Comment by jdeisenberg

I am learning German, and I will read something that I don’t quite understand, make my best guess at what it means, and run it through Google translate. Then I compare the results and it helps me see where I went astray. Similarly, I write something that I think is proper German, and again compare the results to what Google translate says it should be. It’s sort of like having a native speaker sitting next to you and correcting you (except you have to come up with the explanation of the correct answer on your own, which is where knowledge of gender, conjugation, and declension comes in handy).