I realised that when I finish N1, I won't have to study Japanese anymore as such, but just continue SRSin', shadowing, gaining exposure, speaking, etc. So, I've decided to start casually studying German, since its European, I like the sound of it, and I wouldn't mind visiting there someday.

When I say 'decided', that's literally as far as I've got. I read the other couple of threads about German, but they seemed to focus on resources for intermediate learners and I got a bit lost.

I didn't know about a lot of good resources for Japanese for a long time, and it cost me at least 18 months on N1, and 15,000 words plus. So the reason I started this thread was to ask for tips on the most efficient long-term plan for learning from scratch.

Is there a definitive book, website, app, or whatever for any of the following?

- pronunciation
- writing system
- basic grammar
- workbooks to test myself

Is there a JLPT equivalent, and where can I find vocabulary lists? And is there a resource I could rip audio from?

Lastly, are there any good iTunes apps, especially a E-G/G-E dictionary? And any other tips, resources, forums, things to watch out for, etc?

If there's already a guide somewhere that explains all of this, then any links would be appreciated. I had a little Google myself, but that led me down the wrong path with Japanese, so I'd rather hear from real learners who are aware of "power tools" like Anki and whatnot.

While this is probably not the most legal method, the first thing I do is search on torrent websites like isohunt. Just type in something like German or German Language and you should get loads of results. If nothing comes up try searching Deutsch or Deutsch lernen. This is how I got started with Japanese and how I found out about the Heisig method and eventually this website.

Deutsch ist eine schöne Sprache. Viel Glück.

Michel Thomas. I tried this out of bordom. I was given the first hour of it for free, so I listened, paid attention, and by the time I got home from college I knew everything I had been taught, without effort. So I downloaded the whole 8 hour beginner course and then the 8 hour advanced course. With a total of 16 hours of pure audio learning, with no need to write anything, I could speak conversational german. All I did was just not listen to music on my 3 hours' worth of transit to and from college each day and listen to this instead. Within a week I could speak really good german! I would srongly advise you do the same.

I'm in the same boat -- I'm looking to learn German sometime in the near future.

What I've found, after a few quite brief searches, is that people generally recommend:

1. Michel Thomas (like Ciaran12 said)
2. Assimil (the one from the 60's, not the new one. It's like "Without Toil" vs "With Ease")
3. Pimsleur
4. FSI

There may be others, but those are the ones that come to mind. They vary in their difficulty to find online, although FSI is the only one you can download for free.
Pimsleur also has a short Swiss-German course, if you're interested in that -- although it's recommended to get into after you know a little German to begin with.

I would love to hear people's feedback about any of these courses, if anyone has experience. What was good/what was bad, etc...