Learning German from scratch

I personally think the best place to start is with a good GCSE revision guide, which starts at the basics. I'd say something from CGP would be best. Then when you've completed all of that, you can go onto advanced things. The best thing I would recommend for that is a good grammar book (such as Schaums') and a good vocab book (such as Advanced German Vocabulary). When you're at this stage, it's also a good idea to buy a big, chunky dictionary too...not a small, pocket-sized one. I'd also, at this point access newspapers in German. It's the best way forward. Anyways, there's your life for three years sorted out :p:

Vielen Glück! :biggrin:

Reply 2

gooner1592

I personally think the best place to start is with a good GCSE revision guide, which starts at the basics. I'd say something from CGP would be best. Then when you've completed all of that, you can go onto advanced things. The best thing I would recommend for that is a good grammar book (such as Schaums') and a good vocab book (such as Advanced German Vocabulary). When you're at this stage, it's also a good idea to buy a big, chunky dictionary too...not a small, pocket-sized one. I'd also, at this point access newspapers in German. It's the best way forward. Anyways, there's your life for three years sorted out :p:

Viel Glück! :biggrin:

*cough* das Glück *cough*

:p:

Reply 3

Gooner

hobnob

*cough* das Glück *cough*

:p:

*Vomits blood with embarrassment* (again) :p:

And I've just been learning about German Grammar, with the nominative and adjectival endings lately too :redface:

Reply 4

Sorry... German articles are just nasty, though, because a lot of them are completely arbitrary.

Reply 5

noodles!

I HATE GERMAN GRAMMAR- articles, cases, the lot.

Reply 6

namakemono

I HATE GERMAN GRAMMAR- articles, cases, the lot.

There, there. It's not *that* bad - just takes a while to get the hang of. :wink:

Reply 7

OP

gooner1592

I personally think the best place to start is with a good GCSE revision guide, which starts at the basics. I'd say something from CGP would be best. Then when you've completed all of that, you can go onto advanced things. The best thing I would recommend for that is a good grammar book (such as Schaums') and a good vocab book (such as Advanced German Vocabulary). When you're at this stage, it's also a good idea to buy a big, chunky dictionary too...not a small, pocket-sized one. I'd also, at this point access newspapers in German. It's the best way forward. Anyways, there's your life for three years sorted out :p:

Vielen Glück! :biggrin:

Thanks, I'll try that.

I hope some guides have pronunciation details too, cos it'll be required! :p:

Reply 8

OnlyMe!

Thanks, I'll try that.

I hope some guides have pronunciation details too, cos it'll be required! :p:

They should have. German pronunciation's not all that tricky, though.

Reply 9

OP

Ah, ok, good. Thanks!

Reply 10

hobnob

They should have. German pronunciation's not all that tricky, though.

**** knows how many years of being a German teacher hasn't taught my German teacher how to pronounce words. :wink:

hobnob

Sorry... German articles are just nasty, though, because a lot of them are completely arbitrary.

As they are in most languages. English is an exception. I like the existence of articles, I don't know why, I think I'd get bored if everything was the same gender. :wink:

Reply 11

OP

Have you any advice to offer? :p:

Reply 12

OnlyMe!

Have you any advice to offer? :p:

Hmm. What kind of advice do you want? I taught myself German from scratch, but then I was in Germany for quite a bit of that time. :p:

I think German is essentially a "relatively easy" language, in that with sufficient practice you become accustomed to its little grammatical quirks pretty easily, since English is a Germanic language. But I wouldn't go so far as to say it was actually easy. :p:

gooner1592

When you're at this stage, it's also a good idea to buy a big, chunky dictionary too...not a small, pocket-sized one.

Seconded. I'm surprised the Germans don't have bigger pockets than us though, what with all the ridiculously long words. :wink:

Reply 13

OP

generalebriety

Hmm. What kind of advice do you want? I taught myself German from scratch, but then I was in Germany for quite a bit of that time. :p:

How exactly did you learn it? Aside from the obvious advantage of being in Germany, what else did you use to help you - as in any specific books, cds, etc?

Reply 14

OnlyMe!

How exactly did you learn it? Aside from the obvious advantage of being in Germany, what else did you use to help you - as in any specific books, cds, etc?

The books I used were Deutsch Heute and Schwarz-Rot-Gold, along with Hugo's German in Three Months course. But, truth be told, I didn't use them much. The last two I recommend, definitely - the first I don't remember too well but it was a bit too textbooky for my liking. I just learnt a bit of grammar and went over there and picked up the vocab as I went along.

Reply 15

generalebriety

**** knows how many years of being a German teacher hasn't taught my German teacher how to pronounce words. :wink:

Well, obviously becoming a teacher never taught anyone anything. :p:

Reply 16

OP

generalebriety

The books I used were Deutsch Heute and Schwarz-Rot-Gold, along with Hugo's German in Three Months course. But, truth be told, I didn't use them much. The last two I recommend, definitely - the first I don't remember too well but it was a bit too textbooky for my liking. I just learnt a bit of grammar and went over there and picked up the vocab as I went along.

I saw 'German in Three Months' in WHSmiths yesterday, so I'll definitely buy that. I'll have a look at the others too. Thank you. :smile:

Reply 17

noodles!

I should have been more constructive than my earlier post. Sorry.

You really need a lot of determination to learn something from scratch. Ideally you should go to the country, or at least immerse yourself in the language in some way. I recommend setting your mobile to German mode. You know how to use it anyway I presume without the words, but you will be exposed to the language. Try it on a website too, like myspace if you use it. de.myspace.com. I do it on Neopets (yes I still use it, lol).

But if you want to learn properly, then make sure you do the basics like numbers, colours, days and simple sentences first, don't get bogged down with the grammar.

Reply 18