Learning German fast

O

Omega

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.....and now for something completely different.....

I've got some German visitors coming in December and I need to pick up a language course, preferably comprising of books and audio CD's (which I could play in the car), in order to get a fast basic grasp of the language. Any recommendations? Thanks.
 
There is this guy called Michel Thomas that does CD language courses in a variety of languages. I did his Italian course and was surprised at the level that I got to. No pens or paper required...just listen and repeat. Not as robotic as Linguaphone either...would defo recommend him. Your local library probably has the CD's too...


http://www.michelthomas.com/
 
Most Germans speak perfect English. Do you need to learn anything other than stuff like "hello", "goodbye" and "another pint"?
 
I'd agree with ClubMan, probably the Germans will only be too delighted to proactice their English.

I bought a '15 minute French' pack including a book with lots of pics and 2 cd's, published by Dorling Kingsley. If there's a German version, I'd recommend it. It's very easy and practical.
 
I've also heard great things about Michel Thomas, however I don't know how fluent you expect to be in 2.5 months, probably 2 by the time you get the materials. Have you learned a language before? It's NOT easy to become fluent, you may pick up a hundred phrases, and be able to apply 5 of them in the situation. I would count on Germans having fairly good English.
 
Actually I disagree with Clubman, a lot of Germans speak very good english but many dont (unlike the Swedish say who all seem to speak effortless english). As a nation, like the french, I think the Germans appreciate the effort.

Im learning German for sometime now, I have done private lessons, state sponsored lessons (that swiss run for foreigners), group lessons. Ive listened to tapes. The best by far was Michel Thomas. For me the difference was that he helped me to speak the language...its very hard to get the confidence to speak for the first time, his course was amazing. My sister did the french one and my brother the italian one and they both found him excellent for those. I have now ordered his advance course.

You can buy the course online or from the language shop on Pearse st. opposite trinity near the station. It cost me about 60 euros I believe.
 
pernickety said:
I've also heard great things about Michel Thomas, however I don't know how fluent you expect to be in 2.5 months,
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You wont be fluent (like "rip-off" the definition of fluent varies a fair bit but under most definitions you wont be fluent). You will be competent. You will be able to say a lot more than "hello, where is the station". No matter how good a course is fluency requires practice and immersion in the culture (I believe). You will have time to run the Michel Thomas course twice (if you are dedicated) and you will be able to converse quite well as a result....but no you wont be fluent (after 4 years Im still not fluent but thats another story).
 
Thanks for all the replies. Yes, I have learned a language before (French), so I have an idea about grammar, tenses, genders, etc. I even did 5 years of Latin at school! (showing my age now!). I've seen two Michel Thomas courses - a short one for about £10 and a longer one for about £70. I'll probably get the short one and see how I get on..... Danke.....
 
In addition to the language course, if you have basic German, try tuning in to one of the German satelite channels on TV and just listening to it. Or buy a German newspaper - not the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung or anything heavy like that - maybe the Bild - it's kind of like the Sun here!

IMHO you shouldn't get too deep into the grammar - it's notoriously difficult - even Germans will admit that themselves. Concentrate on conversational German and have fun with it.

Viel Glück!
 
Where is the payment page on that site? All I can see are links to Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

By the way a payment page itself doesn't need to be secure. The URL through which payment details are submitted by the form on such a page should be though! However many sites make the payment page secure just to keep people happy.

Your man has some bonce!
 
If you are in Dublin, they have a German language exchange evening in the ILAC centre - worth going to.

German grammar is fairly easy - especially when compared to Latin. Beginners have the impression that it is hard - it's not.
Personally I wouldn't listen to what Germans say about their own grammar, because like most Europeans, they have generally a very poor understanding of the grammar of their own language and simply rely on Sprachgefuehl to get along.
 
Superman said:
If you are in Dublin, they have a German language exchange evening in the ILAC centre - worth going to.
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That's on Thursdays, right? How does it work? DO you wander around until you meet someone who's as good (make that 'bad') as yourself?
 
Can't remember if it is on a Thursday or Wednesday - sorry. Basically people just form themselves into groups and start talking away. It's kind of up to yourself how it works really. Afterwards you go to a pub and then you can really practice .
 
Superman said:
German grammar is fairly easy - especially when compared to Latin.
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Gosh, are you free to give lessons?

I find German grammer very very difficult to be honest. That said I never did latin, and, as you said, I think having latin would be a big benefit. German has 4 cases accusative, dative, nominative, genitive. Latin has 7. I speak Italian (for work) and learnt French in school and the grammer is so easy compared to German, both of these languages only have 3 cases. Oddly enough Irish grammar cases are also a help learning German. Also in German we have the concept of a neutral tense (die, der, das) which doesnt exist in Italian/French/English/Irish.
 
Superman obviously has some 'super powers' that we don't have, cas!

Maybe it's the tight [broken link removed] that does it.
 
casiopea said:
Gosh, are you free to give lessons?
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I'm fairly into languages and etymology so perhaps my views are a bit skewed. I do think though that if people think "oh it's going to be difficult", then it will be.

casiopea said:
Also in German we have the concept of a neutral tense (die, der, das) which doesnt exist in Italian/French/English/Irish.
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If I remember correctly in Sanskrit there was a "living" and a "non-living" "gender" for words. In later languages the "living" got changed into masculine and feminine, the non living becoming neuter - which one sees in Latin and Greek for example. It was retained in German and Russian. French and other Romantic languages collapsed these into the masculine gender. Interestingly enough for Danish, Swedish and Norwegian the masculine and feminine were collapsed into a "common" gender, a kind of return to the original proto-Indo European language - it also means if you know the gender in German is masculine or feminine you can guess it in these.

Apologies for hijacking the thread - back on topic now.
 
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