Hi, My name is Rob and I'm 29 years old. I got an e-mail saying my account will be deleted if I do not post so here I am. I came to Polydog from other websites trying to figure out the best way to learn a language for me. I am trying to learn German for my trip next year to Germany and I'm trying to get a game plan together. I have been trying to learn Deutsch for around a month. I have purchased the Michel Thomas Method, Pimsluer (from my library) and Assmil German with Ease + MP3 files and I have an account for Deutsche Wells Interactiv. I have started taking iTalki lessons and find my input is so much better then my output. My end goal is to become fluent in German or if I have to put it, C1 in the CEFRL. Speaking is much more important than Reading/Writing as of right now. I find it hard to setup a game plan for me learning a language and I keep trying different Methods thinking I will find the perfect method and I know this not to be true. I've never been good at just "winging it" and find structure better for my needs. I can dedicate 2-3 hours a day to learning. Any advice is welcome. I appreciate ya'll taking the time to read this and glad to be apart of this community. -Rob
Welcome. I'm a big fan of Michel Thomas, and I'd recommend focusing on that early on. It's not really a complete course (it doesn't teach the case system) but it takes a lot of the heavy work out of learning sentence structure and the verb system.
Welcome to the forum Rob. With German I started with Deutsche Welle's Deutsch Warum Nicht and also used Living Language's Ultimate series (older version of their programs not current ones!). I never completed Deutsch Interaktiv, although I did add its vocabulary to my Anki deck. Check out the resources thread in the resources forum. The reason I did not complete DI is that it cannot be downloaded and is not dialog based (though it does contain short dialogs). However once you get past the beginner stage there are plenty of other resources on DW to take you to a high level if you learn all the vocabulary you encounter. You did not mention whether this is your first foreign language, but if it is, I would advise making a brief study of English grammar so that you understand all the terms you are likely to encounter in German grammar. Since you have a deadline of sorts, you are probably better off sticking to conversational type of courses rather than ones focused on reading.
Thank you Pergrinus for the recommendations, I will definitely look at those. This is my first foreign language and I refresh myself on my English grammar skills. My problem seems to be I have to many resources at my disposal and I'm flip flopping between different programs. Thank you again for the help and well wishes I do appreciate it.
Lot's of us use multiple courses for the same level, either in parallel or sequentially. But obviously you could overdo it. Why not choose 2 beginning courses and then log your progress each day in a spreadsheet. I would also recommend quickly reviewing the previous 2 or 3 lessons prior to each new one and log that too. I just use a column for the chapter or chapter part, and "x"s in columns for first pass and subsequent pass, and of course the date. This helps keep me focused on actually completing courses. For example you might start with Pimsleur or Michel Thomas if available for an introduction, and then use 2 of Assimil/FSI/LL/DeutschWarumN. Plus you could concurrently be entering and reviewing words in Anki from each lesson (I like to learn them in advance), or use Iversen style word lists of Gold Lists (see relevant thread in methods forum).