Hi, I am off to germany in about a months time for a few weeks, and would like to have some basic knowledge of german - reading and speaking...

Can anyone recommend book/audio kit to quickly learn german?

Many thanks

This may sound a little corny, but it works. If your local library has foreign language sections, check out some German children's books. They introduce some basics to the language. Do this, along with a basic German 101 high school type textbook. While studying this, go to some German language websites and just click around. You'll be surprised what you can pick up by just seeing the ads, etc., and putting two and two (zwei und zwei) together. German is very similar to English in many aspects and you should have no trouble picking up some of the basics of the language. And, regardless of how well you speak it, it shows great respect to the German people when they hear you trying to use it, and they will respect you and treat you better for it.

Haben Sie eine gute fahrt!

In my experience you sometimes, but not always, receive better treatment. A few business people may get irritated, because almost all educated Germans know some English and they view dealing with fumbling attempts at their language as a waste of time and effort. Those people are however the exception.

Also, since the OP is in Canada and is unlikely to be getting to Germany by car or train, the phrase given may not be the best choice. Other options would be:

Viel Spass bei Ihrer Reise!
or more generally - "Alles Gute"! , which I mention because that is the name of an excellent German instructional TV show. If you can find this in a library I would recommend it highly. If you can't find that there is another video program called "Guten Tag" which I didn't care for as much, but it is pretty good on some basics.

Welcome to the Goethe-Institut Toronto

Learn German and attend cultural activities at the official German cultural centre...
You would like to learn German? We have the qualified teachers you've come to expect. Our language courses use a modern communicative approach and emphasize intercultural understanding to achieve outstanding results.

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Viel Spass & Gute Reise nach Deutschland ...

I am taking classes for the last year at teh Goethe in Atlanta - really enjoy the classes.

You might check out the cds available at your local library - I listen to them in the car and they really help.

Also - there is a book "1000 words in german for kids" by berlitz - its worth buying - about $8 dollars and has pictures of scenes with words.

btw - i will be in germany may 6-17th - if you wanna meet up if we are in the same city i would be happy to

Goethe ist sehr gut if there is a location in your town. They also have lifelong learning programs, and respected certification programs.

In the short-term, you may want to try some Pimsleur CDs or similar.

M8

pimsleur ist sehr gut! i have tried the beginner tapes on audible.com and the advanced tapes from the library - excellent quality

as opposed to "the idiots guide to german" on tape - that is complete crap

I don't care for anything by Pimsleur but many people swear they are great, so their method must work for some.

I learned most of my German at the Goethe Institute in San Francisco years and years ago. I thought I might take some refresher classes when we lived in LA, but they didn't have classes, so I thought the G.I. didn't offer those things anymore. Perhaps it's just the one in LA that doesn't.

At the one in SF, at least, the classes were comfortable and you do hear German pronounced like it should be by native-speakers of German. Of course, my husband is a native speaker of German and doesn't sound a thing like what I learned in class.

Get Frommer's Germany publication. It contains a lot of popular phrases and commonly used words which should help to get you by. You will be surprised by how much you will pick up just by listening for key words during conversations. I know enough German to get by(my mother was from Munich but she spoke very little German in our household while growing up) but when visiting last year I made attempts to order items off menu's only to be told "wait, I will get you an English menu." You will also find that most people enjoy boning up on there English by practising it with you. So make the attempt which is appreciated, but don't be surprised to find yourself gabing away in English with the person you tried starting a German conversation with.

Many Germans may be shy, but from time to time they like practicing their rusty english.

I think we don't expect you as an American to speak another language at all. When you tell you are from Canada, we do expect you to talk french. ))

Problem with the language if you don't have a clue at all about the language is how to pronounce it, how it is built etc. I would suggest you concentrate on some of the most common phrases.

How about you list a bit more what you would like to be able to say / do? We might give you some recommendations.

Googeling might give you some ideas. If you have a list, we could even try to give you a recording of them so you would know how to pronounce them.

These are some sites I have used for some basics

http://www.ex.ac.uk/german/abinitio/

http://www.germanfortravellers.com/

I hate to say it, but I have to learn new things via the Dr. Suess method as well.

I'd suggest learning the standard tourist necessities -- thank you, hello/goodbye, pardon me, where is the ... ? -- and also reading some K-2 kiddie primers. We all know in English, for example, the story of Dick and Jane, so when you see the equivalent in German, you've already got a conceptual hook to work with and then the difference in sentence structure isn't so strange.

Tsch�ss ...

Not sure about "gute fahrt." Suggest, Bon Voyage.