German is spoken primarily in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, in two-thirds of Switzerland, in two-thirds of the South Tyrol province of Italy (in German, Südtirol), in the small East Cantons of Belgium, and in some border villages of the South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, Sønderjylland) of Denmark.
In Luxembourg (in German, Luxemburg), as well as in the French régions of Alsace (in German, Elsass) and parts of Lorraine (in German, Lothringen), the native populations speak several German dialects, and some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in Alsace and Lorraine French has for the most part replaced the local German dialects in the last 40 years.
German is the main language of about 100 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the most spoken language in Europe excluding Russia, above French (66.5 million speakers in Europe in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in Europe in 2004). German is the third most taught foreign language worldwide, also in the USA (after Spanish and French); it is the second most known foreign language in the EU (after English
An excellent way to learn a language is with the help of your Personal Computer. There are many German language courses available that vary considerably in price and effectiveness.
Very important is if the German course is available for the operating system you are using. Most people have Windows based systems, however there also many Mac users.
Keep in mind that older courses might not be compatible with Windows Vista or newer language course software may not work with older OS systems like Windows 98.
German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely ä, ö and ü, as well as a special symbol for "ss", which is used only after long vowels or diphthongs (and not used at all in Switzerland), the Eszett or Scharfes-S (sharp "s") ß.
Below you will find a collection of "German language software". We really hope it proves to be as useful for your goal to learn French from your computer, as we hope.
German language course software
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| CD-ROM for Windows 7 / 8 / XP, Mac OS X 10.6 - Award-winning program used by the State Department, the Peace Corps and NASA. Over 8000 color pictures and phrases spoken by native speakers. |
CD-ROM for Windows 7 / Vista / 8 / XP, Mac OS X - for extensive language study, 21,000 words, 20 lessons, thousands of exercises, Equivalent to 200 hours of coursework. |
CD-ROM for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista - Speaking, listening, reading, and writing exercises to learn the German language. 14 integrated in-depth lessons. Fun games and puzzles. |
CD-ROM for Windows 98 / 2000 / Me / XP, Mac OS X - Software for learning German on the computer, in the car, or on the go. Ideal for all levels--beginner, intermediate, and advanced. |
CD-ROM for Windows Me / XP, Mac OS X, Palm OS - German language software with Before You Know It vocabulary learning system. Effective immersion environment combined with 15 step-by-step lessons. |
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