Teach English in Jingjin Xincheng - Tianjin

Problems for learners in Germany In today's Germany, english is the most widely spoken second language. Until the Nineties, children were introduced to their first foreign language in year 5 ( at the age of 10). Nowadays learning a foreign language often starts even earlier. Like German, english belongs to the family of Germanic languages. This means that the two languages have many things in common. But unlike German and many other languages english uses only one type of definite article ( 'the' as opposed to 'der, die, das' or 'le, la'), verbs only have one form per tense (except 3rd person singular) and endings of nouns,adjectives or adverbs are independent of cases. This makes the english language a lot easier to learn than french, for example. Having said all that, there are many areas for potential problems to occur. The following describes some of the problems commonly faced by German learners of english. Pronunciation versus spelling One of the biggest hurdles for students of english is the fact that the spelling differs so much from the pronunciation and vice versa. This is because over the centuries spoken english has undergone many changes whereas written english stayed pretty much the same. It is perfectly possible for example to pronounce words more or less the same but spell them completely differently ( hurt-herd-heard, heart-hard). On the other hand just because words are spelt in a similar way doesn't mean they sound similar ( heard-heart, your-sour). Even one and the same word can be pronounced differently depending on the context (to read- I have read [past participle]). Pronouncing 'th' and 'w/v' Germans speaking english are known (and mocked) for mispronouncing the 'th'-sound and mixing up 'w' with 'v'. This is because there's no equivalent of the 'th' and the 'w' sounds in the German language. You tend to feel utterly silly when first learning to pronounce the 'th' sound. Putting your tongue between your teeth to produce a sound seems like a strange concept to students. Therefore some resort to pronouncing it as an 's' in order to avoid becoming the butt of too many jokes - until they talk to an actual english speaker that is... I would like to add, though, that most people making this mistake belong to the older generation and that many teachers these days do take care the 'th' is pronounced correctly. Although the 'w' sound has no German equivalent either the reason for mispronouncing it is often due to a simple mix-up. The German 'w' sound is pronounced the same as the english 'v' sound and sometimes you just get confused. Saying a sentence which combines words starting with 'w' and 'v' can already be a tongue-twister for Germans even if they theoretically know the correct way to say it: 'The weather is very nice.' (Often either pronouncing both as 'w' or as 'v'.) Grammar: tenses and question form The various tenses also constitute a stumbing block for German students. There is for example no such thing as a coninuous form in the German language, so this needs some getting used to. That's why it's common to hear Germans say: 'I read a book at the moment' instead of 'I'm reading a book at the moment.' Although all other tenses do exist, in everyday spoken German you can make do with the present simple tense (used like the english present continuous, present simple,present perfect,future simple) and the present perfect ( used like the english present perfect, past simple). Therefore saying something like 'I have seen the film yesterday' is also a very common mistake to make. The usage of the present perfect for actions not in the past is a very difficult concept to grasp. As soon as you say: I have lived there... Germans think it must be in the past, so to say that 'I've lived in London for 12 years' - and you still live there is difficult to get your head around. Another area for potential problems is the formation of questions. When do you need to use the word 'do' and when can you do without it? Forming a question in German would go like this: Have you a car? so many tend to translate it one-to-one. Using modal auxiliaries or a form of 'to be' in German the question would go: Can you come? Is he there? This of course is also how it's done in english so the thing to remember is to use 'do' only when there's neither a modal auxiliary nor a form of 'to be'. This takes some practice. This is only a small and by no means complete collection of common problems and pitfalls faced by Germans studying english. In my opinion, the easiest way to learn a language is to be immersed in it. If you can't just pack your bags and move to an english speaking country the next best thing would be to be expose to it as much as possible: listening to english radio, watching english TV and films and finding english speaking penpals. In this time and age the internet can be a great place to help improve your language capabilities.