Post Punk Kitchen Forum

So Wally finally got a job (with a big, easily identifiable aircraft manufacturer) and it looks like a year from now I will be joining him in Hamburg.
I took 4 years of German in middle school and got decent grades at the time (I had good grammar), but not having spoken a word of the language since, I wouldn't be able to use it right now. I'm looking for resources to ease back into the language, starting with movies, music, maybe some simple podcasts, etc. I think I want to start with spoken practice first, but if you have some great written stuff as well let me know!

What can you recommend? Thank you!

Yay new job! Congrats to you and Wally. I don't have any good advice yet, but my dad is a German professor so I can see what he recommends. TBC! My dad used to create his own language learning software, so he is familiar with the industry.

For reading, I recommend niche magazines. I keep up my Russian (and used to) Dutch with fashion magazines. Since it is usually easy to figure out what the articles are about, it is easier going.

Fashion magazines are especially good since often the text is referring directly to photos, but the general idea should hold for any well illustrated pop publication in whatever your area of interest is.

I'm hopeless at spoken anything, so no advice there.

I learned a lot by getting a German translation of a book I had with me in Germany and reading them side-by-side...

Also, Unsere Freunde!

I learned to speak English by watching over and over the same movies I knew almost by heart in Italian. Now I'm doing the same with German, (I also studied it in school and didn't use it again for 6 years), and it's working. Also reading books you know very well in your native language and are translated in German. There's also online news, listening to it for 15 minutes a day should be of help.

Give me names! I want specific recommendations of German movies.

Well I watched all the Disney cartoons... And I haven't watched any originally German movie, it's too complicated. I prefer translated movies, they have an easier language.

That's such a good idea! I'm going to find Clueless and The Little Mermaid in every language imaginable.

I need to pick up Spanish again but I got similar recommendations that would help you. Watching anything directed towards kids should help since the language is pretty simple. Like Anek said, Disney movies or even kids shows. Also, I'm sure there are online German news shows? Or if you go to a German news website and watch what videos are available, that might help!

I know when I went to Germany for just a week, it wasn't too hard to pick up quite a few words quickly. I even had the customs officer try to talk to me in German since my passport says I was born in Germany. I couldn't answer him in German but I answered him in English.

check your local community or county library and see if they have, or can get on loan, german lessons on cd's. you can listen to them at home or while driving in your car. i brushed up on my german this way a couple of years ago when my cousin from germany was coming to visit us for a couple weeks. i started with the easiest, and worked my way up to more complex lessons. it turned my half-hour drive to work and back into an hour's german lesson each day.

macht Spaß! =)

Big congrats to you and Wally! Maybe look for some language learning podcasts in iTunes? Usually free and awesome.

Podcast-wise, there's one called Slow German in iTunes that I can recommend! It's a woman from Munich, who also has another podcast, but this one's specifically for German learners and it's short (5-8 min.) slow-ish discussions about different topics, often German-culture-related.