First, some fun facts:
I taught myself some german in line with what i was learning in my first year of spanish (yes my first year. i started taking it along with french, which i have been learning for four years), but since then i have gotten very lazy. i only know colors, numbers, months/seasons/weekdays, a few foods, a few family member names, some slang, and fragments of basic conversational german. it's pretty pathetic.
i think that because of r+ and because of all my german friends, however, that i understand a lot more than i can speak. german is like that with english speakers: with a phrase like "J'ai deux stylos," we go slightly crosseyed, but with "Ich habe zwei Stifte," (both these phrases mean "i have two pens" btw, one is in french the other in german) we
immediately pick up on subject>verb>modifier>object. believe it or not, phonetically and grammatically english is most like german. in regards to vocabulary it is most like french (i would say).
sorry, potential future language instructor rambling again...
but yeah, i intend on learning german when i enter college.
Now, resources and advice from said potential future language instructor:
if you want to learn some simple german, i recommend these resources for your free time:
Languages Online. just go to the "Deutsch" section. my french teacher uses this and it's very effective. i've used the german one before on my own time. the games are fun.
About.com: German Language. a lot of grammar help and a TON on culture. i use about.com mainly for cultural studies for french class, and the german one is very interesting as well.
Dowload BYKI from this site! BYKI is a tool with flashcards with simple phrases on them to get you going, and it will quiz you with fill-in-the-blanks and stuff like that. no substitute for a teacher but it does read aloud, which is hard to find on the web. the download is totally free and as far as i know you can use it as long as you want. i used it for a while and i found it rather effective.
NOTE: i hate freetranslation.com's translating tool. it sucks. don't use it.
xd WARNING! in regards to
Google Translate. Google Translate CAN be SOMEWHAT beneficial. i do NOT recommend it for conjugations nor even for translating vocabulary. it is best to imput complete thoughts into Google Translate, i find, but even then it is flawed. i do find, however, that when translating webpages, Google Translate does a pretty good job. the translating tool itself does a good job at specifying what words to use below the tool, like for different meanings. but DO NOT rely on it. when further in your studies and in doubt, nothing beats a good old German-English dictionary!
also, get your hands on some german lit, if you can. look at german blogs and websites, books, and magazines. i especially love magazines, they're predictable so you can pick up on grammar and vocab with them easily. watch german films, listen to german music (i know that won't be a challenge for you guize!
blaugh ). listen to those learn-to-speak tapes if you can. media always helps!!
most of all, enjoy!! ^__^ happy trails und Viel Glück!
now we can discuss! discuss your endeavors, other resources you've stumbled across, whatever!! go crazy
rofl 
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