Language Learning

There's so much beginner advice out there, and I'm hesitant to add yet one more beginner-based rant to the mix. But hopefully this content is useful to someone out there.

Despite 6 months of daily effort, it is clear that my overall language journey has only begun. I'm comfortable to call myself around an A2 these days ("advanced beginner"), but its extremely clear how limited my German is. Nonetheless, I'm surprised at how "useful" A2 seems to be in browsing the internet and consuming German media.

I can truly watch news reports in native German and get the gist of what is going on. I can watch comedians tell jokes, that I don't fully understand but can feel the puns and rhyming schemes. I can enjoy music and understand the majority of pop-song chorus (at least, with a few minutes of study and maybe a 2nd or 3rd listen). Its not much, but its a solid foundation for continuing my language learning.

How did I get here? My month-by-month breakdown is as follows:

October 2025: I learn of a trade show in Germany scheduled in May that's relevant to my professional career. This is my inspiration moment. I want to learn German so that I can comfortably visit Germany. But ... am I even truly interested? I immediately download "Learn German in your Car", and "test" myself. If I'm able to continue studying German for a full month, I'll know for certain that I'm doing this seriously.

In hindsight, the "Learn German in your Car" lessons weren't very useful, but they proved that I had long term interest in this subject. It was quick and easy to try, and because of my daily drive to-and-from work, it wasn't hard for me to stick with the schedule of daily practice.

November 2025: I've researched extensively on the Internet different learning schemes. I begin Nicos Weg. I purchase grammar textbooks. I begin 20-cards/day on Anki. I realize that the A1 German deck on Ankiweb is full of mistakes and am forced to start over. I buy flashcards on Amazon.com. I try everything to learn German.

December 2025: I start posting on Learning German Discord. My sentence structure sucks, I'm told to study the basics and review the beginner grammar. People don't understand me at all in voice chat. In response... I read through all of my Basic German grammar book (Its only 200 pages and I skipped the exercises. I just wanted an overview). I'm over 500 words into Anki. Anki begins to feel oppressive, I drop down to 10 words/day.

I purchase "Cafe in Berlin", and read it through entirely. (A1/A2 graded reader). After completing it, I purchase "Short Stories in German" by Olly Richards. (A2/B1 graded reader) Despite my failures in speaking on Discord, its clear my reading skills are pushing into the A2 level. Its clear that my reading skills are pushing into A2, but how do I improve my speech??

January 2026: I enroll into a local private tutor program that's close to work and home. I sign up for 10 weeks, 1.5 hours twice a week (30 hours scheduled, 40 total lessons each 45 minutes long). It turns out that I tested into A2.2 (!!!!), despite my somewhat depressive first jump into the Learning German Discord, its clear I was making progress. However, I know that as a self-learner my study habits are full of holes. I instead choose to drop down to A2.1 instead and meet with my teacher.

My speech is awful. Despite working hard on learning "German R" as self-learning, I'm messing up ei, ie, z, ö, d, sp, st, and many combinations of letters. My tutor says I should read every section of the work to him throughout the tutoring session. I'm unable to do any of the roleplay sections, despite dropping down a level.

At this point, I post my 3-months of German through song topic (https://lemmy.world/post/41037513). I know I have a long way to go, but testing into A2.2 gives me a major confidence boost, I'm actually further along than I thought, even if I feel the need to drop down a level. I'm able to browse a large chunk of German-Wikipedia introduction paragraphs.

February / March 2026: I trust the language course and my teacher, and mostly just do the assigned work / homework. I memorize 600+ new words from the class. I manually input these into my custom Anki deck for daily practice. We practice those words every class, I have homework involving listening exercises and speech practice. My speech improves, I'm slowly building up the ability to roleplay effectively. I end the course with an 85% on the final and a certificate for A2.1 (remember, I dropped down a level on purpose). I wouldn't say it was "hard", but its clear I learned a lot from the class.

Anki continues to feel oppressive, I drop down to 80% FSRS retention.

I start Pokemon. Somewhat a bad idea, its more like a B2 level read rather than A2. Still, I enjoy the exercise and look forward to returning to Pokemon later.

Around this time, I'm noticing that its no longer necessary for me to listen to children songs. Regular German pop-songs (and even German rap) have the same level of understanding as the Kinderlieder. (Notice: I still don't understand Kinderlieder or Pop songs in their entirety. I just notice they're the "same difficulty" now). Seriously, some of those children-songs are very difficult, while the easiest of pop-songs use such common language that its surprisingly easy to pickup the main chorus (albeit I'm missing most of the verses).

April 2026: With my class over, I return to self-study. Now with a solid foundation of pronunciation, and an idea of what it takes to learn vocabulary (in context, speaking in different circumstances, etc. etc.).

Despite my speech improvements, my grammar became the weakpoint in the class. I can speak clearly, but with improper conjugation, using "das" far too often and am unable to use "ein" or other articles.

I purchase "Grammatik aktiv", and complete 1 lesson daily. I purchase additional A2 readers: "Carsten Tsara blickt nicht durch", with printout + .mp3 file. I review my tutor material weekly in the car (~40 minutes of recordings covering my coursework), I still got it, I'm still able to listen and understand.

I know I have so much self-study to do (more reading, more grammar exercises, more listening, and now I need to find a new source of speaking practice somewhere). But its a start.

As a self-study student, my "knowledge" is eclectic. I'm able to understand B1 concepts like relative clauses, passive voice, da-words, wo-words and more. But this is because "Pokemon" forced me to study so much B1 level grammar to understand it.

On the other hand, eclectic knowledge means that I'm missing basic A1 stuff like "eine" vs "keine". Even after taking my A2.1 level course, I never got to practice that. Only after purchasing Grammatik aktiv and systematically reviewing all grammar from A1 through B1 am I realizing how much A1-level stuff I missed.

Its the nature of learning. All these concepts are theoretically organized int courses... but that's not how people learn. You'll pick things up here and there. Your brain has a biorhythm, on "good days" you'll learn material but on "bad days" all your efforts will be wasted. This always leads to holes even if you end up systematically tackling each subject.