Schals Newbie United States Joined 5121 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German
| Message 1 of 6 22 March 2010 at 6:38am | IP Logged |
I am beginning my journey into the world of German, and am looking for good materials.
My high school dropped German from the curriculum this year, and I have been taking
French as an alternative thus far. However, as of recently, I have picked up the desire to
learn German again. I checked out the German 1 book from the school library (Holt
German), but lacking the audio materials, I am looking online for a supplement. I
stumbled upon the site "Deutsche Welle," (http://www.dw-world.de/) and it seems like a
quite suitable course for beginning (A1 & A2 it states) levels of German. I was curious if
anyone else has used that site for their studies, and if so, if they could provide some
feedback for me. If not, I'm also interested in hearing what you used in the beginning
stages of your German studies; preferably not in the Rosetta Stone/Pimsleur cost range (if
only my high school budget would allow for such spendings). Danke!
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Breogan Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie Spain Joined 5676 days ago 42 posts - 48 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Galician*, French, English Studies: German, Russian, Arabic (classical)
| Message 2 of 6 23 March 2010 at 4:40pm | IP Logged |
In my early stages I learnt quite a lot from Assimil German, both old and modern versions, along with the free "FSI German Basic Course", whose drills are very fine for acquiring the syntax of this great language,
http://www.fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=German% 20Basic
Good luck.
Edited by Breogan on 23 March 2010 at 4:40pm
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jables Newbie United States Joined 5131 days ago 30 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German
| Message 3 of 6 23 March 2010 at 8:08pm | IP Logged |
I've spent some time on the Deutche Welle site and have done a bit of the lessons.
Overall, I liked it better than Livemocha. It reminds me a bit of how Tell Me More's
system works. I liked it quite a bit, but am stuck with having to work through my class
text, and so I've not been able to dig very deep into it.
Also, depending on your town/city library, Pimsleur is often available for free check out
:) That's how I am using the German Pimsleur now.
viel Glück!
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Julien71 Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 5132 days ago 42 posts - 52 votes Speaks: French*, English, German, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Hungarian
| Message 4 of 6 24 March 2010 at 1:00am | IP Logged |
I find interesting listening to Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,8030,00.html
As the news is slowly told and the script provided, it helps improving listening skills.
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vikramkr Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5829 days ago 248 posts - 326 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese
| Message 5 of 6 24 March 2010 at 3:13am | IP Logged |
Upon looking at Deutsche Welle's online German courses, I am pleasantly surprised to see that they offer three free
online courses which can help one attain B2 proficiency. Impressive!
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zoba Newbie United States Joined 5117 days ago 10 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German
| Message 6 of 6 27 March 2010 at 2:52am | IP Logged |
I tried the Deutsche Welle course, but I wasn't a huge fan of it. To each is own,
however. Like you, I am trying to learn German without spending a fortune and I am
using two free courses that I really like.
The first is the FSI Basic German course and I think it's awesome. This is my main
method. I highly suggest you check it out. It can be a bit intense at times, but I
think it's worth it because it will greatly improve your German. Here's the link for
the basic course:
http://www.fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=German% 20Basic
They also have a couple of other German courses available, but I think this is the most
thorough one. The others look like quick intro courses.
The second course is available here:
http://www.german-grammar.de
It has 35 chapters to it and looks very complete. You learn a ton of vocabulary and
grammar in the course. Additionally, the site has audio and some nice literature
resources. Again, it's completely free.
Good luck with your German studies!
Edited by zoba on 27 March 2010 at 2:54am
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