I am learning German and finishing my B-tech to keep mum and dad off my back!

JUDE BELLINGHAM is learning German in order to settle in at

Dortmund.

So many British exports have struggled to master a change of language but the 17-year-old is hoping to become fluent in German as quickly as possible.

“I was having two or three lessons a week before the international break,” he said. “Becoming fluent is definitely something I want to do. The schedule has been really busy so I have not really got back on it but I am understanding more day by day, even though I find it tough to speak.

“Virtually everyone speaks English but the coaches prefer to do everything in German. I have found if I pick up three words in a sentence, that is enough to piece together what they are speaking about. I still have a few things I need to do for my sports B-tech. Mum has reminded

me plenty of times

you never are beyond education, so I need to get that boxed off and get my tutor off my case.

“Both my parents are working-class and filled me with the things you need to get along; not giving up, working hard, putting in the graft to go out and get something. “I’ve seen the way they interact with people

and how they treat them. When you have people like that, you don’t have to be told how to behave.”

Bellingham’s dad Mark scored more than 700 goals as a semiprofessional and played well into his 40s, while Jude’s 15-year-old brother Jobe plays at Birmingham’s academy and has already featured for England Under-15s. Bellingham said: “I used to watch my dad play all the time.

You can see it in the way I play... that non-league style of toughness, being gritty when you need it, is reflected in my game.

“I’m really proud of Jobe and can’t wait to see how he develops over the next year or two. We’ve always pushed each other and, the only times we fought, it was always about football and who was winning.”

Despite the massive leap from his debut as a 16-year-old in August 2019 to the Champions League in the space of 18 months, Bellingham maintains he never gets carried away.

“I’ve never believed in my own hype and never wanted to get involved in it,” he said. “Maybe I seem mature but, when you’re in the environment I’ve been in for the last year, you have to grow up quickly and leave childish habits behind.”

And Bellingham dismissed the notion that German club football is not up to Premier League standard. “Talk of the Bundesliga being a lesser league is completely false,” he said. “The teams are of a very high standard. Each team has players of great quality. I have to be at a certain level for my team-mates, otherwise I am letting them and myself down.”