When I first started teaching German, I was very curious about different available language learning material, resources and programs.
- Which one is the best?
- Which one smoothes the learning curve the most?
- Which one is the most fun and engaging?
On the one hand, there are traditional courses and books, for example the ones offered by Goethe Institut. On the other hand, you have other methods that became popular like Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur, Michel Thomas and many apps that are now available on smartphones.
But keep in mind that the key question for you is:
Which program is going to help me achieve MY ACTUAL GOAL?
I believe that all of them have their pros and cons and, in the end, it’s a matter of what is more engaging for YOU and what is most helpful to achieve YOUR goals.
But let’s be clear and honest!
Assuming that living in a German-speaking country is a long-term project for you, your first reasonable goal when starting off should be to get to an intermediate level, an official B1 level.
- Not just to learn to have a short monologue, but not be able to understand a single word when a native replies.
- Not to waste months listening to some audios and then notice that you can’t even say a sentence in a conversation.
- Not to experiment with hot modern stuff and apps and then realize that you are still only able to say the same 3 sentences as 3 months ago when you started
Since your purpose is to get to an official B1 level, in this first phase I recommend using traditional resources that will guide you through the 4 linguistic skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
That’s what you ACTUALLY NEED for an official intermediate B1 level. You need to gain confidence in all of these 4 areas.
Why I recommend the online course IWDL
I looked into a lot of language learning programs and course books but one program stood out to me that very few people know from abroad.
It’s a complete online course to take you from zero to B1.
And you know what? It’s totally FREE.
And you know what? It’s an official program co-financed by the German government.
They even created a complete series starring professional actors just for this online course, and the program was awarded an academic price in 2015 (Comenius EduMedia-Award).
I chose this program among many others because I found that it offers the most engaging way to progress with the language step-by-step, immersed into great authentic cultural content.
The program is just about doing exercises. They are very intuitive and playful and it’s the perfect way to reinforce your learning and move on towards your official B1 level.
Nevertheless, the program has some cons as well. A big one is that the program is completely in German and therefore hard to follow in the beginning.
To overcome this barrier I’ve prepared something special for you.
Here are some video tutorials I’ve created to guide you through the structure and interface of this learning platform so that you know exactly how it works and how you can play with it.
In these videos you’ll learn:
- #1 – How to create a free account
- #2 – How the online-course is structured
- #3 – How to practice and exercise on the platform
In addition, I went one step further and created 30+ Free Video Tutorials where you can see me doing some exercises on each Level, from A1 Level 1 up to B1 Level 3.
Those might help you in the beginning to get acquainted with each level and make it clear what you’re going to work with and how you can progress.
CLICK HERE to watch them on my youtube channel.
Here are some FAQs about the platform:
Do I need to do all the exercises or are there some I can skip?
YES, I recommend you do ALL the exercises!
I know that there are a lot of them. You have 4 squares in each level. And in each square, you have 5 exercises. And in each exercise up to 5 sub-exercises.So these are about 100 exercises for each lecture.
What is the benefit of doing all the exercises and doing them thoroughly?
The difference between doing all the exercises thoroughly and just rushing through them can be tremendous in the long run.
It can mean the difference between feeling fluent, expressing your thoughts quickly and confidently and feeling like you always have to think about words and structures and make a titanic effort to memorize them.
Keep in mind that you want to get to the point where you can turn thoughts and ideas into words without having to think about it too hard.
It should increasingly become unconscious, and not require you to constantly try to recall the needed words or structures. Especially when you’re speaking and just want to have a fluent conversation.
To achieve this you’ll need to truly engage with the language by doing many exercises and seeing the words and structures you are learning embedded in a variety of content through reading, listening, writing and speaking.
So I encourage you to do ALL the exercises and even go one step further:
READ every single word of every exercise OUT LOUD.
Read observantly, pay attention to details and focus on understanding what you’re reading or hearing!
You’ll reap the benefits in the long run, becoming more and more fluent and confident, noticing that words and expressions pop up in your mind without your having to think about them.
Now, what is the key difference between reading silently and reading aloud?
When you read silently you just read with your eyes. You are not noticing all the details of the language because your brain’s goal is just to understand the message and move on to the next task.
Let’s take an example.
- Ich gehe mit meiner Frau. (I go with my wife.)
When you read this quickly, just with your eyes, you might just notice the least amount of information.
The sentence Ich gehen* mit mein* Frau. contains the same message. But you see, the right endings Ich gehe mit meiner Frau make the difference between correct German and survival German.
If you just want a tourist level, it’s ok. If you want to speak correct German, you ‘ll need to make a special effort to notice more and more of such details.
These endings are very different to English and of course create special challenges on a way to mastering them.
When you read aloud, you pay more attention to these details. You pronounce them and you hear them. This way little by little you can more than double your capability to notice the details and the ability to retain them.
Reading aloud also helps you increase your oral fluency, improves your pronunciation and helps you learn to correct yourself, since you’re practicing pronouncing correct, real sentences.
So yes, it will take a little bit more time to read aloud but it will more than double the learning effect.
Here are some exercises you might want to skip
For example you can skip the ones in the first levels where you’re supposed to figure out how to stress syllables. This is something that will come to you naturally once you speak more often. (If you want to kickstart your speaking practice, check out my free daily podcast lessons)
There are exercises that you are supposed to do with a partner, but you’ll hardly find a partner. So you can skip them as well.
The exercises are only in German. How can I quickly translate unknown words to have a better understanding?
Here’s a helpful tool you can use to just click on the words and instantly get the translation instead of looking them up in a dictionary: it’s called Copyfish.
It’s a Google Chrome OCR extension. It allows the text on IWDL to be recognized and lets you use its interpretation or Google translator. You need to be using Chrome to access the extension. It can also OCR anywhere on your desktop, which can be useful.
In addition, you can also use these external online dictionaries to look up words:
- Leo.org
- Dict.cc
- Pons.com
- Context.reverso
- Linguee.de (this one gives you a lot of samples of actual real articles where the word is used in context)
The IWDL Plattform seems to work just on desktop or laptop. How can I use it on my smartphone?
I actually recommend you to put aside at least a few minutes a day to try some exercises sitting on your desk using a desktop or a laptop and do some focused work, but in case you want to use the plattform on your smartphone you can use the free Puffin Web Browser (you can find it in the Apple and Google app store).
Once installed just open up the Puffin Browser and the IWDL site (www.iwdl.de).
(One notice: some exercises might not work as smoothly as on a desktop or a laptop.)
What if I make mistakes in the exercises? Do I always need to correct them?
NO, never! Keep moving forward. Don’t reload the exercises in order to correct them.
Why?
Because there’s no learning effect from seeing the solution and then just redoing something as suggested.
Instead, just hover over the red x’s to see what your mistakes are. Read the suggested correction and try to notice the details you got wrong.
Then move on and just try to do better in the next exercise.
What if I do a lot of mistakes? Which error-rate is acceptable?
In the official Goethe exams you’re supposed to have more than 60% of correct answers in order to pass.
So if more than 60% of your answers are right, you’re doing a great job. :-)
How to filter exercises by content, skills or grammar topics?
Just click on the tab “Lernkartei”, where you can find all exercises sorted by level, content, skills and grammar topics on the right.
How can I grow my confidence in speaking?
The speaking part will of course fall short in this language course as it does in all other language books and even in most group classes.
But to kickstart your speaking and help you become more fluent and confident, I’ve prepared something special for you, so you have no more excuses not to practice every day for at least 5 or 10 minutes.
Want To Kickstart Your German And Grow Your Confidence in Speaking in Less Than 3 Months Starting TODAY, Spending Just 10 Minutes A Day While Commuting To Work?
Imagine having a personal language coach who takes care of your busy working schedule and accompanies you every day on your commute to work so you won’t need to waste one extra minute of your valuable time and he’ll help you gain each day more and more fluency and confidence in expressing yourself in German.
I want to be that coach for you! :-)
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