>>22030

Make friends with a bunch of patient krauts and away you go.

Honestly though, put aside all the grammar books and just speak to people with simple phrases.

The two most useful tools I have found are Duolingo and Memrise. They turn language learning into a really addictive game, so you can fill in idle minutes with learning instead of Candy Crush.

RosettaStone mixed with talking to natives.

I decided to start learning Mandarin. Opened a QQ account and the adds from chinese lasses than wanted to improve their English flooded in (they find you!).

I've found the travel linguist videos on Youtube are a good/reliable start to learning some survival phrases/small talk in a lot of languages.

>>22030
http://conversationexchange.com/

I'm trying to use www.duolingo.com to learn German and am having zero luck, I barely made it past the first couple of stages and have hit a wall. One thing to note about learning a language such as German is that if like me you're a bit of a chav with zero understanding of British grammar then you have no chance. You have to understand shit like what's explained here http://www.deutschseite.de/grammatik/faelle/faelle.html And honestly I wouldnt know that shit in English let alone another language, it might as well be equations explaining string theory.

I honestly believe that the German language is to blame for German speakers willingness to follow orders and their lack of humour. Which raises the question if I do learn the language and live here for as many years as I intend to, if I become fluent will I at some point gain the Germanic mindset... not a risk I'm willing to take!

>>22224
>lack of humour.

I think this has been covered a few times on here before but as far as I understand it's more like jokes can't be constructed in the same way. Basically the pull back and reveal which is the basis of a lot of comedy just doesn't work with the structure of the language. I know fuck all German though so don't know how true that is.
I've also known a few Germans with a great sense of humour it's just not so reliant on wordplay and tricks of language etc.

>>22224
Duolingo only helps you to learn set phrases, you need to learn word orders primarily.

>and their lack of humour

Its certainly attributable to that, the German language restricts punchlines due to the aforementioned word order.

Sustain a blow to the back of the head and get grapheme-colour synesthesia, then sit down with a German-English dictionary and a copy of Das Kapital.

>>22224
>>22226
I resent the notion that Germans don't have humour.

Let me prove you wrong:

>Person 1: "So, I heard your grandpa died in a concentration camp. Is it true?"
>Person 2: "Yes, he died from a heartattack while fucking your grandma in the camp brothel."

>>22228
Not really helping your case there lad.

>>22228
I've heard that before as:
"My grandfather died in a concentration camp."
"Really?"
"Yeah, he fell out of his guard tower because he was laughing so hard."

Which somehow manages to be less crude than your version.

>>22231
I don't think that's a german origins joke.