German while I drive

have2flushtwice

Hi
I've begun a new job which involves a bit of early morning driving for me. I know by now that my brain is thirsty first thing in the morning and I can sap almost any details up for about 2 hours after waking.
I want to take advantage of this as my new job involves some German speakers.
I'm looking for a link to a free app (on android) that I can play in the car, or a CD either, which I can have on as I drive.
has anyone got any help?
I've already downloaded the learn German app, but its all interactive with the screen which isn't safe in my circumstances.

Liberosis

have2flushtwice wrote: »

Hi
I've begun a new job which involves a bit of early morning driving for me. I know by now that my brain is thirsty first thing in the morning and I can sap almost any details up for about 2 hours after waking.
I want to take advantage of this as my new job involves some German speakers.
I'm looking for a link to a free app (on android) that I can play in the car, or a CD either, which I can have on as I drive.
has anyone got any help?
I've already downloaded the learn German app, but its all interactive with the screen which isn't safe in my circumstances.

You could try iTunes. There's plenty of free podcasts you can download. If you don't have an apple device it is easy enough to transfer the files from a PC onto android.

This depends on what level you are at but, if you change your country on iTunes from Ireland to Germany you will find a lot more relevant material. The difference is the podcasts are aimed at a German speaking audience rather than an English speaking one. Of course, if you are a beginner you will find it difficult to understand what is being discussed. 'Slow German' is decent enough and aimed at learners. As you can tell from the title, they speak slowly.

I myself find music really helpful. Download some songs from the German charts, print out the lyrics, translate any words you don't understand and then listen to the song a few times. It's a pretty good way to built up vocab. Although be careful because sometimes the syntax is rearranged to make a sentence rhyme, whereas it wouldn't normally be spoken like that.

Hope this helps!

Calina

Do you have any German already?

What I do in the mornings is listen to NDR Info via the tunein.com app on my phone sent to a speaker. This isn't going to work for you if you are at early learner stage but if you have some German already, it's a good place.

Manach

Audio books in German are a handy tool as well. Audible are a bit expensive, but AFAIR there is at least one project where classics are recorded in German for free.

munchkin_utd

Calina wrote: »

Do you have any German already?

What I do in the mornings is listen to NDR Info via the tunein.com app on my phone sent to a speaker. This isn't going to work for you if you are at early learner stage but if you have some German already, it's a good place.

I can second this idea.

When in Ireland I was mad for news radio so always had on BBC 5 Live.

After years in Germany struggling to learn the language I found the Bavarian version of it Bayern 5 Aktuell (same idea as NDR info, and at night is actually the same content too) and you get a great ear for the language very quickly. News is also good as a learning source as theres shag all colloquial speaking or folks who slur their words. If you have the data allowance on your mobile it'd be worth a listen.

The normal news might be a little boring for an irish listener, but all those info channels should have podcasts too on science or entertainment.

Deutsche Welle also have podcasts for learners that you should look into.

CelticRambler

Another vote for finding & listening to real-life radio. That's what I did before moving to France (based on the way our LC teacher prepared us for the French LC aural) and it was a huge help. Not only do you tune your ear to the natural rhythm of the language, but you build up a knowledge of what's going on in the country, so have a better quality small-talk vocab than talking about the weather! :pac: and you get used to all the proper nous that pepper our conversations - the ones that never feature in language courses - e.g. names of politicians, industrial zones, scandal-hit companies, etc.

munchkin_utd

yea, the one thing I'd say is that some of the political scandals may be hard to follow as theres stuff that happened in the past that may be common knowledge to a local but not to a newcomer. Don't let that get you down.

There'll be enough articles that are relevant and handy to follow, say the layoff of 4000 at Intel or the ECB keeping interest rates the same, David Bowie dieing and all that class of stuff.

Heres for instance the podcasts for the BR5 world reports
http://www.br-online.de/podcast/mp3-download/b5aktuell/mp3-download-podcast-notizen-aus-aller-welt.shtml
and here from NDR
https://www.ndr.de/info/podcast2988.html

Heres daily sports roundups
http://www.br-online.de/podcast/mp3-download/b5aktuell/mp3-download-podcast-sport-kompakt.shtml
or here the weekly internet roundup
http://www.br-online.de/podcast/mp3-download/b5aktuell/mp3-download-podcast-netzmagazin.shtml

or maybe check out the weekly news roundup for kids from NDR, which should be reasonably straight forward language
https://www.ndr.de/info/podcast4096.html

The public service broadcasters in Germany have a budget of 8.3 billion euro, so theres no lack of content to be honest.

Calina

What's good about news radio though is that they tend to be good on international story so you'll often have context which makes it easier too...

CelticRambler

And for clarification (or self-testing), you can go to an online German newspaper to see how the written version matches what you're hearing (or think you're hearing)