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Best software to learn German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| lukemarson Newbie Belgium Joined 4996 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 15 23 March 2011 at 10:40am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello everybody,
I am a native English speaker who is looking to learn German for professional use and some basic interactions, such as shops. hotels and restaurants. I live in Belgium but work mainly in Germany and there are no "German for English speakers" courses that I can find (naturally). I want to find some software that I can use that can teach me useful German for the purposes outlined above. If you require any more information or have any advice please feel free to reply. All information is gratefully received. Best regards, Luke 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes  Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 2 of 15 23 March 2011 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Avoid software. I've never used a piece of software that genuinely taught a language.
(I'm not a luddite, I'm a Computer Science graduate.) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lukemarson Newbie Belgium Joined 4996 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 15 23 March 2011 at 12:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Do you have any other suggestions? I'm a business/IT consultant so I travel a lot and can't reall commit to a weekly class.
Do you think I should look for a tutor? My only problem is that if I'm away for several weeks I won't be spending any time learning without software. I undertake several projects so might not always be in the same every week. It's not an ideal situation! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 4 of 15 23 March 2011 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with Cainntear. The few pieces software that I have tried weren't any good either. If you travel a lot, I think
the best solution is something like Assimil or Living Language where you only have a small book in addition to the CDs (which you of course convert to mp3 files or whatever) . 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 5 of 15 23 March 2011 at 4:49pm | IP Logged | ||
There's always books and CDs. I'd recommend the Michel Thomas course to start with. It's all on CD, so once you've ripped it to MP3 it's even more portable than software. If covers the verb system really well, but doesn't really deal with nouns. It's a good start, nonetheless. I haven't gone past that, so I can't recommend what to use afterwards, but pretty much any book and/or CD course is better than a computer-based package -- they're all flash and no bang. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7022 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 6 of 15 23 March 2011 at 5:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'll second what the others have already said. The Assimil German with Ease course in conjunction with Michel Thomas would be a great place to start. I have never heard anything good about software based courses (Rosetta Stone etc). Pimsleur is also not bad to get you started on pronunciation. It is fairly expensive, so if you can get it from your local library and rip the CDs to your computer its not a bad way to go either. Good luck!
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Rob_Austria Heptaglot Groupie Austria Joined 5003 days ago 84 posts - 293 votes Speaks: German*, Italian, Spanish, French, English, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Croatian, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic (Written), Turkish | Message 7 of 15 23 March 2011 at 7:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have seen a few chapters of "Teach yourself German" and I really liked them (I haven't seen the whole book though). The language they used was very natural and deals with most of what you mentioned as being your target vocabulary. I have yet to find a software that comes even close to what most CD courses offer. Mostly it's just random pictures with some "games" and very little content.
P.S. My mother tongue is German, by the way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zekecoma Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5345 days ago 561 posts - 655 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 8 of 15 23 March 2011 at 9:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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I recommend Assimil German with Ease and Michel Thomas. Then later get the living
language books for German. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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