I've taken the plunge..

[Menelaus]

Someone will be along presently with the Oxo Tower joke

Seriously though - do you learn much by watching TV?
I used to love a German show called Tutti Frutti. Basically the contestants had to remove an article of clothing every time they got a question wrong. And the hostesses would get their chests out at the drop of a hat. It was soooooo bad it was art, but I did find myself being able to understand (threepenny) bits of it. I don't know how I did it though ...

Actually, that sounds like the kind of thing on Chanel 9 (cf, The Fast Show)

[Sysman]

Wie sagt man, "take the plunge" auf Deutsch??

to take the plunge - den Sprung wagen

[Sysman]

Even though she ain't there during the week you should go to pubs where there ain't no Brits. Thats what I did and I tell you, you pick up the lingo pretty quickly and make a new set of mates who'll show where the real action is rather than a bunch of cliquey Brits (I know what its like in Munich having had the misfortune to work there once!)

I totally agree. I found a small bar in Munich which the British expats warned me to stay out of, so needless to say, I tried it . I made some good friends there and it really got my German going again after several years not speaking it.

One curious thing about the expats I worked with was they they seemed to resent it when I spoke German in the local shops and restaurants. I never understood that.

[The Lone Gunman]

nehmen Sie sie herauf den Oxo Turm

[MrMark]

Yikes!!! They've added 5.000 words to the German language.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8163541.stm

[Sysman]

A couple of links for those who wish to learn German

Leo, the best online German-English dictionary I have come across.
German Grammar

[darmstadt]

Someone will be along presently with the Oxo Tower joke

Seriously though - do you learn much by watching TV?
I used to love a German show called Tutti Frutti. Basically the contestants had to remove an article of clothing every time they got a question wrong. And the hostesses would get their chests out at the drop of a hat. It was soooooo bad it was art, but I did find myself being able to understand (threepenny) bits of it. I don't know how I did it though ...

Originally an Italian program. Was presented by Hugo Egon Balder who used to be the drummer in Brain Damage (German prog band from the 70's) and I believe that Hella von Sinnen was also there (a big fat obnoxious lesbian who had an affair with a German ministers daughter.) The two can be seen quite regularly on German TV (RTL) presenting such crap as "Hit Giants of the 70's" or "I'm A ******* Idiot Who Wants To Be On TV And Will Do Anything" or "Z-List Knobheads Trying To Be Funny".

Tutti Frutti

[swamp]

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/

is good, and the forum is useful too. Good luck!

[VectraMan]

I recently bought the online version of Rocket German (on permanent limited time special offer), which was pretty good for me, mainly because it focused more on the listening side. I tried speaking a bit of German when I was there at Easter, but as soon as anybody replied to me in German I was lost.

I sometimes turn on DWTV (794 on Sky), and although I only get about one word in three and can't think fast enough to keep up anyway, I can now distinguish the words most of the time, which is not something I could have done three months ago.