EDIT October 2017: Lingohut has been updated and looks even nicer than it did when I wrote this post. Go and have a look!
Lingohut is a wonderful and totally free (apart from a few adverts, but they ensure the exercises are free) website for language learners. At the moment they offer 11 languages, including German, but I know they are looking to add more. AND you don’t need to be an English speaker to learn a language.
So if you want to learn German, your first choice is about your native language. If you speak English you don’t need to do anything as the home page is set to English. But at the top left is a little green speech bubble, saying ‘I speak English’. Click on it and choose your language. Then the instructions will be in your native language. Then you choose the language you want to learn – German, of course ☺
There are 109 lessons from the basic greetings to computer jargon, and they all follow the same pattern.
When you click on a lesson you can see the words or sentences of that lesson straight away on the left – useful, if you want to see whether the lesson is right for you or not. Sometimes just a quick look at phrases may be enough to remind you that you actually know them all. But if you want or need to practise them, you have several options:
You can just learn the words, practise them with flashcards or play one of the four games – or all, of course
Lingohut is designed for anybody wanting to learn a foreign language. If you are learning on your own and like learning with online activities, then this is perfect for you. If, however, you’re looking for grammar explanations you will need to find them somewhere else.
But all in all I love the structured lessons and the activities. And if you are learning German with a tutor and/ or a book, this is a great way for some extra practice of whichever topic you are learning.
Go, try it and see what you think! Here’s the address again: https://lingohut.com/
Whilst I know why , in the example you show, they say ‘blutig’ for a rare steak and every Kellner would understand that, saying a ‘blau’ steak would be better style-especially in company. Same goes for using ‘durch’ when Germans would typically say ‘gar’….using ‘durch’ even sounds a bit ‘denglisch’ to be honest, the sort of thing my kids would say. “Willste volldurssch Dad mit ohne Blut?”
Like i said, more a style ‘thing’ than a mistake but , as you Ang know, going for a meal is a far more common part of everyday life in Germany than here. Even if it is merely going for a quick Handkäs mit Musik und Eppelwoi at the local Gastwirtschaft.
I’ll have a look at the app when i get chance.
This is one of the problems every language learner faces: people don’t always use the words that learners find in dictionaries. All my dictionaries use blutig for steak, and blau for fish, but, of course, that doesn’t mean that people don’t use different terms. The same goes for durch or gar. I only ever heard gut durch and rarely gar, whereas you obviously heard the other words …
The joys of learning a (any) foreign language!
Seems we may both be ‘right’, so https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steak
blau= very rare, blutig= rare and Wiki also talks of ‘durch’ etc as Gar[i]stufen[/i] .So my comment really was pretty unnecessary, but ‘style’ is important when learning a language especially if one is in country surrounded by educated native speakers. IME once Germans realise you speak enough German for them not to have to speak English with you, your using, what they consider, ‘proper’ German terms and words will automatically encourage them to teach you more. Motto: “ist nicht direkt verkehrt aber wir sagen lieber’
I’m afraid that’s a problem all language learners face and even Germans in Germany (or Brits in the UK). Different words/ phrases are used in different parts of the country, and if you don’t know them, you are automatically seen as ‘not local’.
Hi Angelika,
I had never heard of Lingohut so thanks for telling me about it
Beth
Enjoy it! I have starting using it for my language learning, too (although not for German ☺)