The Beginning...
A few years ago I visited Germany on business. I understood no German at all. Even booking into the hotel and reading the menu were difficult. It was at this point that I realised how much French I knew! My knowledge of French was poor but enough to get by when travelling in France. I resolved to learn sufficient German to make travelling easier and more enjoyable. For a while I was involved in a project for a German client and a number of the project team took German lessons. All too soon the Project and the lessons ended. I now had no reason to visit Germany but having started to learn I was determined to continue....
The Software
I decided to look for some software to help me learn German and found a bewildering array of titles on offer. Most seemed to be just computerised phrase books with little emphasis on the learning process. One product that looked different was the Rosetta Stone language course. It doesn't start off with basic conversation but with a general use of nouns, verbs, adjectives etc.. This is done without emphasising the grammar, but by just picking things up as you progress through the course. In the UK, Europress distribute a version of this that is available in the high street. Although it only offers an introduction to the language, I have found it excellent for what it does cover.
I later moved on to the full version of Rosetta Stone which is made up of 92 modules (including the 22 already covered). This offers an extensive course of study, supported by printed teaching materials. It was expensive but good! At the time it was hard to get hold of so my wife took on the mail-order distribution for Rosetta Stone products in the UK, through her company TOMINO.
I have also used the Living Book software from Broderbund (bought for my son who was three at the time). Like many software packages it can be installed in a number of languages. It did take a long time to reach the point where I could read a book aimed at a three year old without constantly resorting to a dictionary!
The Audio
As I spend a lot of time in the car it seemed like a good idea to buy some CDs and cassettes. I started with "DEUTSCH Plus" which is part of a BBC language course. I found this quite useful for gaining a general appreciation of German speaking, but without actually following the course its probably a bit limited.
Another product I've tried is the Michel Thomas tapes (the introductory 2 tape set). The approach is different to most (always something that appeals to me) and he actively discourages you from trying to learn. It isn't designed for use in the car as it relies on frequent use of the pause button. It took me a while to get used to it as without access to a pause button its hard to answer quickly enough. After a while it gets easier though.
Recently I noticed a couple of titles for learning vocabulary to music! This seemed bizarre enough to be worth a try so I bought VocabuLearn. The calming influence of Mozart apparently puts you in a suitable state for learning. I'm not sure I'll remember anything new from the tape but it has been useful to reinforce words I've already encountered.
Possibly the most useful product for learning in the car is the aptly titled "Learn in your car".
The Language School
I was made redundant at the beginning of last year so I had some time on my hands. I knew it would take a few months to get fixed up with a job so I decided to spend some time in Germany.
I enrolled in a Language school for two weeks and taking their advice I stayed with a German family. The accommodation was very basic, just a room in a house, but it was worthwhile and I understood about half of what was discussed over breakfast!
In the first week there were just five of us, myself; a girl from Cameroon who worked in a call centre and needed to speak another language; two Chinese doctors (husband +wife) who had to pass a language exam before they could work in Germany and a Japanese girl who was doing a gap year. In the second week we were joined by a Spanish airforce pilot, another Chinese doctor, a Turk who was living in Germany with his German wife and two Ukrainian women (mother and daughter).
It was fun and I would recommend it, although to be honest I think it would take about 6 weeks to really improve a lot.
I returned to Germany for another 2 weeks earlier this year again visiting the language school in Augsburg. My accomodation was with a German family although this time it was much more comfortable :-) As previously the class was very international with students from Mexico, Japan, Venezuela, Turkey, China and England.
The Links
The German Resources page contains links that have been useful to me, and include many of the things mentioned above. Some sites are personal homepages or from educational establishments and offer free resources, other are commercial sites with products or services for sale. All are worth a visit.
I've also put together some basic lessons for my reference
1 Letters and Numbers
2 The Calendar
3 Hello Goodbye
4 Food Quiz
5 Expressions
6 Things Quiz
If you have found the site useful please add a comment to the Guestbook. I also now have a page that links to suppliers of some the products mentioned above, so if you are thinking of buying something to help with your studies please look at my recommendations page.
The Future...
I'm still a long way from being fluent in German although menus and hotels are no longer a problem. This website was put together to help me, but hopefully it will be useful to others. Like my own ability in German it is always under construction!
Learning German / Tim Davison / tdavison@dial.pipex.com / revised 03 March 2003
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