Surround yourself with German
The human brain is good at learning languages but it has to be put into real-life situations in order to use its ability. In other words, you have to activate your language learning ability by giving your brain a clear and persistent signal that the German language is an important component of your environment - something that you have to learn in order to survive, or at least in order to be successful.
When you surround yourself with German in your everyday life, you will make it appear to your brain that the German language is something real in your life and that it is vitally important to learn this language. You should then notice that you are unconsciously using learning faculties that have been awakened. Your German learning process should enter a new stage: rapid absorption of every piece of information about the ability to understand German messages, and this should not be especially tiring for you because you will be running on the natural ability to learn languages in real situations.
The failure of many learners to learn a foreign language may often be attributed to their lack of motivation at the deep physiological and psychological level. When learning German is interpreted by your mind as a burdensome duty imposed on you by schools, parents, or ill-understood socio-economic arguments, then you will not find ready resources in your mind to be wasted on something so dubious. But if, on the other hand, your mind sees that learning German is a part of the reality that you live in and that it is a component having influence on your success, then surely you will find that after all you are well-equiped by nature to be a language learner.
Here are a number of ideas for surrounding yourself with the German language:If you install a German computer program by following instructions written in German you will feel proud of yourself - you will have used German in practice.
If you use this computer program regularly you will have a proof for yourself that your German ability is already good and that you can use it in practice.
Once you decide to install a German language version of Windows on your computer, each day you will remember about your decision to learn German and you will be motivated to keep on learning. It will be hard for you to neglect learning German.
German language version software
If you buy a German learning software it will help you improve your German
only if you use it regularly. It is not certain that you will find
the motivation to actually spend your time learning German with this software.
However, if you buy a German language version of your operating system
you will certainly find the time and motivation to use this "German-learning" software.
So perhaps it is far better to spend money on German language versions of the computer
programs that you use every day than to buy specialized German learning programs.
Watch movies in German (dubbed versions)
If you are a person who regularly watches movies you can use this fact
to realize that you have a lot of time for learning German.
If you are watching a movie in German you are effectively spending time
on learning German and having fun at the same time. Moreover, if you manage to understand
what's going on in the movie you can feel great satisfaction and you gain a proof
for yourself that you can use your German ability in practice.
(Many DVDs have the option of playing a dubbed German version.)
German language email account through WWW
Most people have email accounts at their national portals and when they access such an account
through a WWW browser the whole interface is in their native language.
But you can create an email account at a German-language portal and then the interface
will be in German. This is another way of increasing the amount of time you spend on
learning German without actually spending additional time. After all, you already spend some
time on accessing your email account, so why not use this time as time for learning German.
Read the Bible in German
Those people who regularly spend their time reading the Bible have a lot of time
for learning German because they can devote some of this time to reading a German language
version of the Bible. Since the Bible is a translation from ancient languages,
reading it in some other language than your native language
can help you get a better perspective on its content.
If you learn German you should also read the Bible in German.
Get daily news in German into your mailbox
Most people follow the daily news in one way or another.
If you sign up for a free newsletter with daily news in German
you will be both following the news and learning German at the same time.
Again, this is a way of increasing your time spent on learning German
without needing extra time.
Get a German talking clock
To encourage you to come up with your own ideas for surrounding yourself with German
we are giving you this little silly idea: get a German talking clock.
If you use it as as alarm clock it will wake you up by talking to you in German:
it will be giving you the time in German.