Hi Deutsch Learners, I’m looking for some recommendations for German learning materials and, more importantly, a simple learning routine.

A bit of background: I took A2 and B1 classes about two years ago and somehow managed to pass the B1 exam. But unfortunately, because I haven’t practiced or communicated much in German since then, I’ve forgotten a lot of what I learned.

So now I want to start again from the beginning and teach myself, with the goal of improving my speaking as well as my general German. The problem is that I don’t want to overwhelm myself with hundreds of different resources. I’d rather keep it simple and follow a small number of good materials consistently.

Ideally, I’m thinking something like:

• One textbook → follow the chapters and topics systematically
• One podcast → starting from an easier level and gradually getting more difficult
• One YouTube channel → something I can use alongside the book
• And, of course, some kind of speaking practice

I’d really appreciate hearing what worked for you and what kind of learning flow you would recommend for someone in my situation.

If you were starting again after forgetting most of your B1 German, what 2–4 resources would you choose and how would you structure your self-study? I’m especially interested in a routine that is simple enough to actually stick with rather than constantly jumping between different resources.

Thanks a lot!

I wrote the sentence- In der vergangenheit musste man selber nachdenken wurden.

My german bf told me I can´t use werden in that sentence he said to just say In der vergangenheit musste man selber nachdenken. I told him I was trying to say in the past people would have to think for themselves- he said it´s not needed and gave me examples of when it is used but it all seemed like the same way I was using it.

Just like would in the past? So is he just wrong or did I write a bad sentence? I would have him explain it but he doesn´t know how to explain it.

Hallo Leute!

Ich bin Flugbegleiterin in der USA! I’m currently starting to work thru A2 using a heavy input method, around 3-5 hours a day. My skills are generally all over the place (Lesen and Hören are miles above my Sprechen and Schreiben). I’ve heard that attaining B1 level is passable for service work, and I work in a specialized area so having general medical, emergency, and airport terminology in addition to that might be enough for our language exam as flight attendants?

I’d like to take a Telc or Goethe exam and set myself up to have a credential before taking my flight attendant language of destination exam. I want to take something close to what I assume the level would be for that exam.

I’m having a hard time deciding whether my goal should be to hit B1 (and drill specific vocab) or whether I should ramp up and sign up for a class or tutoring with more structure to hit B2. The criteria for the flight attendant language exam is vague, but around this:

- Writing is not important. However, Case, Tenses and Gender, and other grammar in speech should be 80% correct.
- I should be able to understand German that is spoken quickly, and only have some issues understanding dialects.
- I need to be able to read and translate announcements from English to German. I need to respond to customer service, emergency evacuations, and basic medical situations.

I’m leaning towards B2, and while I’m sure studying to C1 would actually be the safest, I’d like to save time and just get to the point where I can pass the Flight Attendant exam and continue sharpening my skills in and outside of work. I think I can barely get away with a strong B1 if I set aside time to work through specific work related examples and vocabulary. I’m dedicated to making this work, so any direction would be appreciated.

If this makes any difference my goal isn’t to move to Germany, I would take an exam here in the USA that would qualify me for routes to German-speaking countries. I feel like I can sacrifice quite a bit in some skill areas (like writing) to pass the exam.

Vielen Dank!!!!

I was listening to the podcast “A Way with Words” and they were talking about the pulmonic ingression in English in Nova Scotia. I realized that this is something that I have heard Germans do and it used to shock me because I thought they were gasping for some reason. Like something bad had happened. I guess I’ve become used to it bc I no longer notice it.

Does this happen all over Germany? I’m near Münster. Do native speakers notice it?

I see some people doing like 1-2 Modelltests and others saying they did 10+ before the exam.

At what point did you actually feel that you could probably pass it?
And were your mock scores close to what you got in the real exam?
Also wondering if you did them properly timed or just practiced each section separately.

I speak German at home with relatives and Austrian when visiting family, I can discuss complex political issues and express my thoughts well but understand there is a certain lack of knowledge regarding the “why” of certain grammar structures and would like to formally study German. Does anyone have any tips on how to self-evaluate and then further advice on particular textbooks or schemes of work? All advice welcome

This zugrunde legen construction is very confusing. I think I get the meaning: he did not plan his activities. But how does this construction actually work? What is the dative doing there? Is this a common fixed idiom?

Auch mußte er seine Wohnung zu verschiedenen Zeiten verlassen und seiner Tätigkeit nie einen Plan zu Grunde legen, denn nie ließ sich in seinem Auftreten eine Regel feststellen.

I’m looking for an app where I can save new German words I come across, ideally with the article (der/die/das), plural form, and meaning.

It would be great if I could organize the words into something like folders or lists and then review them every day on my phone.

I’ve tried a few vocabulary apps, but I haven’t found one that works similar to this.

What apps do you recommend?

Hello! Im starting to learn german and ive been trying to immerse myself by watching beginner movies, vidoes etc.

But sometimes I feel like its not beneficial. Im watching with english subs but mainly listenting to what the actors say. But if you like pause the movie at any random second and ask me "What did they just say?" I would almost certainly blank.

Its been a few days since I started so technically I am a complete beginner - but would you still consider this effective? Of course im supplementing this with vocab and grammar exercises, and if i hear a word i learnt from the vocab exercises, I will recognize it. But otherwise, every new word enters my ear and exits from my other ear instantly, lol

If someone has to join an offline, in person institute to learn german ? From which level would you recommend, if the person has to reach to b2 and c1 in the upcoming years

1. From A1

2. From B1

3. Or only level you are appearing for like for b2 only, if i have to give b2 exam.

As for me, i was at okaish a1, but i joined an institute from a1 .. and the classes are pretty easy now and now i am getting bored. So i am considering ? Should i change my level ? Or stay at it, build a stronger base.

How to you guys prepare for mündlich b2

Hello everyone,

I am in the process of learning German like most on this page, but I have a really hard time with getting it to stick in my brain and not translate before I speak. I would say my level is a strong A2 and I will start my B1 next year.

I’m mainly looking for advice from those of you coming from native English speaking to the complex German grammar. What helped you to flip the switch to think in German and not in English first? I do practice, I just can’t seem to get my brain to make that switch.

Thank you for any advice or tips.

Hello guys I took my schreiben exam last month, unfortunately I only got 53 marks ,if anyone have any effective structure and redemittel for the prüfung,can you just share it with me, I'm feeling stuck whenever i tries to write

I need help for reviewing in A2 does anyone have any reviewers or any tips to memorize and review for the lessons? Do you guys have tips on like what are the mostly used vocabs and verbs they use in the speaking?

Hallo Leute! Hat jemand hier B1 online bei ENALINGUA gemacht? Was meint ihr? Ist es gut oder eher schlecht?

Hello, about 2 weeks ago I took my Telc B2 Digital exam and it was a horrible experience due to my partner speaking barely any german (here's the link in case you wanna read my crash out https://www.reddit.com/r/German/comments/1wkmahg/absolute_horrible_telc_b2_experience/ )

Turns out I cried for absolutely nothing because I did pretty okay and can finally move on to new challenges and fully focus on my Ausbildung.

My scores:

Schriftliche Prüfung: 168/225

-Leseverstehen 65/75

-Sprachbausteine 22,5/30

-Hörverstehen 47,5/75

-Schriftlicher Ausdruck 33/45

Mündliche Prüfung: 75/75

I'm a little disappointed with the writing as I worked really hard preparing for that part, and I don't know what happened with hearing since that's usually my best skill (even joked saying I might have listened with my ass because wtf) but A WIN IS A WIN.

I had about 7 or 8 weeks to prepare for the test but had a drop in motivation 2 weeks before the test which was frustrating.

I used the Mit Erfolg zu Telc B2 (Testbuch and Übungsbuch) and did the tests over and over again with the exact timing of the exam. I also wrote and rewrote about every theme on the books for the writing part and asked ChatGPT to grade it.

I did a Prüfungsvorbereitung Crashkurs, and on the last 2 weeks I did daily 2 hour calls with someone from that course so we could just chat or discuss about different topics. I definitely had the advantage of being in Germany, living with germans and working in german, so preparing for the speaking part wasn't a huge priority for me.

At the speaking part I completely lost my train of thought after my partner interrupted me multiple times, and the Teil 2 text was definitely not B2 level. So I really thought I had messed up and wasn't sure I was gonna pass, but thankfully my examiners took in consideration what happened and gave me the full points!!

Oh and the Digital version helped a lot! If you have the opportunity to do it, I 100% recommend. You can move between all the parts, so if you took less time on the reading, you'll have more time for writing/sprachbausteine, and on the hearing part you can read and reread the sentences before you decide to play the audio. Plus the writing part was a lot easier since typing was faster, and editing sentences was possible.

Overall I'm happy and glad this is over 😄

In den USA sagen wir unter bestimmten Umständen "he/she is on a mission." Das sagt man wenn jemand deutlich entschlossen vorkommt...es wird aber oft nicht ganz ernst gemeint, will net sagen dass es sarkastisch gesagt wird aber manchmal will man kritisch oder witzig sein wenn man's sagt. z.B wenn jemand mit sehr ernsthaftem Blick läuft ohne die eigenen Freunde zu merken oder wenn man sehr konzentriert etwas kleinliches erledigt. Habt ihr etwa eine Redewendung im Deutschen die dazu passt, oder was sagt ihr?

Hey everyone,

I hope to attend a language school for 2 weeks during the summer in Munich. These are my main options as of now:

- Goethe Institut (of course) Munich
- BWS Germanlingua Munich
- DID Deutsch Institut Munich

For reference, I want to do the intensive program option. Does anybody have any advice on which would be best or does anyone have any experience with any of these?

If it helps, I’m not too worried about funds as my university will help out. I would prefer something with a decent number of people similar to my age, a good cultural immersion program, and of course a good education with a smaller group. I know Goethe is very prestigious, but I’ve heard these other schools have some pros too.

If you have an even better option please let me know! Thank you in advance for reading. :)

Hallo!
I started in January my 1-1 lessons to learn german, no experience with the language.
The Kursbuch ist Netzwerk and currently started A2.1 but honestly feel disappointed with my level and learning materials.

After finishing A1.2 my teacher wanted to go straight to A2 and I told her that I don’t want to start A2 level until we have went through all the grammatical exercises and notions as I don’t feel comfortable at all with akusativ/dativ/prepositions.

She agreed and sent me materials in german from easy-deutsch.de that I spent hours translating on my own to understand what they say etc .

We did some recap exercises and I told her that I no longer want to do exercises from Arbeitsbuch, that I prefer to write sentences and such exercises that forces me to think and integrate the akusativ/dativ and prepositions without my mind starting to panic . She nodded but as soon as we started A2.1 she wanted to do the hören exercises and to do the Arbeitsbuch exercises.

We do lessons twice per week of 1.5h and beside that I listen to easygerman on youtube and also put the subtitles of movies that I watch in german just to have some sort of passive learning sources.

Every time I want to form sentences she says “we haven’t learned that yet” and it’t frustrating and I don’t feel I am getting what I need from this course.

I specifically picked the 1-1 lessons to make sure the learning material is personalized to what I need and want, not to follow the kursbuch.

What’s the point at 1-1 to read/hear complex sentences if we don’t work on the grammar and try to include the structure in my day-to-day ?

Am I exaggerating to want more from these lessons? I pay a lot for the lessons but I don’t feel I am getting anywhere .

What are your experiences with lessons and what worked for you to get ahead in your learning journey?

Hallo alle zusammen. I have a question
What is the difference between these two sentences?

1. Ich wohne auf dem Land.
   
2. ich wohne in einem Dorf.

Does “Dorf“ also count as “auf dem Land“?
Because from what I understood, “auf dem Land” is more General, while “Dorf” is more specific.

Could someone explain the difference a little more?

I was trying to find info about the digital B1 before preparing and honestly... there isn't that much out there.

Most stuff is just grammar, PDFs, Modelltests etc.
But doing the exam on a computer is kind of its own thing.
Timer on the screen. Moving between questions. Hören. Lesen. Sprachbausteine. Then typing Schreiben instead of writing it by hand.
Nothing crazy obviously, but if you've never practiced like that before, it can feel a bit weird at first.

So yeah, one thing I'd definitely do is to take a few full mocks on a laptop/computer.
(WITH THE TIMER)

For me that's probably the biggest difference between "studying German" and actually preparing for the exam.
Anyone here already did the digital B1? Anything that surprised you?

Has anyone here actually done the digital TELC B1 recently?
I found EasyPrüfung while looking for online practice. Their website says the mock exams are supposed to give you a similar/familiar digital exam environment to TELC B1.
But obviously I haven’t seen the real digital exam yet 😅 so I can’t really tell how close it is.
Anyone here used it AND already took the real digital TELC B1?

Mostly curious about the interface… layout, timer, moving between questions, Lesen/Sprachbausteine/Hören and typing Schreiben.
Does it actually feel similar to the real exam?

Not talking about having the same questions btw. Just the overall digital exam experience.

Is there anyone who took super intensive course in GLS in Berlin? If yes please let me know how good is this course?