Awtron

The Denk Mal! Series is pretty good for beginner/intermediate learners, the online components and activities book are also a really nice addition. Easy to follow grammar lessons and vocabulary lists and it gives you a short film to watch in every chapter!

It can be incredibly difficult depending some key factors, which language you're trying to learn, the age at which you're learning it, and how useful or important the language is to you.

I personally wish I had started learning German at a younger age because its much for difficult to nail down pronunciation at my age now. That being said, learning a new language is one of the most gratifying things I think I've experienced which makes all the hard work totally worth it!

I speak English but I'm minoring in German language at my university so I'm getting pretty close to being bilingual I think, hopefully after studying abroad my speaking skills and pronunciation will get much better!

I think English is a good base language because it's used primarily in international business, its really common in high tourist areas for english signs and menus to be around.

It's also taught as a core class for many schools around the world.

I hung out with a lot of the Chinese culture groups on my campus last year and was able to distinguish pretty easily between cantonese and mandarin. Also I can tell if its Korean or Japanese but other asian languages Hmong, Vietnamese, Thai, etc. I still have problems with along with a lot of eastern European languages unfortunately.

That South African English accent is what makes Sharlto Copely so fun to watch. Great actor and his accent in Elysium was such fun to listen too! Definitely one of my favorites aside from a good old cockney accent.