How to avoid getting stuck with your German learning

Are you starting to feel a bit stuck with your German? Or is something stopping you from getting started altogether? This article by Michael Schmitz, creator of SmarterGerman, might save you a lot of frustration - with just 10 minutes of your time. 

Why do German learners get stuck? 

Well, in my experience as a professional German tutor, learners get stuck when things start getting more challenging, either with learning the language, or in life. This first becomes noticeable when the honeymoon period at beginner’s level ends and learners suddenly realise that learning German is actually quite a bit more work than they expected. 

Language learning is a lot about memory

The vast differences between the English and the German sentence structure coupled with the ever-increasing requirement to learn more and more abstract vocabulary demands above all, a pretty good memory. 

A good memory is not a given. As adults, our memories are already rather specialised in other fields, fields which might not help us all that much when it comes to language learning. Chances are high that you are not (yet) an experienced language learner and simply don’t know how to tackle a vast amount of new and abstract information efficiently. 

Learning German is like running a marathon: if you don’t train for it and have no solid strategy you’ll burn out before you reach your goal. 

Learning German takes time - lots of it

Becoming fluent in German takes 12 to 24 months of consecutive and rather intensive learning (around two to three hours per day). If you don’t enjoy the process, that time will probably feel like an eternity spent in hell. 

Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to be able to spend three hours a day learning a language. Some of us have to work hard, take care of families, and keep the household ticking over. Other people have handicaps or ailments that take up a lot of their time or energy. To many people, investing more than one hour a day on learning German can feel like climbing Mount Everest. 

The problem

So, when you reach a brick wall with your language learning, it’s safe to say that the issue probably has two key strands: when learners feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information they need to digest, their learning process loses its natural flow and charm, and they feel stuck. The same can be said if learning a language becomes yet another life task to juggle with all the others - put simply, it can all be too much. 

The prevention and the cure

As you might guess for a problem that plagues so many people, there’s no real cure here in the sense of “one pill fixes all”. But I’ve got four ideas for you that might change your perception and loosen things up a little: 

1. Never change a good system, but change one that obviously doesn’t work

If what you do doesn’t yield the results you seek, try something different. Maybe the course or app you’re using isn’t really suitable for your situation. When I remember my time in school, I realise it was often the teacher that made a big difference in my motivation. So maybe try a new teacher until you find one that you can trust and who instils you with a joy for learning the language. 

2. Realise that you are not in a hurry

For 99 percent of all learners, it doesn’t really matter whether they learn German in one year or in five. Bearing this in mind takes a lot of the pressure off your language lessons and gives you time to just enjoy them. That is surely a good thing. 

3. Stop chastising yourself

Feeling guilty for not doing what you think you should be doing doesn’t improve your performance at all. In my experience, guilt is actually a very smart, static emotion that lets you avoid the responsibility of actually putting in the effort necessary to master a language. That includes trying new things (as we discussed in point 1.) 

4. Accept that the fix for your problem lies on the inside

No one can fix your motivation for you, especially not against your will. I recommend you go to the source of the problem. Ask yourself, “Why am I not motivated?” and write down what comes to mind straight away. Repeat until you feel a clear change in energy when you think of learning German.

If you are not enjoying it, change something

Learning a new language can be a journey full of fascinating discoveries and beautiful insights into one’s own language, culture and self. If it doesn’t feel like an overall enjoyable experience, there’s a leak in your system which I’d explore quickly to prevent burning out.

Here’s a last thought that might wake you up a little: If it’s really so much pain to actually sit down and learn German, why don’t you just quit? The result would be the same but you’d feel so much better because now there’s no expectation anymore that you could do better. How’s that for a solution?

Of course, as a German teacher I’d like to encourage you to carry on with your lessons, but the fact is that sometimes quitting can be a much more positive decision than continuing half-heartedly and beating yourself up about it. Until that moment comes, keep switching up until you find something that sticks. See you on the other side. 

If you are interested in finding an affordable yet effective online German course that considers all the above and beautifully weaves this kind of thinking into your learning experience, check out Michael’s Gold Bundle, which saves you 40% compared to purchasing each level individually. The Gold Bundle covers levels A1 to B2 and also comes with a 40% discount on the C1 Advanced German course if you want to go all the way.