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German resources! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Links & Internet Resources |  | |
| Randwulf Newbie United States Joined 4894 days ago 32 posts - 93 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 12 20 July 2013 at 2:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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Now that I'm done studying German I thought I would share the resources I used in
learning German and hopefully that can help someone else do the same. Deutsche Welle Link Government run broadcaster with really excellent resources for learning German including courses for all levels of learning. I used their course: Deutsch – Warum nicht?, Deutsch – Wieso nicht?, and Marktplatz. I also watched their Telenovella Jojo sucht das Glück (great for jumping into colloquial language after you can already understand formal stuff reasonably well) and I listened to their slowly spoken news daily. I also read the Top Thema articles (intermediate) and watched a lot of the Video Thema videos (upper intermediate - advanced) ELanguageSchool Link If you want to get your feet a little wet for free, this is a well-made introduction to German grammar that teaches the basics. They also have some Grimm Brothers fairy tales with vocab lists, a good place to start your foray into genuine literature. German Made Simple by Arnold Leitner While ELanguageSchool helped me convince myself that I did in fact want to learn German, this book is where I built a foundation strong enough to build upon. Its treatment of the grammar is quite complete and it is laid-back enough to not kill you. It doesn't go into nearly the depth a textbook would, but for someone who really wants to get into genuine material as quickly as possible, I think this is a good turbo-boost-start. Graded Readers I bought 88 of these, but a friend of mine told me you can download all of them in a collection for free on the internet somewhere, however that works! *winky face* Personally I couldn't bare the A1 level books. They just seemed so stupid. It picked up a little in A2, and in B1 it finally felt like I was reading actual stories and they were pretty ok. MySpass.de Link A treasure trove and the most fun way to learn ever! This site has tons of TV shows in German. I watched all of their Eroberer Zim, Spongebob Schwammkopf, and Axel Will's Wissen, for a grand total of probably like 60 hours of TV. And there's tons more, more than one person could ever watch. I found cartoons to be the easiest to understand, and I couldn't stand dubbed stuff because it threw me off kilter the way their lips moved. Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen The first genuine novel I read in German and I think a pretty good choice for it. It's just such an excellent story that even though I was struggling pretty bad with the language I could hardly put it down. That's the kind of book you need for your first novel, and preferably something in the young adult category. After that I read two more novels, Die Lügen des Locke Lamora (it's like 1000 pages so maybe it's worth three novels) and Verblendung (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). After getting through those three books I never really felt the need to bother with a dictionary anymore while reading further novels. Amerika Forum Link This is a site where Germans post stuff about the US and I ended up reading a ton of vacation-reports there. I thought it was very interesting to see what they go through adventuring in my country! NDR TV Link Internet-accessible TV station that mostly airs news and documentaries. Very clearly spoken, formal stuff mostly, and interesting. They have some good reality TV show type things as well. One I really liked was about one of their reporters who hitchhikes with his trailer. So he flags people down and asks them to hitch up his trailer and give him a lift towards his destination. He always meets some interesting folk and sees some interesting stuff on the way. Tagesschau Link Another news station, extremely popular in Germany. This one does several very predictable reports every day: Tagesschau 20 Uhr, Nachtmagazin, and Tagesthemen. If you watch all of those every day you'll know everything that's going on in the world and your German will improve quickly to boot! Langensheidt Basic Vocabulary This book contains the most common 4000 words in the German language with examples. I liked to thumb through it on the train or in other short periods of peace. Interpals Link Whether on this site or somewhere else, see about getting a pen pal. Preferably one who doesn't want to practice their English with you. This is rare but I got extremely lucky with a penpal who never wants to practice English with me and writes me like a gigantic 3000 word email every week. Once upon a time I could only write about 200 words per hour in response, while agonizing over the grammar to try to make it perfect. Now it's more like 1000-1500 words per hour and where I used to torture myself over grammar I don't need to anymore. If I remember any more I used I'll edit and I hope this helps someone. Edited by Randwulf on 21 July 2013 at 3:40pm 31 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4360 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 2 of 12 21 July 2013 at 10:30am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks.
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| KevinHsu Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 4172 days ago 9 posts - 12 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, Korean Studies: Japanese, Spanish | Message 3 of 12 21 July 2013 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the compilation! I will definitely be following your recommendations :)
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| I'm With Stupid Senior Member Vietnam Joined 4175 days ago 165 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Vietnamese | Message 4 of 12 21 July 2013 at 5:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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I also (ahem) acquired these graded readers (the chances of me finding any legitimate copies in Vietnam are zero, to be fair) but I haven't started them yet because I'm just coming to the end of Pimsleur 1. I've read a few in English though with my students, and I really like them. Especially sets of short stories, where the vocab of a particular theme is repeated in different contexts. When you get to higher levels, you can also get graded versions of classics like Dickens and the Bronte sisters.
One of the main reason I'm more excited to learn German than Vietnamese is the sheer volume of great cultural products out there. I also can't stand dubbed films though (I even refused to watch the animated Ghibli films unless they were subtitled rather than dubbed). But why would you need any where Germany has such a rich film history itself. There's some fantastic films and if you can get hold of it, Heimat is supposedly one of the best (and longest) drama series ever. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| anime Triglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6362 days ago 161 posts - 207 votes Speaks: Spanish, Swedish*, English Studies: German, Portuguese, French, Russian | Message 5 of 12 22 July 2013 at 2:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for these resources. Do you know where you can find German programs with German subtitles? I
started watching Jojo sucht Das Glück which seems allright. Also how do you mean you're done studying German? You don't plan to keep it up somehow? Edited by anime on 22 July 2013 at 2:44am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4830 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 6 of 12 22 July 2013 at 9:52am | IP Logged | ||
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A great list, Randwulf.
I would like to add: WDR podcasts Schlaflos in München Jena Campus Radio In the same vein as Harry Potter, some people might be interested in the novels of Cornelia Funke: Tintenblut 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Randwulf Newbie United States Joined 4894 days ago 32 posts - 93 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 12 22 July 2013 at 10:06am | IP Logged | ||
Well, a friend told me that there is a website called anime-loads.org where one can get tons of anime dubbed and subbed in German. I noticed your username and question and that came to mind! I'll still read the occasional book in German and go to meetups and stuff, but I am no longer going to be actively studying it and I will just try to maintain my current level. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| anime Triglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6362 days ago 161 posts - 207 votes Speaks: Spanish, Swedish*, English Studies: German, Portuguese, French, Russian | Message 8 of 12 25 July 2013 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Okey, thanks, I tried to download Akira but got redirected to some other webpage where I couldn't find it. Do
you know how it works? I finished Jojo sucht das Glück, it was really good for acquiring new vocabulary. Unfortunately it finished like two years ago. I will try Lindenstraße, which is a soap opera that has been running for years, where new episodes are posted on youtube with subtitles. Does anybody know of any French soap operas with subtitles by the way? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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