Learning German has many benefits for young people – and it’s not as hard as its reputation suggests
Learning German has many benefits for young people – and it’s not as hard as its reputation suggests
Learning a language gives you unique insights into different cultures, societies and perspectives.
You're viewing a single thread.
German has the cool feature of just cramming a bunch of words together to make a new word. That's about the only thing I know about it as someone who's just interested in language as a concept.
For people interested in language who speak English, I will recommend this book, which kinda blew my mind explaining why my native tongue is so stupid for good reasons:
It's really not that different.
German: Dampfschiffkapitän
English: steam boat captain
German, if compound words worked like in English: Dampf Schiff Kapitän
English, if compound words worked like in German: steamboatcaptain
Well, English prefers genitive constructions, and rarely compounds more than two words, so native English speakers have trouble to parse words like Kindercarnavalsoptochtvoorbereidingswerkzaamhedencomitéleden, Speciallægepraksisplanlægningsstabiliseringsperiode or Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, despite compounding being a core feature of Germanic languages, not only German. English just cought a severe case of French back in 1066..-
I hope you're aware that words like Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz aren't exactly easy to understand for Germans, either. If there's one thing English is usually really good at, it's dumbing things down to a level that's easy to understand for the reader; some scientific texts are genuinely easier to understand in the English translation than in the German original, even if you're a native German speaker with a relevant university degree.
Sadly, for some Germans it does