Learning a new language

[goroth]

Sadly, I don't really know anybody that also knows German, so I'm probably out of luck there.

Phantasmagorich and Univalve! Fuzzbreaux!

[ShaunNecro]

Sadly, I don't really know anybody that also knows German, so I'm probably out of luck there.

Phantasmagorich and Univalve! Fuzzbreaux!

Fuzzbreaux before hoes.

Also shows how much I pay attention/easily forget things.

[goroth]

Nah, we eurothrashers gotta stick together...

[bigchiefbc]

Thanks for the tips guys! I hadn't thought about listening to music or anything yet. Once I have a good amount of words under my belt I plan on starting to read more stuff in German on wikipedia and such. I got several Beatles singles in German so I'll listen to those a bunch. Sadly, I don't really know anybody that also knows German, so I'm probably out of luck there. I'll see if I can get a pen pal or something. Sadly, even though most of my family is all German and Russian nobody knows any bit of the language.

The first two Rammstein albums were pretty much essential to me when I was learning German. And there were a couple other German industrial bands I discovered around the same time, just so I could listen to the lyrics, like Einstürzende Neubauten. And there was Die Toten Hosen too, who are more like punk-ish.

[goroth]

Die Toten Hosen

I avoided mentioning them...
hahaha

[MeSoFuzzy]

Queen's "One Vision" in German [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI4wL1n_cOc[/youtube]

[bigchiefbc]

Actually, one other thing that helped a ton when I was in Germany was watching english-language movies and TV with the German subtitles turned on.

[phantasmagorovich]

Listen to movies, watch music and read TV shows.

If you need a pen pal, write, I don't bite, and love my language.
On the other hand I never learned a new language to any level of decency apart from the ones I've learned as a child and close relatives (which, having covered a germanic and a roman language covers a lot of ground but I still miserably failed at russian and turkish. Just could not get myself to it. Goroth's advice of full immersion seems very good to me. I would add: get a girlfriend from the country and live there for as long as possible without screwing up your life completely...)

I would not recommend to listen to too much german spoken by non-native speakers though, you might end up picking up stupid mistakes if you listen to the beatles or David Bowie singing in german.

Apart from Rammstein there are a couple of other bands that sing simple enough lyrics that you might understand them at beginner level already. Usually it's the early stuff, german songwriters seem to have a tendency to get more posh with time. So early Neubauten, early Tocotronic, all of Die Sterne, all Kraftwerk, all of Fink, Ton Steine Scherben might be entertaining. I won't recommend any Hip Hop bc it's either intelligent with lot's of puns and plays on words that would not help you at all or Gangster-style stuff that would probably make you pick up an accent too.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAOIMmKlTCw[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcOrAchqwv8[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu_xNYcOU3k[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHEoMpMvz7A[/youtube]


What not to listen to:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6ey6eHUZmY[/youtube]

[ShaunNecro]

Listen to movies, watch music and read TV shows.

If you need a pen pal, write, I don't bite, and love my language.
On the other hand I never learned a new language to any level of decency apart from the ones I've learned as a child and close relatives (which, having covered a germanic and a roman language covers a lot of ground but I still miserably failed at russian and turkish. Just could not get myself to it. Goroth's advice of full immersion seems very good to me. I would add: get a girlfriend from the country and live there for as long as possible without screwing up your life completely...)

I would not recommend to listen to too much german spoken by non-native speakers though, you might end up picking up stupid mistakes if you listen to the beatles or David Bowie singing in german.

Apart from Rammstein there are a couple of other bands that sing simple enough lyrics that you might understand them at beginner level already. Usually it's the early stuff, german songwriters seem to have a tendency to get more posh with time. So early Neubauten, early Tocotronic, all of Die Sterne, all Kraftwerk, all of Fink, Ton Steine Scherben might be entertaining. I won't recommend any Hip Hop bc it's either intelligent with lot's of puns and plays on words that would not help you at all or Gangster-style stuff that would probably make you pick up an accent too.

Thanks a ton man! Once I feel a little more comfortable I will definitely write you; I don't want to embarrass myself too badly! I already have a girlfriend, so that's not possible. I will try to immerse myself as much as I can though while keeping up with my lessons.

[goroth]

Learn to roll your r's like Till in Rammstein..,

[ShaunNecro]

Learn to roll your r's like Till in Rammstein..,

Strangely enough I can roll my r's extremely well, I just don't use it in normal speech.

[phantasmagorovich]

Learn to roll your r's like Till in Rammstein..,

Strangely enough I can roll my r's extremely well, I just don't use it in normal speech.

Neither do germans.

Also: alwayswriteeverythingtogetherjustlikethis.

And if you have any questions, ask away.

[goroth]

Learn to roll your r's like Till in Rammstein..,

Strangely enough I can roll my r's extremely well, I just don't use it in normal speech.

Neither do germans.

Also: alwayswriteeverythingtogetherjustlikethis.

And if you have any questions, ask away.

There was meant to be a winky smiley at the end of that statement - every now and then small minded people will accuse Rammstein of being nazis because Till pronounces his r's like Hitler

[ShaunNecro]

Learn to roll your r's like Till in Rammstein..,

Strangely enough I can roll my r's extremely well, I just don't use it in normal speech.

Neither do germans.

Also: alwayswriteeverythingtogetherjustlikethis.

And if you have any questions, ask away.

Is there a reason Ishouldwriteeverythingtogetherlikethis?

[sylnau]

My mother tongue is french.
I learned english by trying my best to translate KISS songs when I was young.
I learned more than just a language with those.