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Beginning German (first language) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Bobb328 Groupie Canada Joined 4583 days ago 52 posts - 78 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 1 of 14 19 June 2012 at 10:39pm | IP Logged |
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I'm new to this whole learning a language thing and was wondering if anyone has some input on my resources that I haven't
really seen discussed on this site. I'm beginning German and I'm (as of today) on lesson 37 of Assimil German with Ease (1987) edition. I wanted to learn Russian but I missed the release of the new English course by about a month and heard German was like English so I decided to give it a go. Well, as I'm finding out, it's actually very difficult. VERY difficult. I'm trying my best to reach basic fluency by next summer and hope surprise my German friend when she comes to the US next year. Here's my resources: - Assimil (primary) - FSI German. I'm planning to start this around lesson 50 of Assimil; is this course good? - German in Review by Kimberly Sparks. I haven't seen much discussion about this book but I'm going to order it from amazon. anyone have any experience with this book? -Langenscheidt Pocket German Dictionary -tons of German books, movies, music. -Deutsche Welle slow radio newcast every morning Does this sound good? Are there any essential resources I should buy? I'm mainly looking for grammar resources and practice because I find assimilating the grammar with Assimil to be very confusing because the notes are kind of vague. P.S. Not that this is going to stop me from learning, but I only chose German after Russian to read Kafka and Goethe in the original German. My friend tells me Kafka is much better in German, is this true? Sorry for all the questions and good luck on your own studies!! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4634 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 2 of 14 19 June 2012 at 11:01pm | IP Logged |
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Your goal is most certainly attainable. One thing I'd like to suggest is to hold off on the radio until you finish the passive wave of Assimil and hold off on the movies until you can understand radio easily. This is just to prevent discouragement. If you don't think it will bother you, then go for it.
Also, look for Dover German Grammar or Complete German Grammar by Practice Makes Perfect. The former is cheaper without exercises, and the latter is the opposite. Either or should be fine. Viel Gluck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nonneb Pentaglot Groupie SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4749 days ago 80 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, Ancient Greek, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, Hungarian, French | Message 3 of 14 20 June 2012 at 5:46am | IP Logged |
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I mostly agree with sillygoose1's recommendations, but I actually find watching movies to be a better introduction to listening to the more natural language than radio, even slow radio. That might just be because I think things stick more and are easier to follow with more non-verbal context.
Assimil is a great course. Good choice, but you probably know that. German literature is better in German, of course, but Kafka is the one author I actually prefer in English. He uses kind of choppy sentences and maybe tries to be a little artsy with his language, and it works fine in English, and doesn't (imo) in German. However, plenty of people feel the opposite as well. It'll be a great feeling of satisfaction when your German is good enough to figure out for yourself. If you're looking for books to start reading, I would recommend Im Westen Nichts Neues by Erich Maria Remarque (sp) as one you can relatively early in your study of German, especially if you've read it in English (All is Quiet on the Western Front). The vocabulary is repetitive, so you're almost never completely at a loss for what's going on, and the syntax is natural without being too complex. It also stays mostly away from outdated grammatical structures, outdated declensions, outdated conjugations, and outdated words or uses of words which fill other popular authors like Hesse. Also, it's just a great book. What parts of the grammar are you having trouble assimilating? I generally just use things like Assimil or later books together with grammar notes I find on the internet, but if you give more specific examples maybe I can help. I found some great grammar exercise books while I was in Germany, but I didn't get any because that's not really my thing. Try using German google and look for DaF (Deutsch als Fremdsprache) resources. They have books specializing in A1-B1, B1-B2, etc. Depending on how well you can understand German at this point, looking at their reviews and descriptions should give you a good idea of what to get. Have fun! If you get really stuck on something just let it go and come back in a week or two. I hear things all the time in languages that I'm learning that I don't get, and if I just keep it in the back of my head, I'll hear something that will clarify it soon enough. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Bobb328 Groupie Canada Joined 4583 days ago 52 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 4 of 14 20 June 2012 at 7:03pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks, both of you, I'll check those out. Nonneb, I'm almost completely skipping the grammar notes in
Assimil. I read them but don't spend too much time on them because I don't really understand what they're trying to say. I get the articles and at this point that's about it other than adding a ge- and -t to form the past tense. I need some other book to explain the cases and declinations and especially word order because Assimil isn't doing it for me in that regard. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5691 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 5 of 14 20 June 2012 at 7:27pm | IP Logged |
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Just a note of encouragement for the OP: Goethe is SO much better in German than English! I've found very few English translations of his writing (fiction or poetry) which communicated the sheer beauty and elegance of it. In my opinion, German would be worth learning for Goethe alone. Go for it!
4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Bobb328 Groupie Canada Joined 4583 days ago 52 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 6 of 14 25 June 2012 at 7:27pm | IP Logged |
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Also, does anyone have know anything about German in Review by Kimberly Sparks. I want to make sure it's good
before I spend $45 on it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ElBrujo Newbie United States Joined 4706 days ago 29 posts - 52 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 14 26 June 2012 at 1:34am | IP Logged |
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Have you checked out Michel Thomas' German course, OP?
It's only 8 hours, and although I've only listened to the Spanish course, I imagine that the German course would give you a nice introduction to how the language functions. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 8 of 14 26 June 2012 at 2:12am | IP Logged |
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Another German beginner!
Good luck, enjoy your studies, your plan looks really good. I don't know your Review book but it doesn't mean it can't be good of course :-) One more recommendation for when you want to discover the grammar more systematically: Basic German:grammar and workbook. I really like it. The explanations are clear and useful, there are examples and some exercises as well. I agree with nonneb about movies being easier than radio, even though I am still quite far from both in German. In movies or tv series, you have the visual hints, etc. About books: I would trust Jinx. But the best thing about reading in a foreign language, in my opinion, is to discover authors you don't know in translation. The translated authors, even though they tend to be the best, at least when it comes to classics, are just te tip of the iceberg. So, you can look forward to your Goethe and Kafka and you can as well look forward to the completely unknown corners of German literature, many of which may be accessible earlier. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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