Karlo,

No problem. 🙂

I Wake up at 7 am, studying from 8 am till 11 or 11:30 + 5h and 30min

So roughly speaking your studying an awful lot! the issue with intensive courses is that because they are intensive you spend a lot of mental energy in class, when you leave, your brain is mush, fried, destroyed; it’s tired and needs sleep. Waking up early is great, but then you study on top of that. I know many people and myself don’t learn well if your brain is always ‘working’ or in your case ‘over working’. Do you actually give yourself a break? Listen to music, watch movies, go out and have a meal? Your brain will still working when it’s not language related. To me it seems that the stress and your emotional stability rest on your ability to take time out of this schedule. before and after your classes give yourself and hour or two to relax and do what you want. More doesn’t equal better or more effective. It’s the hardest thing to do, force yourself to have some spare time.

And I have realised that the feeling of knowing something new after giving such effort feels so good and then I am proud of myself!

I have tutored students in English before and all they do is study, hoping that by studying more their result will be better. No matter what i tell them, they don’t listen. It’s hurtful when they fail that they blame me. They felt, especially one lady, believed that by doing what your doing they would be able to remember everything. But they didn’t give there brain’s time to ‘absorb’ and intake the information. You will struggle to remember/ recall sentences and words this way because it’s like all the words are compounding, crushing down on one another. By the time you learn new words, the older ones have been forced out to make room for the new ones. I’m not saying not to memorize words or sentences, but if all your doing is memorizing then testing, you will struggle.

You need to create ‘associations’ or ‘links’ with the words. So if you learn ‘eat’ in German ‘essen’ –> link it to other words, apple (apfel) etc. link to grammar that your learning (want to, can, cannot etc.). Using basic sentences you can use simple to advanced grammar points. Our mind is better at remember ‘chunks’ of language ‘sentences’ that are meaningful to us. One of the reasons your struggling is also because the words/ sentences whatever means nothing to you. If you are sick in Germany and need to see a doctor, you are going to need to know how to communicate. I guarantee you will more than likely remember what to say because you need to. If you’re in love with a German person or another person who can speak German, your going to learn and recall terms of romance and love better than anything else. Our brain loves things that are meaningful to it, otherwise it loses concentration. The only tip i could offer is to make the sentences, words more meaningful to you. You could use mnemonics, use pictures/ images of words (make your own up!), review rather than revise. When we ‘revise’ your trying to teach yourself to recall. Instead try ‘reviewing’, try to ‘look over’ your work, talk to yourself, put the German into Croatian/ English if you want. Your already studying enough in class, the best thing to do is reinforce it in a more effective way. Simply just reading over the words and speaking aloud may be better for you.

There are like 6 sentences of what I need to remember. I am blank. (Completely lost and unconcentrated)

Also, very important….we will always forget! Our brains forget, and we spend a lot of time trying NOT to forget. Some things will stick, others do not. If you are going to memorise, focus your attention on the words, sentences that DON’T stick. As for ‘being blank’ right down what you want to say, or just a couple of words. After class try to review how you would of said things differently etc. Your mind is so overworked –> creating anxiety and fear –> resulting in your poor performance. Get your sleep, especially in this situation, relax. I know this is easier said then done, but if you don’t you will just continue the same cycle. Think of your brain like a plant, you can sometimes water it too much that it kills it, too little and it still dies. Water the right amount 😉 If you want, in order to reinforce words and sentences use SRS (space repetition software) – Memrize, quizlet, anki. At least it’s more interactive.

Finally, the stronger your motivation the better your resolve. Why are you learning German? What is the end goal? What do you hope to achieve? You don’t have to reply back, its more for you. Once you understand your motivation, put it on a wall, in your diary on your desktop. Reinforce the positive!

If you have any other questions about techniques or anything feel free to contact me. But just know this, your very capable of studying German, you can do this, so stop being your own worst enemy, at least be your own rival, but not your enemy 🙂

“It doesn’t matter how slowly you go, as long as you don’t stop” Confucius

Sincerely,
Matty