Some of you have asked me about learning German. Rather than beginning at the beginning and buying a tape program or taking a course, here are my suggestions:

EINS: don’t run out and buy anything.   Resist that urge. Find a local native speaker or an American with good German to help you. Find someone enthusiastic and some one you get along with.

ZWEI: ask your local to translate the things you want to say in German. “Good morning; my name is Frank Utz; my great, great…grandfather Jakob came from Wagenbachhof and went to church in Hueffenhart in the Kraichgau. That is why I’m here. He emigrated to Virginia in 1717. My email address is….” Things you want to say to people in Germany you meet. Use your imagination. Now practice, practice, repeat, repeat, and repeat. Meet often enough to practice enough so you stop worrying about whether you’re saying it right. Expand your spiel as you think of more things you will want to say when you are in Germany. What do you want to ask about and what do you want to tell about? Concentrate on your situation before you go off into situations some one else has thought up for you. 

DREI: now get your local to respond so you will begin to acquire the skill of understanding. As you hear German, try not to ask for a translation. You may want to add things like “Please, repeat that.” “I did not understand.”   “Slowly, please. I am just beginning to learn German.” Maybe you will have to learn your local’s responses too in order to understand them. This will be difficult but necessary.

VIER: look up your ancestral town on the Internet and print off what’s there. Read this out loud with your local “tutor” for pronunciation. Don’t translate read in German for the pronunciation. The meaning will come to you in time. Don’t rush. [Maybe get help on a word or two, but don’t translate.] When you can read and understand what there is about your village, print off material about Siegen or the Kraichgau or the Pfalz. Read, read, read. Don’t translate. Soon you’ll be surfing all over Germany and reading genealogical material in German from the Internet.

FUENF: after all this, after you are doing fine and having fun with EINS, ZWEI, DREI und VIER, you may want to get the Pocket Oxford Duden German Dictionary.   Besides 90,000 words and phrases and 120,000 translations there are some interesting sections on grammar, culture and communication. With this book you will have lots of “Ah ha” moments. Maybe you will want some easy reading material, tapes, a book of phrases, more grammar. See what is available from your library. Ask the teacher at you closest school which offers German. I really think these are for after EINS, ZWEI, DREI und VIER.

·         Progress is slow at first but will accelerate in time.

·         The longer you work at it the longer you will retain what you master.

·         Try and try. 

·         Be in charge. If your local tutor frustrates you switch to another person.

·         Remember, June and your trip to your ancestral village is just around the corner.

·         AND keep in touch with me: madisonbrown34@hotmail.com