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)