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‘Using language apps won’t get your German skills where you need them’

Relying on language learning apps is like putting old wine in new bottles. Put down your mobile phone if you want a more rewarding and profound connection to the German language, argues seasoned German teacher Michael Schmitz.

Published: 17 April 2018 16:20 CEST
Updated: 16 May 2018 16:17 CEST
'Using language apps won’t get your German skills where you need them'
Photo: DPA

German: much easier than its reputation

Modern-day language learning apps are being promoted as THE solution to soothe the pain of learning a language. This is ironic, as the teaching techniques used in these apps date back to the 1950s, the golden age of behaviourism. Behaviouristic learning theories focus on observable behaviour of learners and ignore what is going on inside of them. That means it ignores the deeper, most important layers of the language learning process.

Many think that German is difficult to learn, yet nothing could be farther from the truth.

Gamification is the new behaviourism

Apps like Duolingo, Rosetta Stone or Babbel utilize the technique of “gamification,” which at its core is simply a modernized behaviouristic language learning approach: If you do this, you’ll be rewarded, incentivizing you to do more of it. If you don’t do that, you’ll receive a reminder to resume the activity, as otherwise you’ll lose something. While this may seem fun and desirable at first, in the long run a learner’s mind is not so easily manipulated.

Get a $20 USD discount on Michael Schmitz's Every Day German course

The only true reward

What really makes language learning a rewarding experience is not the promise of virtual rewards, but rather the ability to connect the culture, the people and the language of the new country with one’s own experiences, knowledge and values.

Learning German can be an adventure with an abundance of discoveries.

If you don’t believe me, travel to Germany and order “eine heiße Schokolade” in a café and measure your pulse shortly afterwards.   

Such things are a thrill for language learners that can only be achieved in the real world. If you have ever experienced any kind of an “aha!” moment in which you understood something deeply, imagine this kind of experience happening again and again while learning a new language, if it is being learned properly.

Life is too short… to learn irrelevant information

To learn German efficiently you need to be exposed to relevant and engaging material. While checking out a new gamification feature on Duolingo recently, I came across the dialogue “I am an apple.” “No. You are not an apple.” To be honest, I’m still struggling with finding a use for this wonderful philosophical exchange as it is rather irrelevant and I’m unlikely to ever make use of these phrases.

Working with these apps starts off as a fun experience but soon feels like speaking to a wall or reading a book that one finishes only because one has started it despite being bored to death already on page 20.

Learning German is a very active, bi-directional process. Teacher (or app) and learner have to engage in a mutually beneficial relationship. Looking at the way German is taught almost everywhere I see mainly one-sided learning set ups: Teachers (or apps) serve information and learners have to eat what they get served. I have hardly ever heard of a language school nor seen an app which taught learners how to become more independent, which is almost cynical in design, considering that one of the main goals of every German learner is to become an independent user of the language without having to refer to (digital) translators all the time.

The answer to learning German efficiently, the universe and everything

What’s the solution then to learning German efficiently if it’s not apps, you wonder?

While gamification and a fancy presentation are certainly supporting learners in their aim to master a foreign language, they seem to be often mistaken for the main ingredients of the learning process.

But apps are not always 100% bad. Some, like Memrise or Anki, serve as helpful supplements in a language learner’s arsenal. One has to keep in mind that an app is nothing but a means of transport for content and learning or teaching strategies. If the content or the strategies are flawed, an app will not compensate for that.

If you are serious about learning the wonderful German language, it is better to look for a private tutor or work with German courses that take you for what you really are: a responsible adult who’s perfectly capable of making a justified effort towards self-improvement. Simply put: it is ideal to begin with a course that teaches you how to become an independent learner and that shows you how to establish a connection with the language and the German culture ideally “simply” by living it. This means activities like reading authentic German content (e.g. books or news articles), watching series and movies, and, of course, communicating with real Germans in a natural context.

Get a $20 USD discount on Michael Schmitz's Every Day German course

Someone – it wasn’t Twain – once observed: “Life is too short to learn German…” I’d like to add: “…the wrong way.” It isn’t going to be easy – hardly any complex relationship is – but it’s worth the effort and the occasional frustration. That being said, if you are bored and feel like giving up, try another approach.

It is most likely not you or the language that has failed, but rather the language learning approach that you have chosen.

Over the last 10 years I’ve developed a German online course that not only teaches you German up to level B1 but that also aims at making you an independent and autonomous learner. A good tutor is one who makes himself redundant as soon as possible leaving the learner in competent hands: his or her own.
smarterGerman was originally developed for private clients, but now I want everyone to have access to my course. So, I built a digital version that everyone can afford. Come with me on my Everyday German course which can join for a fraction of the cost of a traditional German language school.

As a reader of The Local you’ll also get a $20 USD discount on my Every Day German course covering everything from beginner level (A1) to everyday conversational German (B1) if you chose the single payment option. You can also just fully and freely preview lesson 01 which will already teach you amazing techniques that will quickly improve your German learning.  Find out more here.

Michael Schmitz blogs about learning German at smartergerman.com

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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Le Havre rules: How to talk about French towns beginning with Le, La or Les

If you're into car racing, French politics or visits to seaside resorts you are likely at some point to need to talk about French towns with a 'Le' in the title. But how you talk about these places involves a slightly unexpected French grammar rule. Here's how it works.

Published: 30 November 2021 13:04 CET
Updated: 4 December 2021 17:47 CET
An old WW2 photo taken in the French port town of Le Havre.
An old WW2 photo taken in the French port town of Le Havre. It can be difficult to know what prepositions to use for places like this - so we have explained it for you. (Photo by AFP)

If you’re listening to French chat about any of those topics, at some point you’re likely to hear the names of Mans, Havre and Touquet bandied about.

And this is because French towns that have a ‘Le’ ‘La’ or ‘Les’ in the title lose them when you begin constructing sentences. 

As a general rule, French town, commune and city names do not carry a gender. 

So if you wanted to describe Paris as beautiful, you could write: Paris est belle or Paris est beau. It doesn’t matter what adjectival agreement you use. 

For most towns and cities, you would use à to evoke movement to the place or explain that you are already there, and de to explain that you come from/are coming from that location:

Je vais à Marseille – I am going to Marseille

Je suis à Marseille – I am in Marseille 

Je viens de Marseille – I come from Marseille 

But a select few settlements in France do carry a ‘Le’, a ‘La’ or a ‘Les’ as part of their name. 

In this case the preposition disappears when you begin formulating most sentences, and you structure the sentence as you would any other phrase with a ‘le’, ‘la’ or ‘les’ in it.

Masculine

Le is the most common preposition for two names (probably something to do with the patriarchy) with Le Havre, La Mans, Le Touquet and the town of Le Tampon on the French overseas territory of La Réunion (more on that later)

A good example of this is Le Havre, a city in northern France where former Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, who is tipped to one day run for the French presidency, serves as mayor. 

Edouard Philippe’s twitter profile describes him as the ‘Maire du Havre’, using a masculine preposition

Here we can see that his location is Le Havre, and his Twitter handle is Philippe_LH (for Le Havre) but when he comes to describe his job the Le disappears.

Because Le Havre is masculine, he describes himself as the Maire du Havre rather than the Maire de Havre (Anne Hidalgo, for example would describe herself as the Maire de Paris). 

For place names with ‘Le’ in front of them, you should use prepositions like this:

Ja vais au Touquet – I am going to Le Touquet

Je suis au Touquet – I am in Le Touquet 

Je viens du Touquet – I am from Le Touquet 

Je parle du Touquet – I am talking about Le Touquet

Le Traité du Touquet – the Le Touquet Treaty

Feminine

Some towns carry ‘La’ as part of their name. La Rochelle, the scenic town on the west coast of France known for its great seafood and rugby team, is one such example.

In French ‘à la‘ or ‘de la‘ is allowed, while ‘à le‘ becomes au and ‘de le’ becomes du. So for ‘feminine’ towns such as this, you should use the following prepositions:

Je vais à La Rochelle – I am going to La Rochelle

Je viens de La Rochelle – I am coming from La Rochelle 

Plural

And some places have ‘Les’ in front of their name, like Les Lilas, a commune in the suburbs of Paris. The name of this commune literally translates as ‘The Lilacs’ and was made famous by Serge Gainsbourg’s song Le Poinçonneur des Lilas, about a ticket puncher at the Metro station there. 

When talking about a place with ‘Les’ as part of the name, you must use a plural preposition like so:

Je suis le poinçonneur des Lilas – I am the ticket puncher of Lilas 

Je vais aux Lilas – I am going to Les Lilas

Il est né aux Lilas – He was born in Les Lilas  

Islands 

Islands follow more complicated rules. 

If you are talking about going to one island in particular, you would use à or en. This has nothing to do with gender and is entirely randomised. For example:

Je vais à La Réunion – I am going to La Réunion 

Je vais en Corse – I am going to Corsica 

Generally speaking, when talking about one of the en islands, you would use the following structure to suggest movement from the place: 

Je viens de Corse – I am coming from Corsica 

For the à Islands, you would say:

Je viens de La Réunion – I am coming from La Réunion 

When talking about territories composed of multiple islands, you should use aux.

Je vais aux Maldives – I am going to the Maldives. 

No preposition needed 

There are some phrases in French which don’t require any a preposition at all. This doesn’t change when dealing with ‘Le’ places, such as Le Mans – which is famous for its car-racing track and Motorcycle Grand Prix. Phrases that don’t need a preposition include: 

Je visite Le Mans – I am visiting Le Mans

J’aime Le Mans – I like Le Mans

But for a preposition phrase, the town becomes simply Mans, as in Je vais au Mans.

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