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Reasons for my interest, in order of precedence.
- I spend three weeks a year in German speaking countries for skiing, climbing, hiking and football. It'd be nice to have basic conversational German nailed.
- I have lots of German speaking business contacts. If I discover that I enjoy learning the basics I'd like to spend the next few years developing my skills so I'd maybe be able to take advantage of various opportunities I may have with German speaking organisations.
- It is likely I will be living in a German speaking part of Switzerland for a period in a few years time.
I like the suggestion of doing a GCSE course to start with.
- I spend three weeks a year in German speaking countries for skiing, climbing, hiking and football. It'd be nice to have basic conversational German nailed.
Stonehedge-
That sounds like a really good idea then. If you like football there's obviously tonnes of German resources for that online. Once you have some confidence in conversations then it's obviously easier to pick up.
My father in law did a French GCSE then A-level in the evenings and he still goes to conversational classes.
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Swiss German is as foreign a language to Germans as English.
I tried to improve my German when i lived in Zurich, but if I spoke in German to a Swiss they'd reply in English.
fizzy.bleach
andyp
Only spods learn the der die das stuff. Just say "duzh" under your breath any time you need to use it. Should cover most scenarios.
@Stonehedge If you're just learning for curiosity (which is no bad thing) you might find you get to a hard concept and then give up, because you've got no reason to keep going. Maybe try doing a GCSE evening course? That gives you something to work towards.
That's what I'd do.