Learning a language

[Darth]

I'm hearing good things about michel thomas =D, I'll give that a go (thanks guys), and then I'll try the L-R thing when I can put in that sort of time.

It's German that I'm wanting to learn 5thhorseman, but for Switzerland and not Germany.

No I don't have audible, I was under the impression it was for american's only (I tried ages ago)

Oh, that's going to be a little bit different though. Even though they both speak german, the swiss accent is horrendously unintelligible.
I suggest you go to Switzerland, for the only german you're going to learn from tapes is Hochdeutsch. A few months living in Switzerland could cure that perhaps, developing some ear in the meantime, but it'd be best if you'd learn your german in Switzerland.

Yes that was the thing that has been bothering me since I decided to learn it. As I understood it standard german (Hochdeutsch?) is close to swiss standard german which is what I was aiming for first (used in their educational settings and their literature, which is where I would primarily use it), so no? So you think just book a flight to switzerland to learn it (Or maybe use the L-R method on swiss produced films/books, once I've decided on a dialect?), hmmm....

[5thHorseman]

I'm hearing good things about michel thomas =D, I'll give that a go (thanks guys), and then I'll try the L-R thing when I can put in that sort of time.

It's German that I'm wanting to learn 5thhorseman, but for Switzerland and not Germany.

No I don't have audible, I was under the impression it was for american's only (I tried ages ago)

Swiss German isn't too different and there is nowhere that teaches it. You'd still understand them and they you if you learn German.

German harry potter books and audio books are cheap and apparently very good quality.

[kılıç_mehmet]

Oh, that's going to be a little bit different though. Even though they both speak german, the swiss accent is horrendously unintelligible.
I suggest you go to Switzerland, for the only german you're going to learn from tapes is Hochdeutsch. A few months living in Switzerland could cure that perhaps, developing some ear in the meantime, but it'd be best if you'd learn your german in Switzerland.

Yes that was the thing that has been bothering me since I decided to learn it. As I understood it standard german (Hochdeutsch?) is close to swiss standard german which is what I was aiming for first (used in their educational settings and their literature, which is where I would primarily use it), so no? So you think just book a flight to switzerland to learn it (Or maybe use the L-R method on swiss produced films/books, once I've decided on a dialect?), hmmm....

I'm sure you'd find little difference in literal sense, but the pronounciation of words are rather very different. So if you don't have much an ear for it, it might be rather hard to understand, but with some effort, I'm sure any german speaker can pull it through.
Books, they won't help you much, they're written the same as standard german, it's just that hochdeutsch is the prestige dialect.

[DunkleSeele]

Oh, that's going to be a little bit different though. Even though they both speak german, the swiss accent is horrendously unintelligible.
I suggest you go to Switzerland, for the only german you're going to learn from tapes is Hochdeutsch. A few months living in Switzerland could cure that perhaps, developing some ear in the meantime, but it'd be best if you'd learn your german in Switzerland.

Yes that was the thing that has been bothering me since I decided to learn it. As I understood it standard german (Hochdeutsch?) is close to swiss standard german which is what I was aiming for first (used in their educational settings and their literature, which is where I would primarily use it), so no? So you think just book a flight to switzerland to learn it (Or maybe use the L-R method on swiss produced films/books, once I've decided on a dialect?), hmmm....

OK, first post here, so bear with me...

I live in the German part of Switzerland and I can tell you that, when it comes to standard German (Hochdeutsch), the differences between Germany and Switzerland are absolutely minimal. Moreover, most Swiss tend to speak quite slowly when speaking standard German (after all, it's not their native language, Swiss german is...), therefore it's generally not a problem to understand them and, for a novice, it's much easier than talking to someone from, say, Hamburg (and don't get me started about Austrians...).

Now, coming to Swiss German: well, it doesn't really exist. Every town, every village have their own flavour of Swiss German, so much so that it can well happen taht someone from, say, St. Gallen will have troubles understanding someone else from Wallis and viceversa. No, I'm not joking.

Here in Switzerland you can find books, courses and multimedia tools to learn Swiss German. Usually, they teach you the dialect from the Berne region, as it is considered "the most standardised" of them all. Also bear in mind that Swiss German (and its thousand different flavours) is a dialect for which, historically, there's almost zero written record and this is the main reason why there are so many flavours of it. Even in older times, written records were almost exclusively in standard German. Only recently there's been a boom of literature, music, etc. written in Swiss German.

If you come here to Switzerland and want to follow at least an introductory course, I would suggest you the ones by Migros. They're affordable and well done.

Coming to your original question whether it is possible to learn a language without attending a course: I learned German, French and Spanish this way. So yes, it is possible for everyone.

[Tobie]

I found this article a while ago, it may help:

http://lifehacker.com/5903288/i-learned-...-heres-how

The author learnt French in 5 months with about an hour a day. For english speakers, romance/germanic languages will take about 5 months, Russian about 10 months and Chinese about 20.

[Darth]

Hey everyone, Just an update.

Thanks everyone for the advice and tips, I went with the Michel Thomas, 3 discs in so far and I'm quite enjoying it =D. Thanks to everyone, I'll definitely keep it all in mind for once I've finished the Michel Thomas and am ready to proceed.

[5thHorseman]

do follow up with L-R method, although time consuming, it's the best and fastest way to learn and understand.

Remember, if you stop using it, you will forget.

[Darth]

do follow up with L-R method, although time consuming, it's the best and fastest way to learn and understand.

Remember, if you stop using it, you will forget.

I know, lost some of the 2nd language I learnt because I stopped using it for a while, it set me back quite a bit. I won't make that mistake again I can assure you.

[5thHorseman]

great way to keep at it is to read Bild newspaper or other German language news.

Best of luck dude.