Learn German

As I have mentioned in my previous post, it is advisable to have some basic knowledge of German language before you arrive in Germany. Goethe Institute/Max Mueller Bhavans located in many major cities offer short and long term certificate courses in German language. For those who don't have Goethe Institute/Max Mueller Bhavan in your city, you can approach a private tutor or try learning the language through internet.

For those who want to learn German through internet, I am posting a few links which has excellent study material for both beginners as well as advanced learners. Happy learning :)

German is a very funny and unstructured language especially when compared to the highly structured nature of Indian languages!! Don't say this to a German :)

http://www.ielanguages.com/German.html - Good for beginners. This site also has a lot of links to other similar sites.

http://mariogerhardt.libsyn.com/ - Podcast of grammar lessons (I can see the grin on the faces of iPod owners :) )

http://www.deutsch-lernen.com/learn-german-online/beginners/summary.php - Good place for beginners

http://www.hueber.de/shared/uebungen/schritte/lerner/uebungen/index.php - Online exercise for basic to intermediate levels

http://www.dw-world.com/dw/0,,2548,00.html - Short audio lessons for beginners. Audio can be downloaded in MP3 format.

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~joyce1/abinitio/ - Very good place to start. Lessons are published by a professor from University of Portsmouth, UK

http://www.hueber.de/sixcms/list.php?page=lernen_tana - Study material for A1, A2, B1 and B2 level exams conducted by Goethe Institute.

http://www.telc.net/index.php?id=129&L=4 - Sample question papers in PDF format for all levels of exam conducted by Goethe Institute.

http://www.hueber.de/seite/downloads_daf - Some downloadable study materials.

Some more websites suggested by Sameerr:

http://www.deutschseite.de/time-table/time-table.html - Good place for beginners

http://www.goethe-verlag.com/book2/EN/ENDE/ENDE002.HTM - Good place for beginners with audio lessons

http://german.about.com/library/anfang/blanfang_inhalt.htm - Basic lessons with audio

I will update this list if I come across any other good website offering free lessons in German.

Don't forget to leave a comment :)