{"id":3116,"date":"2014-12-09T11:34:21","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T11:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eurotalk.com\/blog\/?p=3116"},"modified":"2026-08-20T20:29:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T19:29:23","slug":"why-im-learning-german-this-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/en\/news\/why-im-learning-german-this-january","title":{"rendered":"Why I’m learning German in January"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a few weeks, I’m taking on the uTalk challenge<\/a> – using the app to see how much I can learn in the 31 days of January.<\/p>\n

I’ve been trying to decide which language to go for; there wasn’t\u00a0any particular one\u00a0that\u00a0I needed for a holiday or work trip, so I had the full choice of 100 languages in the app<\/a> to pick from.\u00a0Having the opportunity\u00a0to learn something\u00a0just for the pure fun of it is great, although 100 is a lot of options for someone as indecisive as I am.<\/p>\n

My first thought was to learn Catalan, so I’m prepared for my next trip to Barcelona<\/a>, whenever that may be. But as I already speak Spanish, it seemed like a bit of a cheat. Although there are significant differences between the two languages, on the whole they’re similar enough to give me an unfair advantage over my colleagues!<\/p>\n

So then I decided to use the power of Facebook, and asked my friends which language they thought I should learn. I got various suggestions – Japanese, Navajo, Lithuanian, Welsh…<\/p>\n

I was tempted by them all, but in the end I think I’ve finally made a decision. So this January, I’ll be having a go at German.\"German\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There were a few reasons for this. Firstly, I never got the chance to learn German at school, because we had to choose either Spanish or German. I’ve never regretted choosing Spanish, which I went on to study at A-Level and university, but from time to time I’ve wondered what might have happened\u00a0if I’d gone for the other option.<\/p>\n

Secondly, German looks quite tricky, and I figured if I was going to take on a challenge, I might as well do it properly. I’m a bit fascinated by the language, too, with its hugely long words; from what I can tell, you can come up with a word for just about anything by sticking others together. And it has some great proverbs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also,\u00a0Germany’s close enough for me to pop over for a long weekend if I want to practise, whereas some of the other options, like Japanese and Navajo, are spoken a bit further afield. Maybe next year…<\/p>\n

Finally, one of my favourite words is German.\u00a0Backpfeifengesicht<\/em> means ‘a face badly in need of a fist’.\u00a0And as far as I’m concerned, a language that can come up with a word to describe that has to be worth a look.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyone want to join me?<\/p>\n

Liz<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a few weeks, I’m taking on the uTalk challenge – using the app to see how much I can…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[244,3,794],"tags":[246,962,750,243,157,937,2,222,265],"class_list":["post-3116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learn-german","category-languagelearning","category-utalk","tag-app","tag-backpfeifengesicht","tag-challenge","tag-german","tag-germany","tag-january","tag-language","tag-new-year","tag-utalk"],"acf":[],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":3116},"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":244,"label":"German"},{"value":3,"label":"Language 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