German books?

Instead of just books, many here have used the audio approach, with CDs, DVDs, mp3 files. This way you can hear the language. Many/most audio approaches are supplemented with written materials. Pimsleur has been mentioned here. Or Rosetta Stone for an in-depth immersion approach, way more spendy and time consuming but for those who want to get into that depth. There are many, many resources out there and hopefully others will make suggestions beyond Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone.

Thankyou, I will definantly look into your two suggestions : )

You're welcome. You could google "learn German" to see what's out there: an enormous number of resources. There are podcasts, CDs, DVDs. * * * There's two basic approaches: 1) the phrasebook approach, just learn enough for the trip, polite phrases, where's the restroom, that kind of thing, this is what most travelers do. Or 2) the more in depth approach, which will be time consuming and spendy and is more of the Rosetta Stone approach, not used for those who just want it for one trip.

Tia, Phrasebooks are a good way to learn a few words, and as a reference source during travel, but I've found that audio learning is important as it teaches the correct pronunciation. I've been using Pimsleur to learn Italian, and so far it's been great. The lessons are on "Bookchips" (SD cards) and I can listen to them anywhere. ¶ I looked at Rosetta Stone, but found that it was well above my budget. Also, it requires a lot of time sitting in front of a computer, which won't work for me. Cheers!

About.com has a very fun and informative section about German language and culture. You can sign on for daily lessons. Also, get a German/English - English/German dictionary and look up words or phrases to memorize. Also, go to German travel websites by typing the name of a place, ie., berlin.de - de is the domain for german sites. You can reason out what's being said, and then check the english translated version. It's fun!

ya unfortunately Rosetta stone is out of my budget too but pimsluer might just be what I need. thanks!

Don't waste your time with Rosetta Stone anyway, unless your language goals include sentences like "The cat stands behind the red car." The best computer-based language software I have seen is the "Tell Me More" series, but unfortunately, it costs about the same as Rosetta Stone.

The Pimsleur series is available on tapes or CDs in libraries in my area. Perhaps you can find it in yours. I'm using it for French and agree that it is great for learning the correct accent. You listen and then you have to repeat it back more than once, so it really forces you to speak the language. You may also want to check into German language movies and perhaps your area receives the TV channel "Deutsche Welle" - "German (Air)Waves" - even if you don't understand much, if anything, your brain still gets used to the sound pattern. You could also try to find some German speakers by calling local colleges or the Goethe Institut(e) if you have one in Portland. Amazon sells dual language books, with English on one page and the foreign language on the facing page.

For language courses, start free and work from there. Your library should have an assortment of language programs. Check a variety out, try them and buy the one that works well for you. You can also take advantage of the BBC language courses. It's a free basic online course for travelers. Google search "BBC languages" then pick German once you get to the BBC site. I like Pimsleur in the car as a reinforcement to a good computer based program.

I second Brad's suggestion to check out your library. You can try out different approaches to see which one YOU like best to continue with. Many here like Pimsleur, I prefer Berlitz. Always try to combine a book with a CD or other audio format.

The Goethe Institute has excellent German classes. They do not have a branch in Portland, but they do have Internet classes. http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/lp/lrn/web/enindex.htm

For a vocabulary book, I recommend "The First Thousand Words in German." It's a picture dictionary and fun to use. Each page or set of two pages shows a picture of something, such as the kitchen, the farm, the city street, etc. Around the margins of each page are smaller pictures of items in the big picture along with the German word for the item. It's a fun way to learn a lot of basic vocabulary. Check out the book on amazon.com or similar websites if you're interested.

What proved invaluable to me was paying for a couple of private tutoring classes from a university student who was German. This helped with my pronunciation and got me off to a good start. Before this, I had been learning lots of vocabulary, but no one could understand me because I was saying everything wrong! Learning the alphabet may sound simple, but because German is phonetic, it will help you speak better if you learn how each letter is pronounced....Do learn the articles with each noun. No one told me how absolutely important this was, as I thought I would learn them later. Nope, after over 20 years, I still get them all wrong as I just guess, even though I am fluent. It annoys me that my German is not grammatically better....If you can watch some videos or movies in German, it helps. There is a lot of free stuff on the internet, so just look around. If there is a university near you, see if you can exchange some home-cooked meals for some German lessons from the students.

There's so many choices! I'm going to have alot of fun finding the right choice for me. I hope some day I can be fluent in German and perhaps start on another language. Thankyou for the amazing tips and suggestions! : )

Tia, do you have a VCR? I have the "Fokus Deutsch" course on VHS tapes; this is an introductory college-level course that PBS used to air. It is about a college-age woman and her friends and activities. It was distributed through Annenberg (learner.org) but they no longer support it. I no longer need it and could send it to you. Send me a private message if interested.

Like Jo said, knowing articles and cases can be confusing. I was visiting a German family for dinner and speaking the best German I was capable of. They complemented me on my German to which I replied that I was still often unsure of correct grammer. They replied (loosely translated), "It's okay, most Germans don't know it either."....................Understanding how words are correctly pronounced will get you much further than knowing the correct grammer in all cases. The former can keep you from being understood at all while the latter won't be seen as that big of deal.

It sounds like I might try some classes at the local community college or maybe internet classes like some of you suggested. Ive always wanted to try rosetta stone but unfortunatly too expensive. Im going to check out my local library too and see what they have. Thanks for all the good suggestions everyone!

Tom, Stafford, VA - THANK YOU for the "First Thousand Words in _____" recommendation!!! Fantastic! I learn very easily when I can pair a picture and a word together, and these books are so cute, too. AND the big bonus is that all of the various languages in the series all Use The Same Pictures! So the French book is identical to the German and Italian books! Yea! (although the Latin version has a few problems...according to the reviewers)

IMHO Michael Thomas. His cd's were very good and we can now form our own basic sentences. I thought they were much better than Pimselur and Rosetta Stone. Wir erlernten sehr schnell.(We learned very quickly)

Tia, for some free, fun, and fast lessons, go to BBC.com and follow the links to learning languages. They have German, among several others.

A company called Transparent Language has software for sale called Byki4 Express. They have a free demo version you can download that might be of some help. Of course they hope you like their program enough to buy the full version.

When I needed to refresh my French, I checked out the courses that were offered at the U of WI Madison Union and found one on conversational French. You might check to see what is offered at local universities or community colleges. Mine "course" met once a week for six weeks and it was really helpful. Pam

I agree that you should check the BBC site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/german/ I used this to brush up on some basic Spanish last year, and is was quite easy and fun.

http://www.dw-world.de/