Two Places to Practice Your German
Practice German Online
A typical German keyboard
(Tastatur). But what do you
do if your keyboard doesn't
look like this? See below!
If you're looking for a fun way to practice your German, we offer several online options.
The all-German Deutsches Forum complements our regular German Language Forum as well as the German chat room here at the About.com German Language site. The bottom line is this: German-learners have a choice of friendly venues for practicing their German and asking questions about the German language and culture.
Whether you're a beginner or advanced learner of German, this article will lead you to: (1) ways you can practice the language and (2) help with related issues—such as keyboards and typing special German characters.
German Chat
Our chat room is always open. At scheduled times the Chat Room also offers hosted chat sessions, where there is a chat host to answer questions and to guide the session—in German or English. (See the chat page link below for times.) For an example of just how our chat room and forums (or fora if you prefer Latinized plurals) can open up your world, see Chattreff Kassel, an article (with photos) about how a group of our chatters recently got together for a "live" get-together in Kassel, Germany. They had a ball, and the only thing they all had in common was german.about.com!
The German Forums
The addition of a second forum for German expands the communication opportunities in several ways. First of all, our new Deutsches Forum is completely in German. That is, das heißt, the entire interface is a German experience. All the buttons (Schaltflächen) and labels are in German. Although the language of communication im Deutschen Forum is primarily Deutsch, we do have a special "Help with English" folder intended for German-speakers who may have questions about English or Amerikanisch—a sort of "turn-about is fair play" offering in exchange for their help with German for English-speakers.
Links und Hilfe
If you need some help with typing German characters or how to find the German chat rooms and/or our two forums, see the next page. We've put together some helpful links for communicating in German, all in one convenient spot...
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