How to … master level A!

How to … master level A!

As a beginner you might wonder:

• Where do I find material to learn?
• Which are the best courses?
• WHERE DO I START?

I am very often confronted with students, who want to learn German, and ask the above questions. The answer is easy – but then it is not. Because it all depends on what kind of learner you are:

• Are you able (and willing) to organize your curriculum yourself?
• Or do you want to „consume“ a course, which is prepared for you?

Personally I think that learner, who organize their curriculum themselves, are the ones, who learn faster. By trying different material, organizing the best way to learn, you optimizing everything to your own needs. In addition you focus on your goal and what is important for yourself.

And to be honest: Those of you, who think there is a way around learning the language yourself, will be very disappointed. Even the best (and most expensive) course, cannot spare you from sitting down, learning the vocabulary and practising grammar. There is no teacher on this planet, who can just „put“ the language into your brain.

So for those, who want to organize their learning themselves, I have a list of my favourite materials for you.

A0 – Absolute Beginner

You should focus on learning vocabulary rather than learning grammar*. This is the natural „baby-style“ of learning a language. For this I recommend:

• duolingo.com
• memrise.com
• Rosetta Stone

In addition I also highly recommend the audio course by Paul Noble. Noble focuses on the similarities between German and English and on words and phrases, you can use from day one.

A1 – Beginner

When you have finishes the audio course by Paul Noble and pushed your vocabulary every day (you should set yourself daily goals), it is time to practise your speaking. And no, it does not have to be perfect! My first sentence in German (German is my mother tongue) was „Baba pom, ham ham!“, which is the baby version of „Papa komm essen!“ („Daddy come eating!“). Nothing perfect there – still my mother understood and I learnt the language in time!

Personally I recommend booking a lesson with a teacher or tutor.** Even though it is not for free, the teacher focuses on your needs, gives you time to think and supports you when needed. A language partner is the free alternative. But be aware, that your partner has actually not the same goal than you: They want to learn your mother tongue! It is not their goal to support you learning German.

In addition to that you should also support the other language skills „listening“, „reading“ and „writing“.

• Listening: Why not start with the easy (A1) audio stories here on magicGerman.de?
• Reading: I recommend either „Deutsch Perfekt“ – a magazine in easy German or „Cafe in Berlin“ a book in simple German. But of course there are also simple texts on magicGerman.de.
• Writing: Set yourself the goal to write about 80 words about a topic. Publish the text in your notebook on Italki and someone will correct you (be aware: Some people take pride in doing a good job when correcting, others do NOT!).

Good luck mastering level A!***

* That is my personal opinion.

** You can find tutors and teacher on the following sites:

• magicGerman.de
• italki.com/
• Verbling.com

*** I define level A as written in the „Common European Framework of Reference for Languages”