Gruetzi !

Guten Tag and all that ! Well, as a proud new member of the Rocket German forum, I thought I'd drop a line and say hello. I moved to Switzerland 2 years ago, and now have a race to learn German before my half-English, half-Swiss 1-year-old daughter starts speaking the local lingo. Of course, then she'll be muttering in Swiss German (a completely different beast), but being able to speak "High German" rather than nothing is still vital. I have tried most of the market leaders in German courses, and I still reckon the best way to learn the basics of German is using the Michel Thomas course... but at the end of it, you're left with a good understanding of verbs (and, in particular, an excellent introduction to the baffling _ordering_ of verbs.. such as _ ich bin_ mude, heute _bin ich_ mude, ich weiss nicht warum _ich mude bin_, etc) but with very little useable vocab. I came away more far confident at attempting to speak German, but unable to say what colour the sky is, or what the word for "dog" is, and so on. Rocket German seems to follow Michel Thomas' best practices to teach new, useful vocabulary, in a fun and easy to digest manner, and at a reasonable price. My one complaint is that I wish it'd _always_ emphasise whether each new word is der, die or das, as soon as it's introduced. It's vital to know this to speaking properly. At the moment, a word is introduced on the Rocket German recordings, and _then_ repeated in the der/dir/das format... but really, it should be always introduced and repeated in it's "full form" first. The gender of words is incredibly important, and remembering the gender is often harder than the words themselves, so I wish it was really reiterated throughout the recordings. However, it seems to be a fab course, and my Swiss wife seems to appreciate the effort I'm making. Hope my daughter will one day !! Good luck, y'all.

Hi there, welcome to the forum. If your daughter is one now then I guess you have another year and a bit to get up to speed with your German. 8) The nice thing is that you will be able to learn with her once she starts speaking. It's great that you are making the effort to learn German. I hope you enjoy it as well. I just replied to your post in the "Suggestions" section regarding the articles. This is certainly something we can change in the future if that's the way you prefer it. I wish you all the best for your German learning. :D