Learning to speak German

trinnylilac

My daughter is 13 and seems to have a talent for German at school.
I would like to buy her a CD or Computer package that will help her with the basics and more. Something she can do in her spare time as she really likes this subject .

Can anyone recommend what to buy for her.

Rikki

I seem to remember Usborne books used to do language books and tapes many years ago. I expect they may well do a book with a cd now.

gizmoleeds

Linguaphone kits are good - I have a couple (Spanish and French) - they sell them officially on ebay as well (or at least they used to).

They are still a bit pricey though (I won mine ).

wigginsmum

If you're anywhere near London, pop into Grant & Cutler in Great Marlborough Street just behind Oxford Circus - they have everything to do with languages (used them 20 years ago for my French & German degree books) and they also do mail order:

http://www.grantandcutler.com/

Jules

innovate

Have you got satellite TV? May be tune/in subscribe to one of the Astra channels so she can follow the news or watch the occasional film.

popapapa

Hi! I teach German at secondary school.
I guess your daughter is working towards a possible GSCE, she will do well to continue to A level if she enjoys it as pupils with language options are declining and my understanding is that Universities will favour her application.
The best option for your daughter is to learn to actually "speak" the language as we do not manage to do any in class these days. I would say that https://www.amazon.de is your best option, type in "Deutsch als Fremdsprache" (German as a foreign language) and choose the fundation level.
Enjoy!

innovate

If you are happy for your daughter to spend time on the PC, you/she might find the offerings of the Goethe Institut useful. A lot of it is free of charge.

Also check out the Culture, History and Language section on the German Embassy site.

trinnylilac

Wow thanks for all the info . I will take all of it on board. She is going there in December for a weekend and so is very keen.

Does anyone know of any computer games based around learning German.

fuglyjowls

If she has access to a DVD player - another useful thing (well my OH and I find it useful and we are learning German at evening classes) is to play your DVDs and put German subtitles/language on (lots of ours have this option) and then watch them - if she knows the film well then it definitely helps.

Also we borrowed a set of CDs from our local library and used those to help us - couldn't copy them of course because that would be illegal ;-) Most libraries will order stuff in if they don't have it already for a small fee (50p at ours).

trinnylilac

fuglyjowls wrote:

If she has access to a DVD player - another useful thing (well my OH and I find it useful and we are learning German at evening classes) is to play your DVDs and put German subtitles/language on (lots of ours have this option) and then watch them - if she knows the film well then it definitely helps.

Also we borrowed a set of CDs from our local library and used those to help us - couldn't copy them of course because that would be illegal ;-) Most libraries will order stuff in if they don't have it already for a small fee (50p at ours).

What a great idea, Of course I wouldn't even dream of copying them.

I will see if I can pop in on Friday

gjam52

I am using the bbc language site to learn Italian, it may be below your level but very good overview of learning several languages, German included.

About.com has gotl language learning resources, but haven't used them yet