Can you help, i’d really like to teach myself german and then maybe take independently the GC-SE exam, can anyone recommend a good course to learn german?
That isn’t too expensive - im only a teenager so I don’t have too much money around! 
oh and if anyone has any other tips for learning german that would be great!
thanks for your help!
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There is no way to “teach yourself” German..It’s best to hire a tutor and work with he/she.
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How long do you have to ‘teach yourself’? If you’re doing a GCSE in it, I guess it will be next Summer or the summer after.
It’s not at all easy to teach yourself a language, but you can surf free sites and teach yourself the basics, and a really good idea would be to make some native German friends. This would help as you would be able to have general conversations with them - great for learning the basics - and you would learn more vocab.
Before I took my GCSE I went on http://www.habbo.de quite a lot. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Habbo, but it’s sort of a chat room sort of thing and there’s one for pretty much every language going. Here you can chat to many Germans and make general conversation, therefore teaching yourself more vocab and better grammar. I used this and learnt a lot more useful vocab just before I sat my exam - in the end I got an A. If you are interested, I suggest you go to http://www.habbo.co.uk, which is the english version, and familiarize yourself with the layout before you go to the German one, this is because Habbo is quite complicated when you first go onto it and so you will have a tough time understand it when it’s all written in German!
Also, you should try to build up a bit of knowledge of the subject first as these speakers will be native and will use slang and varied vocab. But barring all this, it’s very useful.
I think it will be tough to learn German without a teacher to guide you. German grammar is a lot different to English, and there are three genders to remember, ie. 3 versions of the word “the”, der, die and das.
Because of this, a German teacher/tutor of some sort would be really helpful to you. Are there any classes you could possibly attend? Do you know any German teachers who could give you some sheets to complete or practice exam papers?
To learn a different language in a short space of time you have to be really devoted and really enjoy learning it, so make sure you like the language, it will help greatly.
I wish you the best of luck, I myself love German and hope to do it at A-level, I hope you do well in your exam!
Viel Glück!!
@ Kiersten: It’s him/her not he/she.
anyway, she’s right that you won’t get to an advanced level by yourself, but she ignores the fact that different people learn in different ways. You could get a good grasp of the language by practicing on your own with free resources online or you may in fact need a tutor. I would not stick to only one site if I were you, but rather get an idea of what each offers and use the ones you like together. For example, About.com is somewhere i always look for extra information on certain grammar terms that I do not understand.I simply type in what I am looking for and find it. I do this for French but they also have a German page. Anyway, here are some links.http://www.dw-world.de [click the learning german link and you'll see that they have free courses. one is Deutsch Interaktiv. Be sure to always check the dictionary link on the side whenever you click the arrow to go to the next section because it has word definitions and sound files to listen to. They add more words as you go along so you have to constantly check. You can also download the Radio D podcast or listen to it on their website (the advertisement with the cartoon characters on it). It's a little childish but helps improve your listening skills and even has a PDF transcript of the dialogue. http://www.BBC.co.UK/languages [great language resource]http://www.tltc.la.utexas.edu/dib/toc.ph… Deutsch im Blick. [first year german course from the University of Texas]http://www.tltc.la.utexas.edu/gg/ Grimm Grammar [grammar explanation to accompany Deutsch im Blick]
http://www.german.about.com [great page with tons of info]http://www.en.wikibooks.org/wiki/German German Wikibook [kind of textbook that contains a lot of the info found on other sites. worth a look.]http://www.deutsch-lernen.com/ [free online beginners course will teach you the basics]http://www.deutschseite.de/ Tom’s Deutsch Site [grammar and vocab.]http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~tphillip/gra… German grammar help [from an university professor]http://www.learner.org/resources/series1… Fokus Deutsch [video series like French in Action. It includes transcripts and is ideal for a beginner ]http://www.deutschakademie.de/online-deu… [free comprehensive course; recommended]
http://www.studentsoftheworld.info [ German penpals]
I recommend that you go through these links and explore them. Then decide which ones you’d like to use. Keep in mind that some may be more advanced in areas such as grammar. They may not be much use to you now but you might come back to them later on in your studies.
Anyway, I hope this helped you.
P.S. i just read your question again. A tip of mine would be to not expect to learn the German language fast. there is no program out there that will teach it all. They may claim to do so, and sure they might get you to a level where you speak and communicate fine, but it will be a long process to get fluent. There are many intricacies of grammar that will take a while to learn, but then again very few native speakers of English know English grammar well. I myself, am certainly not one of them. Take your time with the language and remember to practice every day. 15-30 minutes each day is better than 2 hours once or twice a week. Like an instrument, you must constantly practice a language. Try not to think (when hearing it) of the words you don’t know but rather of the ones you already do know and can understand. When you’re finally able to think things up in a language without overanalyzing them, you can be assured that you are truly learning a language, not just memorizing translations of words and phrases.