Where can I get free resources for learning German?
Particularly for pronunciation.
I'm failing so hard at that..
Also, whats the best way to learn? Flashcards? Music? I'm obviously not looking for anything that costs money like classes.
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Anonymous2007-11-02 8:16
WW2 movies.
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Anonymous2007-11-02 8:49
For pronunciation in any language, the best way is to try it out on an actual German speaker. They'll be able to help you get to the correct sound, which your ears might not be accustomed to differentiating yet.
Unfortunate, but true. Go find some german friends and skype with them or something.
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Anonymous2007-11-02 8:58
Learn IPA among other things.
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Anonymous2007-11-02 9:23
German friends is what I did, but that was at university in Europe, so there are always a few on exchange. German television is quite widely accessible on satellite too in Europe, you can probably get it further afield over t'Internet.
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Anonymous2007-11-03 19:10
Woah! German's fucked up! For pronunciation? ppfft... try watching some TV programms perhaps some comedians may bring some fun to your torture. Michael Mittermaier is my favorite and I swear you'll crack yourself up each time (his shows have even replay value)... you can perhaps dl some of his shows as mp3s. The second is the guys from Bullyparade (you can dl the films Der Schuh des Manitu and Starship Surprise). And last Stefan Raab... although I find his sense of humor rather dry.
>>6
Seriously, Bully and Raab? What the fuck. Grow the fuck up. Early Appelt is where it's at.
As for actually learning German, why not download dubbed movies or episodes of some series you like? You'll have an easier time understanding what's going on since you know the plot and it might help with your pronunciation. Nothing beats actually using the language with native speakers though. I won't talk to you via Skype or anyting but if you want to try and write, feel free to send an email.
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Anonymous2007-11-03 23:32
>>1
Not to worry, all AmeriKKKans fail hard at pronouncing any language that isn't American, regardless of how long they've tried to speak it.
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Anonymous2007-11-03 23:34
>>1
Why do you want to learn that godawful ugly language? It's good for absolutely nothing (except being naturally nazi), and as we all know - nobody likes Germans/nazis.
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Anonymous2007-11-04 0:12
>>8
Wow, now he realllly wants to learn your language. How big of you.
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Anonymous2007-11-04 6:02
Ok, for the jackass talking about "growing up". The purpose of hearing comedians is that you have "fun" (or try to at least)in order not to lose interest. Of course if you consider yourself an elitist "grown up" you can always go to the sueddeutsche.de and read about the german stock exchange and politics or original works on relativity by Einstein. But I bet that'll bore you out of your skull in a pretty short amount of time >_> And that's exactly my problem now with french... I can't just find something to attract my attention to it.
Not only this but how would you expect an American to be interested in the peculiarities of your language or your culture when you're being a jackass at every turn?
Go to a public library and check out a German phrasebook that comes with cassette tapes. Listen to the cassette tapes while reading the phrase books.
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Anonymous2007-11-24 13:09
For pronunciation I would recomend music also. More than half the music on my ipod is in German. I picked up most of my pronunciation in Germany, I spoke nothing but German the three weeks I was there.
Wir sollen einen Diskussionstrang auf Deutsch machen. Ich brauche mehr Übung.
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Anonymous2007-11-28 17:44
Dir können ma machen aber ich weiß nit ob de damit Probleme hast wenn die Leute son bissl mit Dialekt reden...
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Anonymous2007-11-30 0:02
Ich wusste garnicht das wir so großartige Komiker haben.
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Anonymous2007-11-30 0:02
Ich wusste garnicht das wir so großartige Komiker haben.
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Anonymous2007-11-30 0:03
Ich wusste garnicht das wir so großartige Komiker haben.
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Anonymous2007-12-02 9:34
Sickening language....
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Anonymous2007-12-04 22:37
WIR MUESSEN DIE JUDEN AUSROTTEN
schon mal daran gedacht dir einen tandempartner zu holen?
genau dafuer wurde doch der scheiss erfunden
SCHLECHTE GRAMMATIK IM /lang/ BOARD BITE ME
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Anonymous2007-12-12 14:23
Gott, bitte hör auf Deutsch zu lernen. Die Sprache ist wirklich das letzte und ich weiß wovon ich rede.
Es ist unglaublich wie langweilig eine Sprache sein kann, in Amerika betonen die Leute wenigstens ihre Wörter anständig, aber hier in Deutschland...ne, wirklich, die meisten reden ununterbrochen in der gleichen Tonlage.
I've already gotten kicked out of a [English-speaking] chat room for saying "iss meine scheisse" when people started speaking German 101 to each other. Thanks!
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Anonymous2007-12-29 17:50
Etymology is quite biased against language isolates and smaller languages in general when it comes to "who borrowed what from whom".
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Anonymous2007-12-30 18:26
Native speaker here.
>>30
"Wären wir nicht gewesen, würdet ihr jetzt alle Deutsch sprechen."
fix'd - but it was mostly correct!
"If it weren't for us,..." Yeah, you can't translate it literally. The german term is "Wären wir nicht gewesen..." (="If we hadn't been..."). Lol, phrases.
Anyway, how to learn German? Well, do it like you'd learn every other language: watch movies, listen to music, read books and, most important, speak to native speakers.
I remember an exchange student who lived here for ~9 months: First he had a rather heavy accent, but after awhile it disappeared completely.
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M1k32008-01-10 15:57
Why do you try it?
nearly every german has to learn english ^^
Nah...joke..
it's a reeally hard-to-learn language and most native speakers can't speak a correct german x)
Try german news. Everyone else will have his regional Accent.
Also deutsche als nazis zu bezeichnen finde ich mehr als unfair!
Wie kann man nur so naiv sein?
(kann meiner meinung nach nur aus dem mund eines ungebildeten kommen, einfach meine meinung!)
Desweiteren ist deutsch eine schöne Sprache mit der man (bildung vorrausgesetzt) viel schönere sachen "sprechen" kann als zb. in englisch.
Wenn ihr mich fragt ist englisch eher unbetont und langweilig!
Only my 2 cents
Jetzt noch schnell in englisch(Ja, wir nazis lernen englisch im gegensatz zu euch amerikanern, die grösstenteils nicht 1x im leben ihr land verlassen! Pah!):
And now in English(Yes, we Nazi's DO learn english, you dont! Many of you dont even leave your country once in a lifetime - at least its bette for the people you dont visit!)
Saying All germans are Nazis is unfair!
How can you be so stupid?
(In my opinion, only a very stupid and mad person would say sth. like this)
Further I think German is a georgeous language, even prettier than english!
I think english is the more boring language... english is something like the ultimate boredom to me... ;)
My 2 cents....
Btw: I'd never go to say that every American is stupid, but the one who said, "You shuldnt learn german, they're nazis" is a complete horsef.....
Mach doch eine reise nach Deutschland, am besten in eine Region in der viel Dialekt gesprochen wird (Bayern oder so). Da verstehst du dann erstmal kein Wort, aber nach einem Jahr oder so hast du es drauf :) Viel Glück!
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Anonymous2008-03-08 5:30
Mach doch eine reise nach Deutschland, am besten in eine Region in der viel Dialekt gesprochen wird (Bayern oder so). Da verstehst du dann erstmal kein Wort, aber nach einem Jahr oder so hast du es drauf :) Viel Glück!
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Anonymous2008-03-08 6:08
Na, des is emoal a guade Idee.Der Buar will koar Geld net ausgebe und Ihr wollt ihm in den Urlaub foarn loassn! Suppa!
The best trick is just to watch a german dub of some movie, or better even a cartoon, you already know, but thats rather hard for starters. The point is you know the plot and if you do not understand something you can grenk it from the plaarf, if you know what i mean. There is also the added benefit that you dont have to bother with regional accents. I would recommend some older Disney or WB cartoons.
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Anonymous2008-03-15 13:27
You like a German porn star's mouth, cuz you full of shit.
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Anonymous2008-03-16 16:42
Why the FUCK would you want to learn a crappy language like German?
The best way I can think of is if you go to your local library's website I know some public libraries offer Rosetta stone programs online for free. they are a great start for learning. I used them to pick up basic Thai and Mandarin for a month long trip in Asia. They are very useful
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Anonymous2008-05-17 13:14
The best way I can think of is if you go to your local library's website I know some public libraries offer Rosetta stone programs online for free. they are a great start for learning. I used them to pick up basic Thai and Mandarin for a month long trip in Asia. They are very useful
i have been using this a lot the past few days, keeps it interesting. no good for beginners though.
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Anonymous2008-06-01 10:20
Computer games. Especially RPGs.
I've probably tripled my English vocab and general comprehension of the language by playing the shit out of Morrowind. Went from D's to A's in my English course at school.
So go ahead, get yourself the German version of Oblivion, Morrowind or some other game like that. Games these days even have all their dialog actually spoken, so you'll learn the pronunciation too. It's fairly hard at first, but you won't mind at all once you become addicted to the game.
Audio books are great for learning, especially if you look at the text for reference. http://vorleser.net/ offers quite a few free ones, spoken by professional voice actors. They've got children's books too: http://vorleser.net/html/kinder-hoerbuecher.html
Texts of most of the public domain stuff can be found at either Project Gutenberg, Wikisource or via google on various university sites.
"An educated man can learn english in 30 hours, french in 30 days and german in 30 years"
Mark Twain
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Anonymous2008-07-03 17:14
>>82
Mark Twain was well known for his irrational hate of German. He doesn't count.
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Anonymous2008-07-03 22:54
>>83
Mark Twain loevd German and Germany's culture. Many of his stories even take place in Austria and Germany (such as The Mysterious Stranger). He was also absolutely fluent in it, spoke it like a native in his later years. Saying stuff like that is just his sense of humor.
i read mark twain's rants to calm myself after working myself into a rage with fucking german. i fully understand and sympathise with his (entirely rational) hate of it.
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Anonymous2008-07-06 8:09
>>82 >>83 >>84
I, as a german, recognized that Mark Twain had a kind of love-hate relationship to the german language. He wrote a book about it "The awful german language" and translated within, as an example, the old german atrocity tale book called "The Struwwelpeter".
It's an bilingual edition (english&german).
>>86
Yes, we know what a € sign is thank you very much.
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Anonymous2008-07-06 19:55
So, I want to watch some german movies as a cheap attempt at learning. Any german movie recommendations? I'd be grateful if it has nothing to do with the nazis or the war, cause I'm already sick of those topics. Thanks!
And watching movies isn't a "cheap attempt", really. Unless you actually live in Germany/Austria for a time, I'd say it's even necessary. It's especially useful for pronunciation of course, but also generally to absorb some of the language. I've lost my accent in English by watching Lost.
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Anonymous2008-07-06 23:09
>>91
Wanted to add... Half of Gegen Die Wand is in Turkish, and the German spoken in it isn't always entirely correct.
And if you want to get some more out of it, study a bit of grammar parallel to watching moviez. You won't need to work on your vocab other than looking up words you don't understand, though.
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Anonymous2008-07-07 13:04
>>91
Thanks. Actually my idea is to download the german subtitles and make a list of words to learn before watching the movie. I already know some basic grammar and stuff, but my vocab is seriously lacking. When I thought about doing this, I thought to myself "I am a GENIUS!!!"
I must say it's very satisfying to see my work pay so soon, certainly sooner than with most other types of studying. I recommend it lots!
Is it...
You get a German transcript and then look over it before watching the movie, learning any hard words to heart, and then trying to decipher the movie's pronunciation?
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Anonymous2008-07-08 14:17
>>94
Well, pronunciation is not an issue since I already know the basics for that "ei w v" things etc. It's fairly easy to predict how words are gonna sound. Plus, I watch the movie with the german subtitles.
I don't read the transcript itself because I don't want to spoil the plot. I sort the words alphabetically and then look them up, but yeah, that's basically it.
can somebody suggest some german comedy programs for me? chat shows or whatever i can find on youtube, preferably in hochdeutsch.
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Anonymous2008-08-05 13:14
In addition to what everyone else said, music with English and German lyrics will help. I mean, if it's catchy and you can recite lyrics and know the meaning, then it will expand your vocabulary. A German band I listen is Rammstein, they are a fairly popular industrial/rock band, so it should be fairly easy to find some of their stuff.
Good luck my friend!
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Anonymous2008-08-05 17:07
madsen
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Anonymous2008-08-07 4:24
You need to learn German dubbed shows, if you want to learn Hochdeutsch. Good comedy in German are Monk, the American show dubbed in English, Keine Gnade Für Dad, which is known as "Grounded for Life" in America, then there's Weeds, Ugly Betty and so on.
These can all be downloaded at www.serienjunkies.org - but all files re uploaded on Rapidshare, so you might want to get a premium account.
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Anonymous2008-08-07 4:24
You need to learn German dubbed shows, if you want to learn Hochdeutsch. Good comedy in German are Monk, the American show dubbed in English, Keine Gnade Für Dad, which is known as "Grounded for Life" in America, then there's Weeds, Ugly Betty and so on.
These can all be downloaded at www.serienjunkies.org - but all files re uploaded on Rapidshare, so you might want to get a premium account.
Der Kaspar, der war kerngesund,
Ein dicker Bub und kugelrund,
Er hatte Backen rot und frisch;
Die Suppe aß er hübsch bei Tisch.
Doch einmal fing er an zu schrei'n:
»Ich esse keine Suppe! Nein!
Ich esse meine Suppe nicht!
Nein, meine Suppe ess' ich nicht!«
Am nächsten Tag, - ja sieh nur her!
Da war er schon viel magerer.
Da fing er wieder an zu schrei'n:
»Ich esse keine Suppe! Nein!
Ich esse meine Suppe nicht!
Nein, meine Suppe ess' ich nicht!«
Am dritten Tag, o weh und ach!
Wie ist der Kaspar dünn und schwach!
Doch als die Suppe kam herein,
Gleich fing er wieder an zu schrei'n:
»Ich esse keine Suppe! Nein!
Ich esse meine Suppe nicht!
Nein, meine Suppe ess' ich nicht!«
Am vierten Tag endlich gar
Der Kaspar wie ein Fädchen war.
Er wog vielleicht ein halbes Lot -
und war am fünften Tage tot.
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Anonymous2008-09-09 8:54
VON VATIKAN BIS TALIBAN
SIEHT MAN, DASS ES STIMMT
DASS DIE GANZE ABSTINENZLER
NOCH IMMER DIE SCHLIMMSTEN SIND
KEIN ALKOHOL IST AUCH KEINE LOESUNG
ICH HAB'S IMMER WIEDER VERSUCHT
USW
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Anonymous2008-11-19 18:26
>>116
Taliban-Taliban-Taliban-Nirvana,
keiner kratzt an unserem Fundament!
Vatikan-Vatikan, ebenso Banana!
Schade, dass kein Scheiterhaufen brennt!
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Anonymous2008-11-19 19:52
>>36
do the deutsche-welle journalists have accents?
Jörg Flügge von der Firma Batix Software GmbH wurde am Samstag 7. Mai 2011 in Saalfeld festgenommen, nach dem auf einigen Rechnern der Firma Batix pornographisches Material mit Kindern gefunden wurde. Laut Angaben soll auf einigen Bildern Herr Flügge mit Minderjährigen in sexualen Posen zu sehen sein. Die Staatsanwaltschaft Gera ermittelt.
I can understand that most english sp3aking ppl have trouble learning and speaking german, but thats mainly beacause its OVER 9000 times moar complex(compare it, lol)
Its also kinda hard to understand a german dialect, because they are OVER 9000 times moar different in pronuncication than the english ones an also in grammer sumteims......and ye it was just as hard to learn the english pr0nunciation, but the grammer is so damm easy.
German grammar is a fukin bitch even I hardly get it and im native speaker mit nem schwäbschen dialect :P
>>133
>even I hardly get it
>im native speaker mit nem schwäbschen dialect :P
da haben wir das Problem schon gefunden.
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dadadadbgfdh2011-06-21 18:01
wat is denn hier los? seid ihr denn alle bekloppt oder wat?
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Anonymous2011-06-21 19:39
du sind zuruckgebliben ein
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Anonymous2011-06-22 8:03
For pronounciation you could try and watch a movie in german and switch on the subtitles. There could of course be problems that the subtitles aren't exactly what is being spoken in the movie, but it can be helpful. Other than that, if you want to get really good at speaking German, you should take classes. This is coming from someone who speaks German as a primary language :)
If you are planning to visit germany you should travel to Niedersachsen, the region where they talk the "cleanest" German. Like Hannover, Bremen, Hamburg is ok too.
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Anponymous2012-01-23 9:07
Have a look at german internetsites for children. There are list of recommended sites for children. Might be a good method.
I am from Hannover, Germany and I'm trying to improve my English, so if you're interested we could talk over skype and help each other out, what do you think?
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Anonymous2012-01-23 23:23
Holy crap, posting in an ancient thread...
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Anonymous2012-03-12 16:19
hehe, germany has a much better reputation nowadays, one of the greatest countries. if there wouldn't be devil hitler (austrian motherfucker), i guess germany would be the most popular country in general.