Don’t give up! Learning German is super appreciated (we know how hard it is), and not everyone, especially older people, speak English. You just have to make it clear that you want to learn German otherwise they will enthusiastically practice their English with you 🥴
Yeah sorry about that. The reason for many German articles being assigned as they are is often ... "because that's how it is". There is no consistant and logical reason behind why an oven (der Ofen), a sink (die Spüle) and a knife (das Messer) have the articles they do.
There is some logic to "transferable" articles though. A microwave (die Mikrowelle) has inherited its article from the wave (die Welle), the same way a dishwasher (die Spülmaschine) got its one from the machine (die Maschine).
I don’t think so! I think as we get older, the way we learn/absorb/retain the material may change. People may struggle for months with apps then pick up a lot more vocabulary after a few weeks of immersion, for example.
I was working in Nicosia for a year, told my colleagues that my main goal was to learn Greek. We tried for a year. My vocabulary has increased with 5 words.
I gave up in the end.
It is really difficult to learn Greek in Cyprus because what you hear (Cypriot Greek) is not what is in the books (mainland Greek). After 20+ years, an exam and 3 sets of teachers I can hold a conversation but not to professional level.
What Anne said, there are specific endings that determine the genus of the work. Very often the genus of the word is not the same as the sex of the noun, so it may help to not expect them to be.
I can feel you, German is partly a monster to learn (particular the grammar). But tbh English has its blossoms, too. No language I learnt so far can be so inconsistent between spelling and pronunciation like English
Last semester I thought I could find some pleasure in learning a new language, to balance out PhD work. I picked Chinese and I was disastrously bad at it, made me feel worse instead of better lol.
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But the words simply do not remain in my brain.
Am I too old to learn a new language?
I gave up in the end.
Even many native speakers get the first bit wrong.