I've finally gotten my school schedule figured out, but because of all of my advanced classes this year the only way I can learn German 1 (beginner's class) is by doing the lessons/reading outside of school (possibly for only the first half of the year). I'll be meeting with a teacher one day each week, and in the time between meetings I'm supposed to be studying and talking to other German students on my own. I'm not that worried about the spelling or learning of the culture being too difficult for me, but I am anxious about what will happen when I start speaking. I had a speech issue growing up (was in special speech classes until third grade) and I'm terrified that it will appear again when I'm trying to learn a new language. I've gotten my textbook and interactive textbook, which I hoped would have pronunciation or ability to read print out loud; unluckily for me, it doesn't. I know that I need to hear the words out loud for me to even have a chance at reading, comprehending, and speaking the language. What I'm asking for is mainly sites (possibly programs, etc.) for the German language to help me understand the pronunciation and speech. Any one have some good information? P.S. Please don't say Google translate, either; I can not trust that site at all after what happened when I tried to write a few sentences for my sister in French :eusa_doh:
Good on you for not relying on Google Translate. Google Search might help in finding a program, though. I don't know of any sites, but I have a suggestion: try singing in German. If you're not very good at it, just do so quietly when alone. Singing forces you to be fluent in speech even when you don't know what the words mean. Listen to the song a few times first whilst reading the lyrics over, so that you can follow along and understand how letters are pronounced, and then sing with whoever it is. (Pick something slow to start with! It takes practice with every song, of course. I've found it a fun way to become better at reading unfamiliar words etc.. It isn't enough by itself, but it can help.
This is the exact same as my situation! :-o I've been helping my sister with French, and we're organising a German tutor but have been told to start learning online. I've downloaded an app on the Play Store called "Babble" which has been helpful and it has audio included. Hope I've helped and good luck!
I like Fiddledeedee's idea, the singing!! I grew up with german-speaking parents so I can't say much about having to 'learn' the language, but if you like I can give you some good German music titles One thing I found helping when I learnt Spanish in school was watching films in Spanish... try it with english subtitles a few times maybe, with your favourite films, etc. Good luck and have fun!
Are you sure there is no verbal/listening portion to your textbook either on CD or a website? I took German for a year, and I HATED having to listen to dialogues for homework cuz it took so long.... Just being around German speakers can help you figure things out. Maybe watch some German TV or movies (e.g. Good Bye Lenin!) or listen to German-langauge music (e.g. Rammstein). Just spending a few weeks in Austria helped me to improve my German pronunciation, even if it isn't perfect Hochdeutsch. But if you have money to spend, then there are a lot of courses out there with audio portions to listen to and help with pronunciation. For free, you can go to sites like this, where you can hear individual words pronounced by real speakers of the language: German pronunciation guide - Forvo Apparently that site already has 253,829 German words pronounced for you to listen to. Overall though I'd say German is a pretty easy language to pronounce. Once you learn the sounds each letter or diphthong is supposed to make, it's pretty easy sound things out based on the way something is written. Easier than English, certainly.
I'm sure that there is no audio portions on my interactive textbook (only lets you highlight and print pages, etc.), but my teacher is also looking at more audio options to give me as well as other students doing the same thing. There wasn't any specific website that I was directed to, and I'm hesitant to try some out because I'm worried about learning wrongly from a site and messing up my pronunciation of the language later on. I am planning to talk to a lot of the German students, though (one of my best friends has offered to help me with conversation pieces and speech and one of my other good friends actually is German and speaks fluently with his parents/family). Hopefully with my friends and getting weekly assignments/schedules I'll be able to make it through the half year. I would love to spend some money on a nice program, but I can't because I'm practically broke as of the moment. I've checked out the websites you've suggested and they seem like good resources; I'm just unsure if I am pronouncing everything correctly, so I'll have to wait to talk to my teacher/friends to make sure it's alright. ---------- Post added 29th Aug 2013 at 11:29 PM ---------- I've looked up a few songs in the past (also, during our exploration class we found a couple for cultural aspects) and I am going to definitely try your idea. Can You Feel the Love Tonight from the Lion King to me is beautiful in German, and I'm trying to find a slower song in German (although, I really like the Disney songs in different languages!). ---------- Post added 29th Aug 2013 at 11:33 PM ---------- Definitely saw how this could be super helpful; thank you for recommending it!
Duolingo (it's an app and websight) has very basic lessons that could be a good supplement, and most of it does have pronunciation with the vocabulary.
I tried this out and made an account last night. So far it seems like a pretty good site, and it is great that there's pronunciation. Now I'm just trying to get to the level that my books chapters starts on :lol: Thank you for the suggestion!
I use beolingus all the time (I've been studying German for 6 years now) and it's the best one I've found. It's a really accurate dictionary, and a lot of the words have voice recordings, so you can see how they're pronounced! Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz) Viel Spaß! If you ever want to practice your German, I'm right here
Try to find some audio-books (Hörbücher). No need to understand what they are about, but it helps to get a feeling for the flow of the language. If had an idea on how to do so, i would help you... ---------- Post added 2nd Jun 2014 at 01:57 AM ---------- The Lloyd-Webber musicals like Cats and Phantom of the opera are avaiable with german lyrics, too. ---------- Post added 2nd Jun 2014 at 02:00 AM ---------- Or try mp3music from Schlagerstars like Udo Jürgens, Roland Kaiser, etc
