I'm a monolingual white American and I would like to learn

>>17751492

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=google+translate+arabic&oq=google+translate+arabic&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.4095j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

>>17751492

Impossible? Or at least will take much longer than just taking a course.

Biggest problem would be there is no equivalent of FSI French Phonology.

People recommend old shits all the time, like FSI German or Assimil German without Toil. Nothing wrong with them, it's just it's better to go along more modern resource such as dw.de.

Check /r/German and /r/Germany for resources.

duolingo is good.

Not really the most comprehensive way to learn a language, but it's free and definitely a good start.

>>17751492
Check out the /int/ wiki for starters.

Learning languages is hard but do-able.

Also people overestimate the difficulty of learning German.

AMA I guess

>>17751538
Wie viele Sprachen kennst du?
>>17751492
But the tutor is supposed to tell you you're doing it wrong; that's how you learn

>>17751538

/int/ wiki on German is literally the least informative page on the wiki.

Just share your story here.

>>17751503
Impossible? Ridiculous. You haven't learned any languages as an adult, have you? Honestly courses are usually pretty shit for language learning, there are OK ones out there but most of them are next to useless.

Torrent like 5gb of German movies, radio shows, and comics, go on italki.com and pick a couple people to be your German Skype buddies or pen pals, and maybe pick up a decent textbook on Amazon (unnecessary but helpful) and mess around with that shit for at least an hour a day and I give you much better odds of actually learning the language than somebody who signs up for a course. Not guaranteed odds, but (many) people have absolutely done it.

>>17751508
Duolingo is pretty based. I've been using it for Dutch, the only thing I find it's eventually limited by is vocabulary, but that's easy to learn with a dictionary.

>>17751849
Meh, everyone claims that.
Never seen any proof of someone actually accomplished it.

Please don't pretend here. It' just your fantasy.

I would recommend to start with the vocab and pronounciation.

Then learn grammar really hard such as structure of sentences and wordflexing. There are a lot of people that claim that they can speak german, but their grammar matches that of a 10 year old. Good german is a mix of correct grammar and a smart use of words that have more than one meaning. There are many ortography rules that even I don't know.

At last read literature and learn proverbs. To learn common speech read modern books.

>>17751492
Hi,

You will find that the hardest part of learning German is the grammar. It is nothing like English. There are genders and cases to look out for in virtually every sentence. You have to analyze the sentences to make sure it is written correctly, which means its even more of a bitch to get right when speaking.

It's not impossible to learn, but way harder than other languages.

On a different note, the words will be much easier to remember than ie. french, since German is a Germanic language. So you will probably understand quite a lot of German after having gone through a course, but you will probably not be able to speak or write it without making a lot of errors.

>>17751849
A language course is the basis. It's not useless, you actually need it in order to get your beachead into the language.

Comics and movies are great for sharpening your skills once you got a basic understanding. So in essence, anyone learning a language should do both.

What you basically want to do is

>1. Make sure that your understanding of the grammar is rock solid
>2. Get some basic vocabulary
>3. PRACTICE

Too often people spend way too much time taking small steps. Watch movies with German subtitles. Load up on German podcasts to acquaintance yourself with the pronunciation of different vowels. Read the books you know best in English in German, keep them next to each other if you have to. Find a German website where you can actively practice expressing yourself fluently in German.

And for the record... I am not sure what your expectations are, but languages are a LOT harder to fully master than people typically acknowledge. Usually when people say they can "speak German" (or any other language, of course) what they mean is that they can hold conversations in German and get more or less anything they want to communicate across. That is only the most unrefined aspect that we understand from spoken language. So much of social interaction is more subtle than that: they use a certain word that makes you go "oh wow, that's pompous", or they describe things just a bit exaggerated and that gives away their political stance or their sense of humor.
Then there is not simply getting the other person to understand what YOU mean, but getting it across the way you want to: decisive or nuanced, sassy or modest... that's not just in the tone but also in your word choice and ability (or lack thereof) to respond swiftly in a busy conversation.

Having said that, it is also really great and opens up your perspective. I am just pointing it out as a warning that you should have realistic expectations.

Get an app like Memrise, just practice basic glossary and phrases, get a feel for the language and then decide if you want to continue.

Swedish is very similar to German, but has slightly different grammar and words doesn't have genders.
Icelandic is probably the most difficult language out of them all, having another Germanic language under your belt will help out.

Just some tip. Don't be paralyzed.
Don't over-optimized.

Pick a book and start learning.
You can optimize in the go.

If you want free, legal, and modern quality resource, go to dw.de. Do the german course there. After you finished the A1-A2 sequence, ask again here, in /int/ or, /r/german.

>>17751492
There is this german TV "legacy" called "Tatort" (eng. crimescene), english TV shows helped me with learning the Language, Culture, and Slang.

Icelandic is considered one of the hardest languages to learn as a foreigner. Many icelandic phonemes don't have exact english equivalents.

>>17752629
I second 1, 2 and 3. First steps regarding grammar are the hardest.

I'll give you the most important phrases
> Wir mussen die juden ausrotten
> Bist du ein jude?
> Der Jude ist nicht ein echt mensch.
> Der Jude ist Kleper
> Adolf Hitler ist mein fuhrer
There ya go.

>>17751492
>white
How is this even relevant?

>if German is one of those languages that I'll just never be able to speak properly with my background
Your background only decides how easy/hard the learning is, with enough practice you'll master w/e.

>>17751601
sprichst*
"Kennst" is pretty ghetto.

>>17752629
Switch up point 1 and 2. One generally doesn't need a rock solid grammar just functional enough to make sentences, vocabulary should def. be the priority.

>>17752704

"Der Jude ist nicht ein echER Mensch" would be correct. But people would more likely say "Der Jude ist KEIN echter Mensch"

Was soll Kleper sein?

>>17752706
Könnte auch eine Frage bezüglich des Allgemeinwissens sein ;) Von welchen Sprachen weist du, dass sie existieren?

>>17752629
yeah focus on practicing a lot
It helps a ton when you find a german speaking partner you can talk to
its called "tandem partner"
you and your partner benefit from each others languages and help each other learning them thats the main idea of it at least

File: ck_hitler_lg.jpg (21KB, 321x400px) Image search: [Google]

21KB, 321x400px

>>17752722
"der jude ist nicht ein echTer mensch" is not a good sentence to say. the last one is the better one
indeed
another example
"Das Judenschwein hat vergessen zu bezahlen"