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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