How to get started with German?

[Seneca]

There is no NHK Japanese news broadcast in German. This surprises me. I was going to suggest it for you. Then I saw there isn't a German one of Democracy Now either. That intrigued me. I began to poke around. It seems euronews might be the ticket. No idea how similar the English and German versions are, nor how often this is updated, but it included a transcript and audio. Can't beat that!

EuroNews German
EuroNews English

Separately, it seems maybe that Deutsch Welle site is not the most user-friendly in part due to having so much content. But this old thread has some news related links that may be of help. I don't know how to say good luck (or anything else) in German, but good luck!

edit: any other suggestions for news with audio/transcripts for German?

[iguanamon]

... For more advanced pronunciation help you could read "Modern German Pronunciation" by Christopher Hall.

Thank you very much! I searched the publisher's website and located the audio files that were recorded to accompany the textbook. While I can play them, I have not discovered how to download them. Would you happen to know how to proceed? Merci à l'avance!

LINK: http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719066894/

Speakeasy, to download the audio with the firefox browser, install the Flash Video Downloader for Mozilla Firefox. Play the audio. Click the arrow as the audio plays and you will be able to download this file as a 12.3 mb mp3 file. I just did.

[Speakeasy]

... Speakeasy, to download the audio with the firefox browser, install the Flash Video Downloader for Mozilla Firefox. Play the audio. Click the arrow as the audio plays and you will be able to download this file as a 12.3 mb mp3 file. I just did.

Iguanamon, vielen Dank!

[Seneca]

Alright, if you bookmark this page, you can go to the section on the left that says "LEARNING GERMAN WITH THE NEWS (IN GERMAN)" and there are news articles linked! I listened to today's. It was a bit over 8 minutes long. Rather slow, but very clearly and nicely pronounced. No idea if resolution was found in the thread about if slow listening is bad for learning, but I offer it to you anyway. I think I am all tapped out now.

[misterp]

Thanks a lot Speakeasy

Extremely good valuable Informations!

[fnight]

ClaireCalire: I can vouch for the quality of the Linguaphone products. I have researched their various programs, and am planning on purchasing one of their Spanish language products to brush up on my Spanish. I'm just not sure which I want to pursue. I may also look at their German products too. They do have a pretty good variety of programs to meet your particular learning desires. I think the parent company is located in the UK, but their is a US distributor - www.linguaphonelanguages.com. I believe the website is new and their customer service is pretty responsive.

[Stefan]

ClaireCalire: I can vouch for the quality of the Linguaphone products. I have researched their various programs, and am planning on purchasing one of their Spanish language products to brush up on my Spanish. I'm just not sure which I want to pursue. I may also look at their German products too. They do have a pretty good variety of programs to meet your particular learning desires. I think the parent company is located in the UK, but their is a US distributor - [removed]. I believe the website is new and their customer service is pretty responsive.

This might come of as extremely rude but a newly registered account uses the first post to vouch for a course but isn't sure which language he/she will study. The company recently launched the website and basically got zero followers on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. I'm not saying the user is working for them but the user is working for them.

[smallwhite]

go to the section on the left that says "LEARNING GERMAN WITH THE NEWS (IN GERMAN)"

That "section on the left" has its own page, titled "Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten", B2~C1 level news with transcript. If you click into each day's article, you get the full transcript, and you can choose between normal speed "im Originaltempo" and slow speed "langsam gesprochen". Personally I think slowing down the normal version in Windows Media Player is better than using the slow version.

~ ~ ~

nachrichtenleicht.de has easy news, slow audio with transcript.

[Seneca]

go to the section on the left that says "LEARNING GERMAN WITH THE NEWS (IN GERMAN)"

That "section on the left" has its own page, titled "Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten", B2~C1 level news with transcript. If you click into each day's article, you get the full transcript, and you can choose between normal speed "im Originaltempo" and slow speed "langsam gesprochen". Personally I think slowing down the normal version in Windows Media Player is better than using the slow version.

~ ~ ~

nachrichtenleicht.de has easy news, slow audio with transcript.

Good call on the option to play at normal tempo! A ~5 minute clip at full speed with a transcript six days a week isn't bad at all.

Once I figured out how long of a pause to expect before the article was actually being read, I have started to quite like Deutschland Radio Kultur since it has so much content.

Just curious, do most of you use news with transcripts just as listening practice? Or do you try to read along with it out loud as well, or intensively translate everything? Just wondering since many of these are German-only and not available with an English translation.

[zenmonkey]

Another vote for starting with Michel Thomas, Assimil and slow german podcasts. The amount of material for German on the web is tremendous. Also, as a possible start, complemented with other material, are duolingo and busuu.

Personal opinion, stay away from the old FSI tapes and course - while it is well built and has excellent drills the language and vocabulary is rather dated. I learned to say such things as "Dear madame, the airport is near the embassy, do you have matches or cigarettes?"

Anyway, speakeasy and others really covered the subject well.