Where can I learn German?

• Hi, everybody!
  I love Germany,even though I have never been there. I love everything I hear about it! Recently, we had a guest lecture in our college by one of our alumni studying in a German University.He covered most of the major points- university rankings,the education system and approximate fees and all that.He also mentioned that atleast two levels of German are required.Right now I am busy with college-work and cannot learn German from a classroom.
  Can anyone suggest some good websites/chatrooms/forums for learning German?
  How long does it take for non-English speakers to learn German?(How difficult is it?)
  Do you think it is possible to attain sufficient proficiency learning from a website for understanding technical aspects taught in an engineering class or do I have no other choice but to learn in a proper class?

  19 Мар 2009, 01:41 Priya from Chennai

Replies

• hi Priya

  it's often said that german is a rather complicated language. especially because of the illogical grammar and the genders of the words. but i know two people who have learned to speak german fluently all on their own by studying at home with books and cds. maybe you can do it as well. later you could also practice german with people online. are you from chennai, india ? i'm really interested in india and the indian culture.
  
  best wishes und viel erfolg beim lernen

  Alex 19 Мар 2009, 07:41 - Report

• forget german

  please,nice girl. dont try to learn german. it is a death language,talked only in germany. learn mandarin or japanese. it will be better for your future

  nazi hater 19 Мар 2009, 08:10 - Report

• priya

  well i've been studying, german, and i was in germany for a year. i can sujest you two books, both with two cd's and work book.
  they are easy to study, of you have to get a diccionary before
  
  one of them is Themen aktuell, it brings you vocabulary, readings and skills
  themen is aprox. 50 dollars, and there are three levels of the book
  
  the another one is Optimal 1, again optimal has 3 levels and cds, it's about 35-60 dollars aprox.
  
  good luck and enjoy germany at all!

  germany lover :) 19 Мар 2009, 10:33 - Report

• nazi hater, priya

  yeah i dont like nazis too, anyways german is being spoken in germany (dooh),belgium, austria, switzerland (kind of), and even in south africa (at least some for sure), not to forget that dutch people often understand it, eventhough they dont really wanna. same with scandinavians...they like to watch derrick on german tv (strange enough)...so they get the hang of it
  all in all there are about 120 mill native german speakers in the world...not to forget the german speaking travellers...feel free to join
  but be warned, u most likely will never fully loose ur accent and continue to sound foreign after many years
  german actually isnt too hard, if compared to polish, russian or finish, which, eventhough beautiful a language, are f...in hard to learn
  
  this should give you a broad overview, no guarantee for correctness
  
  if this sounds like a boxhead answer to u: it is, so f. u

  Rulaman 19 Мар 2009, 11:14 - Report

• VIELEN DANK!

  To everybody who responded.
  I found some audio lessons and workbooks.

  Priya from Chennai 20 Мар 2009, 02:13 - Report

• @ Alex

  Just a guess... but the line at the end of your message ....does it mean
  "and lot of luck/good luck with learning" ?

  Priya from Chennai 20 Мар 2009, 02:15 - Report

• @ Priya

  congratulations you understand german already. if you have msn I can teach you some more german there.

  Alex 20 Мар 2009, 07:20 - Report