I want to learn German in my spare time. I've seen some software products like Rosetta Stone offered for $300. Can anyone supply me with their personal experience with this? What other books or software have you used?

I know like 4 words in German and JFK said them all... although incorrectly. Any help would be great.

11/8/2005 1:21:48 PM

kommen sie heraus mit hande hoche!

11/8/2005 1:28:18 PM

my boss was using Rosetta Stone to learn manderin, i think it was working pretty well.

11/8/2005 1:30:08 PM

I know the word Juden (german for Jew) only because that episode of southpark where cartman tried to exterminate the jews.

11/8/2005 1:35:19 PM

I saw some competing software to the Rosetta Stone stuff to learn German in the SkyMall magazine, but I cant remember it, i'll post if I can think of the name

I just flew back from Germany, and realized that my German really sucks. I want to learn more than I know right now, so if you find some good stuff to learn with, let me know

11/8/2005 2:23:55 PM

1) classes
2) back in middle school, i used berlitz to supplement my class time. the only thing i took from that class was a love of german, and how to spell perfectly in german. no vocab, grammar, or the essentials like that.

my german teachers used to always give me comic books in german, too...but i dont think that's what you want

11/8/2005 2:25:59 PM

Pimsleur is a really solid language course. never used their german course but their russian and croatian are spot on. The course makes it really easy to learn and is perfect to use in your spare time.

11/8/2005 2:32:50 PM

THe gov buys rosetta stone stuff for dimplomats. Evidently they take a new approach to it and tries to imitate how we learned our native language... through visuals. Relating an object to a word or an event with a phrase. Grammar can be filled in. The grammar part isn't the hard part. Knowing enough vocabulary to where you sound coherent is the hard part. Kids learn vocab first and then the stuff to piece it all together later.

What's the reality of me being able to teach myself how to speak decent german without a professional course?

11/8/2005 2:50:29 PM

if you live in a german-speaking country, pretty good.
otherwise, not very good at all.

11/8/2005 2:54:38 PM

i live in missouri.

11/8/2005 2:55:27 PM

From my 2 years of German in high school, and 2 semesters at NCSU, I cant remember fuck about German

All that I remember anymore is how to pronounce words, and how to form sentences. The most important part is the vocabulary that I have forgotten. You cant talk about shit without knowing alot of verbs and nouns.

Plus in German, there are masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns, and that always tripped me up since I cant remember which words are what form

11/8/2005 3:04:14 PM

For what its worth, the gov. also puts diplomats through an intensive language school for months/years prior to dispatching them to their post. Then they supplement their language knowledge with weekly language classes in the embassy. The sad part is that a lot of diplomats speak very little of the language when they are at their post.

11/8/2005 3:08:11 PM

I've heard good things about both Rosetta Stone & Pimsleur, but haven't used either. A friend got really good results using Rosetta. I have several texts on Swedish, the best are some I bought in Sweden. Let me know if you find anything really useful!

By far the best way is to live in the country and USE the language. My 4.5 years of Latin were relatively useless (but of course, it's not spoken anyway). I spent six months in Sweden and have a pretty good handle on the language, I can read newspapers and follow conversations. My reading skills are better than my vocal skills - mainly because the Swedish "melody" is so important and I can't quite get it. I'm starting German in the spring and am really looking forward to it.

11/8/2005 7:21:53 PM

i'll sell you Instant Immersion German for $10. comes with 4 cd-roms (talk now! german, world talk german, webster's talking dictionary, and who is oscar lake...a game to help you learn the language). can't tell you how helpful it is because i've used it for maybe 5 minutes tops, just trying to brush up a bit before a summer trip. from what i've seen, it was really helpful and was very easy to use.

11/8/2005 7:31:29 PM

PM me, I'll take it.

11/9/2005 8:33:00 AM