How is it possible to learn German online?
You want to learn German, but you don’t know how to get started. When it comes to learning German, there are probably many resources available on the internet, but which of them are reliable, which are useful and which can address your needs? Which free online resources can you use as additional German language study? For these, we will try to enlighten you both based on our own experience and the feedback we receive from our students.
You must have a German Online German lesson program that goes on a regular basis.
On the internet, you can discover a lot about German when it comes to learning German. For example, you can learn how to conjugate German verbs through a few informative sites, perhaps only through Google searches. But this does not enable you to learn and speak German fully. You will definitely need pre-planned online German lessons in any case.
Otherwise, you can only have an idea about German by exploring. But because there is no mechanism to guide you, there is also a risk of learning the wrong things.
It is very difficult to correct a mis-learned German. Correcting the German of students with an inaccurate and insufficient German foundation is a much more arduous process than for those learning German from scratch.
Another important issue we would like to mention is that German is not learned only by speaking or only by reading or memorizing. In fact, this is of course true for all languages.
What we look for in healthy language learning is the integrity of language elements that complement each other. For example, let’s compare it to riding a bicycle. In order to be able to ride a bicycle, your bicycle’s pedals, steering wheel and wheels must be in full working order. Then you too will learn to balance. If one of these parts is missing, you cannot ride a bicycle. This is what learning German is like. There are many pieces to help you speak and write German. It is not enough to be good at just one of them. For example, it doesn’t mean anything if you can read well or memorize words. To learn German, you need to use what you have learned!
In other words, it is best to learn German in the integrity and order of individual parts.
How to practice listening to learn German online?
When attempting to learn German, you should always practice listening. This allows you to develop a habit to the language. It will also improve your pronunciation and vocabulary.
Listening is also imitation. Good language speakers are always good imitators. You learned your mother tongue as a baby by listening to your parents and imitating them. If you have a child, you have witnessed their linguistic development. He says EXACTLY THE SAME SENTENCE AS YOU, as if he has grown up and shrunk!
Deutsche Welle is very good as a free online resource to improve your German listening skills. We try to use it as much as we can in our classes and show it to our students.
It will also be fun for you. But doing this for the sake of learning German alone is not very useful. This kind of work only gives you some familiarity.
We also strongly recommend watching videos for those who have German knowledge at B2 and above levels and want to improve their German online. Deutsche Welle’s content is rich and up-to-date. The site has a large archive. Moreover, almost all of the videos include interactive reinforcement exercises. This way, the words and rules of the listening exercise are not left in the air.
Knowledge that remains in the air flies away. You need to interact and interact again!
Memorizing vocabulary while learning German
Again, as mentioned above, do not try to memorize words independently of each other in an unrelated way.
In fact, if we give you a real example again on learning German: One of our doctor students told us that he was very good at memorization and that he had memorized a lot of German words by himself at home. When we started classes, we realized that although he had memorized a lot of vocabulary, he could not form a single sentence. His mind was filled with dead information floating in the air, never used. But it would have been better if he had learned German in regular lessons with an instructor instead of memorizing it on his own. You can’t learn a language without making sense of words.
In a nutshell, German vocabulary is learned in the context of a context. In this respect, to learn German, you need written and spoken texts appropriate to your level of German.
The permanence of words depends on the fact that you encounter and use them in a sequence of meaning. Some applications for online vocabulary study may be useful as an additional exercise. We offer you this opportunity on our German exercise platform.
Reading resources in German
Reading is one of the most fundamental parts of language learning (remember the parts of the bicycle I mentioned above). In order to learn German, you need to be presented with plenty of German texts. These texts should also include the new German grammar rules you have learned.
For example, you have learned the past tenses (perfekt) in German, the text must pass it on. For example, you have learned some of the rules of subordinate clauses (a very important topic in German), so these rules should be included in the text you read. In this respect, during the process of learning German, your German reading texts should not be chosen at random.
If you are learning German from scratch on your own or with the help of a German course, you can try reading books from publishers such as Hueber and Klett as a supplement.
Make sure that the book you choose is suitable for your level. It should be neither too easy nor too difficult. If it is too easy, it will not lead to progress. If it is too difficult, you will be demotivated because you don’t understand anything. Then, with this trauma, you put the book aside and give up, saying ‘I can’t do this job’.
The best free German grammar resources
One of the most frequent questions we get is: ‘Do you teach on speaking? NO. Remember the example of the bicycle. If a part of the bicycle is missing, you CANNOT ride it. That is why you CANNOT LEARN GERMAN just by speaking, or just by memorizing vocabulary, or just by studying grammar.
Grammar is one of these parts. But on the other hand, no one will give you a grammar test when you speak German in an interview. Your German employer will not ask you a question like ‘What is Akkusativ?
But grammar is still important and necessary. Because an adult mind needs to rationalize knowledge before acquiring it. Otherwise it does not adopt and accept knowledge.
Now the question comes to mind: ‘How did I learn my mother tongue without learning grammar?
You learned your mother tongue without grammar rules but with the correct structure. Because when you were a baby, unquestioningly, your empty and fresh mind absorbed the conversations around you like a sponge. You did this non-stop for years and only after 2 years did you start to speak your first sentences in your mother tongue. So you faked it!
Now, your adult mind, overflowing with information, needs rationality. So that your knowledge becomes permanent! The scientific proof of this is Noam Chomsky. If you are curious, you can read the writings of this important scientist for linguistics.
On Youtube, for example, there are videos with lectures on German grammar. Grammar topic videos like these are useful for building your knowledge. But then you need to reinforce them through various exercises, by talking, writing, etc.
Lots of Repetition to Learn German Online!
Repetition is one of the most important principles of language learning.
In this respect, simply watching German videos with lectures passively at home will support you in learning German, but will not enable you to use the language actively. Try to learn by using, not by passive knowledge.
But if you want to do something online to improve your German language skills, here are a few tips:
There are very important points in German grammar. For example, praepositions. Apart from that, there is, for example, Adjektivdeklination. You need a lot of practice for German grammar. This can reinforce the information input that later enters your adult mind. Then your mind grasps the rules. That information will eventually find its place. A few examples of resources can be found below:
– Meindeutschbuch.de, (good for A1 and A2)
– Nthuleen.com is a site really dedicated to German. Explanations in English. In this respect, it helps if you speak English.
– You can also download a very good, level-by-level grammar book ‘Deutsch Aber Hallo’ from the University of Passau.
As I mentioned above, it is very difficult to correct wrong and incomplete knowledge.
How Can You Speak German?
Here we come to the area where German is used in written and spoken language, that is, where it is put into production!
That is, the combination and use of the pieces you have acquired above.
As in the bicycle example, wheels ok, steering wheel and pedals ok! Now you’re going to get on the bike and start riding, trying to keep your balance.
But there will be problems while riding the bike. You will be thrown off balance! You will fall down or you will bump into something. You have to have someone with you. He should support the bicycle from the side a little while you try to ride. It should draw your attention to the factors that cause you to fall and correct them. And give tips when necessary.
In summary, you can find the resources, exercises and videos you want to learn German online. But in order to speak and write German with integrity, you must have an instructor to guide you.
The human factor comes into play here.
But even if you know German at A1 level, there should be someone around you who communicates with you in German when you are trying to speak German. For example, there should be someone who checks your German B1 texts and shows you your mistakes with explanations. Writing text is possible even at beginner level. Because from the very beginning, my student needs to see what those tiny pieces of language do and use them.
So it is useless to speak and write to yourself when you want to learn German online. In the same vicious circle, you repeat the same mistakes. Even unknowingly, false statements are implanted in your mind. It will be difficult to right that wrong later.
If the mistake has become a habit, the problem is quite big.
It would be useful to get yourself a trainer to guide you. Our instructor should not be someone who only speaks German. He must be a professional in teaching German.