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What to use for intermediate German | ||
Tags: Intermediate | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| zarathustra Groupie Canada Joined 5805 days ago 57 posts - 59 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 1 of 15 17 September 2009 at 2:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I've reached an intermediate level and I'm looking for a course (mostly audio) to maintain and work on my German. I don't need anything too intense since I'll be working on my Russian as well, just something that will allow me to practice. I'm a fan of Michel Thomas and Teach Yourself, but I don't know what the options are for an intermediate student. Any advice is appreciated.
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| maaku Senior Member United States Joined 5573 days ago 359 posts - 562 votes Speaks: English* | Message 2 of 15 17 September 2009 at 4:04am | IP Logged | ||
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FSI?
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 magister Pro Member United States Joined 6602 days ago 346 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, Irish Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 15 18 September 2009 at 12:41am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know how you personally define "intermediate," but Annik Rubens' Slow German podcast is worth a look. Each episode is accompanied by a transcript.
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| Chris Heptaglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7120 days ago 287 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian | Message 4 of 15 18 September 2009 at 7:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Zarathustra
Here are some suggestions: (1) Linguaphone Deutscher Aufbahnkurs. Expensive but good. (2) Teach yourself Improve Your German (3) Colloquial German 2 (4) Ultimate German Advanced (I really like this series!) (5) BBC Deutsch Plus One of the problems with words like 'intermediate' and 'advanced' in that these terms are highly subjective. For example, what is labelled an 'advanced' course in Michel Thomas terms sets the bar far lower than I would, yet a course like the Linguaphone one mentioned above could be considered to be more advanced by some than intermediate. I wonder why you haven't already selected the Teach Yourself German, if you like the courses. The first level German course comes highly praised by teaching establishments. Hope that helps. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7145 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 5 of 15 18 September 2009 at 8:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I would recommend both Assimil courses. They will certainly be helpful at an intermediate level and are not as expensive as Linguaphone.
They are also pleasant to use and don't take too much time as they are split into short lessons for each day. I would also recommend some light reading for extra practice. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jpxt2 Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6730 days ago 46 posts - 52 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, French Studies: Mandarin, Catalan, Portuguese, German, Italian | Message 6 of 15 18 September 2009 at 2:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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The Deutsche Welle website has a ton of German courses and materials available for FREE, so don't overlook them.
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| Francis66 Diglot Newbie Italy Joined 5545 days ago 5 posts - 6 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, French | Message 7 of 15 18 September 2009 at 2:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you are a fan of Teach Yourself, I think that the best option for you would be Teach Yourself "Improve your German" or Colloquial German 2 (that has a quite similar approach). I suggest you to use both of them
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| PaulH3 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5578 days ago 12 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 8 of 15 18 September 2009 at 4:07pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm using Assimil, Slow German and LingQ primarily, and I actually think I'm getting the most out of Slow German even though it is not in lesson format. Despite the name, I don't think it is as ridiculously slow as those slow English podcasts. It has a nice feature where you can double-click on words and phrases to get an instant translation (although if you have Firefox you can install the Babelfish add-on and have something that works on any web page). It seems to me that once you get beyond the basics, what you really need is a large amount of material to digest. Slow German gives you ~50 5-minute podcasts and counting, free of charge, while Assimil, good though it is, is much more condensed and certainly not free. One thing Slow German lacks is conversations - it's just Annik Rubens talking about various German topics. For transcripted conversations I go to LingQ, but I find them a little bit difficult to follow. I'm not quite ready for full-speed conversation among native speakers, even with a transcript. There is plenty of other material on LingQ, but I find the interface confusing and there seems to be a bit of a gap between easy material and later intermediate stuff. Edited by PaulH3 on 18 September 2009 at 4:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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