ouch. But fact is, I can swimm.
My German is " ok ", its not verhandlungssicher but i can get around.
A former colleague once told me , " all you need to know is how to ask for food and drinks, you will be fine"
There are 2 options, but both don't come cheap..
A: Get yourself a Swiss or German life partner, mine is from Berlin and heck, if you want to understand what she tells her family about you, you will step up a gear.
B: http://www.rosettastone.com/learn-german , its expensive i agree, i'm sure there are cheaper alternatives around there but Stone is well known and works.
I've met Americans who spoke better German then i did , just by learning the lingo using the software and audio plugins.
They even have Apple applications.
Audio cd's work also, apparently you can let it run in your sleep so your mind absorbs it without any distractions.
Viel Spaß mit Deutsch lernen,
Joseph
I tried a couple of learning courses from books/cd's but they didn't seem to help much so I stopped trying them.
After about 6-8 months I found I could string enough together that I could have basic conversations but only alone with someone else or in small groups.... more than 2 other people conversing in German was difficult to be able to join in.
After about 1 year I could converse fairly well and with having the TV on in the background most of the time I found that what sounded right to me usually was right, especially in the case of the der, die & das problem a lot have...
Viel erfolg damit.....
Didn't know that 'Deutsche Welle' had a language course btw!
Also, eavesdrop - everywhere. On the train, on the bus, on the tram, at the bar ... and spend heaps of time at the bar with German-speaking people, preferably in a group with them. I did this by joining a sport club (underwater hockey & rugby), but it could be work colleagues for you ... or a few neighbours, or just the regulars down at your local.
I am just moving to Basel, and I had the very same problem. What to do to learn German ASAP? Now I am living in Barcelona, and I am native Polish, and I had rather frustrating experience with learning Spanish, working in English/Spanish environment and living in the Catalan speaking neighborhood. I am also kind of a geek, so I tried to find the best solution for my next language - German. To do so I have downloaded and tested probably plenty of the computer and MP3 courses.
Most of them are boring and unefficient. I have found only two, that are promising. The first one, already mentioned above, is Rosetta Stone. It provides basic understanding of the language, and is great to build tour vocabulary, listening and pronunciation.
The other one that I use is Pimsleur's Method. Those are MP3 lessons. You only have to listen and talkwhatever the lector asks you. With Pimsleur, you will gain a lot of schematic but useful phrases and dialogues, with a proper pronunciation. This is an extremely efficient course for me.
Unfortunately, both courses are rather expensive, and Rosetta Stone can't be legally resold, so no 2nd hand offers are available.
Furthermore, from my experience no language course can work without your motivation and dedication to it.
You just need to take at least two hours a day for learning. To make it more efficient, try to immerse yourself into the language: talk to the people, watch news on DW and so on.
The courses I am writing about are good only for the beginning. If you can communicate in basic/common situations, the natural way to develop your new language is to read newspapers (but not tabloids!), books and talk to the people.
Good Luck!
Piotr
I am going to start off with Rosetta stone and Michiel Thomas.
bought Rosetta stone already.
Once I progress to a level that I can start understanding bits of conversations, I will go for private lessons to improve it further.
this was one of my new year resolutions for 2010 , so hoping to learn atleast a bit by the end of year
I am Chinese and can speak OK English I have also a language exchange partner who is a German and interested in learning Chinese. This helps too.
Tom