Rook37 Posted February 26, 2015 Report Share Posted February 26, 2015 Sorry about the dramatic topic title haha. I've just been trying to teach myself German, and was wondering if any of y'all knew any good resources. I've been going with Duolingo until I save up enough for Rosetta Stone. Anything in particular that you guys recommend? Quote "A strong man doesn't need to read the future. He makes his own." -MGS1"Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing." -MGS2"An amateur practices until he can get it right. A professional practices until he can't get it wrong." -Anon."Focus. Control. Conviction. Resolve. A true ace lacks none of these attributes. Nothing can deter you from the task at hand except your own fears. This is your sky." -Ace Combat 5"Too many people have opinions on things they know nothing about. And the more ignorant they are, the more opinions they have." - Fallout: New Vegas"Don't focus on words so much. Find the meaning behind the words, then decide." -MGS2 Link to comment
Barfly Posted February 27, 2015 Report Share Posted February 27, 2015 Learn some slang and learn to swear. (Are you going there, actually?) Quote The past is only smoke in a dream. Lvl 6 Ranger Berzerker STR 9 DEX 4 STA 9 CON 8 WIS 2 CHA 8 Barfly ain't even tryin'... Link to comment
Hulk In Nerds Clothing Posted February 27, 2015 Report Share Posted February 27, 2015 Watch, read and listen to anything and everything you can find in the language you wanna learn (as soon as there is at least some basic understanding).Don't pause and look up every single word in a book. Read a translation of something you more or less know (I read Harry Potter in Spanish while learning it. It's writing is basic, but fun and everybody knows the story).Go watch movies (skip the subtitles, they just distract you from listening to the language). Maybe don't go for native movies at first, but dubbed movies. They are usually easier to understand since they don't quite follow the fast pace natural conversations have.Go find podcasts or "Hörspiel" (radio play) in German. Listen to it on the commute or whatever. "Hörspiel" is a pretty common thing in German. You can find anything from detective stories (I recommend "Die drei ???") to silly kids stories about witches or talking elephants ;D All in all: get exposure. You're active vocabulary won't be great to start off, but you're passiv one will explode in no time. And at a point where you can understand basically everybody, it is easier to start conversations and get the active on par 1 Quote Link to comment
Rook37 Posted February 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2015 No, I'm not actually going there, but I'd like to. I just wanted to learn another language haha. I actually wanted to learn Russian, but German had more resources available.As for exposure, the only thing I've done is started listening to Rammstein. Like you said, it's increased my passive understanding. I've been able to pick up a few words before Duolingo taught them haha. Currently, I'm having trouble with pronouns and conjugation. I'd love to get to the point that I can read/listen to native speakers and actually understand what they're saying. I'm expecting dialect to be a big obstacle though Quote "A strong man doesn't need to read the future. He makes his own." -MGS1"Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing." -MGS2"An amateur practices until he can get it right. A professional practices until he can't get it wrong." -Anon."Focus. Control. Conviction. Resolve. A true ace lacks none of these attributes. Nothing can deter you from the task at hand except your own fears. This is your sky." -Ace Combat 5"Too many people have opinions on things they know nothing about. And the more ignorant they are, the more opinions they have." - Fallout: New Vegas"Don't focus on words so much. Find the meaning behind the words, then decide." -MGS2 Link to comment
Barfly Posted February 27, 2015 Report Share Posted February 27, 2015 Oh, there's GermanPod101 online. There's a free section with limited downloads, but with multiple email addys...Yeah, I thought you might be heading to Wiesbaden. Everybody speaks English there, anyway. Even when you say something in German, they'll answer in English. Quote The past is only smoke in a dream. Lvl 6 Ranger Berzerker STR 9 DEX 4 STA 9 CON 8 WIS 2 CHA 8 Barfly ain't even tryin'... Link to comment
JeffyB Posted February 27, 2015 Report Share Posted February 27, 2015 Deutsche Welle has some good resources for learning conversational German - http://www.dw.de/learn-german/s-2469 which has a variety of formats (video, podcasts, text, etc.). I'm trying to do the same to improve the small amount that I learned while stationed there. Quote Race: Human / Level: 1 / Current Class: Adventurer / Goal Class: RangerSTR: 2.5 / DEX: 2 / STA: 3.5 / CON: 3.5 / WIS: 4 / CHA: 4.5My Background / Facebook / GoodReads / Flickr / Fitbit~ Take Care, Live Life, and Pray Hard ~ "Our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing, that nobody in the universe can do what we're doing."- Patrick Troughton (Doctor #2) Link to comment
maegs Posted February 27, 2015 Report Share Posted February 27, 2015 I haven't started listening to it yet, but there's a podcast called Coffee Break German (they have other languages too!). It might be helpful to get used to listening to the language. From the podcast description: Learn German with Thomas and Mark; pick up cultural tips from Cultural Correspondent Julia, and get to grips with the patterns of the language with our Grammar Guru Kirsten.iTunes RadioLingua website Quote Current Challenge Goodreads|Instagram|Ravelry Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.