What is the best way to learn German?
September 4, 2008 by Admin - LearnGermanLanguage.org
I very much want to learn the German language, but I can't find one good method to do so.
Non-native German speakers- and anyone who has learned a foreign language- how did you learn? Please give me any tips you can.
I've been learning German on my own for a 2 years now, and actually have had reasonable success. I wouldn't consider myself fluent or anything, but i could probably get by with my German abilities (but im not positive i haven't spoken to anyone in German in a while).
Rosetta Stone honestly was a complete waste of money. You really won't learn much for the value of it, however if you can afford it it will get you over the basic basic german. Rosetta stone won't teach you any of German's complicated grammar either. I'm really not a big fan of grammar, i think its more important to learn vocabulary in order to be able to communicate first, and learn the grammar that is affecting your ability to be able to communicate, write, and read succesfully. However, Rosetta Stone does not explain any of the grammar and expects you to learn it all basically through osmosis.
Also Barron's Learn German the fast and fun way, is decent for starting out, but its going to start you out with immersing you in it and it will be more brute memorization then rosetta stone if you really want to learn the vocabulary. The good part about Barron's book is that it will teach you some important grammar, but not an overwhelming frustrating amount that's gonna make you wan tto quit learning.
Once you know a bit of German, I've found, for me atleast, the Lustige dialoge (funny dialogues) book to be extremely good. It gives you a bunch of short stories, that have a twist at the end that's "funny" their generally so stupid its kinda humorous, but these storeis are much more interesting then traditional texts in German where they're going to go over culture and random boring stuff that just makes you want to quit learning. After the Dialogue, there are a few questions adn then it gives you some grammar exercises if you want to do them. The book doesn't teach you any of the grammar for the exercises but i've found http://www.ielanguages.com/German.html to be a really good website for any grammar. After your done, or while your going through the passage and questions, i personally underline any of the words that i dont know and make vocab cards out of the words that i don't know and then study those. The only down side to the book is that it doesn't have an answer key, but the book is such a good tool for learning German that i'd use it anyways. Plus there are two sequals to it, Geschichten Mit Humor (Stories with humar) and Spannende Geschichten (Exciting stories) Descritions of the books are on http://www.glencoe.com/sec/catalog/cgi-bin/secDisplay.cgi?function=display&area=fl&category=productinfo&nameid=810, and you can order them on amazon, or you can order them through borders and request to see the book first before you purchase it.
Two most important things with learning German
1. Try to study every day, ATLEAST every other day. Yes there's going to be occataionally days where you can't study because your too busy to study, but make sure you study atleast the next day if you have too. If you don't you will get out of the habit of learning German and will likely end up qutting.
2. Mix it up occationally. Sometimes a too formated routine for learning a language gets boring. Listen to songs in German (even if you don't really understand the words to it) Ohne Dich (without you) is a very basic song in German that would be a good one to start out with though. But there are many other ways you can mix it up such as: read newspaper articles in german and try to get a general gist of what they're saying even if that means using the dictionary a bit but try not to look up word for word (that drives me crazy atleast), use podcast on itunes, there's a ton of podcast for people from uber beginners in German to Advance, to podcast meant for people who speak fluent German, go to the library and see if there are any little kids/simple books in german, rent/buy a movie in german and try to get some meaning out of it, and even if you don't understand much of it you start to pick up how the words are seperated and slurred together after listening to it for a while, Speak/email other people you know who speak German, find a pen pal for German, and find ways that you find are fun ways to learn German, I'm positive those aren't the only ways.
Don't follow what i said exactly, tweak it up for what works for you, only take what you find useful, whatever works, we all learn in different ways. That's just the way i've found i've been able to learn German with
Hope that helps 
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6 Responses to “What is the best way to learn German?”
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Well, you could always take some classes in German to help you out, I've also heard wonderful things about the Roseta Stone software. Still, the only real way to get a masterful handle of a language is to emerse yourself into it. Get the basics down and go off to Germany or apply for a parttime job teaching German students to speak English.
References :
visit germany.
or find people who speak german
hang out wiht them a lot,
you'll pick it up
References :
The best way is always to go on a longer holiday to visit the country then you get familiar with the sound of the language and you should carry a travel guide book with the most important sentences and gain some knowledge if possible beforehand to learn the most important verbs in the German language. You can find internet friends from Germany and you learn from them by talking on messenger and they can correct your mistakes.. but when and if you visit Germany.. if you have a basic knowledge of the verbs and words.. which you can learn at home.. then when you are on holiday in Germany and you hear Germans talk.. it will be easier for you to pick out words of the conversations you will be bound to overhear….and if you are confronted with a foreign language by hearing it spoken daily that is the best way to begin… or as I say.. by finding people to correspond with from Germany, via the Internet…Later when you gained more knowledge you can start by reading childrens stories in the German language, such as fairy tales… Litte Red Riding Hood.. which has been translated into many languages and definitely into English and you can read and understand it better German then… and you may be able to watch something on TV in German language or learn from Audio cassettes some basic German which are teaching cassettes to learn the language..
Audiotapes German for Beginners with instructions in English of course…not in German…that helps you with the correct pronounciation and if you like it a great deal… one day marry a German.. and move there then you are bound to learn it…. (Lol, just a tiny joke at the end)
xx
References :
German native Speaker and Translator of German/English correspondence at Chamber of Commerce xx
Well, I take it in school but the best way my teacher really gets us to understand it is just by speaking it with us. You know, getting used to how it sounds, and learning by association. We watch videos where they speak only German but it shows what they're doing(like shopping, eating, cleaning, etc) and I think that helps alot. Of course with all of the grammatical things its best to have some one who speaks the language.
References :
I want to learn German too, but I don't have time to take a German class yet. I listen to German music and have started to watch some popular German movies that I found on the internet. This isn't much, but now the language doesn't sound like a bunch of noises to me, I can distinguish words from each other, and I occasionally look up the words in German to English dictionaries that I hear often. I also look up the lyrics and sing along, I know I probably sound crazy singing in German when my family walks by my room, haha.
Hope this helps a bit.
References :
I've been learning German on my own for a 2 years now, and actually have had reasonable success. I wouldn't consider myself fluent or anything, but i could probably get by with my German abilities (but im not positive i haven't spoken to anyone in German in a while).
Rosetta Stone honestly was a complete waste of money. You really won't learn much for the value of it, however if you can afford it it will get you over the basic basic german. Rosetta stone won't teach you any of German's complicated grammar either. I'm really not a big fan of grammar, i think its more important to learn vocabulary in order to be able to communicate first, and learn the grammar that is affecting your ability to be able to communicate, write, and read succesfully. However, Rosetta Stone does not explain any of the grammar and expects you to learn it all basically through osmosis.
Also Barron's Learn German the fast and fun way, is decent for starting out, but its going to start you out with immersing you in it and it will be more brute memorization then rosetta stone if you really want to learn the vocabulary. The good part about Barron's book is that it will teach you some important grammar, but not an overwhelming frustrating amount that's gonna make you wan tto quit learning.
Once you know a bit of German, I've found, for me atleast, the Lustige dialoge (funny dialogues) book to be extremely good. It gives you a bunch of short stories, that have a twist at the end that's "funny" their generally so stupid its kinda humorous, but these storeis are much more interesting then traditional texts in German where they're going to go over culture and random boring stuff that just makes you want to quit learning. After the Dialogue, there are a few questions adn then it gives you some grammar exercises if you want to do them. The book doesn't teach you any of the grammar for the exercises but i've found http://www.ielanguages.com/German.html to be a really good website for any grammar. After your done, or while your going through the passage and questions, i personally underline any of the words that i dont know and make vocab cards out of the words that i don't know and then study those. The only down side to the book is that it doesn't have an answer key, but the book is such a good tool for learning German that i'd use it anyways. Plus there are two sequals to it, Geschichten Mit Humor (Stories with humar) and Spannende Geschichten (Exciting stories) Descritions of the books are on http://www.glencoe.com/sec/catalog/cgi-bin/secDisplay.cgi?function=display&area=fl&category=productinfo&nameid=810, and you can order them on amazon, or you can order them through borders and request to see the book first before you purchase it.
Two most important things with learning German
1. Try to study every day, ATLEAST every other day. Yes there's going to be occataionally days where you can't study because your too busy to study, but make sure you study atleast the next day if you have too. If you don't you will get out of the habit of learning German and will likely end up qutting.
2. Mix it up occationally. Sometimes a too formated routine for learning a language gets boring. Listen to songs in German (even if you don't really understand the words to it) Ohne Dich (without you) is a very basic song in German that would be a good one to start out with though. But there are many other ways you can mix it up such as: read newspaper articles in german and try to get a general gist of what they're saying even if that means using the dictionary a bit but try not to look up word for word (that drives me crazy atleast), use podcast on itunes, there's a ton of podcast for people from uber beginners in German to Advance, to podcast meant for people who speak fluent German, go to the library and see if there are any little kids/simple books in german, rent/buy a movie in german and try to get some meaning out of it, and even if you don't understand much of it you start to pick up how the words are seperated and slurred together after listening to it for a while, Speak/email other people you know who speak German, find a pen pal for German, and find ways that you find are fun ways to learn German, I'm positive those aren't the only ways.
Don't follow what i said exactly, tweak it up for what works for you, only take what you find useful, whatever works, we all learn in different ways. That's just the way i've found i've been able to learn German with
Hope that helps
References :
My own German learning experience