General Tips & Tricks

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Tip 1) Go to the country for as long as you can manag 

- Take a language course or any other thing that will force other people to speak the language to you.

- Work in the country.

Tip 2) Watch TV in the foreign language. 

Recommended shows: family shows such as Unsere Kleine Farm (Little House on the Prairie dubbed into German), Mash dubbed into German. Diagnose Mord (Diagnosis Murder dubbed into German). You don't have to understand everything, just enough to make you want to watch again.

Tip 3) Read books, magazines or websites in the foreign language.

Some books and magazines are much harder than others. Proper literature is hard,although some famous writers are harder than others. Schiller is very hard, Goethe is easier and Max Frisch is easier still. Romances (Mills & Boon etc.) are very easy, and Maeve Binchy translated into German is fairly easy.

Tip 4) Listen to podcasts.

- German Grammarpod

- Pukka German http://pukkagerman.com/

- Deutsche Welle podcasts: Deutsch - warum nicht? http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,2548,00.html & Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,8030,00.html

- Slow German http://www.slowgerman.com/

- My daily phrase German

Tip 5) Translation.

Beginners and intermediate learners shouldn't attempt more than one or two paragraphs at a time. Ideally from a simple text. Something that's been written specifically for your level would be ideal. Translation is good in both directions. Into or out of your native language. Particularly if you're translating into your native language you should read your finished translation through afterwards and make sure what you've written sounds natural, not translated.

Tip 6) Music.

Listen to music with lyrics in the foreign language.

Tip 7) Get a pen pal.

Both of you writing in your native language is easier and you're more likely to do it. Correspond by email - German handwriting doesn't look like English handwriting in some key ways and bad German handwriting can add a whole extra level of challenge. It may pay to write to each other in the foreign language, if you are the sort of person who can persuade themselves to write regularly in a foreign language, it should be very helpful for you.

Tip 8) Write a diary in the foreign language. 

www.lang-8.com is a website that lets users write diaries in the language they want to learn and then other users (native speakers) correct and comment on them.

Tip 9) Do language exercises.

Buy a work book for the language with the answers in the back to check if you were right or find grammar exercises online. One website that provides these is www.livemocha.com.

Tip 10) Take a language class.