Conversation stimulated through language skills
Language Resources
Whatever your ambition and source of motivation to learn German, from an ability to speak a few cursory phrases for a trip to achieving reading competency or verbal fluency, the resources below can help. You will find that, in most cases, Germans appreciate even a minimal effort to speak their language. Perhaps you desire to read documents for purposes of researching your genealogical roots or you have some other purpose in mind such as reading German literature or poetry. Maybe you made a friend in Germany and want to speak their language or you are fascinated by German culture and desire to follow current events over the Internet.
While neither Malone Clan Expeditions, LLC nor invitationtoconversation.org endorses nor receives compensation from any of these companies, you are welcome to explore the resource(s) that will stimulate your conversation 500 years after the Reformation through language skills. Each of the logos or pictures are linked to a website. Have fun!
Duolingo is a free app you can use on your PC or mobile device. This app is especially helpful for learning phrases and getting comfortable with some basic phrases useful for travel. Duolingo is a very convenient and user friendly app.
FluentU offers both free and paid versions. The fundamental methodology and pedagogy of FluentU is to immerse users at their level of competency in interactive videos. The user can watch the videos in a variety of very powerful, interactive modes.
This fun very powerful textbook has equipped many a University of Chicago graduate student to pass their German reading competency exam. You will no doubt find that many online programs implicitly or explicitly focus on how easy and fun learning German will be as if virtually no effort is required. Just as a high level of competence in your native language requires learning grammar and syntax, hard work will be required if you really want to master your new language. Written as a reflection of a highly effective home based course taught for many years by April Wilson, this book makes the hard work of achieving a basic level of reading competence as fun as possible.
Rosetta Stone claims that you will learn German the way you learned your native language as a child--through sound and picture association. The interface is very attractive and intuitive. Finding a reduced price online for an otherwise very expensive product makes the choice of Rosetta Stone a bit more palatable. Whether or not one can become fluent by using Rosetta Stone remains hotly debated among users and critics. This is a fine product with the potential to take you about as far as you would like to go in learning German.
Listening to German can take your language skills to a whole new level. 2DF Heute offers well produced news and cultural updates of a very high quality.
There are several websites and apps that allow you to listen to German radio broadcasts on your iPhone or other mobile device. This link will take you to iTunes as one of many options.
This document lists options available to you for improving your German language skills from online dictionaries to Google translate, and other language courses.