Comments on: Learning German by overwhelming force

By: vicki

vicki — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:45:19 +0000

I've been doing all the things you've listed for three years and I still speak schlectes Deutsch!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:07:00 +0000

Ich als Deutscher verbessere genau auf diese Art mein Englisch. Even though I don’t read, watch and listen to english exclusively.

By: RUI

RUI — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:15:00 +0000

Wie kann mann eigentlich ein Umlaut auf ein internationaler Keyboard einfuehren?

I USE THE ‘CHARACTER MAP’ FOR UMLAUTS AND THE ETZETT (HOPE I SPELLED THAT RIGHT). IT CAN BE FOUND ON WINDOWS BY TYPING ‘CHARACTER MAP’ IN ‘HELP AN SUPPORT.

By: Nevis1

Nevis1 — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:24:00 +0000

No this is not an advertisement for Rosetta Stone….but I did find their software very useful. It also helps that my GF is from Dusseldorf.

By: Jake

Jake — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:56:00 +0000

Great tips in the comments here. I’ve found German to be one of the hardest to learn.

By: Jul

Jul — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:11:03 +0000

Ugh, I hate those Windows "shortcuts". I usually end up doing Insert -> Symbol instead. Or plugging in my German keyboard.

By: cliff1976

cliff1976 — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:03:09 +0000

Wie kann mann eigentlich ein Umlaut auf ein internationaler Keyboard einfuehren?

Unter Windows, auf einer Tastatur mit dem Ziffernblock auf der rechten Seite, drückt man die Alt-Taste fest, und gibt folgende Tastendrücke auf dem Ziffernblock ein:

0223 (für ß)
0228 (für ä)
0246 (für ö)
0252 (für ü)

By: Philipe

Philipe — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:35:11 +0000

I did find another one, apart from the ones in the comments: http://www.studentteacherexchange.com/ which is completely free and uses chat/video/voice and whiteboards as well. They are new but my guess is they will be booming soon since they charge nothing.

Wie kann mann eigentlich ein Umlaut auf ein internationaler Keyboard einfuehren?

By: Jul

Jul — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:53:04 +0000

BurningTongues – That story is hysterical! Thanks for sharing. I’m going to have to start calling women “gnädige Frau” more often.

By: BurningTongues

BurningTongues — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 07:26:36 +0000

I learned German much as you did, by completely immersing myself in the language. I did a great deal of this while still at home in the states with help of the internet. I actually know more about German music now than most Germans! One mistake that I made, however, was to read a lot of “Märchen”. These were the easiest things for me to understand however as I knew most of the stories already and they were very easy to find online. The only problem was, I picked up a LOT of antiquated words and expressions along the way that caused me quite a bit of grief when I finally moved to Germany.
Picture this: American boy walks into an Aldi, can’t find something, and asks an employee the following in relatively accent-free German: “Entschuldigen Sie, gnädige Frau, könnten Sie mir bitte sagen, wo hier im Haus Salz zu finden ist?”
Yeah… that didn’t go over too well. It also took me a further 3 months to realize that my wishing everyone a nice day made me look insane to most people.
The biggest requirement for learning a language is just commitment, and to never being comfortable with “just getting by”. Just my two cents. Great blog!