How should I learn German?

[ciphergoth]

I must learn German. Anyone got any recommendations on the best way to do it?

I don't want to memorize a phrase book; I'm not very good at that and I don't think it really stretches far enough. I'd like to feel like I understand what I'm saying. I'd like ideally to get back to O-level standard German, in which I miraculously scraped a C but was really at D standard or so. I need spoken German to the extent of understanding "You have to get off here; the tram is turning left" and written German for phrases like "Added quick hack to the Java virtual machine for IFA demo".

I'd love to have half decent pronounciation. I used to have a good ear but now my attempts to say anything in German cause giggles.

Should I blow £54 on this set of CDs?

• "German with Michael Thomas Complete Course CD"

Should I trust in good old Auntie?

• "Deutsch Direkt: Cassette pack"

Should I go down some other route?

• "German language learning: results 1 - 50 of 524 items"

ajva? Anyone?

cheers...

Comments

[ajva.livejournal.com]

Right.

Basically, you will get a certain amount out of any course you choose, as German is German however you learn it.

I would recommend the following:

1)Get an Accelerated learning course [when I was poor and bored several years ago, I bought the ?100 Italian course which said "money back within 1 month if not completely satisfied". I finished the course in 11 days and claimed my uncashed cheque back. However, my Italian has faded to "rusty". Dr. Draycott will testify to my ostentatious meanness, however - I was living with him at the time.]

2)Buy comics. Comics are easier to read than newspapers, more fun than large books about Goethe, and you can often pick up useful slang, which leads me on to...

3)Get down to Grant and Cutler's off Regent St and get yourself some decent books, specifically a huge german-english dictionary (get the biggest one you can), a smaller dictionary for convenience, a grammar primer for reference and for when you're feeling particularly academic, and GUIDES TO GERMAN SLANG. These are fun. Learning how to swear in German will be to you as the weekly bar of chocolate to the dieter.

4)Use Rammstein. Music is one of the best ways to learn a language. Once you have your dictionaries, sit with a Rammstein album and a dictionary, a bottle of beer and learn the songs word for word. The Rammstein songs will be the first phrases you will ever be able to say without stuttering.

5)When looking up how to say something in German, look it up in the dictionary in the Eng-Ger section, and then look it up again in the Ger-Eng section. You might find that you've got the wrong word with the wrong connotation, and it'll be easier to figure out what you do need this way.

6)Accent - listen to German people speaking English. Pin down some of the slight eccentricities in their speech patterns, and copy them when speaking German. Listen to lots of German. Remember you will have to hold your mouth in a different way to get the accent right. Foreign sounds require alien methods of putting the speech organs together.

If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

Anne. x

further thoughts

[ajva.livejournal.com]

1) Obviously it's better to get big heavy books from Amazon - but when you're next in London you should take a peek at Grant & Cutler's anyway. It's quite a fun shop if you like that kind of thing (foreign versions of board games etc.)

2)You're learning German! Yay! Forget to say - well done! Or rather, well going to do!

Note to self - greet Paul in German when next he appears. :O)

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Hi Paul,

I have a German Linguaphone course somewhere. 8 tapes, if I recall correctly. I'm sure I have a couple of CDs around the place too. Want to borrow/buy them? The Linguaphone course is damned heavy, so it'd have to be sent via Parcelforce, but... well, email me.

h-l.

hmmm

[ajva.livejournal.com]

It won't go wrong, I suppose, but Linguaphone is for serious language learners only. It really is very boring. I challenge anyone to get past chapter 3. I never did (used the German and Mandarin ones, and saw my Dad struggle with the French one for about 10 years). The problem is that it never shows you anything fun, and it takes ages to get through any individual chapter, so you feel as if you're making no progress. Bah!

A Linguaphone sceptic. xxx

Re: hmmm

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Why do you think I can't speak German? :)

Rah!

[bootpunk.livejournal.com]

Good call. I'm trying to get my truely awful German improved too (looks like my English could use some work while I'm at it ...).

I've been giving some of my old books a brush off and I'm enjoying it. I'd agree with Anne's points, and add:

* the best way to learn is to be around German speakers a lot - more frequent trips to Germany will help a boat-load

* I totally agree with the comics and Rammstein (plus other Kraut-rock) ideas - Thins has some comics, Asterix and others

* night-classes might be an idea - you get to hear more spoken German, and it also stops you slacking

* tabloid papers might be worth a look when you get a bit better - a bit like the comics, but will give you some non-standard dialogue

* web-sites ... need I say more? Its the second biggest language on the 'net

* take a trip out to Saas-Fee or similar this winter for a snow-boarding trip :o)

One thing I realised last week when reading my grammer book is just how bad my English grammer is too. Its not good when you don't understand the English term, let alone the German one.

"Conjuntion junction, whats my function?"

Re: Rah!

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Well, I anticipate visiting Berlin every six weeks or so, so I'll be around German speakers anyway. And now I've worked out how to pick up email from work, German is flowing into my inbox daily, and I keep wishing for the ability to read it, especially when it's addressed to all@convergence.de.

I'm away so often that night classes probably wouldn't work for me.

Great picture, BTW!

[lizw.livejournal.com]

One suggestion to add to ajva's excellent ones:

Sesame Street.

No, really. Find a German cable channel that carries the German version, or buy videos of it from amazon.de, or something. Lots of repetition and gestures, which really help with some of the tricky stuff like prepositions and remembering how to say numbers and names of letters of the alphabet, etc. It's how my Mum started.

If you decide to buy a course, my personal experience with trying to learn a bit of Gaelic was that videos helped a lot more than audio alone. I also found that I wanted more grammar than the course provided (same problem you're describing with the phrase book approach, I think), so you might want to have a look at the accompanying printed materials first to see if you're going to get that. Borders on Charing Cross Road seemed to have quite a good selection when I was looking to brush up my French.

I'm trying to update my German at the moment by reading a German local newsgroup; you might find that useful for the technical stuff once you understand a reasonable amount of the basic grammar and vocabulary, if there are relevant German-language ngs for the sort of stuff you're doing.

Good luck with it, anyway!

Liz

[ergotia.livejournal.com]

I am surprised no one has suggested a German lover.

Oh, btw, sending me an sae is just weeeiiirrrdddd. I would have done it anyway had u asked.

xxxxxxxx

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I did very nearly shag this cute German woman on Sunday, but she had to go to work the next day...

and I thought an SAE would make it easier! I look forward to receiving it. And what, me weird? Well, maybe a bit anal-retentive...