German Language

“Die deutsche Sprache sollte sanft und ehrfurchtsvoll zu den toten Sprachen abgelegt werden, denn nur die Toten haben die Zeit, diese Sprache zu lernen." - Mark Twain

“The German language ought to be gently and reverently set aside among the dead languages, for only the dead have time to learn it.”

Mark Twain expressed his opinion on the German language in several different manners; most of them are quite amusing. While Mark himself may have had difficulties with the German language, this course is aimed to make learning the German language fun and easy.

Courses

Courses in German
Introduction:	Introduction
Course #1:	German I
Course #2:	German II
Course #3:	German III
Course #4:	German IV

Overview

This course is aimed to teach you the German language. By the end of the course, you should have a reasonable knowledge of basic German vocabulary, have a good grasp on German grammar and be able to successfully form sentences in German.

Recommended Prerequisites

Have a basic knowledge of how to use Wikiversity (e.g. see Guided tours).

Expectations

Learning a foreign language can be very rewarding. There is some effort involved to successfully learning a language, however. You must put in the time and effort required to learn the vocabulary and grammar. For native English speakers, there are many aspects of German that will come very easily and naturally, however, there are also some difficulties and differences you must overcome and this requires time. It does not mean you will need to spend hours upon hours everyday. An hour or two daily should be sufficient. Just remember that it is better to study languages in smaller increments over a longer period of time rather than cramming all of the aspects of a foreign language in a short time.

Resources

You shouldn't need a whole lot, but here is an overview of what may come in handy.

German-English/English-German Dictionary
- Recommendation: LEO, dict.cc
German Grammar Reference
- Recommendations: Canoo, Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Deutsch-ueben tk Übungen zur Grammatik
Introductory German courses
- Recommendation: About.com
- Memrise's own Deutsch A1 course with about 1,800 things to learn (approx. 30 hrs)
- Duolingo.com
Vocabulary resources
- Recommendation: Vocabulary wiki, Deutsch-ueben tk Übungen zum Wortschatz

Conclusion

“

A dog is 'der Hund'; a woman is 'die Frau'; a horse is 'das Pferd'; now you put that dog in the genitive case, and is he the same dog he was before? No, sir; he is 'des Hundes'; put him in the dative case and what is he? Why, he is 'dem Hund'. Now you snatch him into the accusative case and how is it with him? Why, he is 'den Hund'. But suppose he happens to be twins and you have to pluralize him- what then? Why, they'll swat that twin dog around through the 4 cases until he'll think he's an entire international dog-show all in his own person. I don't like dogs, but I wouldn't treat a dog like that- I wouldn't even treat a borrowed dog that way. Well, it's just the same with a cat. They start her in at the nominative singular in good health and fair to look upon, and they sweat her through all the 4 cases and the 16 the's and when she limps out through the accusative plural you wouldn't recognize her for the same being. Yes, sir, once the German language gets hold of a cat, it's goodbye cat. That's about the amount of it.

”

- Mark Twain