Speaking High German - Possible?

Is it possible?

I%26#39;d be happy with broken Conversational German for our next trip.

The extent of my German now is reading from a menu and asking for train tickets at the station.

I%26#39;ve been studying from a free online foreign language website and my phrase book, but the website is basic and for more advance lessons you must pay.

Future perfect, past perfect, imperfect verb tenses - Heck, I%26#39;d be happy knowing one tense.

Does anyone have a favorite German language book you%26#39;ve studied or audio disc with good pronunciation/accents. Any favorite links to learning German for the beginner, that won%26#39;t cost an arm or a leg to join? I plan on getting a highschool German language book and start there, it%26#39;s kind of tiring sitting in front of the computer learning.

Should a question arise during my studies on how to phrase something, I%26#39;ll post it here, if our fluent German forum friends don%26#39;t mind.

Thanks for any tips.

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Suburban,

Write me at ktscott01@hotmail.com or AOL IM me at ktscott55. I have some German CD%26#39;s you can borrow.

I took 5 years of German in HS and I%26#39;m trying to get back into it.

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Congrats and respect for your decision to learn a few German words and phrases! I confess it%26#39;s a very difficult language for foreighners. Keep up tryin%26#39; - the Germans will appreciate it because not everyone (esp. older people or in the former GDR) can%26#39;t speak English.

Don%26#39;t mind posting questions - I%26#39;ll help (or just send them to dl4mrt@darc.de)

MJ.-

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I have taught myself Spanish, Italian and French (all, sort of, simply for travel), using the Tell Me More courses on CD%26#39;s. Looked at the German course before I bought the other languages, primarily to judge their quality (I am a native German language speaker) and that%26#39;s what really sold me on the courses.

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Can%26#39;t really help you with particular recommendations, I did a few years 3rd level teaching and always found this book useful (but only if you%26#39;re interested to learn the actual language rather than just phrases): Teach yourself German. It it might be a bit old-fashioned, but my, it does explain the grammar! And sorry, I insist, without knowing the grammar you just can%26#39;t learn the language! Phrases, yes, but that%26#39;s it! I wish you the very best and thank you for wanting to learn German.

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Thanks for the suggestions. ktscott, I might just take you up on your offer.

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I was assigned to Germany twice in my army career. The language was familiar at one level, much of the grammar is the same as English. The hard part for me was the three genders of nouns times the cases. There were maybe 16 different possiblities for the word %26quot;the%26quot; (and %26quot;a%26quot;). And of course the genders and cases affected adjective endings just the same. Sometimes, even if I knew the correct noun, I would have to fake the definite or indefinite article.

I took 4 classes and only stratched the surface as far as vocabulary went. Still a few words like bier, schnitzel, zimmer got me most of what I needed.

I have a few tapes with which I am refreshing my memory. I think tapes with accompaning texts are good to accustom the ear. Then take your high school book or a Berlitz book and practice out loud.

Good luck, Gary

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I learned German in High School and College [Chemistry degree requirement]. My reading is much better than my understanding of German speakers so I practice my listening by watching live streaming webcasts. This has helped me quite a lot.

One is Wetter.com at www.wetter.com/v2/…

another is 9 Live Quiz show http://www.9live.de/

Others are listed at mediahopper.com/portal.htm…

I watch DW-TV when in German, Eberswalde, 3SAT and NOA4 but do not seem to learn much German at %26quot;Strip news%26quot;.