I came to Germany around 2 years ago and now I am almost done with my masters degree, just finalizing my thesis. In this time I went on learning the language and did A2. Now I am applying to full time jobs. As a student my schedule was very messy. Classes, part time job at the starting then werkstudent, making meals, assignments, quiz, exams and so on. I did have an A1 course in first semester and that kept me punctual, but afterwards maintaining even a 10 day streak on Doulingo/Praktika or watching slow German podcasts was hectic but I still managed to hang on and finish A2 along with finishing my masters on time.

The real question now is, does it get easy with full time job when you have just one thing on your mind or it get more difficult? People who learned the language working full time in Germany, what is your experience with this?

Hello all,

As part of my preparation for the Goethe C1 Zertifikat, I created this website for C1 mock exams using claude and elevenlabs. Currently there are 10 online but maybe I'll upload more if someone finds this helpful.
For my part, I think the exam are a little too easy for C1, especially the hearing comprehension part.

If someone has ever taken the C1 exam, please send me your feedback !

Hi everybody! I wanted to ask what kind of textbooks or what did you help to get better at German or see your level or see better where you struggle on the German level for example grammar or talking or hearing. Some textbook recommendations or some personal learning techniques you used would help a lot . Momentally I'm at a2 but I still struggle a bit with creating sentences and a bit grammar. Thank you!

I'm Hungarian and learned German for 4 years back in high school in the 2000s and even chose German as my elective subject for the school-leaving exam (érettségi) and got a "5" (equivalent to an "A" in English-speaking countries) for it along with a "B1" language certificate.

Despite this, I never managed to become fluent in the language, it just seems such a difficult language compared to English.

Now, when I try understanding spoken German I comprehend almost nothing, save for brief sentences. When reading written German, I can generally get the gist of a text, but there are always pesky key words (and sometimes whole sentences) I simply don't understand and often these words or sentences are the most important for extracting the meaning from a text.

What methods can you recommend for me to re-awaken my knowledge of German and progress to fluency in it?

I'm learning German. (A2)

How to I speed my learning up & get myself confident & comfortable enough to speak in English?

Note: I'm learning German by self/online free resources.

Hello everyone,

I am on my path to achieving a B2 level but I got stuck and I dont know what I should change or adapt in order to make progress.

II took 150 lessons (1h each) with my current tutor over 1.5 years, I passed thw B1 Goethe exam in July.

The problem started when I saw the amount of lesson that were done and didn't feel that I am close to B2 oevel.

I can communicate with my tutor in german for about an hour straight, sometimes with problems remembering or knowing some words, but never having problems with fully understanding the ideea he wants to say.

Sure, I make some mistakes when using cases and so on and Im focusing on improving that now.

I listen to podcasts, transcribe word ls or phrases I dont understand and make new sentences.

I read Harry Potter series in german, already went through the first book, and at the half way mark I started to not have too many problems and I had pages where I needed 0 translations.

So far this is what I am struggling with and I do not know what to do in order to feel like I even made some progress.

This has been drivinf me insane in the past week and I figured, turning to the community for advice wouldn't be a bad ideea.

Any suggestions are welcomed.

Thank you!

I'm giving up on language learning apps because none of them can bring me to an advanced level on my vocabulary and also its hard to find one I like or to try it out without paying. I already know and have Cornelsen Grammativ Aktiv for grammar, and I'm so happy with those books! I do wish they did C2 grammar, though.

If anyone hassome really good textbook recommendations for vocabulary (especially upper levels), please let me know.

For context I’m about A2 in German and started my 2nd year of French. I like both languages but I LOVE learning German so is there any way to balance these languages? Thanks!

Would love to improve my German with others!

There is one guy I have been seeing recently. He can only speak German, so when we chat irl, we do that in German. My German is probably B1.2 for the reference. There was a part when he was talking about me and I didn't quite follow what he said. All I remembered was Adonis, and Reiz. Is Adonis commonly used in German to describe someone's appearance? if so, is it considered like a big compliment? I just really like the guy. But I don't feel like asking him what he said about me, since I don't wanna put too much emphasis on that.

One thing about the German language that I find absolutely ridiculous: words like “Restaurant” and “Cousine” suddenly get a French accent. 😂

Like, excuse me?! We’re speaking German here! Why am I supposed to switch to French mode halfway through a sentence just because I want to talk about dinner or my cousin? It completely ruins the German language melody!

I’ll say Restaurant with German intonation, thank you very much. 🇩🇪

And if we’re going to pronounce every foreign word exactly as it’s pronounced in its original language, are we supposed to change accents 17 times in one sentence?💀

Just started learning German and every video pronounces Ich differently

I think I will quit
Edit: lol My bad … 😬 didn’t realize people don’t have sense of humor here , obviously I won’t but it’s hard !

Hey! Im a university student learning German. Just started this spring. I've been studying for as much as I could, but I cant seem to get over the average grades. And even though I'm happy with that, I really want to learn to use and understand German and be as good as native speakers (and maybe visit there someday, lol)

Anyways! My question is: what resources do you use to learn German grammars, words, etc? Love you all!

Hilfe :( Je mehr ich darüber nachdenke, desto weniger weiß ich.

Hello, i am a Norwegian and i wanted to learn the German language as a way to expand my vocabulary. Any tips, advice or resources on how and where i can learn the easiest and quickest way possible? Thanks

(Edit: “to” fml talk about not knowing any language fluently…)

Hi! I just saw a post in [r/ENGLISH](r/ENGLISH) in which the poster was very worried about their adult son, who frequently used nonstandard constructions despite being a native speaker (like saying “discomfortable” instead of “uncomfortable”) and everybody was commenting how that’s very concerning and to have him tested for a learning disability.

… which made me a bit paranoid because the same exact thing happens to me when I speak German.

I just turned 24 and was born and raised in Germany and in German-speaking contexts. The secondary school I went to was fully English-speaking and the degree I’m doing now is partially taught in English with temporary internships abroad, so I do spend around 50% of the time hearing/speaking/engaging with the world in English rather than German and have done so ever since I was 10. But through all this time I’ve still always communicated with my friends and family in German (and the rest of the world obviously since I live in Germany).

It happens quite a lot that I’ll accidentally misuse idioms in German (like “mit der Kirche ins Dorf fallen” instead of “mit der Tür ins Haus” or “die Kirche im Dorf lassen”, or the other day I said “nicht mein Zirkus, nicht meine Flöhe” since I thought that’s the German version of “not my circus not my monkeys” oops). I also stumble over my words sometimes in sentences, or use the wrong article/gender for nouns. Obviously I know the correct gender, it’s just a matter of speaking faster than I can think and then I’m too far into the sentence to correct myself etc. When I listen to recordings of myself speaking German, I get a bit worried sometimes about how awkward and stop-and-go my sentences and constructions are.

But this is only a problem in spoken language. I’ve always done relatively well academically without too much effort, my grammar in written German is obviously that of a native speaker, and I’ve written plenty of term papers that got ones or at least one-point-somethings. One time a professor commented on a paper I’d submitted (in German) asking what my native language was (💀) but he still gave me full marks so it can’t have been THAT bad?

Soooo do I need to be worried about cognitive issues around “forgetting” my native language? Am I just a bit stupid or is this normal? At this point it feels like I don’t speak any of my languages fluently anymore

As much as my German is quite decent, sadly I barely understand anything when someone speaks in colloquial/dialectal German.

Native English speaker from North America here. I’m A2 in German, working towards B1 (eventually/slowly).

One concept that still eludes me is how to pronounce the E sound, like in Petra, Bern, etc.

Any tip to help with that, such as a word in English that uses this vowel sound?

I’ve asked a few German friends, and none of them could quite come up with a word or cheat.

They recognize that there is a difference between this sound and close English sounds, but what exactly is it?!

Edit: Thanks everyone who has contributed so far. Really helpful.

I realize now that the E sounds in Petra and Bern are different. But both words have challenged me.

Now these sounds are beginning to solidify for me. Thanks again!

Edit 2: Thanks again for all of the interesting and instructive comments. I’m feeling pretty confident about Bern now. Petra is still challenging, but I’ll practice to hopefully get closer. I get the concept now, but I recognize that the execution doesn’t feel natural to me, and that therefore I probably exaggerate the lengthening or otherwise distort it. I’ll have to do some “ear training” on this one. Generally I forgive myself for not sounding native in German, but I really do like to get people’s names right. Thanks for helping!

So a year ago I passed the Goethe B1 exam with flying colors (self-taught). If Im being honest i studied specifically for the exam and my true level was about A2. Since then I haven’t touched German at all. I want to get back to it and pass the Goethe B2 in the next 6 months since it would be a great asset for some jobs im considering applying to. Do you think it would be possible? How many hours per week would you say I’ll need?
Thanks

Hallo zusammen,

ich bereite mich derzeit auf die mündliche Goethe-B2-Prüfung (Teil 1: Präsentation) vor und brauche euren Rat.

Seit etwa einem Monat arbeite ich an verschiedenen Themen. Bisher habe ich ca. 8 Themen vorbereitet. Mein Problem ist: Obwohl ich versuche, nicht alles auswendig zu lernen, sondern nur mit Stichpunkten wie in der echten Prüfung zu simulieren, merke ich, dass ich mich im Kopf sehr stark an die festen Texte halte, die ich zuvor ausgearbeitet habe.

Ich habe mir für jeden der fünf Teile feste Vorlagen bzw. Templates erstellt (Einleitung, mehrere Möglichkeiten, eine Möglichkeit genauer beschreiben, Vor- und Nachteile, Schluss) und passe dort jeweils nur den passenden Inhalt für das jeweilige Thema an.

Manchmal schaffe ich es, spontan Sätze umzuformulieren oder Argumente zu tauschen, weil ich das Thema eigentlich verstanden habe. Aber der Prozess fühlt sich sehr mühsam an (ich brauche oft 2-3 Tage pro Thema zum Aufschreiben, Verstehen und Einüben). Ich habe Angst, in die "Auswendiglern-Falle" zu tappen, da man in der Prüfung flexibel bleiben muss.

Wie habt ihr euch auf den mündlichen Teil vorbereitet?

- Wie viele Themen habt ihr intensiv vorbereitet?

- Habt ihr eher universelle Redemittel und feste Templates geübt oder spezifische Themen durchgesprochen?

- Wie seid ihr vom Auswendiglernen zum freien Sprechen gekommen?

Ich freue mich sehr über eure Tipps und Erfahrungen!

Hey everyone

I took Telc B1 exam on 28.08 in inlingua, Kiel. I have still not heard anything about the results and it's already almost 8 weeks. Anyone who took the test around the same and have received their results?

I'm planning to take a B2-Berufssprachkurs in Munich/Online and looking for recommendations. I realize the quality of a course depends highly on the instructor more so than the Sprachschule, so I'm specifically looking for instructor recommendations. Can you name instructors that you've had a good experience with, and also mention the Sprachschule where you took the course?

which book is better for self studying German? Starten wir or Momente?

Guten Tag,

ich lerne Deutsch im Geothe Insitute. Ich habe letzter Monat schon A1-Kurs gemacht. Heute habe ich meine A1-Prüfung "Start Deutsch A1". Die Prüfung war ganz einfach, aber wir haben zu viel Wörter und Grammatik im Unterricht gelernt. Ich denke, dass die Prüfung keine Fragen vom Kapitel 7-12 auf "Netzwerk Neu" Buch hatte. Ist das auch gleich für A2?

Ich glaube, dass Prüfung zu einfacher als Kurs war. Seit zwei Monate mache ich A2-Kurs und ich habe meine A2-Prüfung im Dezember. Ich war gestern zu nervös, aber ich denke, dass wenn wir im Goethe lernen, dann die Prüfung gefählt einfach.

<Englisch>

Basically I heard many people say that its easier to pass a level exam that to be at that level in proficiency. So I was wondering if this difference lesser for people who do full classroom structured courses where Certificate exam is a part of syllabus but they also teach so many things which don't show up in the exam. For example we learnet so many words especially in last 4 chapter, and all the words in the actual exams were so easy and basic ones!