Learning German, advice or help appreciated!

[abaris]

Anyone wishing to learn German should first read Twain's essay, 'The Awful German Language'.  It is important to know what you're in for.

Boru

I found it rather easy the other way round. Words are often the same or nearly the same, just spelled differently. German grammar is a bit more difficult, but that's about all. Even proverbs have mostly the same meanings. The only difficulties I see are how to spell the vovel mutations for someone speaking english. But that's rather easy too, at least in most cases. If you take the Ö it's spoken like the u in murder. In fact, the deed nearly sounds the same as the german word for the perp: Mörder. The Ä has nearly the same sund as the a in "take". Only the Ü is a bit more difficult. It's closest relative would be the y in syntax.

Also there's some getting used to that there's no universal "the" in German. It's three different gender dependent words.