Deutsch lernen macht Spaß! (Learning German is fun!)

[DanieMarie]

So....Los gehts!

[Tylluan Penry]

[GabrielWithoutWings]

[Dumuzi]

[Tylluan Penry]

[DanieMarie]

[Jembru]

http://www.dw.de/dw/0,,2548,00.html It is amazing. especially considering it is free. It really does cover all areas of grammar and there is an amazing amount of audio which really helps with pronunciation and listening skills. I made it to series 4, but stopped about half way though. I also did their other courses but didn't like them nearly as much as I liked Warum Nicht. Ex's voice is kind of annoying, but Andreas, the main character, is likeable and they mention witchcraft and magic later on, which is useful vocab for some of us Pagan folk.

When I moved back to England, I was worried that without any opportunity to use the language, I'd lose it, so I took an evening class, it was called 'Advanced German', but it was really early-intermediate level. That ended almost a year ago and I haven't studied German since. I always heard that you can lose language skills very quickly if you stop using them, but I never realised just HOW much one can forget. Kinda sad, because I never mastered the language.

I agree that German is a difficult language. For me, the cases aren't too much of an issue because I can link them to similar ideas in Japanese (like, words marked with 'ni' are like the dative case, and 'wo' is like the accusative. 'wa and ga', would be nominative and 'no' genitive), but the gender and plural of nouns are what I hated the most. I might know the cases, but if I guess the word's gender wrong, then I'm going to use the wrong form of the article anyway.

Like DanieMarie already said, there are some clues to the gender. Here is a link I found really useful while studying, that has a good section on making an educated guess at gender. http://german.about.com/library/blgen_der.htm

I could add loads more links, but I won't. Oh exept, if you don't already know it, any student of German MUST know of LEO http://dict.leo.org/ I WISH there was a Japanese dictionary even close to the quality of this. LEO has audio files so you can hear how a word should sound, and you can click (i) to see how it is declined etc. Very, very useful tool when you're writing. All my books are packed away at my mum's, so I used LEO for writing just now. Sure, I'll have made mistakes, but LEO can only do so much ^^

Thanks again for starting this thread DanieMarie!

[DanieMarie]

[Dumuzi]

[Jembru]

---------- Post added at 05:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:09 PM ----------

Speaking of grammar. Does anyone know any website that can correct grammar for you?

I would love something like this too, but as far as I know, only a human being has such skill. Grammar is too complex a creature for a computer to master. If you've ever tried google translate, you'll know what I mean. A friend recently tried to look smart by posting on my wall in Japanese using translate. He just made himself look rather foolish in front of my native speaking friends. Facebook's translater can be loads of fun though. A friend wrote, 'you can read Japanese? That's great!' and it was translated as 'Japanese is calling, up the good!' ^^

If you DO find anything that can do a half-decent job, I'd love to know. Although it wouldn't stop me studying grammar. I really enjoy communicating in other languages and although it dominates most of my free time, I don't see learning languages as a chore.

[DanieMarie]

Speaking of grammar. Does anyone know any website that can correct grammar for you?

If I knew that, I'd seriously be dancing with joy....

I consult my Rechtschreibung book and email my German friends to get them to correct my texts (all of them, even the short ones!)

---------- Post added at 10:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:48 PM ----------

Nah...it's just a dictionary, but in German. So you get the word and its meaning both in German rather than the translation in English. I found it really great for building vocabulary and some grammar.

I don't know how to do a German keyboard in Mac! Do you know how? I know how in Windows and my iPad/iPhone have them, but I'm not sure how to do it on a MacBook...

[Jembru]

I don't know how to do a German keyboard in Mac! Do you know how? I know how in Windows and my iPad/iPhone have them, but I'm not sure how to do it on a MacBook...

Ah, sadly, I don't know. I have no idea about Macs. There must surely be a tutorial somewhere. Maybe this might help? http://www.aufgehts.com/sup_Germankeyboard.html

So, how should we do this thread? Is it for learning or practice? Besides DanieMarie, is anyone else here fluent in German, or have a good grasp of the grammar? I'll do my best to join in as much as I can.

[DanieMarie]

Ah, sadly, I don't know. I have no idea about Macs. There must surely be a tutorial somewhere. Maybe this might help? http://www.aufgehts.com/sup_Germankeyboard.html

So, how should we do this thread? Is it for learning or practice? Besides DanieMarie, is anyone else here fluent in German, or have a good grasp of the grammar? I'll do my best to join in as much as I can.

Aha brilliant...it's more or less like the mobile versions (go figure). Also, I never realised that that was why there was a little Canadian flag at the corner of my screen! Also, why bother having only US English for spellcheck and such but have a Canadian English input? The keyboards are EXACTLY THE SAME but the spelling is different! Anyway....German....

I think we could leave it open? Practice, grammar tips, advice and sites for learning...

[Jembru]

[Lareth]