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I want to learn how to speak German

Charcoal

Charcoal

Member
Nov 2, 2017
7,525
My wife and I are looking at a potential move to Germany in the near future. She's somewhat proficient, but isn't anywhere close to a native speaker.

I took a year of French in high school, but that was 10 years ago. I've heard of Rosetta Stone, but outside of taking a community college class, are there any other recommended options?
 
Bjoern

Bjoern

Member
Oct 26, 2017
626
Germany
Use Duolingo or Memrise.
A Canadian friend of mine is learning German that way and a getting very good at it.

Also it's more important to understand German than to speak it. If you only speak broken German that will get you pretty far.
Most people understand English as well, so don't worry about not understanding you.
 
Sneijder

Sneijder

Member
Oct 28, 2017
121
Cologne
duolingo has not korean? i want to learn korean, i wanted to learn japanese all my life, but now i am 29 and thought, that korean is the new japan and there language is much easier :D
 
Linkyn

Linkyn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
393
What's your language background? If English is your native language, you might find German grammar rather complex (largely because its conjugation is much more involved). You can learn a lot through courses or language programs, but the only way you're going to sound at least semi-natural is through regular exposition to native speakers or media.

Edit: I'd recommend getting a sense of the syntax and some basic vocabulary and then supplementing that with German-language news-sites or German TV / movies with German or bilingual subtitles.
 
Xypher

Xypher

Member
Oct 27, 2017
582
Germany
My SO decided to move to Germany with me. She tried apps like duolingo and memrize, but in the end these don't get you far enough, and she ended up taking actual language school courses despite being in her early 30s. All of those apps only teach you phrases and vocabulary but you will never understand more complex grammar and the reason why we structure certain things in certain ways, those foundations are necessary to understand phrases you may not learn on the apps.

We also spoke German at home to help her improve her German and even though she lived in Germany for about half a year being constantly surrounded by German due to TV and my family, she only really made a ton of progress after she started going to actual courses, so I would really recommend just taking some if you are really serious about moving to Germany.

Depending on where you are from getting a job might be difficult, again using the example of my SO, she had a great university degree in IT from a good Japanese University, as well as 8 years of work experience as a System Engineer both in Japan and the US for many big corporations, yet even in the field of IT and living around Frankfurt, both of which guarantee many english speaking job opportunities, she couldn't find a job until she could prove to be at least good at German, also partly due to her being from Japan, so she would need a work visa and many companies were just not willing to go through the trouble of getting one.
 
des0lar

des0lar

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
187
Charcoal said:
My wife and I are looking at a potential move to Germany in the near future. She's somewhat proficient, but isn't anywhere close to a native speaker.

I took a year of French in high school, but that was 10 years ago. I've heard of Rosetta Stone, but outside of taking a community college class, are there any other recommended options?
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As others have said, give Duolingo a try. Especially for the basics. If you like it, try more advanced methods of learning.

Sneijder said:
duolingo has not korean? i want to learn korean, i wanted to learn japanese all my life, but now i am 29 and thought, that korean is the new japan and there language is much easier :D
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Korean grammar is very very similar to Japanese.
It is in no way "easier" than Japanese. The only thing that's easier is actually learning the characters, since Korean's use Chinese characters only occasionally.
 

Empress of ice cream

Member
Dec 2, 2017
1,544
Look around for courses taught by a DaF/DaZ instructor. They usually are native speakers who have a degree in teaching German as a second language.
Duolingo is alright for beginners but nothing beats a good teacher for things like proper pronunciation (for example we have consonant clusters in German that are pronounced differently like the P in Psychology is not silent) and syntax.
 
Stinkles

Stinkles

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,459
I took it in high school instead of French and learned enough to understand most general topics and bits of conversation but not enough to speak well or answer complicated questions - but it's more than enough for business travel and folks genuinely seem to appreciate the effort - and I can definitely make myself understood. I am then of course embarassed by Germans speaking beautiful English right back at me after I mis-gender everything in Dusseldorf from the Bank to Lieselotte Meyer.
 
leder

leder

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,111
Duolingo is garbo because it never teaches you grammar. It's fine for a vocab aid though, and I understand it's convenience. You need a solid vocab system (look up SRS like Anki), grammar reference, and tutor. I can't stress enough how important the last one is. Humans learn language by speaking, and if there aren't a lot of fluent German speakers you interact with on a regular basis, a tutor is your best bet. It especially makes sense in your situation as you could do lessons along with your wife. Congrats on the potential move, I'd love to live in Germany.
 

Deleted member 18360

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,844
Cut your teeth on some Hegel (don't do this, even reading the English translations of Hegel is a torment).
 
Lord Arcadio

Lord Arcadio

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,173
I have an 801 day streak on Duolingo. I'm at the end of the course. It has helped me recognize words when I see them written and I can make out what a sentence means sometimes. Speaking and listening though...can't really do them as well as reading. That said, I wasn't very serious about learning the language. It was just something to do and I'm surprised I made it this far. If I ever do want to get serious though, I think I'd need to do a lot more than just Duolingo lessons. It's a good starting point, but that's it.
 
Aftermath

Aftermath

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,756
Ahh German beautiful language, even though at school I somehow did better at french, I dropped it because even though German was a bit tougher for me I enjoyed it more, Something about the way the lessons were set out, the teacher she was cool and just learning about the country seemed neat.

I could not really speak it now though it was only basic school stuff and I left school 21 yrs ago already wow.

Bitteschön
 
softie

softie

Member
Oct 30, 2017
136
As with all languages German is best learned when speaking it with other people. Community college is a nice way to meet many different people and get accustomed to the language. I wish you all the best with learning it.

Du packst das schon! 🙂
 
Budi

Budi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,884
Finland
Eins Zwei Polizei!


This has nothing to do with anything, Eins Zwei Polizei is just the phrase that always comes to my mind when thinking of German. I took two years of German in high school, but that didn't work out that well. Learning English, Swedish and German at the same time just wasn't for me. Especially my Swedish and German started to mix.
 
ItRhymesWithDoom

ItRhymesWithDoom

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,722
Time to start watching German movies and shows!

Der Untergang, Das Leben des Anderen, Goodbye Lenin, and many other (good) things erwärten Sie.

And of course, GRUMPY OLD MEN AGAINST CRIME: Derrick, Der Alte, Tatort, and others. Also, Germany dubs everything, so it's not that hard to find everything you know in German. Who doesn't remember "Das ist ein Dinosaurus!" from Jurassic Park?

(yes, it's probably 'einem' or whatever. I'm not that good with German actually. :| )

Btw, while presented in jest, I'm actually not being dishonest here. You can learn a lot of the language from 'just' their media, because it's all the formal variety of the language. By contrast, I would never recommend anyone to learn Dutch from our media, in part because "Groeten uit Brabant, kut!" isn't really a normal greeting. Also I just wanted an excuse to post that.
 
Planet

Planet

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,358
Aftermath said:
Ahh German beautiful language
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For sure!

XD

Hint #1, people here aren't as unfriendly as some seem to perceive us. We just don't use as many ultimately meaningless courtesy phrases like "how's it going?" without expecting anything else than "not bad". If we ask you such, we are fully prepared to really hearing how you feel, but thus we use it less often. ;)

Regarding the language, just consume German media, it's the only way besides actually talking to Germans. The above isn't really an accurate representation. ;)
 

Deleted member 5549

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,198
listen to some Rammstein or this:



watch/read/listen to your favorite media in german, especially songs they tend to stay in your head longer.
 
Reversed

Reversed

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,373
Greebman said:
Wurst.
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il_794xN.1493057649_fe6t.jpg
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like+share
 
BlackLagoon

BlackLagoon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,767
I've been trying to brush up on my high school German, and besides Duolingo, I came up with the idea listening to German language news/current affairs podcasts. After fumbling around a bit I found Lage der Nation, though admittedly it's still a bit too dense for me even at half-speed and the episodes are pretty long. Anyone can recommend something bit shorter, something in the vein of New York Times' "The Daily" for example?
 

Deleted member 23212

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
11,225
Rosetta Stone is bad, it does not teach grammar or phonetics or spelling rules at all. If you want to learn a language properly, learning these aspects are essential. I would recommend getting resources tailored around your needs, along with taking weekend classes if that's a possibility. Also, try to consume as much media as possible (provided that you can understand at least some of it; if you understand nothing at all you learn nothing), see if there are German conversation clubs in your city, etc.
 
L Thammy

L Thammy

Spacenoid
Member
Oct 25, 2017
50,108
Duolingo is nice, but it's really missing explanations. After you do a little bit, look up case, which is probably the thing that would most throw you.

Also, I hold every member of DeutschEra personally responsible for your plurals.
 
L Thammy

L Thammy

Spacenoid
Member
Oct 25, 2017
50,108
Oh yeah, someone in the old place told me how to cause a riot and I should try it out. Here goes:

Die Nutella
 
RM8

RM8

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,908
JP
People say the best way to learn is living in the country, but you'll have a much easier time if you study beforehand. People don't pick up languages just through exposure, it's possible to live abroad for a long time and remaining monolingual.

Start with something easy like Duolingo. Head over to /r/languagelearning, there are tons of free resources! I very strongly recommend Language Transfer or Coffee Break Languages for audio courses, but I don't know if they have German.
 
hobblygobbly

hobblygobbly

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,580
NORDFRIESLAND, DEUTSCHLAND
I am a German native speaker but I have heard that others find this video series by Oregon university to be immensely helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FUX54gzYoE&list=PL2fCGQa2PY7CDJkKsRiYNC-7XxiU4I10f&index=1

From what I skimmed it teaches you all the foundations, and also the first introductory episode is how to pronounce German, which apps like Duolingo don't do effectively, especially for a language like German that pronounces *every* letter in a word.

Drill it into your brain that *every* letter is pronounced (there are some rare exceptions, but this is not every day use), German is not like English which has silent letters, e.g if you want to say garlic - "Knoblauch", you pronounce the "kn", it is not silent like in English like "know".
 
signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,221
Thread pseudo followed since I know maybe four words of German but am moving there in two weeks. Duolingo here I come baybie.
 

Deleted member 12790

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
24,537
I took 1 day of German in highschool, I was signed up by mistake. I learned "Eins zwei drei." Later, in college, that knowledge helped me pass an extra credit question during a test in a geology course I took. "A 2 sided crack is called a zwei-dracter. A three sided crack is called a drei-dracter. Though a one-sided crack is physically impossible, were it to exist, what would it be called?" "Eins-dracter."
 
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