How to Learn German Fast

German is an important regional language. It is similar to English, so it is one of the best languages to learn for English speakers. It can be difficult to figure out how to learn any language, and learning quickly adds another degree of difficulty. That being said, there are ways to help you quickly learn the language. Here is a step by step guide:

1) Learn Basic Vocabulary

Make flashcards or get a mobile app and learn a few hundred German vocab words. This part is going to be a little boring since it's straight-0ut memorization. The German is probably going to seem like gibberish at first, but as you learn more vocabulary, you should start to notice connections between the words.

It may seem like a big undertaking, but if you get into it, memorizing stuff isn't actually that hard. You just have to put in the effort.

2) Read German-Language Articles

There are many websites that have German-language articles. Visit them and start reading.

The challenge in this part is that you probably wont understand a lot of what you read. But slowly you should understand more of the articles by using context clues like names, pictures, and cognates with English. The importance of this step isn't to understand the article in German, it is to get comfortable reading in German, and to get comfortable with the fact that you may not understand what you are reading.

3) Read Long Form Content in German

Is there a book you've been meaning to read? Is your favorite movie or TV show based on a novel? There's probably a German-language version of these books, so get to it. 

It's going to be a little jarring going through pages and pages of sentences that you only vaguely understand. However, novels are great for language learning because they feature characters and settings that repeat throughout the entire book.  This makes it easier to piece together the German.

4) Practice Listening

By this point, you should have a reasonably good understanding of written German. It's time to turn that into an understanding of spoken German as well. Listen to podcasts, watch TV shows, and listen to music. If it has people speaking German, it's probably worth listening to.

5) Practice German Conversation

Now that you can understand spoken German reasonably well, it's time to engage in conversation. This will allow you to practice speaking, and also hone your listening skills with real-world experience.