Hallo...

[marclurr]

Hallo, ich heisse Mark! Ich bin drei und zwanzig jahre alt und ich wollen lerne Deutch.

A little about myself any my motivation to learn German. I'm a software engineer working in London and I'm getting bored of only being able to speak one language! I would like to one day go to Germany and not have to ask people if they can speak English,and instead just start talking in German to them.

I decided this weekend that I'm finally going to start on the track to learning German properly. I intend to take lessons at some point but I would like to get a little grasp of the language first. My main method of learning will be whatever I can find on the internet, along with Google translate and possibly some books (if anyone can recommend any?).

Obviously software translators aren't known for their reliability so I wanted join a community where I can get pointers/corrections and have some questions answered as I learn, as well as get to know some other people who are learning German :)

I'm going to be getting stuck into learning this week so expect to see me blabbering (hopefully not too much of which will be in English) at some point in the near future :)

Regards

Mark

[Viadrinus]

Hallo Mark,

willkommen hier im Forum!
And congratulations on your decision to study another language!
You are right, software translators are not very helpful unless you already know several foreign languages enabling you to compare several translations of a text to your mother tongue.
Anyway, taking lessons facilitates the approach to a foreign lanaguage a lot, especially if it is your first one.

You may expect to be helped here, when you either ask questions or add the abbreviation "(K. w.)" to your postings which means "Korrekturen willkommen".

Good luck
Viadrinus

[Wixtofa]

Welcome to the Forum! One learning program that I find quite helpful are the Germanpod101 podcasts on iTunes. They're free! Songs can help, too. You'll find a thread here listing a bunch of german bands and songs that people have suggested.

[JohnPaul44]

Hallo, Mark!

May I offer a suggestion from my own experience? I believe that a couple of formal school classes in German, perhaps evening classes, would be very helpful to start. NOT classes in "Conversational German," but real classes in hard German grammar. German grammar is quite different and more complex than English grammar, and much more important to the language.

Learning grammar can be boring, and trying to learn it adequately by yourself, without a structured class to keep you going, is in my experience almost impossible.

John