I'm Going to Learn German Again

My second foreign language in high school was German. And even after entering university, I was able to properly learn about Germany and the German language through a liberal arts course called "Understanding German Culture." In fact, when the professor said during class, "Anyone who wants to volunteer to read this German sentence!," I bravely raised my hand and read it. The professor even praised me, saying I was better than the German language and literature students!

Although every German I met treated me poorly and discriminated against me, Germany remains a country I admire. Among other things, I enjoy listening to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and have learned about his life through various media. So I still harbor a small wish to visit the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, which some people consider boring (no잼).

I tried everything to self-study German, but I always failed. However, after buying these books, I felt like I would succeed this time.

However, due to my lack of perseverance, I combined it with other online resources and smartphone apps, and concluded that German and I were no longer compatible, so I stopped. Since then, I have focused solely on self-studying Japanese.

But today, after watching a YouTube video, I suddenly thought, "Should I try again?" Even though I have to consider three genders when memorizing German words, incredibly long new words are created through word combinations, I can't pronounce the "r" sound at all, and above all, when I hear native speakers, it only sounds beautiful; I can't understand the content at all. Still, for some reason, I have this feeling that if I learn German well, my brain will work faster, and I'll somehow seem more sophisticated.

Even during a conversation with someone who has ties to Germany a few days ago, they emphasized that German is a language worth learning. And I agree that the better you are at English, the easier it is to learn German. That's why, three years ago when I took the picture above, my English skills had improved, and I felt the learning process was a bit easier than before.

Riding this wave of improved English skills, I want to challenge myself to learn German again to awaken my dormant brain. For now, I'm setting aside Duolingo and searching for online websites using Copilot. I've already found that, just as I study Japanese with NHK World Japan, I can learn German through BBC, the UK's public broadcaster.

(Something from a broadcaster feels 100% trustworthy)

I don't know what will happen. And I've decided not to be too ambitious, fearing I might quit again later. I feel that language learning is not a choice but a necessity, even for dementia prevention, by using my brain within reasonable limits. If I'm going to study languages, it's better to know one more. If I actually succeed in learning German, I'll be quadrilingual.

I feel like I need to make this public to keep myself motivated. Organizing my chaotic thoughts here makes my head feel clear and alive. And, of course, I need to learn both Japanese and German using English as the learning language, not Korean, so that I can do interpreting and translation work later (though that's highly unlikely) smoothly and without hesitation.

I guess I'm definitely more of a humanities type. I find language learning more fun and easier to understand than CS50's English lectures on computer programming, which I don't understand at all. You might ask why I'm saying this now, but I was in the arts and physical education track in high school, so I'm only making this distinction now.