What is a good way to start learning German?

Question

There is already a question that asks for free resource for learning German. However, I would like to know what resources are good for learning German regardless of their cost.

The online sources I've tried so far are Tell Me More, LiveMocha, and Deutsche Welle. None of these resources have seemed to be ideal.

Tell Me More asks you questions early on that expect you to know vocabulary that the application has yet to introduce. This makes it quite difficult as I have to pull out flash cards for random words that they decide to use.

Deustch Welle doesn't really give any help for actually memorizing words and phrases. It seems proceed too rapidly through the language

I felt like I wasn't learning enough with LiveMocha.

I've looked into distance learning through the Goethe Institute, but I'm hesitant to spend a lot of money before I know if their courses are good. Traveling away from home isn't really an option at the moment and taking a class locally would be difficult because of work and distance from home.

Any recommendations?

Answer 1

I suggest, you start with a beginner's book. I have used the Assimil method for learning Swedish and liked it very much. Spend some weeks to get the very basics, then buy newspapers and simple books and read them with the help of a dictionary. Also watch German films with English subtitles. Try to read, watch and listen to as much material as you can.

Answer 2

Try reading the newspaper, the articles are short, and have pictures, which will help with context.

Also I've become aware of some new interesting things:

If you buy a roku box, $79 at Best Buy, you can add Tageshau - which is a good amount of German TV.

Also, if you change your gmail settings to German, then every non-German message you receive will give you the option of translating to German. I just learned the word for packing tape from reading my gmail, which is the sort of word that you're not going to come across very often.

Answer 3

• Go to a German-speaking country
• Talk (don't just study, don't just passively listen)
• Drink alcohol (relieves your natural inhibition about your bad accent, grammatical mistakes, and limited vocabulary, and it's what people do when they socialize)

Buy a pocket dictionary. Has to be small enough to take everywhere and pull out for reading signs and interesting new words. Buy a phrasebook with either a tiny grammar or phrase building section but be careful not to choose one with phonetic spelling for the wrong English accent. (If you buy one in Europe it might be designed for British speakers and the phonetic guides will only confuse you if you speak American English for instance.)

I found the people in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria to always be friendly, easy to meet, and social, to be pretty good at teaching German and correcting your mistakes, to know enough English to get through the gaps, but not likely to just switch to English whenever you're around and prevent you learning.

Talk to people in shops. They show their appreciation the most.

Talk to your friends' parents. Their English will be much worse than your friends and they'll appreciate your efforts more.

Kids are great teachers. Not afraid like adults to tell you how bad you are and make you repeat it until you get it right. And they never get fed up with too many questions. They also know rhymes and songs.

Yeah yeah we don't all have the money/time to travel but you didn't ask that. I also don't have money but it's how I learned (though I didn't pursue it further). This is my answer to "What is a good way to start learning German?"

P.S. Re the alcohol tip. I learned Spanish as a teetotaller and took months to get the basics. I learned German with hefeweizen and the occasional drop of gluhwein and took ten days to get the basics.

Answer 4

I suggest watching German films. You can watch with translated subtitles first, and then try watching with the original German subtitles. (They are usually prepared for the hearing impaired - and the accuracy varies widely.) I find that helps me to connect the spoken with the written language. And you can also often find the subtitles in a simple text format online, so you can study the text at your leisure and lookup any unknown words and then try watching the film without any subtitles.

Once your German is good enough you can watch the classic detective show Tatort online every Sunday on the ARD mediatek.

Answer 5

If cost is not important, I really recommend the Goethe Institut Fernlernen programs. They are computer-based and you have 6 months to complete each level. They focus on reading, grammar, and vocabulary, but there is listening comprehension involved and the voice recognition system allows you to practice speaking. You need to be self-motivated, and it is expensive (almost $800 per level). I have completed levels A1, A2, and B1.1, and I am thoroughly happy with my progress.

Answer 6

Start learning German in your own country. Universities and their language centers are usually a good place to learn in a small class with a pace suitable for fast learning.

As soon as you can, try to find a tandem partner exchange student at your university. Find resources on the internet, find chat partners on the net, join our community on this site here.

When you're able to read some texts and involve in conversations without getting lost, it might be time to spend a year in Germany.

Unlike in the US, German university tuition is relatively cheap. Some provinces don't even charge any. It's entirely up to the province, because education politics are by-province and not a nation wide issue.

During all those phases, expose yourself to anything German as much as you can. Whenever you find something German, try to understand it. Find any kind of media in German. Read, listen, translate, speak.

Viel Glück und vor allem viel Spaß!

Answer 7

Read a lot and write a lot. Listen a lot and speak a lot. Encourage people to correct you and let them know that you appreciate it whenever they do correct you. Find any topic that interests you personally, and read about it in German; that will force you to look up words and expressions, and you will easily memorize them because you have learned them in context.

For example, that's how I learned most of my early English: by playing the Magic:The Gathering CCG, which was available in English only at that time.

Most important is to keep learning steadily. Doesn't matter much how much time you spend each day, as long as you do a little every day.

Answer 8

Fluenz is supposed to come out with a German version really soon now. I'm using it to learn French and like it a lot, so it might be worth a look when available.

Answer 9

I've used Babbel for learning German, Swedish and French with pretty good success. I'm currently fluent in Swedish and speak pretty decent German and French.

Answer 10

I've used what I call the Maria Braun method. In the film "The Marriage of Maria Braun," the hero ask Maria, "Where did you learn English so well?" The gist of her answer was "By dating." I've dated one or two native speakers, and any number of German-Americans whose German was better than mine.

This advice is not suitable for a married person unless your spouse knows German better than you.