Learning German - Anyone else game?

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JohnGill

JohnGill

Puritan Board Senior
Finally decided to start learning German. My tongue hurts and I'm out of phlegm for the day. Has anybody else on the forum learned German yet? Or if someone is looking to learn a language over the next 6 months do you want to join me in learning German?

I'm learning it to read old German texts from the 15th century forward and eventually to read Luther's Bible.

So far I find it a very precise language. Though conjugating my pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc. is a bit tedious.

If anyone does let me know. And if anyone knows of a copy of Westminster texts in German I'd appreciate the link.

Guten Nacht!

3FU are found online here: http://www.cprf.co.uk/languages/german.htm
 
Nice one! I started learning German for this same reason but ended up giving up. I wanted to learn today's conversational German, but I later figured the German language has evolved so much that I probably wouldn't be able to apply today's conversational German to yesterday's old German. Especially when it came to Christian theology!

Have you tried reading any of the old dead guys from that era and seen how much today's English language has devolved? Their sentences were today's paragraphs. Today's English is yesterday's baby talk. :P
 
I have actually been very interested in learning German lately. Been looking into different ways to do it. My wife and i are considering mission work in Germany or Switzerland in the far future and ive been thinking of learning German.
 
Learned some at school. I would like to learn some Hungarian, but it is just too difficult. So I'm looking at either Slovak (more useful) or Serbian (easier to pronounce).
 
I took four years of German in highschool, but have not kept up with it since then. Right now I am learning Koine Greek, although eventually I want to get back to learning German.
 
Jackie Kaulitz said:
Nice one! I started learning German for this same reason but ended up giving up. I wanted to learn today's conversational German, but I later figured the German language has evolved so much that I probably wouldn't be able to apply today's conversational German to yesterday's old German. Especially when it came to Christian theology!

Have you tried reading any of the old dead guys from that era and seen how much today's English language has devolved? Their sentences were today's paragraphs. Today's English is yesterday's baby talk. :P
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Not that proficient yet, but it seems to be similar to going back to the Puritans' writings in English. Just need a dictionary & some hard work to understand. From what little of German I do know now, Luther's 1545 Bible is fairly easy to read. And from what I've read modern German is enough to read German as far back as the 15th century without much difficulty.

Your bolded comment is hilarious. I think we modern speakers and writers should take a page from Ben Franklin and follow his advice for improving writing.

If anyone's interested in forming a group online for learning German let me know. We have some free options we can use such as MeetUp for getting together.
 
Here are some tips for learning theological German. The blogger is a Th.D candidate at Duke; the majority of the blog is not worth reading, but some of the tips for studying/learning to read German might be helpful.
 
I studied German for reading. I'm ok. Not great. As for speaking, I can order food and ask for directions. If you want to practice for a while and then read something, I'll read with you. Mango Languages, which you can get through some libraries, is a pretty decent program for learning some conversational German.

Viel erfolg!
 
I know how to ask for a beer and a lemonade and how to express the medieval concept of 'limbus' or 'the porch of hell'. I'm not sure I need to know anything else for my own small purposes if I should ever visit the nation . . .
 
Ich sprechen ein bissen Deutsch. I took 4 years of German in high school and still remember some things. But THAT was a long time ago!
Auf weidersein!
Jim
 
I took three semesters of German in college, and, I teach my kids German at home. We use the Learnables, and Power Glide.

The Bible, Luther's version, in German, is called Die Heilige Schrift (the Holy Scriptures), at least our Bible is, and my daughter in particular enjoys reading it.

At my church they USED to have German Bible reading fellowship. Ended before my time, sorry to say.

It is an insanely precise language. I complained about its complexity in terms of its articles, declined adjectives, and cases, and my German speaking friend said no, no, don't complain, that is the beauty of it!

Also we enjoyed watching many different German films (on Netflix, maybe elsewhere). "Das Boot" is usually available with subtitles. I remember also, "Schultze Gets the Blues" as a clean German movie, and "Die Herren in die Weissen Vesten," which was a hoot.

If you are interested I'll try to dig up my clean German movies list and recommend them to you. Unfortunately most German films have gratuitous nudity in them.

Viel gluck!
 
JohnGill said:
I'm learning it to read old German texts from the 15th century forward and eventually to read Luther's Bible.
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You are going to need to learn to read deutsche Schrift, then. Even a lot of middle aged and younger Germans have problems with the old writing.

I've taken a few non-credit classes and some computer based training, but except for purposes like yours, German isn't really needed. Most folks in the east ,and virtually all in the west can speak English.
 
Edward said:
JohnGill said:
I'm learning it to read old German texts from the 15th century forward and eventually to read Luther's Bible.
Click to expand...
You are going to need to learn to read deutsche Schrift, then. Even a lot of middle aged and younger Germans have problems with the old writing.

I've taken a few non-credit classes and some computer based training, but except for purposes like yours, German isn't really needed. Most folks in the east ,and virtually all in the west can speak English.
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Yeah I know. I'm hoping to put the old writing style off for as long as possible. Some of the old Fechtbuchen have this script and have no modernize spelling of the same. I thought I had bad handwriting until I saw that "scribble."
 
SolaScriptura said:
Have fun learning German. I'm afraid to learn anything else lest my head pop.
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Wooah! I've heard people use that expression before, but I never saw a picture to go with it.

I'll keep an eye out for news from Anchorage of a chaplain's head exploding. :lol:
 
I did 5 years of German but don't recall much now. I used to really like it. Right now it's not so interesting to me. Perhaps I will revisit it one day if my children wish to study it.
 
JohnGill said:
Yeah I know. I'm hoping to put the old writing style off for as long as possible. Some of the old Fechtbuchen have this script and have no modernize spelling of the same. I thought I had bad handwriting until I saw that "scribble."
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I recall it was the Nazis who modernized the alphabet there. So most of what you want is going to be old style.
 
Edward said:
JohnGill said:
Yeah I know. I'm hoping to put the old writing style off for as long as possible. Some of the old Fechtbuchen have this script and have no modernize spelling of the same. I thought I had bad handwriting until I saw that "scribble."
Click to expand...

I recall it was the Nazis who modernized the alphabet there. So most of what you want is going to be old style.
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I know. Most of the reprints are in it. Looks like total gibberish.
 
I would really like to learn German, but I keep telling myself "Spanish would be more practical." Can you give me some good practical reasons why I ought to learn German? I am very open to being persuaded. :)
 
TexanRose said:
I would really like to learn German, but I keep telling myself "Spanish would be more practical." Can you give me some good practical reasons why I ought to learn German? I am very open to being persuaded. :)
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Practical reasons for learning German:


  1. Makes ordering beer and sausage during Octoberfest in Fredericksburg, TX much easier. This is the first point because it really is the most important.
  2. German Fight Books detailing medieval fighting styles which are still useful for today are generally in German and in the main remain untranslated.
  3. Learning German will help you if you later decide to learn Latin and/or Attic Greek. (Personally I believe Attic should be learned before Koine. Preferably in this order: Attic - Homeric - Koine.)
  4. German is said to make learning Dutch easier. Dutch is good because of all the Dutch Reformed literature yet to be translated. And it'll impress Joel Beeke which may lead to him buying you a beer. Learning German = Beer with Joel Beeke. This and reason number one are more than enough to persuade anyone to learn German.
  5. If you decide to read from the 17th century to today on textual criticism, you will need German. Warfield's inerrant doctrine comes from his study in Germany and his interaction with the German textual critic writings. And aside from Richard Simon's counter-reformation attack against Sola Scriptura which is in English, most of the foundational works in textual criticism are in German. Simon's should be read first if possible. It's online for free.
 
Count me in, I think. :)

I took 1.5 years in college. Forgot most of it. Mainly because I had no one to speak with. But I certainly think it would be fun to learn it again.
I am totally fascinated by languages. Only speak one... but would love to speak more.

Funny, I'm actually attempting to learn Japanese right now. I'm learning Hiragana and Katakana. It's quite fun.

But German is equally as enjoyable. So, just let us know what you'd like us to do. :)

One of my favorite things to say was "Ich mag deinen Schnurrbart!" Not sure why... made people laugh... i think...
 
TexanRose said:
I would really like to learn German, but I keep telling myself "Spanish would be more practical." Can you give me some good practical reasons why I ought to learn German? I am very open to being persuaded. :)
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Goethe, Heine, Schiller....
 
Sharon,

German is the language of the Reformation! At least largely.

As for today, well, how would Spanish be practical?

I teach my children German because:

1. I like it

2. I sort of know it

3. I want to open the "foreign language" portion in their heads, because once that's working, other languages come more easily

4. Learning a foreign language really improves English skills

5. We have a largely German heritage

6. I have a heart for the German people, much in common with them, and it would enable us to minister is some way some day more effectively. I have no specific plan, except for a hope of tourism.

I hope these thoughts help you consider what foreign language to learn. But I do hope you learn a foreign language.
 
Miss Marple said:
6. I have a heart for the German people, much in common with them, and it would enable us to minister is some way some day more effectively. I have no specific plan, except for a hope of tourism.
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German's have no heart and no sense of humor. (Sheesh! You'll give us all a bad wrap if they think we're really a bunch of softies. Remember, no facial expressions and no laughing at funny jokes!)
 
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