Brian Melican, an English writer, blogger and filmmaker, decided in 2008 to move permanently to Germany. He now calls Hamburg home.Brian just published his first book "Lost in Deutschland" where he writes about his experiences in Germany. Parallel to the book runs the blog and video series: Lost in Deutschland, in German language. For a video about the fall of the Berlin wall visit:http://www.channels.com/episodes/7696472His German language blogs are great for intermediate and advanced students.
Being able to write so well in German now, I wondered if Melican had found German easy to learn, and if he had any tips for those just getting started on the language. “Neither German nor French are easy, but the easy part of German is the fact that once you learn the pronunciation and the alphabet you can essentially write every word you hear without mistakes, which is definately not the case with French. It’s easy to get an auditory grasp on German, and then the whole thing with building block words. Once you’ve got the basic words down you can build other words with them, like an Ikea kit,” Melican explained. “The tough side is the verbs—there are so many irregular verbs, and the gender. But if you’re just starting to learn it’s easier to learn the basics, good for people who don’t consider themselves linguistically gifted. But German has a reputation for being hard I’ve been told.”
