dieaerzte:

SO you want to learn german! Then this is the post for you! I’ve compiled a list of resources for learning german, either through self study or to supplement formal classes. There are a lot of resources out there for self study of german, and it can be overwhelming, so I’ve tried to present some in an organized way here. I’ve got a lot of stuff here, so feel free to reblog it as a link.

A bit about me: I’m an american who had little german background, just grandparents who spoke it sparingly around me, and a while I ago I started self studying german. Through self study I was able to get to around A2/B1 level of the CEFR (the equivalent of a couple of years in a high school course or a semester or two of a college course) in about a month or so. And you can too!!!!! This list is resources that have been helpful to me, resources I’ve been recommended by other people, or one’s i’ve found through the internet.

*Note: I’ve take the liberty of only providing resources that are easily accessible through the internet or free. If I included books this list would be endless and cluttered. 

SOME GENERAL TIPS: 

1. Use german as a tool for communication from day 1. For me that’s been speaking to native german speakers in german, and simple things like setting my phone to german to force me to use it.

2. Immerse yourself in media. Watching movies and TV shows, reading articles and books, listening to music in german – all of those things are invaluable to your comprehension skills and will help you even more than you’ll realize.

3. Spend time on it daily. Even if you want to be casual with it, make it 15 minutes of practice a day. You’re going to get the most out of it if you are practicing on a consistent basis – this way you’re less likely to forget important skills.

LESSONS/BASICS – WESENTLICHE

Duolingo- Duolingo is one of the most popular free language instruction websites. It’s set up very intuitively and gives a really good basic overview of the language. If you finish the german course on duolingo and supplement it with other learning resources, you’ll be well into A2 level in no time and set up to expand into broader horizons.  – My suggestion with Duolingo is to not only do the exercises, but read the discussion on questions or lessons you don’t understand, and try your hand at translation with the Immersion tab.

Busuu– Similar to duolingo, but a bit more expansive and also a bit of money. I haven’t used it but know a couple of people who have with a lot of success. Like Duolingo, this is mostly helpful for getting vocabulary down as opposed to grammar, I find that grammar rules aren’t very clearly explained in each lesson.

Deutsch Interkativ – Put together by Deutsche Welle, who does great work in german instruction. A very helpful and extensive course, just not as game-like and fun as duolingo or busuu.

German Basic – University of Cambridge – An introductory basics course put together by the University of Cambridge. Very well done but doesn’t go past much other than basics.

GRAMMAR – GRAMMATIK

University of Michigan Grammar/Dartmouth Grammar – Once you feel you’ve gotten the basics and a good amount vocabulary down, or if you need to go check some grammar rules, you can take a look through these sites. Concise overview of german grammar with plenty of examples and exercises. 

German Very Easy – This site has resources for a lot of different areas of german, but I find the grammar section to be the most useful. Nice simple overview of german grammar in english. 

Linguee – This site, while technically a dictionary, is extremely useful for grammar and sentence structure. You can type in words or phrases and get real life examples of how to structure them grammatically or use them in context.

Verbix – Conjugation reference.

Mein Deutschbuch – Very comprehensive look at german grammar, but all in german. This can be an extremely useful resource because of general tip number 1 up there, but obviously difficult to use. Tackle it once you’re getting more confident in your german skills!

DICTIONARIES – WÖRTERBÜCHER

Google Translate – to be used sparingly! helpful for checking sentences that you’ve written in german or finding out the meaning of words quickly

Pons.de – My favorite online dictionary. Not only does pons have many different meanings for german vocabulary words, but has slang terms, idioms, and grammatic examples.

Duden – Official german dictionary. Like Mein Deutschbuch up there, it’s all in german so can be a great exercise to use it, but not if you’re just starting out.

BLOGS / VLOGS

Your Daily German – Blog with detailed posts about grammar/vocab/structure/idioms/etc in English. Very informative and fun to read!

Deutsch für euch – Excellent video series for german beginners. She starts out very simple and basically provides an instructional course throughout the video series, getting more advanced with each episode – there are quite a few episodes! It’s helpful to actually watch and hear someone explaining things.

LISTENING COMPREHENSION – HÖRVERSTEHEN

Slow German – Podcast and blog with short episodes about a certain topic in english. She speaks slowly and provides transcripts of the audio.

Extr@ Auf Deutsch – Cheesy sitcom for german learners. The german used is fairly simple and it’s important to watch it with german subtitles – not english! This is true of any german media you watch. English subtitles defeat the purpose. You may feel confused at first, but you learn a lot through context – and this TV series helps make sure you do that. Starts simple, gradually more complicated.

Jojo sucht das Glück – Series for german learners done by Deutsche Welle, similar to Extr@, however much more involved. With each episode there’s grammatical and comprehension exercises, and a transcript of each episode is provided. Starts simple, gets fairly quickly more difficult.

Slow German News – More Deutsche Welle (their whole site is worth exploring). German news reports read slowly for comprehension. You learn about current events while practicing your listening skills!

IMMERSION 

Tumblr – may seem silly, but if you want to practice reading in german and learn slang terms, following german blogs on tumblr can be pretty helpful, and you can get a daily dose of german while you’re browsing your dashboard.

German Radio – Listening to german-language music is fun, and also helps with your pronunciation, idioms, listening comprehension, etc. You can tune into german radio stations or you can go on youtube and search for german music you might like. (I won’t put suggestions here but I listen to a lot of german language music so if you DO want specific suggestions, send me a message!)

Films/TV Shows (Fernsehserie) – Finding films and TV shows that are in german isn’t too hard to do. There are plenty of lists out there on the web, and of course if you need specific suggestions come send me a message. Again, don’t watch these with english subtitles on. You may think it’s more helpful to you but it isn’t. If you think you don’t understand what’s going on – don’t worry about it. You understand more than you think you do.

I have more resources but I’ll have to save them for another post. If any of you have things that you’ve used to help you learn german that you want to add please feel free to reblog and add stuff!!!!!!!! or ask questions on how to use any of this 🙂 Viel Glück!!!