learnig a new language

[BrokenBiker]

so I can speak the basic French and Spanish that I can remember from school. the usual how do i get to? or can I have 3 pints and so on. enough to get me by in a touristy place where most people speak better English than I do anyway lol

anyway, I bought a book about learning german. I quite like the german language, my grandfather was fluent but unfortunately I never had the urge to learn while he was still here.

the book is ok, uses the common converstional topics that are deemed to be the only ones you need.

but now I want to go further, I want to be able to speak german, with another german speaker and be able to keep up and understand properly. I don't have time for night classes or so on, and don't really want to pay a lot of money for computer progammes that aren't likely to work any better than the book, and I cant really move to Germany either. I can see this ebing able to help me in the future with work as an engineer too, and I am aware that technical german is a mine field compared to the normal stuff, but I figure being able to speak normally will help with the technical stuff.

has anyone got any good information that might help me in my quest to learn german?

 

[Cobbler]

I've doing a Spanish course I bought from Costco, spoken only on 7 CDs cost about £20 & seems pretty good. The Michel Thomas Method it's called. German was also available as we'll. if you have a Costco card or know anyone who has it might be worth a shout to get you started.

Cobbler

 

[shed or dead]

Start by labeling everything in your home and workshop (cups, fridge, chairs, welder, everything) with the German word, and learn to think of the item as the German word.

When you get dressed in the morning, don't put your 'socks' on, put your 'Socken' on etc.

I'll also add that when I visited Munich last year, I was advised to speak english. This is because all the natives who speak English will speak it so much better than my German could ever be (I had a few phrases to be polite and look like I'd made an effort) , and they will expect your German to be excellent.

My favourite cultural difference was seeing only well behaved dogs. The Germans are to proud to take an untrained dog in public. If it doesn't walk alongside off leash, and follow every command, you just won't see it out and about.

Good luck, hope you succeed.

 

[BrokenBiker]

cheers guys, will start labelling everything up lol

 

[Wedg1e]

Aye, I did French, Spanish and Latin at school, would have preferred German to Spanish as the Romance languages are so similar it struck me as a bit daft even then. My mates and I have go into the habit of heading to the Alps on our bikes every year and only one of us is remotely competent in German - and it's not me: I got as far as 'Vo ist die post, bitte?', 'Mein Volkswagen ist kaput' and 'Ich habe sauerkraut in mein lederhosen' and then it all went a bit wonky

 

[Wozzaaah]

"learnig" a new language

You might want to start with English.
Sorry BB, couldn't resist it.

 

[eil]

Fair play now Woz, the lads Welsh, English is his second language.

 

[Wozzaaah]

I'm not normally a grammar nazi but it made me chuckle.

 

[KemppiFrog]

You might try Roseta Stone. Used by the US State lot.

I learned Portuguese with Hugo's 'in three months'. Since I was stuck on a farm with workers to deal with, I managed it in three weeks (sort of..) But I did have Spanish at school, pretty basic, but some sticks. One of the plusses was that the workers spoke in the present tense, but modified it to give past or future. As in " I go to Faro, tomorrow." Or " I see Jose here, yesterday" Sounds even odder in their lingo.
Best way is to find someone to converse with. Hesitate to to mention the old adage about learning at the pillow.

 

[KemppiFrog]

About the labeling...recommended if your other half is suffering from Al's Hammer's . Medic said, not to worry if they can not remember the name of the device (oven) but be concerned if they have forgotten what it is for..

 

[Psymon]

Try http://www.busuu.com/enc/ it's free and you can speak with natives.

 

[GrahamGKD]

Try http://www.busuu.com/enc/ it's free and you can speak with natives.

That looks good.

My suggestion doesn't help with spoken German but would it be worth joining a German forum of some sort?

 

[MCKDAVID]

The best way, no doubt, is to live there even for a short time, the learning curve is far faster.... Worked for me, but I can accept that it not always very practical though... the point being that the real way to learn a language is to absorb yourself in it completely.

One of the old boys over here said to me "to get the words out, you have to get them in first", sound advice... Meaning that read everything you can, listen to the radio, watch the television, youtube etc etc. Even if you don't understand what they're saying initally, you hear how it's pronounced. The tonality of the voice, the emphasis on how the word is said, if you know what I mean, in essence your ears become " tuned in" to the words so when you read them, you already have an idea of how they should be pronounced.

Ask yourself a question first though, why do I want to learn a language?, to become fluent, or just "conversational" on holidays etc, and stucture your study accordingly. They're two totally different things, and to be honest I don't think it likely you'll ever become fluent without living there. From my experiences, the stuff you read in the so called text books, are rarely if ever used in day to day conversation in the real world, the slang for example, you'll only get that being there.

From a conversational point, I'd suggest that you avoid going too deep initally, stick to the "classic" phrases, of conversations etc, learn how to ask questions, (even if you might not fully understand the response just yet) the sort of stuff that you have in discussions from every day to day conversation. Learn the structure of the phrases, then add the vocabulary as you go. This will help the motivation, instead of scaring yourself off, because you're not making progress, it's all about confidence, again vital to progress.

For the vocabulary, one tip is to find out the equivalent of "thingymabob" in your language, (for example "truc" in French) add that to your basic question, (what's that thing called??) and you'll get the correct word back from them...

Basically just persevere, practice and practice, there's no other way. Don't be afraid to try, again from experience, once you get past this point the progress comes fast. Sure you'll get some laughter at your errors, but honestly most people will appreciate that you're trying and give you a lot of slack, helping you as you go. I'm still making errors after 15 years, so don't worry about that.

Hope that helps, stick in, you'll get there..

 

[BrokenBiker]

just as a side note, I have tried bussu, it is pathetic.

the free bit simply shows you some colours, some objects and a small conversation, then takes you to a page to start charging

 

[MrFluffy]

Theres some basic language courses at memrise.com, my only gripe is you cant skip the basic levels and go onto the higher ones, which means a few days of boredom covering stuff you already know if you already have any skills in the language.

 

[Psymon]

Don't get it. Why is Bussu so bad for charging? All language courses charge something. I thought Bussu was pretty good to start you off with a language. Also giving you the chance to chat to natives. If you don't want to pay then you can mark other peoples work for berries.

 

[BrokenBiker]

its not the fact that it charges, its the fact that it was advertised as totally free when I joined, and then all of a sudden they want card details and payment information. plus the stuff I did use from them was tbh totally crap. like I say, it taught me 3 colours, a few objects like table and door and then demanded payment for a so called free application