Is it possible to learn German by myself? I came across that question recently on Quora, which I, as well as others, answered briefly. The others all replied with a ‘yes, of course you can’, but I felt there is much more to it.
First of all, there is the discipline problem. Are you disciplined enough to set aside time every week or even day to learn German? I wrote about that in my Teach Yourself German … with a little help post, which is a bit of a compromise between having lesson and teaching yourself.
But let’s assume you do have the discipline and you have no problem learning German by yourself. How possible are the chances of success. There are certainly enough resources around, good textbooks, DVDs and online resources, many free. If you are a regular reader of my blog you know that I write a lot about free online resources which are very useful for learning on your own.
So, yes it is very much possible to learn German by yourself until …..
…. you come across a problem. Maybe you don’t understand some grammar or maybe you’re not confident about your pronunciation. What do you do then?
For those situations it is good to have somebody you can ask directly. Find a native German speaker or tutor who is willing to give you just the odd one-off lesson here and there to ensure that you are on the right way. If you can’t find anybody you can ask me, too. I’m happy to give somebody a one-off lesson just to check that everything you’ve taught yourself is correct.
In the meantime, keep on checking my blog for further posts about free online resources or, even better, subscribe to my monthly newsletter, which will keep you up-to-date and give you a free ebook with over 50 free German online resources.
Happy German learning – you can do it!
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