Get Motivated to Learn German with Dominik from Get Germanized
hello there today I have a special guest
Dominic from Germany who promotes the
German language calls it get germanized
so we're gonna get German eyes and we're
gonna find out a little bit more about
Dominic hello good evening dominate a
good evening good knob yeah my name is
good nom very good I mean I'm pretty
sure all right all right all right
so well my name is Dominic Honeycomb I
come from Germany as Steve was mentioned
from the state of Lower Saxony or
Anita's accent and I have been on
YouTube making videos about the German
language or learning languages and
German culture since basically 2006
professionally I've started it in 2013
after doing my bachelor's thesis at
university I noticed this could become
more than just a hobby and I've always
been passionate about helping people
learning and well empowering people to
better themselves and in any way
possible so that's what I'm trying to do
with my channel and to make it a little
bit entertaining as well because
language I mean for some people it looks
very well scary sometimes because of the
difficult grammar and all the processes
that are involved with learning a new
language and I just want to take away
that fear a little bit and make it fun
if possible and I told Steve this before
I don't see myself necessarily as a
grammar teacher or something like that
that can really go in depth but a
facilitator of language that keeps order
that gets people motivated to learn it
and keeps them interested in it
hopefully at least you know it's
interesting when it comes to grammar and
some people think of German you know
separated verbs and did them be des
whatever and they get intimidated sorry
that was my experience it was only when
I stopped doing yeah that I could learn
the language but if a person is
motivated you know I always think we had
a dog when
our kids were young and if he was
chasing whatever a cat but he would go
through the bramble bush he'd come out
the other side bleeding it didn't matter
if he wanted to get that cat you know
and if you can motivate people to learn
German or Chinese people will learn the
characters in Chinese people will learn
the grammar in German if they're
motivated so I think you're on the right
track if you can motivate people they'll
deal with these other issues now one
other thing so we're talking motivation
so I know a lot of people are motivated
by German rock music music Rammstein and
so forth I'm how to talk about oh yes
that way zero here I wouldn't know
Rammstein from Rumplestiltskin but when
you say Lower Saxony then I think I
don't know where that is except that is
that near Leipzig is that near Bach
country is that what has it anything to
do is that sort of north of Bohemia of
the Czech Republic where it tell us
where lower saxony is louis x knees in
the north of germany leipzig is about
five hours from where i love actually
i'm going there this Friday because I
was about to go to the Leipzig Book Fair
which was cancelled because of the
corona scare at the moment I'm still
just gonna go then to explore the city
but yeah in the north of Germany the
capital city here is hen overall you
know Germany north some North is upper
and huh but in fact this confusing is
the reverse so I guess it's lower saxony
is north of saxony yes second dresden
and so forth okay now how what this all
I mean I'm an old fuddy-duddy so I'm
more into other things don't say that
things and to me I can tell you what
what I found attractive with German and
German experience including my travels
there but let me ask you what are the
the kinds of things either that have
motivated people to learn German or that
you use to motivate people to learn
German well I have asked this question
actually a couple of times and my
viewers have said so far that many of
them have been influenced as you said by
Rammstein by music because gumption is
internationally famous and popular and
so I understand it it's kind of funny
because the first thing some people will
write is like du du hast you have like
the song by Tom Stein or some other
lyrics and I believe the band the German
been Tokyo hotel is internationally
famous as well and they were four-time
at least getting people to learn German
which i think is fantastic like to me it
doesn't really matter what motivates
someone to learn the language as long as
they have something that interests them
because I strongly believe that if you
don't learn about something in the
language that really interests you then
it is very much harder to keep yourself
motivated in that state learning and
other than that definitely German TV
shows people always tell me how they
like what was it dark this new Netflix
mystery show and people just started
learning or getting interested in the
German culture because of shows like
this give me some very interesting play
of sure Netflix okay
Netflix is a major source of language
learning content oh for sure I used it
for Turkish for a while Oh even found an
Arabic series there but it was an
Egyptian Arabic and I couldn't
understand a word but so there are a lot
of German series on Netflix and I think
there's even a think I'm learning
languages with Netflix where you can go
through frame by frame and and look at
the subtitles say in German and oh
really I didn't know it amazing port we
we can bring a Netflix movies into
and I did that and I brought you can
also import the dialogue as a lesson so
Netflix is part of this whole world of
content that's out there and if I were
learning German I'd be all over in that
place absolutely
hello you what is your opinion how good
can you start with Netflix or you have
to ramp up to where you can make use of
Netflix or TV series as a learning
material well well I mean mmm difficult
to say because I am mmm
I don't I just speak English in German
fluently so it's hard for me but when I
learned English I motivated myself also
with TV shows are actually to be precise
at Japanese animation and it had english
subtitles all the time and every time i
wanted to know a story plot or what was
going on and i didn't know a word and
the subtitles i just looked it up at a
dictionary or something like that so i
believe if people have like a basic
understanding at least then learning
vocabulary with stuff like this with
netflix and movies is very good at least
for me it was but but i believe there
should be a little bit of a basis maybe
otherwise you don't understand anything
but what do you think about that it's
slim curious yeah if i take my
experience with russian for example i'm
fairly early in my russian learning I
found our bookstore in Vancouver where
they so you know Russian movie DVDs so I
bought some of these but it was more
stimulus because like you know here wow
look at me I'm watching a Russian and
this is especially the old Soviet movies
that were better than the more recent
Russian movies and you know something
from the 19th century and I found this
stuff very motivating but I couldn't use
him as learning material because I
didn't understand I couldn't read the
Russian script I could read the English
subtitles and then enjoy the movie but
it wasn't that language learning
experience so I do believe you have to
get to a sort of an intermediate level
however you know depends I mean if
you're going you know English to French
or English to German there there's 30 40
% of the words there that you can
recognize so it may be easier but with
Russia and I found that I I had to ramp
up with
learning activities and then I could
start enjoying movies but it certainly
is motivating there's no question its
mode it's the romance it's the romance
of Germany so let's talk a bit about the
romance of Germany so okay we got it
truck music we got Netflix how about
what are some of the other reasons why
people learn German yeah talking about
romance well for romance for love many
people these days get to know their
their special someone through the
internet and it's becoming more and more
normal I think it is pretty normal by
now and that way this well getting to
know people from other countries has
become very easy because of the internet
and so many people have found someone
and want to learn their language as it
for example Germany or German in this
case and they come here they live here
and learn the language basically in the
motivation is their partner which makes
a lot of sense because that is one of
the actually now that you were saying
that and I won't name any names but I
think you might know this person as well
I have met another polyglot at at a
language event in Berlin last year and
he told me actually that he does that
sometimes he keeps around people that
speak certain language was basically
flatmates and I guess maybe girlfriends
as well I have not what ever said sure
but that was super interesting to me
like I was always wondering how how do
polyglots that speak a lot of languages
keep the language fresh and I guess that
is one of the ways you can do it so yeah
I mean I think a because I and with 20
languages you can't constantly be
looking for people who speak those
languages so it ends up being more a
matter of
freshing them occasionally through lots
of listening and reading and those kinds
of things I also wanted to say that you
know Germany a little bit about my
experience with German then Germany is a
wonderful place to visit and you
sometimes hear people say well I went to
Germany and I spoke in German and the
answered in English and it's very
discouraging and stuff and then it might
be better unsaid in a department store
in Berlin or Hamburg or in you know
Munich but one of the more I mean
charming places to visit in Germany is
the small towns and you stay in a small
i grin and I don't know what it is now
but it used to be very cheap the meals
were cheap I'm very opposed yeah I guess
depends on where but yeah you know
cheaper definite you stay in these towns
that are just like like they're so
beautiful like they're postcard perfect
little towns and I can't remember
I stayed many times I had business
dealings not too far from link to school
if you I think it's pure yeah I mean
it's a romantic town in there and
they're the people don't speak so much
in English and so there's no difficulty
in speaking German and so you're kind of
able to put yourself into this German
medieval German town and speak German
and there's even little bookstores there
and so I think there's ample opportunity
and people in Germany are very friendly
there's sometimes a thing that the
Germans are very strict and severe and
if you're driving around and the gas
stations and inns and stuff sorry it's
it's it's a very pleasant place to visit
and if you want to use your German in my
opinion be a little strategic don't go
into places where people are busy and
especially here you stumble in German
we're gonna answer in English because
but if you go to the smaller towns you
can have a very nice romantic German
experience at least that's been my
experience well I'm really happy that
you think that that's wonderful yeah I
mean I always hope that people have a
good time coming here and when when they
say that are they only speak to me in
English because they they want to help
me I also understand that I guess but
many Germans also are very keen on just
practicing their English
as you say as you said in bigger cities
and when it's a hectic situation it's
just faster for them then help the other
person necessarily but also yes in
smaller villages or talents you will
have all the opportunity you want even
though the younger folk there will speak
English as well so if you want to switch
to English that's most of the time no
problem right I feel at least yeah and
besides those people if you meet a
German person as a young person in a
small town they found someone to speak
to in English so yeah they want to speak
English so why does your right to speak
German Trump their right to speak
English you know neither one of you is a
teacher so are you you got to work those
things out that's one other one thing
I'm curious about too is like what are
some of the so what what are some of the
messaging that you give your followers
either when it comes to why they should
learn German or about how better to
learn German and what are some of the
tricks about dealing with German and you
know that the long convoluted sentences
with long phrases and relative clauses
and separated verbs and what sort of
advice do you give well first of all I
guess why they should learn German or
why they should learn any second
language is just because it makes you a
lot more empathetic how do you yeah
empathetic towards other cultures and it
gives you so many opportunities if you
learn another language you I mean that's
what I learned English because I didn't
just want to be confined to my own
country to the possibilities within my
own country I wouldn't be doing what I'm
doing right now if I didn't learn a
second language and I traveled and felt
comfortable in other countries because I
knew English because yeah I don't know
it's just super helpful in so many areas
of your life and well when it comes to
tips on how English
language no so what's the what's the
dynamic motivation for learning German
which really only person you know this
Germany Austria Switzerland area well
well and there's many job opportunities
for people who want to become for
example engineers as stereotypical as
that is it is true or just in other
areas of of jobs you can of course use
German as well here or if hmm well that
is a difficult question to answer now
that I'm thinking about it but I think
that it's definitely one of the areas
that helps people there are lots of
places where German is is a very
important language certainly naval yeah
it's not just Joe you sure Alicia Italy
and France it's a it's a major European
language so I didn't want to be
facetious right yeah no it's fine well
and it always depends on the person
maybe they have ancestors from Germany
and that's and they they're interested
in in their culture and maybe they visit
one day and then of course you can get
along with just speaking English but
speaking German will come across as
being interested in the culture and the
people and just as polite as well in a
way we don't necessarily it makes for
such a much more pleasant experience
visiting when you can tell yeah read the
newspaper you turn on the TV hopefully
you don't turn on CNN you turn on German
TV you get this whole feeling of being
in the country so yeah absolutely true I
definitely agree that's why I actually
you motivated me to pick up learning
Japanese again because they studied it a
tiny bit at university but just your
mere existence that you know so many
languages I felt very inadequate it's I
started learning Japanese and okay so
what do you how do you ensure the
difficulties of the German people
perceive German as having long
convoluted you know sentences separated
verbs case endings how do you deal with
these issues what do you tell people
well I mean most of the really scary
words that they see for example this
dono dump ship that's cause hf capitaine
this really long one
of those they never get used in actual
German everyday language and so people
don't need to be scared
for example when people are scared of
daddy does I always tell them just learn
the articles with the word that makes it
a lot easier and I don't know there's I
think people make it out scarier to be
scarier than it actually is in my mind
sometimes when you tell me that once
they start learning the language they
see patterns and they see that it's well
known as hard as I thought so yeah I
agree hundred percent and you know the
people scary say well German is a
subject-object-verb lang SVO and other
languages sov like people the brain
figures that out very quickly even the
lengthy can be lengthy lots of you know
subordinate clause type sentences the
brain gets used to it the brain will get
used to it with enough listening and
reading without lengthy complicated
explanations it's you start to get used
to this pattern and in fact I find it
very enjoyable as with every language so
I think the secret there as you say is
kind of summarize if you are motivated
enough to expose yourself enough to the
language the brain is gonna start
noticing these patterns and a little bit
of explanation might help but ultimately
the brain will kind of sort things out
that's been my experience
well oh I agree definitely so yeah an
advice for all your viewers don't be
scared just start learning and you will
see that it's not as scary okay thank
you so you're a motivator happy no I'll
go to you I'll leave a link to your
YouTube channel oh thank you yeah you
know get people motivated and you
provide you know hints to them on how to
overcome any difficulties they have in
German and hopefully we will increase
the number of people learning German so
thank you very much so thank you for
having me thank you so much thank you
donut bye thank you bye in truth
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