You don’t have the money for a private teacher, but you really want to learn German?
You are a beginner but want to reach the B1 or B2 level? You lack the practice?
The ultimate guide – learn German online for free. Here you get an excerpt from my book, which you can buy in the full version in the Google Book Store.
You already know German? The principles in this guide will help you learn any language and have been used successfully by many language students and polyglots around the world.
I wish you a lot of fun while reading and most of all a lot of success while
APPLYING.
In this article I will show you how you can use the imitation technique and a tandem partner for free to reach a higher level of German and not only learn your vocabulary, but also get it from memory to speech.
Of course, that’s not so easy at first if you don’t have money for private lessons. (If you do, check out my offer for private German lessons).
There are several techniques you can use to practice speaking.
Here I present 2 proven techniques:
This technique is so important because it not only trains the pronunciation of individual words, or fluency in general: but improves the whole sentence melody.
Every language has a different sentence melody and way of expressing emotions. Sentence melody changes in many languages depending on who you are speaking to, when you say something, and the circumstances.
I personally was able to speak and read Spanish without an accent very quickly using this technique. So mastering this technique is extremely important.
In theory, the imitation technique is quite simple. You simply do or say what you hear.
All you need is: 1 audio or video (preferably with a topic you are interested in) and the text or transcript.
And then you follow these 3 steps:
You listen to the lyrics, the song, the conversation several times and read along at the same time.
Try not to speak along in your head, but to concentrate only on the pronunciation. You may want to make dots at places and words in the sentence that are emphasized. Maybe make a note of small arrows where the intonation rises or falls.
After you have only heard 2-3 times, you can now try to repeat. But be careful, not too much at once. Sentence by sentence. Section by section. Pause in between.
Think of it like muscle training: Often slow, few repetitions are much more effective than many fast ones. Especially if you want growth.
This part does not include reading. That comes in the third round.
Now you can use all 3 senses at the same time.
You realize, however, that hearing is extremely important. As mentioned elsewhere, you absolutely need to hear more than you speak. Or to put it another way: you always need more input than output.
You can also find a great exercise for this in the video by „Richtig Deutsch Sprechen“.
This is a challenge for many people, because they think they need money or have to live in Germany.
But here I present you a few methods how you can gain free language experience while learning German. (Although you can of course also book private lessons with me).
Learning with a tandem partner is relatively simple:
Two people who want to learn a language better find each other on the platform. Person A from England wants to speak better German. Person B from Germany wants to improve their English. So they help each other.
You can chat, zoom, skype, etc… together. The principle is simple: If you help me, I help you.
It is important to specify the topics, so it remains effective and you build your vocabulary on different topics.
Advantages and disadvantages that my students describe are as follows:
Disadvantages
Advantages
You can find the link to the biggest tandem site in the world here.
I would be happy to hear about your experiences and for what language level it has already helped you.
It is very important that you do not stop learning vocabulary now. Even if you don’t invest 30 minutes like you did in the beginning, you need to keep at it. You may not necessarily need a flashcard system, or an app, but definitely you should keep and maintain a self-created dictionary.
An excellent article on effective vocabulary learning can be found on the sprachheld.de blog.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could learn while you sleep? Sure. Just play an audio and listen while you sleep. Tadaaaa… you know German.
The fact is: it’s not possible to memorize a previously completely unknown word or phrase just by listening to it while you sleep, and recall it perfectly from memory the next morning.
A team of researchers at the University of Bern has been able to prove that words of a foreign language can actually be learned in deep sleep, along with their German translation. BUT: Unfortunately only under optimal conditions in the laboratory. In addition, one does not actively learn the word, but only gets a feeling for it.
A feeling is not bad. But not what we need to speak fluent German. In order to achieve this, the analysis of a second experiment by biopsychologist Björn Rasch from the University of Freiburg helps us:
In this experiment, half of a group of test subjects learned 120 Dutch-German word pairs shortly before falling asleep. 60 of these were played back softly to the test subjects while they slept. In the later vocabulary test, the subjects were much better able to remember those words that they had heard again in their sleep.
Unfortunately, it is a very small study and there is no exact value of the improvement. Some speak of a 67% improvement in memorization.
Maybe you just try it yourself:
You have nothing to lose, try it out!
You can find more information in the blog „Nickerchen machen und dabei Sprachen lernen“ von MosaLingua
You are now at the intermediate level of the German language. And now you want suitable reading material. Of course, this is not easy. I have found that many stories and books sold for a certain level are often not for that level.
There is no book that has ONLY B1 or B2 vocabulary. It will almost always have higher level expressions, or phrases.
That’s why I don’t think you need to buy specific books for a particular level. The trick is to find a book that interests you. The effort and time you invest in reading and understanding will then not be difficult for you: because you are enthusiastic about it.
Something I’ve seen in novels specifically for learners of German are vocabulary lists. But how does the author know which word you don’t know? I think it’s an unnecessary help.
A small list of free reading texts for B1 and B2 level can be found on the Alumniportal.
There is also a playlist for B1 and B2 German stories on YouTube that you can not only read but also listen to. The stories last between 20 and 30 minutes.
There are many methods to learn German and reach the German language level B2 – online and free of charge. Of course, most of the methods are applicable to multiple levels. However, in this article I did not go into the basics of learning.
Please write your questions and ideas in a comment below the article.
I hope you enjoyed the article.
Many greetings,
Ben
Something isn’t Clear?
Feel free to contact me, and I will be more than happy to answer all of your questions.
