Learning German

[Slowpoke]

In April last year I decided to start learning German for a few different reasons (I love Kafka, I live a stone’s throw from Germany, lower foreign language skills than I thought, I’m a high school teacher and it would be advantageous careerwise if I had the B2 in a few years or the C1 if I wanna work in Germany), and I decided to document the hours. I'm around 300 documented hours in and coming very nearly up on a year.

I’ve been almost entirely focused on oral comprehension. I would say 5% of the time is grammar, 15% Anki, 80% listening. The reason why is because:

a) based on my experience with Korean and French, this is the skill that takes the longest to improve and has the biggest reward.

b) it is also the skill with the biggest transference - knowing how to listen taught me more about how to structure a sentence.

c) I was curious if the rumours from Dreaming Spanish and Natuerlich German that delayed production = better accent. The jury is out, but I do find I'm doing good differentiating short and long vowels in German. My only time speaking German I was told I sound “strange but not anglophone” which is a victory in my book.

d) I don’t really have a rush to speak German. My only interactions are “mit karte bitte” and “danke schoen!”. 2028 is the earliest I could use it professionally.

e) it’s the easiest to do on the go

My favourite resources:

**Nico’s Weg.** It’s the closest to an all-encompassing resource you can find - it’s 3 1.5 hour movies, broken down into 72 chapters. These chapters quiz you on the content, give you the vocabulary/grammar in German and your mother tongue, and ask you to complete relevant writing, listening, reading and speaking exercises. I didn’t really focus too much on the grammar parts but the questions it asks, the oral comprehension etc are fantastic. It’s also super high production quality. Someone made 4 Anki decks (1500 for A1, 1700 for A2, 1100 for B1.1 and 1100 for B1.2) and I'm about 10% through the B1.1 one.

**Natürlich German.** My favourite resource, this YouTuber who does different leveled comprehensible input. I think she’s done with the project now but it’s an incredible resource, basically the best resource for absolute beginners.

**14 Minuten, dein täglicher Portion Deutsch.** A great podcast that has a premium version. He has a very sweet voice, provides transcripts, and says it’s for levels B1-B2 but I find it to be lower.

**Slow German mit Annik Reubens.** Slow German podcast, great for A2-B1 learners.

**Deutsch lernen durch Hören.** Fantastic YouTube channel that uploads hour long compilations of graded stories and dialogues. I would download them to my phone and listen when going for walks.

What can I do now?

- I can kind of get the gist of what the radio is talking about. Sometimes.
- I can pick out what yogurt I want at the grocery store (no sugar, please)
- I can listen to B1 German and understand most of it. I'm basing it off this website https://wortliga.de/textanalyse/ that gives you an estimate for the sprachniveau of the text you input.

So overall, not much, but it’s been an enjoyable journey! I’m a full-time student and a full-time worker, so I’m pleased with where I am now. I understand the listening-first approach is not always popular, but I'm happy to give it a shot and see how it pays off for me.

[Slowpoke]

Update: I'm now at around 320+ hours. Not much has changed, of course, but somethings I've noticed:

- https://www.nachrichtenleicht.de/ has become fairly easy to understand. Last summer I remember listening to it and basically only getting the gist of some stories, but now I'm getting almost everything.

- I just put on a random episode of the misleadingly titled "Easy German" podcast (#242). I understood the first 5 minutes as: Manuel asking Cari about her private YouTube channel, which Cari privatized and lamented the quality of the vids. They talked about how old some of the videos were, Manuel's oldest was about a Polish band he saw live and uploaded. Cari said her video is only popular because the title is of a popular song. They joke about making a video of Janusz and Manuel eating breakfast and calling it "Brad Pitt naked". Their theme of the week is travel and transport. Cari has a slack group where they ask for travel ideas and advice. I'll come back to this at 400 hours and see if I understand more.

- I miss the Natuerlich German channel *so much*. She was the BEST at making good, comprehensible input videos. Anna, if you're out there, make a Patreon!!

[Slowpoke]

Part of the reason why it feels like it gets easier is because I've noticed just how much wider the range of material I can use is now. 150 hours ago, I was really stuck with Natuerlich German (the angel), Slow German with Falk (a hero) and Nico's Weg. Now, I can still listen to those and get something out of them, but I can also watch Peppa Pig, Ben und Holly etc. It's nice not having to "hunt" for new input. Instead it's just opening up my YouTube following, seeing if there's a new vid and chilling.

[Slowpoke]

Currently at: 340+ hours

The Babbel podcast (only 1 hourish of material) was such a delight! Great stories that I didn't really expect. I'm listening to InsideGerman right now and I would say for every 60 minutes there's 6-7 that I don't understand. I'm going to try out the Coffee Break German travel diaries because apparently that's just stories by native German speakers, and finish Deutsch Audio podcast (so good!) and continued with ANKI + podcast series. I now follow enough that I get about an hour of new content a week, and I still have a couple of hundred hours of previous catalogues to work through. It's so nice getting to this stage where you don't have to hunt, lol.

[Slowpoke]

Went "screw it" and decided to start the Easy German podcast today from episode #3. I feel like I understood 80% of it, but there were still large chunks that went over my head. A big part of why is because I was listening to something that was perfectly at my level ... but just frigging brutal lol, couldn't get through it. If anyone here is reading, what percentage do you think you have to understand something for it to be useful?

[kundalini]

If anyone here is reading, what percentage do you think you have to understand something for it to be useful?

That's an interesting question. For me, there are a couple of factors. The first is whether I find the content engaging or pressing enough to persist in listening. The second depends on whether I understand enough to identify unknown words and phrases that I can tuck away somewhere in my mind. Have you considered using transcripts for the podcast? If they aren't readily available, there are now AI transcription and translation services.

[Slowpoke]

If anyone here is reading, what percentage do you think you have to understand something for it to be useful?

That's an interesting question. For me, there are a couple of factors. The first is whether I find the content engaging or pressing enough to persist in listening. The second depends on whether I understand enough to identify unknown words and phrases that I can tuck away somewhere in my mind. Have you considered using transcripts for the podcast? If they aren't readily available, there are now AI transcription and translation services.

Thanks for your answer. I do find it really engaging and definitely *possible*, but just not *optimal* compared to say, 14 Minuten, another podcast whether I understand 99% of what he says. Transcripts are a good idea! I think they are available, but I always listen while walking so it's not optimal. I finished listening to the episode and found it a pretty good experience overall, so I might try weaving them in earlier than I thought

[Slowpoke]

Hit 350 hours

- Listened to the wLAN episode Easy German. Same thing as before, large swaths of comprehension with blackout periods

- Started Checker Tobi, a kids show that's actually really good lol. I've watched about 5 episodes and am delighted there are 192. I understood most of them except the one about emergency resuces (THW)

[leosmith]

Have you checked out the Spoken German podcasts? They are pretty interesting compared to other podcasts I was listening too, and they come with transcripts (audio posted on youtube too).

[Slowpoke]

Have you checked out the Spoken German podcasts? They are pretty interesting compared to other podcasts I was listening too, and they come with transcripts (audio posted on youtube too).

I haven't! Thank you so much