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Going to an Modern Language A level without previous knowledge.

Hello everyone,

I'll be starting A Level this September.I would like to know if it's possible to do a Modern Language like French or German as a completely beginner ? Besides the fact that I'm a native Portuguese speaker I have a decent level of Spanish and English.

I'm thinking in starting German but I don't know if I should take the risk.

You guys know anyone that did this craziness and succeeded?
Reply 1
Avatar for drogon
drogon
2
lol you crazy
Reply 2
Avatar for Jehaan
Jehaan
19
Let's put it this way. One of my extremely intelligent friends signed up to do AS german after having done it at GCSE but not learning any grammar as they were given the structures to adapt. The school made her drop it due to the fact German grammar is too complex to learn AS level standard and GCSE unless you're willing to spend all your time on it. In short I would not recommend it as it may mean that you do not have enough time to spend on other subjects which will mean all of your grades will suffer
Reply 3
Avatar for danjwp
danjwp
2
Before you start, download duo lingo RIGHT NOW! Choose German, and start learning the language there.

I did this before GCSE Spanish. Now I know GCSE is not like A Level, but I did it almost everyday the summer before starting, and then once I started GCSE I was already at A grade standard Spanish...

Basically, if you complete a lot of duo lingo, you can and will exceed gcse level within a couple months...it's really not that hard. In fact, by completing the entire duolingo app, you will be at at least A2 level...Languages really aren't hard to learn in the modern world.
I'm doing the same thing with Spanish as during year 13 this year. I just started learning it and don't see why it should be a problem with the whole summer to prepare. However, there's a lot of vocab which is similar to French ( which I do at a level) which helps quite a bit, so I don't know if this would be the case with German. If you're motivated to learn the language though, I don't see why you couldn't do it.. I started French a level with a B at GCSE and no real prior knowledge of grammar and recently I've been getting as and a*s, so it's definitely possible! Good luck!

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