CNN Article: Learning German through rock music

German indie rock band Madsen has been touring the US to perform concerts - and promote the German language.

See the article on CNN.com here.

How-To-Learn-Any-Language.com: German

How-To-Learn-Any-Language.com is a site "for people who love languages." The site is run by a Swiss entrepreneur named Francois Micheloud, based on his own experiences with learning languages (see the About page).

The site has a profile on the German language here, providing general information about the language and where you can use it (although I don't know if I agree that "few learn for pleasure" and that "few people speak any German" :) ). The site gives difficulty ratings for languages; German has a rating of three out of five. There is a copy of Mark Twain's "The Awful German Language." It also has an (unfinished) list of reasons to learn German.

The site hosts forums for members to discuss language learning in general (which are in English). There is also a forum in German here.(Posting to the forums requires a free account).

The site also has information about language learning in general.

Post comments below!

German Website Index

I have created an index for German learning and cultural websites. I will put the websites in an organized list, so you can find a website quickly and easily. So far there are only a few sites in the index, but I will add more regularly.

To access the index, click on the tab above named "Index" or click here: Index.

If you have a favorite website on German, let me know! Post it below in the comments section or email me (see About tab above).

Website: Vistawide.com

Vistawide is a website about "World Languages & Cultures." The website has a lot of information about language learning, both generally, like statistics over languages and language learning tips, and also for specific languages.

The German page has a list of pages on the German language. It has topics helpful for beginners, like Common German beginner mistakes and interactive German Practice Activities.

The site also has pages for links on German culture, from German Music to German Magazines & Newspapers, and even German Kinderlieder (children's songs).

Also check out out the German Links page for a list of links to other sites on German.

Basically, this site is helpful for beginners, or to find links for learning about German culture.

Post comments on the site below!

Learning German for Portuguese Speakers - Aprenda Alemão

Here are some links for learning German (alemão) aimed at Portuguese speakers (other languages coming soon!):

Websites

• Aprenderalemao.com: Quero aprender alemão - Cursos de Alemão (Blog)
• BabelMundo.com.pt: Língua e Cultura Alemã
• Deutsche Welle: CURSOS DE ALEMÃO
• Evandro.net: Aprenda Alemão - Deutsch Lernen (has some links)
• Goethe-Institut: Angola
• Goethe-Institut: Portugal
• Goethe-Institut: Brasil
• Wikilivros: Alemão
• Wikipédia: Língua alemã
• Wikiversidade: Portal - Letras/Alemão

Youtube Videos

• albertoflugbegleiter (Youtube Channel)
• Curso de Alemao = German-1-1
• Dias da Semana e Meses - ALEMÃO
• Expressões básicas - ALEMÃO
• PROJETO APRENDER ALEMÃO.wmv

Translation/Dictionaries:

• Google Translate: Portuguese to German / German to Portuguese
• pauker.at: Portugu Alem Wörterbuch

Post/email if you know any other sites!

Learning German on ehow.com

ehow.com is a "how-to" website, with articles written by ehow contributers and also users. The articles have a "Reference" list, which has links to other sites.

On each article is a list of other suggested articles, so you can really click around and find a lot of articles. However, there doesn't really seem to be a "main page" that collects all of the German articles or any other consistent kind of organization of all the German-related articles on the website.

The articles really vary in quality. Some articles are very well done; however, others have errors, so watch out for that.

There are a ton of German language articles on the site. Click around using the "Top 5 to Try" or "Related Articles & Videos" links, or use the search bar at the top of the page to find something specific. See below for a list of German-language "how-to" articles from ehow.com to get you started.

If you find an article that you think is very good, or have a comment in general on the site, email it to me or post it in the comments below!

Frohe Ostern! (Happy Easter!)

Did you know that the Easter Rabbit tradition originated in Germany? Here are some links to learn more about how Germany celebrates Easter!

• German.about.com:
  
  • Easter Glossary - Osterlexikon
  • German Easter Customs
  • German Easter Links
• Ostern-im-Web: site in German with receipes, jokes, stories and more.
• Ostern-Online.de: another site in German all about Easter
• Travels Through Germany - Easter
• IloveIndia.com - Easter in Germany
• Journey-to-Germany.com - Easter in Germany
• EasterBunny's.net - Easter in Germany

Another Easter tradition in Germany is to decorate the town's fountain or well with greenery and painted Easter eggs. Check out some pictures of "Osterbrunnen" here.

Easter Vocabulary
Ostern - Easter
das Küken - the chick
der Korb - the basket
das Osterfest - Easter
das Osterei - Easter egg
der Osterhase - Easter rabbit

Wikibooks on German Part II: German for Non-English Speakers

Here are some more Wikibooks on the German language based on your native language (in alphabetical order). Some are very complete, some still need a lot of work.

Also: I'm compiling lists for German-language learning websites in languages other than English for future blog posts. If you know of some good websites, post them in the comments below or email them to me (click on the "About" tab near the top of the page). Thanks!

• German for Afrikaans Speakers
• German for Arabic Speakers
• German for Catalan Speakers
• German for Chinese Speakers
• German for Czech Speakers
• German for Dutch Speakers
• German for Esperanto Speakers
• German for Finnish Speakers
• German for French Speakers
• German for Georgian Speakers
• German for Hebrew Speakers
• German for Icelandic Speakers
• German for Italian Speakers
• German for Japanese Speakers
• German for Malaysian Speakers
• German for Polish Speakers
• German for Portuguese Speakers
• German for Spanish Speakers
• German for Turkish Speakers
• German for Ukrainian Speakers

BBC - Languages - German

You already know the "What's so funny about German?"  videos from previous posts, but the BBC website's language-learning section has a ton of other resources for learning German, especially for beginners!

The homepage is here: BBC - Languages - German. (Click here to get a BBC Languages newsletter.) A lot of the material is based on BBC TV shows, but you don't need to have watched the show to use or understand the materials!

Wikibooks on German

WikiBooks describes itself as "the open-content textbooks collection that anyone can edit." Wikibooks is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, the same organization behind Wikipedia. The idea is similar to Wikipedia: anyone can create or contribute to a Wikibook.

Wikibooks has several "textbooks" on the German language, although they are in various stages of completion.

1) "German"
"German" is a textbook for beginners on the German language. It is currently listed as "half-finished." The earlier lessons are more complete, with audio and practice questions, but there are a lot of lessons that still need work. The book also has a PDF version and a Print version; these have the entire book on one webpage.

2) "BLL German"
"BLL German" is a course of "Bite-sized Language Lessons" for German. They are meant to be shorter lessons that are more focused. So far, there are only lessons for the "A1 - Breakthrough" level (for absolute beginners).

3) "Freistil"
"Freistil" is a collection of "actual annotated German texts." The texts have "in-text annotations" that give you a translation of a word when you hover over it with your mouse. A "What's worth learning?" box points you to commonly-used vocabulary, and an "In detail" box provides background and cultural information. So far there are only texts under the "Nachrichten (News)" category.

4) "Deutsche Grammatik"
"Deutsche Grammatik" is a basic German grammar guide. However, it's written in German, so this might be more helpful for advanced German learners.

5) "Fruchtbringendes Wörterbuch"
The "Fruchtbringendes Wörterbuch" seems to be part dictionary, part language experiment: it suggests German words that German-speakers can use instead of using words that have been adopted from other languages (especially English). One example: instead of using "Hypertext," the dictionary suggests "Sprungmarkentext, Hüpftext, Übertext."

6) "Das Schreiblernbuch"
"Das Schreiblernbuch" is a book in German designed especially for German parents in other countries to teach their children about the alphabet and phonetics. It also includes exercises for children to do. There is a continuation of this book for more advanced learners - Das Schreiblernbuch für Fortgeschrittene - but it's not as complete yet.

7) "Wikijunior Tieralphabet"
Also for teaching children is the "Wikijunior Tieralphabet:" for each letter of the alphabet, it shows an animal whose name in German also begins with that letter.

8) "Rechtschreibung"
"Rechtschreibung" is a book in German about the spelling reforms of 1996. It says on the book's main page that the book has been abandoned, so it may not be updated.

9) For Wikibooks on learning German for speakers of other languages, check out the links under "Deutsch für Nicht-Muttersprachler".

What did you think of these Wikibooks? Add your comments below!

"What's so funny about German?" from the BBC - Video 2

I hope you had ein gutes neues Jahr (a good New Year)! Here is video number 2 in the "What's so funny about German?" short series from the BBC, featuring the German comedian Henning Wehn.



For more info on the series, see my previous post at "What's so funny about German" - Videos from the BBC.

The main page on the BBC for this series is here: What's so funny about German?.