Source: United States Army
“My philological studies have satisfied me that a gifted person ought to learn English (barring spelling and pronouncing), in 30 hours, French in 30 days, and German in 30 years.” – Mark Twain, “That Awful German Language”
USAG BAVARIA – HOHENFELS, Germany – English-speaking members of U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria find themselves in an envious – albeit daunting – position: living in the land of the not-so-distant cousin language of German.
Twain in his essay “That Awful German Language” propounds upon the German language’s many difficulties – the gendering of its nouns, declensions of nouns based on grammatical case, cumbrously long concatenations of words into new words, and terminal placement of verbs.
Whereas Twain visited Germany as a lecturer, modern-day U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria community members instead live here year-round. They must bustle through the busy grocery store, procure train tickets to far-off towns, and, for fun, engage in affable conversation with neighborly folk. It is fine and good to build fellowship within a like-speaking community; it is altogether an adventure to connect to the people and environs new to oneself.
And that is what learning German offers to the community member. Ilona Johnson is the social services assistant with the Relocation Readiness Program at Army Community Service at Hohenfels, and as part of her job she helps military community members integrate into their new home.
“It is important for people to learn the German language, just to be a little bit more integrated in that awesome life outside of our gate,” said Johnson. “German is not a very easy language to learn, but I feel it opens the doors to be more involved in the host-nation community.”
German speakers do not care as much about the finer points of grammar in casual conversation, Johnson said. Communicating, whether eloquently or not, stands most important.
“Don’t overthink it, just do it, try it,” she said. “No matter if ‘der, die, das’ is correct, everyone understands what you mean.”
Resources, on post
To start learning German, there are many resources both on and off post to begin with and to continue learning.
With on-post resources, service members, civilians and their Families can gain a foothold at Army Community Service, according to Johnson.
ACS regularly hosts two beginner courses. The German as a second language basic course, which is spread across six sessions, lays the groundwork for those completely unfamiliar with the language. The next iteration of the course takes place from 5 to 7 p.m. March 9 through 11 and 16 through 18.
Learners who already have a basic understanding can then take ACS’s course on simple conversation, which also lasts six sessions.
At Hohenfels, Johnson said, ACS has partnered with the Turnbull Memorial Library to restart the German conversation sessions in April. During these sessions, participants speak German in a judgment-free environment with knowledgeable speakers.
Beyond the German conversation sessions, the library at Hohenfels also hosts a German storytime for children ages 3 to 5, with the next session taking place at 10 a.m. March 10. Staff members read multiple books in English and German, sing songs in German and help the children (and their parents) learn more about local customs and traditions.
The libraries across USAG Bavaria make resources available to community members to learn German. They have audiobooks with language-learning materials both in physical format and through the Libby library app.
The library can also procure physical books and many other media from other connected military libraries throughout Europe via interlibrary loan. The library website lists nearly 4,400 works in German, including more than 3,300 books (children’s books, novels, non-fiction), more than 500 DVDs and blu-rays, nearly 400 CDs (audiobooks and music) and more.
The libraries at USAG Bavaria can also grant community members access to the Mango Language Learning app, which, along with many other languages, has a German language course totaling five units, 41 chapters and 757 lessons. The lessons cover a wide swath of topics and walk users through the particularities of German grammar. For those inclined toward Bavarian culture, there is also a specialty unit on Oktoberfest with 16 lessons.
Library personnel recommend talking to them first to gain access to Mango through an Army library account.
Another on-post resource could be Udemy Business: It is offered to service members and their spouses and civilians working for the Army for free. They have language classes on the platform, and it is usable on a smartphone.
Resources, off post
As to off-post resources, there are many available online, including smartphone applications like Mango Language Learning (mentioned above), streaming services and podcasts.
There are several resources provided through the U.S. Defense Language Institute. Headstart2, Rapport and Language Survival Kits provide an introduction to many different languages, including German. For those who want to venture beyond the basic, there is the Global Language Online Support System, which has 97 lessons on German with downloadable PDFs and MP3s.
Those community members who are already signed up for streaming services often have the option of watching films and television shows with German subtitles or German dubbing. With a grounding of German language and a familiarity with a given film or series, memory and context can help fill in the gaps.
There are many language-learning podcasts out there. One such organization that provides them is the Deutsche Welle, Germany’s broadcasting organization. Alongside their podcasts, they provide videos online to help learners, and they organize their material under the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (A1-A2 for beginners, B1-B2 for intermediate level learners, and C1-C2 for advanced learners). As a broadcasting agency, they also provide a podcast of “Langsam Gesprochene Nachrichten” or “slowly spoken news,” which gives learning listeners the time to hear and process what is being conveyed.
Some learners find it useful to have material in hand and workbooks. Most larger bookstores will have a language-learning section with course material for German as a second language. Some may even have bilingual books so readers can read one page in English and then again in German.
Without the benefit of rewind or slowing down, commuters can also practice their German without the aid of podcast or audiobook through over-the-air broadcast: radio. There are talk radio stations to hear from. Even music stations typically chime in the hour and half-hour with news, weather and traffic updates.
For learners wishing for an in-person touch, community colleges (Volkhochschulen or VHS for short) often provide evening classes for German-as-a-second-language speakers.
More on German:
- German, like English, belongs to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. Other languages in the Germanic branch include Dutch, Norwegian, Yiddish, Icelandic and extinct languages such as Gothic, Burgundian and Vandalan.
- There are 155 million people worldwide who speak German as their mother tongue or as a second language.
- The language is an official or co-official language of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy (in South Tyrol).
- Besides “Hochdeutsch,” the standard German in Germany, there are many dialects of German both in Europe and elsewhere. In the U.S. there are Pennsylvanian Dutch, Wisconsin German dialects and Texasdeutsch.
- According to the U.S. Department of State, German is a Category II language, meaning it requires 36 weeks of in-class training or 828 class hours (a figure somewhat less than Twain’s estimation).
Links to resources:
Here are links to several of the online resources mentioned in this article:
Army Community Services:
On-post libraries:
Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (https://www.dliflc.edu/elearning/):
Deutsche Welle Deutsch lernen (https://learngerman.dw.com/de/deutsch-lernen/s-9095)