I’ve embarked on the journey of learning German.
Anyone here have any pointers, advice, or suggestions?
I’m using duolingo on my phone, and have a couple other apps that are of varying value.
Any suggestions for good German radio/podcasts to listen to?
Thanks in advance.
From Older Offspring after a discussion of coffee:
"If it doesn't come from the Kaffa province of Ethiopia, it's just hot roasted-bean juice."
After I had been studying French for a few months, I started to watch French-language movies with subtitles in French. Many words in foreign languages are not pronounced exactly as their spelling would indicate and it really helps to hear them from several different native speakers. You'll also be exposed to a lot of slang and idiomatic phrases that textbooks don't cover.
Okie John
“The reliability of the 30-06 on most of the world’s non-dangerous game is so well established as to be beyond intelligent dispute.” Finn Aagaard
"Don't fuck with it" seems to prevent the vast majority of reported issues." BehindBlueI's
When the travel ban lifts, go to Germany for 6 weeks through a language program and you'll speak better than somebody who took German for 4 years in college and never went to Germany. I know that from experience, being somebody who took 8 semesters of German but never studied abroad.
I'm currently in full-time language school for Urdu, which I get to practice with neighbors, mechanics, restaurants, etc. I speak Urdu much better than the language I technically have a Minor in, even with my vocabulary being mostly contextual to shootings, bombings, terrorism, hostage situations, riots, and other general unpleasantness due to my onward assignment.
I'm not a big fan of the self-study learning programs. They're bullshit. You can't effectively learn a language to any useful degree through them. In addition, one of the problems you'll run into with German especially is that not only can it be difficult to find people using German to practice with unless you go to Germany, but in general I've found Germans to be very unwilling to allow you to butcher their native tongue as a matter of practice on your end. Other cultures are much more accepting of you learning their language and working through sentences with you, if that makes sense.
Either go big or go home. At a minimum get a teacher through Berlitz or some other reputable language school, and find a study-abroad program for a few weeks as part of that training. Otherwise you'll end up like 99% of people who try self-learning money traps.....disappointed and useless.
ETA: Just to be clear, I'm not writing this to discourage you. Having been through this twice now, I'd just make an honest assessment about your goals. Do you want to learn German, or do you want to pick up a few words or fun phrases here and there for personal amusement? Plan expectations and commitment accordingly.
Last edited by TGS; 05-12-2020 at 11:03 AM.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
Watching contemporary German language movies helps me stay relatively proficient in understanding German. Plenty to choose from on Amazon Prime and Netflix. Like TGS said, immersion into any given language is key. If you managed to spend a year or so abroad in Germany, and made an effort to learn the language, you’d be all set.Originally Posted by Dan_S
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This, with 1:1 tutoring being ideal. Also look for teachers who are native speakers, not English speakers who learned the language later in life. Native speakers can provide cultural, historical, and other context that non-natives can't.
Okie John
“The reliability of the 30-06 on most of the world’s non-dangerous game is so well established as to be beyond intelligent dispute.” Finn Aagaard
"Don't fuck with it" seems to prevent the vast majority of reported issues." BehindBlueI's
Und @P30
Ich bin ein bisschen Deutsch.
From Older Offspring after a discussion of coffee:
"If it doesn't come from the Kaffa province of Ethiopia, it's just hot roasted-bean juice."
I picked up maybe 20 necessary phrases ("Please", "Thank you", "Good morning", "I would like a...", "Why is this Bidet water so cold", etc.) in Japanese ahead of a two week trip last October. I also used Google Translator a lot during the trip. It worked fantastically well; you could hover over a phrase in Japanese using the camera and it would translate it in real time on the spot. It also "spoke" translations.
It also offers German.
As to "learning", I was born and grew up in West Germany as a kid, a military brat. So I went to the US school but lived and played with my German friends until I was about 8 when I came to the states to be Naturalized. My dad's job took us back to Germany when I was in middle school, so I lived another two years in Worms and went to the American school in Mannheim then. I would agree with @TGS that is the best way is an immersive program like he describes, or plop yourself in Germany for a long period.
I've been back to Germany for work to Paderborn (Hanover area) and to Ramstein AB over the years; you can get by with a phrase book and being polite. A lot of hotel and bar staff have enough English, especially in the US and British sectors of West Germany.
Unfortunately, an immersive course is not in the cards right now.
Making do as best as I can...learning German in much the same way as I learned English as a child - through repetition and listening, is about the best I can do at the moment.
While an immersive course would absolutely be the best...when you live in an 8x8 cube, and have no predictable schedule...gotta make do.
This is a very small first step obviously, that isn’t ideal.
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