Published on 12, July, 2020
Hey everyone,
I'm trying to learn German again. I've wanted to learn for years but have always had really bad memory problems. Hence trying to learn it at school didn't go too well, rote learning is tricky, just couldn't retain it, I know that was like a gazillion years ago, but I'm having another go. But puzzling over how the heck to get it to stick in my head?
Any tips?
I store hundreds of number plates in my head of all the cars in the neighbourhood in a wide radius (but only on sight if that makes sense) if you ask me to recite such-and-such's licence plate I haven't got a clue, I have a massive database of groceries & their prices in my head (nightmare when it all keeps going up week on week!) but this language thing just keeps confounding me!
It seems like some information is just sucked in by default, I mean not by choice, where some information you actually want to retain, is like trying to shin up a greased pole???
I think having a good 1:1 tutor would really help! Not sure how expensive that would be though. My mum (who is also autistic) gives language classes for adults (though not usually for german) and different people have very different needs when it comes to learning a language so she tends to adapt her approach. Some people really learn well in a visual way, with pictures etc- since you have such a good memory of number plates maybe that works well for you? Or maybe could you find a native German speaker to practice with- maybe in exchange for practicing English with them? It can really help to have someone to ask questions and who can explain things
Ann :) said:I think having a good 1:1 tutor would really help! Not sure how expensive that would be though.
It can be quite cheap - I pay about US$8 per hour for 1-2-1 sessions on an app called iTalki - essentially it is a way to locate a tutor for the language you want to learn and book sessions with them.
They are hundreds of tutors so there is some competition on price but the thing I found most useful if you can look for tutors with experience in some areas of vocabulary that you may want to explore in detail.
Prices may be different in the UK (I'm based in Brazil) but it is a free app so should be easy to check before you pay for any sessions.
The sessions I've used were done by zoom on my PC after booking the session through the app and paying through the app.
Hi, Oh ok- I see, I quite like 1 to 1 especially if online, so I thought it might work for you too . Yet another example of how diverse autistic people are (I'm autistic too).
Thank you Ann, and Iain, good to hear from you, not sure 1to1 is exactly autism-friendly, for me the prospect of one to one classes scares me to death! I wouldn't be able to speak English let alone any German!
I'm hitting the youtube vids at the moment for now and trying to wrap my head around the rules again!
thanks though x