this is the fastest way to learn german.
fastest way is to move to the closest german speaking place. once there, go and volunteer to work somewhere for free (where they speak only german) - (interviewing for a normal job takes is slower). socialise with your work mates. then go out to a pub or something. find a german girl who doesn't speak english but talks a lot. preferably find one who is quite ugly so you have to spend less time chatting her up. then move in with her and (optionally) marry her.
LOL. You forgot the part about having children so you can learn German by doing their homework!!
no no no. having children takes too long. you should adopt them instead.
Try travelling to Germany more often. You will mostly hear high German there and if you make your trips more regular (one weekend every 2-3 weeks perhaps?) you will be able to practice it more. You can also try Rosetta Stone. Get books for children (something really easy for the start) and ask someone to read to you. Book your course in Goethe Institute in Germany. You can go there either for 4 or 8 weeks. This is good quality of teaching and you can really make progress there. Good luck
Phil is right, but you can also try it with some online courses if you don't want to spend money: http://fsi-language-courses.com/German.aspx a full course to learn German. You can also find German music with their lyrics from YouTube. I'll also leave you a link where you can type any word in German and listen the pronunciation: http://www.acapela-group.com/text-to...tive-demo.html
If you want to invest money for, then you might want to try: http://timreviews.com/rg
For myself I bought Rosetta Stone, but I'm quite disappointed.
Good luck,
Janine
First link doesn't work .
Oh, I'm sorry. Well, this one is a good resource too:
http://german.about.com/od/onlinecou...man-Course.htm
Janine
subscribe to German telly providers.
or watch German series online! http://www.maxdome.de/special/serien-kostenlos
I found this great web site
http://www.wiegehtsgerman.com/conjugation_trainer
to help you with verbs
and this for grammar, etc
In addition to formal learning, I've found the best way to practice reading skills is to read trashy tabloid newspapers. Since the language is targeted at the lowest common denominator, it's not too difficult to follow
Whatever you do don't try to read kids books...they are actually quite complicated and full of weird fantasy-related words that you would never hear in real life!
Intro: I speak 3 languages. German is the 4th & being in Switzerland to learn it is making things pretty difficult. Hence all this research in order to takle that challenge.
My method:
1. try everything, find what you like & never give up. In the end you will learn, and sooner or later you'll speak well
2. keep you interest in finding how to learn, ie. if you see you learn to slowly then look for better/more ways to learn. Try to always keep going.
Full immersion is definitely the best. But you might not have this luxury (ie. you work & must be productive, hence speak in english).
Work with (Swiss?) Germans if you can choose to.
Live with a (Swiss?) German: If you can't work speaking in German, then try to live with a German speaking person. I am doing that & it's working pretty well. Make sure you set the good basis for this though (make clear that you want to learn German with this person). In the end you will speak at least some German with this person & will probably meet friends of him/her who are also German speakers. It's also good for integration I'd say.
Language tandems: these are really good. It's hard to take off sometimes (as in get confident to try to speak even if you know a few things). And this helped me sh*t loads. Try to get a high German speaker if possible. You can find those people looking for tandems on social websites such as of course englishforum, then www.meetup.com , www.couchsurfing.com , & probably others. My advice: look on local forums or ads (ie. university board).
Hobbies: do your hobbies with German speakers. you like drinking? go with your Swiss/German friend to a bar Team sports are good, as in, if you non-German speakers are in minority then you'll have to "at least" hear a lot of German (or Swiss German).
Girl/boyfriend speaking German: of course it's good, this person might love your accent and try make you speak more and more
Courses: the quality depends very highly on the teacher you get. So don't hesitate to switch class to find the right one (I even once switched level as an excuse to change teacher). Try to take at least 2 classes per week. Migros is the cheapest but far from the best, once again, it all depends on the teacher you get.
Books: get some good books, that suits your level & interest. ie. I have lonelyplanet phrasebook, great to get started (not overwehlming), it's suits my need for now. Vocabulary frequency book seems like a clever way to learn. I bought a vocabulary thematic book "Mastering German Vocabulary, Publisher: Barron's Educational Series Inc." , seems pretty good.
Podcasts lessons: you can find a lot on iTune, many are free! I like them coz you can listen to them when doing something else (ie. riding a bike or walking). No need to be at home in front of your computer or something.
CDs: Michel Thomas, Pimsleur, Rosetta Jones & others: I gave a go at Pimsleur, definitely worth trying those. As I said just try & stick to what you enjoy most. I'll probably try Rosetta Jones as I also heard lots of good things.
Apps: DUOLINGO (iPhone, iPad & Android - Free) is really great to start learning a language, use it on the bus/train/tram & so on. Never thought I'd find an language learning app that's actually good!
Apps: LEO will help you for vocab on your daily life (see www.leo.org ). The website is used by millions.
Apps: Google translate, really great for translating whole sentences. I mean ok it's far from perfect but you get the meaning 90% of the time.
Newspaper: I did not try much of that as I get quite frustrated when trying readin those but that's probably a good tip. I mean once reaching B1 you probably can enjoy reading those.
Listen to German Radio stations: anytime, at work if you can, plenty of online radio stations. see http://www.listenlive.eu/germany.html , listening http://www.917xfm.de/ now , sounds alright so far
Watch TV in German.
Watch series in German: exlibris has lots of TV series with subs in english & german, pretty fun to learn that way. I'm watching German dubbed "the big bang theory"
Watch movies in German.
Watch sport games in German (eurosport?). You can still enjoy the game even if you understand only 20% of the comments
Further notes:
Tim Ferri's, known for the "4h work week" book, has a great interest in languages, he did "a thesis research at Princeton, which focused on neuroscience and unorthodox acquisition of Japanese by native English speakers".
His findings are that "The ideal system — and progression — is based on three elements in this order" (I'll summarize here):
1. Effectiveness: Priority -> What? : decide what to learn, based on usage frequency, using good resources (ie. good books)
2. Adherence: Interest -> Why? : filter materials based on your likelihood of continued study and review, or adherence. Select content that matches your interests in your native language
3. Efficiency : Process -> How? : determine how to learn the material most efficiently
Tim Ferriss blog's articles about learning a language:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog...ning-language/
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog...madrid-update/
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog...-plus-a-favor/
pheeeew, that's all for now! and one more time: do not give up, keep trying! search for what works for you
Watching German adult movies is the easiest way and then you know all the needed words
I have found the DuoLingo app is very useful. I normally use it on the train into work as the levels are quite short so you can easily stop when you get off the train and not lose your place
Find a novel in German that you've already read before in english (it helps to have one that you've read before so its easier to catch the context).
Start reading it, with a bilingual dictionary by your side. When you come across a word that you dont know (at the start it will be nearly every word), stop, look up the word in the dictionary. After looking a word up one or two times you will recognise it, eliminating the need to look it up again. Eventually you will start to recognise more and more words and the book becomes easier to read. When things are more fluent you brain will automatically start seeing the differences in sentence structure and tenses, and learn it.
pronuciation will come later. but it helps to have the vocabulary. The human mind tends to remeber pronunciation better after someone has explicitly pointed it out and corrected you (almost like being embarrased, but milder). But if you need you can always have google translate handy to help you pronouce the words you look up.
believe me it works like a charm
I was once curious how people become polyglots and manage to learn several languages. So I discovered that one of the most popular methods is to watch TV (or listen to the radio) in the language that you're learning. You don't even have to try to understand what you hear. Just watch / listen to it as much time as possible. This way you get accustomed to the language and eventually (after a year or so) you come to understand it. Hope that helps
Also, make sure you use good resources, English Forum for instance is a really really great place to find which are the best online websites for German, books for learning, and so on. This is gold.
Here are some good online resources for your learning:
http://german.stackexchange.com/ (stackexchange is the "best" online Q&A/forum network)
http://en.bab.la/dictionary/german-english
Learning the smart way (similar english words, frequency vocab, & so on)
http://germangrinds.com/2011/06/06/m...-german-words/
http://germangrinds.files.wordpress....flow-chart.pdf
http://leicht-deutsch-lernen.com/sam...ish-and-german
http://coerll.utexas.edu/gg/gr/mis_03.html
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/wor...se_friends.htm
Free German lessons
http://www.openculture.com/free_german_lessons
http://www.dw.de/learn-german/deutsc...m-nicht/s-2548
Watch TV from your computer:
GO TO GERMANY for cheap (by bus):
http://meinfernbus.de/ (going to Germany for week ends might be a good idea ;] )
Buy a Peter Fox album and listen to it again and again.
Quickest way is to have a non-English speaking German girlfriend.
Alas, I'm not sure that they still exist.
Tom
Hi all, I want to ask what is the best way to learn German living in Switzerland, I received an offer from a school called Alemania for an intensive course but the price is 900€ per month, I think is too high.
someone knows a good school or way to get a B1 in 6 months?
At what level are you now? B1 in 6 months is challenging if you start from scratch.