Learning a new language?

I'd suggest spending more time learning vocabulary rather than grammar. "Where bus is?" is better than "Could you tell me where the, uh...what's the word?" It's how kids learn, by repeating nouns.

I've been learning German on and off for about 6 years.

In my experience, books are best for the initial learning things- my name is ______________, i am from ___________, i am __ years old, and so on. You'll learn how to say phrases and things like that before you'll understand what they really mean as individual words, but it is a good place to start.

The biggest problem you'll face is that you don't always have someone to correct your pronunciation- if you're learning to say things incorrectly, then you can get into trouble when you start trying to speak.

Keep a notebook/journal handy and write down the progress that you are making. Set goals for yourself, like 'learn how to order food from a restaraunt' and things like that. If you use it as a journal, write about anything you want as long as it is in German, and as long as you're incorporating new vocab as you learn it. Have someone proofread it from time to time to help you with basic grammar, and strengthen new rules as you learn them.

As far as grammar goes, German is notoriously complex for the number of exceptions to grammar rules (worse even than English). One of my teachers often told me that not even Germans speak perfect German, so don't be discouraged if a lot of what you say at first is wrong- you get a feel for what sounds right after practice.

I'd also recommend just learning about the culture, in general. Idioms and expressions don't always translate effectively, and if you learn enough to try speaking it in another country, knowing how people do things in daily life will also help people understand what you are saying.

Best of luck, I've never regretted learning what I have of German- only that I don't have the time/reasons to pursue it as feverishly as I was before.

First of all, you should memorize the all the important Grammar rules, and memorize them well. The sooner you do this, the better, trust me. Sure, it's a pain in the ass, but you are going to need them every time you use the language, and it takes a very long time before one gets comfortable with the grammar by just using the language (in contrast to memorizing.)

Working through textbooks and cd's is, of course, a great idea if you're learning alone.

But another important tip I can give you is to write so many essays and stories as you can, and give them to a native speaker for correcting. Writing is, I think, a better way to learn than speaking because when speaking, people tend to use only the simplest possible expressions to just get the communicating done. And people seldom correct your mistakes when listening to you.

But when you get back your corrected writings, you'll get to notice each and every mistake you made, and if you used non-optimal expressions, the guy who corrected your writing will usually propose better ones. A great way to motivate yourself is to write about things you like, or things you think are fascinating or important.

>As far as grammar goes, German is notoriously complex for the number of exceptions to grammar rules (worse even than English).

I don't think this is true. English has a very simple grammar when compared to German. And the German grammar, I think, is pretty logical; it actually has fewer exceptions than most other languages.

>One of my teachers often told me that not even Germans speak perfect German,

I don't think most Americans speak perfect English either :P

>I'd also recommend just learning about the culture, in general. Idioms and expressions don't always translate effectively, and if you learn enough to try speaking it in another country, knowing how people do things in daily life will also help people understand what you are saying.

I agree, living for a while in the country where the language is spoken, is the ultimate way of learning. If you feel very motivated, my suggestion would be to take a language course in Germany. It really gives you an unparalled learning experience.

Learning a foreign language well does take a very long time and lots of energy, but it gives you, in my opinion, a way broader view of the world, which is a valuable thing today. The bad thing is, you will also notice how ignorant most people are about language and culture related issues.

Freiburg eh? I know someone from there... and also Zell too... not too far away

How to learn a language (but not master) in 1 hour

German movies, with English subtitles in the beginning.

I like movies because they're entertaining, there are visual clues, and you listen to actual speech. That, together with computers, taught me English. School - not so much.