25
Nov
Have any of you tried to learn to speak German or Italian as a beginner?
Did you take a class or try to do it on your own with self help cassettes or videos?
I am Italian, so I don´t qualify for that bit of the question. But when I started learning German, I tried with both classes and CD-rom and I think that the classes are by far much better. For a start, it is not so easy to self-motivate oneself, then in classes it is possible to interact with native speakers and to compare what we know with ohters
9 Responses to “Have any of you tried to learn to speak German or Italian as a beginner?”
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November 24th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Yes, both, classes.
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November 24th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I took a class in Little Italy in L.A, California. I was never really dedicated to it but I learned a few sentences
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November 24th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I took the Pimsleur courses I II and III. However I only got up to II and only remember of all of 1 as I haven't been at it for awhile.
They are really good.
But it will only teach you spoken language not writing.
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November 25th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Yes I did. My best-friend's grandfather taught us when were were kids. He was an intelligence officer during WWII. He taught us German, Itlalian, Japanesse, Russian and Spanish.
He was only around in the summers, for the rest of the year we used books and cassettes.
I used cassettes to improve my conversational French as well.
They work ok, so long as you have another person who already SPEAK the language to practice with. Its hard to hear your own mistakes and correct them.
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November 25th, 2008 at 1:29 am
I started to learn Russian with no background in that language. I can now read Russian, with the correct pronounciation in 90% of the cases, but my vocabulary is still very small - so this mean I can read something without understanding a word of it but a russian speaking individual will understand every thing.
I typed "learn russian" into yahoo search and opened the websites one for one and found quite a few which give you all the lessons and tools for on-line learning of the language - including the pronounciation (audio) and pronounciation rules. I am now working on my "read the dictionary" part to increase my vocabulary. I met a friend who is fluent in russian and that help, even if they laugh at what you say sometimes.
You must try and do the same search on "learn german" or "learn italian" and find your preferred site. With the basics behind you, you can go for something more intense.
I am sure that you will be successful.
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November 25th, 2008 at 2:11 am
yes i am learning italian at school. we use textbooks which have comic strips in each chapter followed by exercises to help speak read and write. the comics are also recorded cassettes so that you can correct your pronounciation.
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November 25th, 2008 at 2:52 am
yes
pillow mate + friends
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November 25th, 2008 at 3:15 am
I am Italian, so I don´t qualify for that bit of the question. But when I started learning German, I tried with both classes and CD-rom and I think that the classes are by far much better. For a start, it is not so easy to self-motivate oneself, then in classes it is possible to interact with native speakers and to compare what we know with ohters
References :
November 25th, 2008 at 4:03 am
If you want to do it on your own, you'll need excellent audio lessons.
You can get a free course here (about a quarter of the way down the page)…
http://www.usallstarmedia.net/out.php?id=4
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