak German fluently is not because of the teacher ever, it's you as a learner, period. A teacher or tutor can give you as many materials and guidance for you to learn a language, but it's up to the leaner to whether to pick up what the tutor given and make useful of them to the fullest. Do not close the book and think that just by attending the language lessons alone will suffice for someone to improve learning a language. Unless your brain or your conscious mind is not puppeteered by a tutor to have you to learn the language, you got to take the initiative to practice the language on your own, whether learning from a language app, social medias like Insta and TikTok or even
So to sum it all up, find the right balance of speaking and listening with a tutor, learn the language with full positivity and minimal to zero pessimism, and finally make the time to learn the language on your own, even 15min of your daily time is enough to keep pace with the language.
Shortening even further, find conversation balance with teacher, be positive & take ownership 😊
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