Married To A German :)

[Dr. ZoSo 0]

Unfortunately, my husband and I do not have they money for me to attend an Integration Course, which is the cheapest way to learn German in Germany.

I applied for the 1€ per hour courses, and I was denied. The government thinks that my husband makes too much money and should be able to pay for it no problem. Thing is, he works in construction. Sure, in the summer, he brings home 1800 after taxes, but he is laid off EVERY winter. Thus, we save money for the winter! We have a family of four (he has two children from his previous marriage) and they live with us. The children's mother does not ever give us money for anything. 1800 per month for a family of four is NOT enough money to pay for the course, which is 1200 for 3 months. Sorry, we just don't have the money.

So, I have been learning German online, in books, and from my husband and stepchildren. It's defintely not easy, but I sure as heck speak a lot more now than I did before I moved to Germany.

You may want to check out one of the many on-line universities in the US. I attended the University of Phoenix for two years via on-line. I'm not sure if they have a German language course but if they do it may be worth looking into. All of their course materials (books, lectures, notes, etc) are on-line in .pdf format.

Worth looking into.

Edited May 27, 2009 by Dr. ZoSo

[Dr. Obvious 49]

UoP is expensive, $315-$515 per credit hour. I was looking around in their course offerings, but it doesn't look like they offer any foreign languages. Also, if you are going to spend money on credits, might as well get them from a regionally rather than nationally accredited university, like the University of Maryland (which does offer German), but that is also not cheap.

Edited May 27, 2009 by Wacken

[Betti 1]

I have to get back to the Nutella, since I have missed that part....the best way to eat it: spread a thick layer of butter on Pumpernickel (black bread, the moist kind) and then top it off with a thick layer of Nutella (or even better: Nusspli). Man, I miss that!

[Nina+Matt 0]

nutella and butter is just soooo wrong i cant eat that stuff! i has to be pure nutella, also good just with a spoon out of the jar

[veronicavonn 7]

lmao. I'm sorry, but like I already said, butter with nutella is just gross, my opinion.

[Eveline 9]

I'm one of the butter with nutella eaters.Nothing is better than a fresh roll with butter and a thick layer of nutella...hmmmm...now I'm starting to crave it

[Dr. Obvious 49]

lmao. I'm sorry, but like I already said, butter with nutella is just gross, my opinion.

Nutella is pretty close to nutritionally bankrupt, so to use butter with it is overkill like a 1/2 cup of mayo on fries or a breaded and deep fried Ding Dong. That's what basically grosses me out about it.

[Dr. ZoSo 0]

lmao. I'm sorry, but like I already said, butter with nutella is just gross, my opinion.

Nutella is pretty close to nutritionally bankrupt, so to use butter with it is overkill like a 1/2 cup of mayo on fries or a breaded and deep fried Ding Dong. That's what basically grosses me out about it.

You could probably get more nutrition by eating the packaging the nutella came in rather than the nutella.

Anything that smells like that can not be good for you.

[Aubrey 10]

UoP is expensive, $315-$515 per credit hour. I was looking around in their course offerings, but it doesn't look like they offer any foreign languages. Also, if you are going to spend money on credits, might as well get them from a regionally rather than nationally accredited university, like the University of Maryland (which does offer German), but that is also not cheap.

I've used Rosetta Stone previously for a different language, and I think it's great. After that you'll definitely need to practice your conversation. There's lots of avenues, but the most entertaining to me seems to play online games with German folks. I've met many of them in several games, such as World in Conflict and Guild Wars.

My father swears by the Berlitz school, which he took for Spanish. The in-person classes spoke natively from day 1, and focus only on conversation skills.

I'm sure there's something out there that will work better and less expensively than going to a university. I personally haven't had the time on my hands to work on my German, but nothing could be harder than Ancient Greek which I took at UT. So I'm not too worried. lol

[Dr. Obvious 49]

I've used Rosetta Stone previously for a different language, and I think it's great. After that you'll definitely need to practice your conversation. There's lots of avenues, but the most entertaining to me seems to play online games with German folks. I've met many of them in several games, such as World in Conflict and Guild Wars.

My father swears by the Berlitz school, which he took for Spanish. The in-person classes spoke natively from day 1, and focus only on conversation skills.

I'm sure there's something out there that will work better and less expensively than going to a university. I personally haven't had the time on my hands to work on my German, but nothing could be harder than Ancient Greek which I took at UT. So I'm not too worried. lol

Berlitz is back in expensive land. I agree with you on the conversation, which is why I am more an advocate of something like what's offered at a volkshochschule. Also another absolutely to it's easier to learn when you enjoy what you are doing or watching or listening to in another language. My favorite German guilty pleasure is Alarm fuer Cobra 11 and I still watch it because I have a place in my heart for cheese and +1 for German cheese. I also play Diablo only in German, which provides me with oh so useful German.

[Der Bücherwurm 1]

When I lived in Bonn, I took classes at Steinke Institute. It was around 500 euros for a 10 week course that met 3hours a day, 5 days a week. Not too expensive when you think about it.

A good book to help with conjugating verbs is The Big Yellow Book of German Verbs. Verb Conjugation Book

[Otto 83]

I have to get back to the Nutella, since I have missed that part....the best way to eat it: spread a thick layer of butter on Pumpernickel (black bread, the moist kind) and then top it off with a thick layer of Nutella (or even better: Nusspli). Man, I miss that!

Just wondering....

Karin says the Nutella in the US tastes 'different' - but the Nutella made in Canada (often sold at WalMart I believe) tastes essentially like the German version... Anyone concur?

[Dr. Obvious 49]

I haven't seen Nutella made in the US in about two years. I only had it when I came to visit the first time in 2006 and by the time I had come back a few months later, it had all switched over to made in Canada in this market. The US version tasted different because they had the stupid idea of using some peanut based oil in it. I could not, for the life of me, figure out why they would do that. It was awful only because I wanted it to taste like hazelnuts, but the peanut flavor completely overpowered them.

[Kar98 0]

By the way, I am not IN Nuernberg, that is just the closest "metrolpolitan" city. I actually live in a very small town just outside of Bamberg.

I had "HAS-" plates on my cars once

[Nina+Matt 0]

@kar98 thats so cool! i had "SW" plates and also have some custom made "SW" plates on my us car now cause my mom works for the "Zulassungstelle" in Schweinfurt and was able to get some for me