The Last Homely House

General => Council of Cobra => Topic started by: TheJord on February 20, 2011, 02:32:36 PM

Title: Learning a new language
Post by: TheJord on February 20, 2011, 02:32:36 PM

I have decided to finally get my German language skills into gear. I use a website called www.busuu.com where you can talk with native speakers. I'm not really a big fan of talking to random people on the internet, so is there any native German speakers who would like to help me out?

Title: Re: Learning a new language
Post by: Kenddrick on February 20, 2011, 08:33:07 PM

Have you tried:
http://www.byki.com/fls/free-german-software-download.html?l=german

I learnt Russian there. The software is free, trust me!

Title: Re: Learning a new language
Post by: Witchkingx5 on February 21, 2011, 03:30:27 AM

Me.

Title: Re: Learning a new language
Post by: ununtrium on February 21, 2011, 11:37:53 AM

And there is me, too ;)

If you want to get back into the language, try to listen to as much German radio stations (news casts!) and watch as much German TV and movies as possible. Audio books are also GOLD!!!

And you can always try the German dubbing of your favourite English programmes. BTW, these dubbings REALLY show to which degree one has to purge their German sense of humor to be able to develop a real one ;)

I guess there is a reason why there is no English equivalent to "Schadenfreude". At least, our trains run on time....#$&*@!, that was the Swiss, wasn't it, witchkingx5? Blast!

Title: Re: Learning a new language
Post by: Elrohir on February 21, 2011, 12:25:13 PM

Here :)

If you are playing Lotr, you can switch to german cards. Also, dubbed movies are great in german (Lotr is well done). or we can try the chat.

I look for french.

Title: Re: Learning a new language
Post by: TheJord on February 21, 2011, 04:45:11 PM

I am going to try this program for now http://bit.ly/fz8smY

I also have my audio CD's in the car, but like ununtrium said I need German radio, TV and movies. Any recommendations? I don't mid subtitled but would prefer to hear the German.

Any of you guys free to do some chat time?

Title: Re: Learning a new language
Post by: Gate Troll on February 21, 2011, 09:38:51 PM

I too am trying to learn German, and I find music helps, as long as the words are clear. That said, what I've mostly gained from listening to German music is a better understanding of pronunciation of words, while my vocabulary remains abysmally limited, and far as cases go, I have trouble remembering when die, der, dem or das should be used, and generally use die or der. And I'm !hopeless with grammar. I'm hoping to go to Germany as an exchange student next year, and hopefully total immersion should help me achieve fluency.

Title: Re: Learning a new language
Post by: Witchkingx5 on February 22, 2011, 04:15:22 AM

As for music, I found those couple of songs be the best ones to try. It's spoken very well ,and the music is nice too:

Juli - Die perfekte Welle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad8ukI7Z-b8)

Fanta 4 - Die Da (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG-zPgyQDD8)

Wir sind Helden - Denkmal (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC872j2-PDw)

Unheilig - Geboren um zu Leben (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-L3wj_HaMQ)


After some basic learning, I strongly recommend German comedians. Germany really has tons of them, and some of them are truly genius, like Eckart !von Hirschhausen and Mario Barth. Especially von Hirschhausen speaks in a very clear and good German.

@ununtrium: Über die Deutsche Bahn (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4wi-iq2a_w&playnext=1&list=PL6915FAD72BCB8924)

Title: Re: Learning a new language
Post by: Elrohir on February 22, 2011, 12:35:16 PM

Quote from: TheJord on February 21, 2011, 04:45:11 PM

I don't mid subtitled but would prefer to hear the German.

Any of you guys free to do some chat time?

I tried to recommand you the german version of the lotr movie, not the subtitled one - although, both at a time could be much more helpful. I would chat.