Common Mistakes and Difficulties Faced by German Learners
German language, and especially its grammar, has a reputation of being too complicated and difficult to learn. German grammar certainly is one of the biggest problem areas for most foreign students but not so much because it is too difficult but because it is often not being paid enough attention and time in class in order to achieve faster results. Most students prefer to quickly develop vocabulary rather than memorising grammar rules as they believe they can learn grammar naturally through conversation. This is a mistake that saves you time in the beginning but will prevent you from speaking properly and will eventually cost you more time than you initially gained by avoiding it.
German sentence structure has its specifics and can sometimes be quite different from English. You need to learn the rules of the correct word order just like you need to learn proper grammar. These two are inseparable from each other and should not be neglected.
Likewise, it is necessary to invest time in learning proper spelling and pronunciation right at the beginning as these two go hand in hand. German spelling is actually phonetic. Those who skip this important step will learn wrong pronunciation of many words that takes far too long to get rid of.
Another common trap are the so-called false friends. Many students make a mistake of trying to guess the meaning of some foreign words in German vocabulary, especially the loanwords from English, French and Latin. They think they know their meaning and there is no need for referring to a dictionary. However, certain German words that sound or look very similar to foreign words can have a completely different and thus confusing meaning. The best advice is to learn them by heart. Here you can find a list of the top 100 German-English false friends with examples that should be exhaustive enough for most German learners.
Probably the most discouraging thing about learning German are German dialects. There are so many of them in the German-speaking world and they all sound so different and weird. Yet many native German speakers, especially Austrians and Swiss, are so proud of them that they seem to speak in their local dialect all the time, even on official state media. In fact, some older Swiss cannot even speak proper German, only their dialect. Standard German from Germany actually is a foreign language to them. However, all educated native German speakers can also speak hochdeutsch and will use it when talking to somebody who does not understand their local dialect. No matter how disheartening it may sound you will never be able to understand most German dialects as nobody can. Not even the native German speakers.
A lesser problem than dialects are accents. At first hearing they can sound very confusing. Luckily, these days you can hear different German accents on TV, radio or youtube videos and slowly get used to them. Listening to them should be part of every advanced German student's language training.
Other important aspects that determine success in acquiring German include motivation, attitude and realistic goal assessment. Some students may have unrealistic expectations which can negatively affect their attitude and lead to loss of their motivation.