r/lernen_German

Hello Guys,

I am planning to give the German B1 exam and my target is to do it by Dec this year. And I already gave A1 last year in Oct by studying for a month from YouTube. So I would say my basics are not that clear but I managed to do it somehow.

Now I have some questions regarding taking the classes ( my only purpose is to clear the exam for now)

I checked VHS and Goethe, they are pretty expensive for me and I can't afford it tbh.

Is there any other way I can prepare or look for.

Any guidance/assistance will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

Hello All,

I’ve been struggling to learn German. I started from zero, reached A1, then went back to zero again and this has happened multiple times. Has anyone faced a similar situation? How did you overcome it?

What’s the best way to learn German? 😳😒

Any recommendations for online classes?

I realized my German problem was not really “more grammar” anymore, it was that I almost never had to answer out loud.

Reading and listening have improved a lot. I can follow slow-ish YouTube, do Anki, and understand chunks of Nicos Weg or Easy German. But if someone asks me something simple like “Was hast du am Wochenende gemacht?”, I freeze and start translating word by word.

I also live somewhere with basically no German speakers nearby, so the usual advice of “join a Stammtisch” or “find a casual conversation group” is not very realistic. Time zones make language exchange annoying too.

What helped was separating my routine by skill instead of pretending one app would solve everything. Anki is for vocab retention. DW/Nicos Weg and Easy German are input. Pimsleur or shadowing is for rhythm and pronunciation. If I have money that month, Preply is still better for nuance and accountability. I also added ISSEN for 10 minutes of German speaking practice when I have nobody to talk to, usually while making coffee or walking around the kitchen.

The biggest change was boring but useful: 10 to 15 minutes of out-loud recall every day helped more than adding another hour of passive input. Speaking is a different skill. You need fast retrieval, sentence assembly, and tolerance for sounding stupid.

My small hack is to repeat the same topic two days later. For example, first I talk badly about my weekend. Two days later I try the same topic again, but force myself to use 3 words from Anki and one connector like trotzdem or außerdem. It feels less random.

I know AI tools are everywhere now, even Digg is apparently coming back as an AI news aggregator, but for German, I’m mostly interested in whether a tool gets me speaking out loud, not the hype.

How are other people practicing speaking if you don’t have German speakers around you?

I have lived in Germany for almost 10 years, but I still cannot speak German comfortably. My level is probably around B1/B2. I go to a normal school, but it is very hard for me to express my thoughts naturally.
The biggest problems for me are:
Akkusativ vs Dativ

Prepositions like “an”, “auf”, “in”, etc.

People always explain it like:
movement = Akkusativ

no movement = Dativ

And I also know the questions:
wohin?

wo?

wem?

wen?

But for me this logic still does not feel natural. I understand the rules, but I do not FEEL them.
Another difficult thing is that many prepositions also have abstract or social meanings, not only physical ones. For example, sometimes “auf”, “an”, or “in” are used in ways that are impossible for me to understand logically.
My native language does not really have grammar like this, so I cannot compare it to anything.
Can somebody explain these topics in a very logical/simple way, almost like explaining to a child? Maybe with some kind of “formula” or mental system that actually works in real life.
I would really appreciate help from people who also struggled with this before.

Hello! I’m a native English speaker (USA) with a question about colloquial German.

zum Beispiel: If I am asked by a cashier if I have a membership card, and I do not, which way should I reply?

“Nein, ich habe keine Mitgliedskarte.”

oder

“Nein, habe ich keine Mitgliedskarte.”

I understand that “Nein. Ich habe…” is technically two separate sentences. However, in the example, “Nein” is part of the same sentence (separated by a comma in written language, as shown).

Therefore, do you say “Nein, ich habe…” or “Nein, habe ich…” in this context? What is most common in daily spoken language? And does this depend on region or dialect?

Vielen Dank im Voraus!

I'm 22f .“I really like Switzerland, and maybe I might go there. My visa process is going on. I want to settle there. I want to go on a student visa, so I need a Swiss friend who can help me learn the language.”

A1-A2 Please suggest some book for self study ?

I reached B1 German and passed the exam around a year ago, but after that I took a long break from studying because of stress from work and other things. Now I want to seriously continue learning again and realistically aim for a strong B2 level, if achieved then I will focus on C1 after it.

In September I’m moving to Italy for a 2-year master’s degree, and after that I’m hoping to move to Germany and find a job there. Because of that, I really want to improve my German properly over the next two years.

The thing is, after starting again, I realized that grammar is not my biggest issue. I still remember most of the rules fairly well. What I struggle with the most is vocabulary. Outside of basic conversations and sentences, I often feel lost and like I don’t understand enough words, sometimes even nothing at all.

So, I wanted to ask people who learned German successfully:

• What’s the best way to seriously improve vocabulary?
• Is Anki actually effective long-term?
• Should I focus more on sentences instead of isolated words?
• Is it better to learn vocabulary by categories/topics (food, work, entertainment, etc.)?
• Are podcasts, YouTube, or reading useful even if I don’t understand the majority of what's being said?
• Any tips for memorizing and retaining words better?

I have no problem studying consistently, I’m just unsure about the most effective method and how to structure my learning.

Any advice or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!