This course does not include active speaking components. This was a conscious decision. The idea is that the course will quickly bring you to a level in which you will get much more out of speaking practice than in the very beginning, because it will allow you to have actual meaningful conversations with your friend/(tandem-)partner/in-laws/cute person at the cafe/co-workers, rather than hollow phrases. 

Speaking time is actually a secret problem in language schools, that boils down to simple math: in a 90-minute lesson where the teacher speaks half the time (if you're lucky), your speaking time will be 45 minutes divided by the amount of students (if all student are the same level of extroversion and dominance), leaving you with what? Five minutes of speaking? You may also end up speaking in pair or group work, which I always found to be counterproductive and as a teacher I never had my classes do those activities. I could go on and on about that - but suffice it to say here in the Deutschable course you will receive all the pronunciation practice you'll need to understand, and we'll train your brain to effortlessly produce German, even if the mouth isn't always involved as much. 

Obviously, you're highly encouraged to speak along with the lessons whenever your environment allows it :-) On a last note: I recommend taking either a pronunciation class or a few private one-to-one lessons if you feel that you can't be understood, in order to pin-point the problem and address it specifically. Remember also that your goal should always be to be understood first - and having a bit of an accent actually helps Germans understand you better as a learner because they'll be prepared for mistakes. 

It's 100% true that these courses may not be right for you, and I highly encourage everyone to check out the demo lessons above before making the decision to buy. However, I would also say that, especially for beginners, given the types of relevant topics introduced in various contexts, and the wide variety of teaching styles employed, and the flexibility in terms of learning speed, that these courses should be incredibly useful to a huge variety of learner types. And again, consider the alternative: Unless you get a private teacher, you'll end up in a class where the contents and speed will almost certainly conform to a denominator who is not you.

That's great! It is likely that this course won't contain much new information. You will probably have heard many of the these concepts before. But if you feel like you could use a refresher, or if there are things that are still unclear and haven't quite clicked, or could use a dose of more vocabulary, this might be the perfect way to do it - as opposed to having to go back to class, hiring an expensive private teacher, or puzzling over your old course books. It's worth noting that the grammar elements schools teach in A2 are the "trickiest" and most important for learning to speak and understand German - the concepts of the higher levels are mostly just fancy, so it's worth ensuring that you have a firm grounding in the A levels, if nothing else.

I think this is a good argument not to take this course, at least not on its own. You might benefit from first doing this course before starting a class, then breezing through it, or using this course as an addition, to augment what you're learning in school (I like to think this: When going on a trip, rather than having a spare tire in your car, it's like having a mountain bike hooked to the back, along for the ride and allowing you a completely different way of exploring the landscape on your trip.)

This is one of those myths that no one really benefits from, except perhaps language schools who want to stretch out their incessant dancing-around-the-grammar-bush routine and keep charging you for it, or people who have mastered German and want to gloat about it. The thing is this: You can actually speak German and be perfectly understood without using German grammar at all. I'm serious, you can just use German words and use them like you would in an English sentence. Not only will you be understood just fine (and I know many people like this), you'll even be completely correct a lot of the time.

Number two is that no one expects foreigners to have perfect sentences. If you have even a trace of an accent, Germans just see incorrect grammar as part of the package and don't bat an eye. So you don't have to stress out about it.

But the most important point is this: The grammar is not actually hard, and in the allegedly most challenging topics I make a strong case that your brain already knows how to do it all, and has been doing so since you were a baby. In this course you'll drop all your apprehensions and get to actually see language from a mind-blowing new perspective - including English.

I do think this is an issue that's not acknowledged enough and that I think many people can relate to. I believe that, in the way I designed this course, it's an advantage: I want the brain to be relaxed, and on autopilot for these lessons. Through repetition and exposure, you'll absorb the language - and I also believe that when it comes to information, you will likely receive a spark and snap into attention as things finally click and fall into place and you feel the fog lifting. I think this course is unique in this regard: While it does need your eyeballs to be open, and for you not to multitask, in of itself, it doesn't require you to be hyperfocused from the get-go.

A long time ago, when I was super motivated and books were totally a thing, I excitedly tried to learn Russian from one. Then, a few weeks later, I actually had an opportunity to go to Russia and was thrilled to try out what I learned. I asked an old lady where the bus was. Simple enough, right? "Gdye avtobus?" She had literally NO clue at all what I was trying to say. Not even close.

Now I know that my pronunciation was so bad that I might as well have been speaking Welsh to her. Specifically, the emphasis was on the wrong syllable and I added an extra letter between "g" and "d"... anyway, the point of the story is that out of Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing, "listening" is absolutely important if you actually want to communicate with people. And there's no way books can do that. As supplements they can be great, of course.

It's super important when deciding how to learn German to know that language proficiency is a skill, and NOT knowledge. In other words, even if you had all "information" about the language downloaded into your brain and readily available, it will be an incredible grind to transform that into actual real-time communication. What you need is not information, but guidance and practice. All three of which you will get in this course - allowing you to communicate freely and effortlessly.

In my experience, this is a common sentiment, especially for expats living in Berlin, whose friends and coworkers all speak English, and live in place where English is spoken in every venue they like to go to. But at some point people realize that it's limiting and also a bit embarassing, especially as they settle in and the years start going by. No matter what your (lack of) motivation level is, with Deutschable I aim to make learning fun, not a slog. Not only do I aim to take the fear out of it, but also the boredom - it's a cool language that allows you a whole new level of expression, and a whole new dimension of interacting with your environment. With Deutschable, this process is effortless, quick, fun, and if I did my job right, will ignite a curiosity, and maybe even a passion for German in you that will sustain a healthy appetite for further learning. It'll be an exciting feeling of growth and allow you to step out of your comfort zone ("The Ring" in Berlin).

This course is quite consciously NOT designed for test-takers. It does not include test-taking strategies or address the specific question-types of German tests. The Deutschable course is made for people who want to use the language for communication. That having been said, this course WILL improve your German and give you an excellent understanding of the structures that are likely being tested for, as well as a very broad range of vocabulary. You will likely find that this course will be immensely helpful for your test, but I can't guarantee it. My personal advice for these formal tests is: Make sure you take a course that goes up to (or, better yet, beyond) the level that the test is for (for example, TestDaF tests at a much higher level of proficiency than the scope of the Deutschable course) and then get a book with practice tests for this specific tests (with an answer section, of course).

At least in the first iteration of this course, there's a comment section under each lesson, allowing students to give feedback and ask questions, which will be reviewed by me. The plan is then to either leave these interactions for posterity, or to incorporate the issue into an updated version of the lesson. I might decide differently on a case-by-case basis.

As far as "Well, what about..." questions go, though, often the answer is "That's a very good question, and we will get to it in a future lesson very soon." This also applies to topics that have already been covered, as they are re-taught further down the road, slightly differently.

Not at all, and I am very sorry if I gave anyone that impression. I myself sometimes use the odd American idiom here and there, and some very rare references may be quite specific to US-centric pop culture (and I assure you, nothing newer than around 2004) - but extremely sparingly and not in any important way.

I highly encourage anyone who has been able to follow the language on this page to enroll in this course. I spend almost all my time with non-native English speakers and they were on the top of my mind when I designed this course.

It's not the best way to learn a language for everyone, but it might be the best way for YOU. It certainly is the best way for me, and I really hope that more courses for other things like this pop up in the future so that I can benefit from them as well. This course here is literally the kind of course I would have always wished for myself.

There are hundreds of beautiful ways to learn a language, and many of them work really well for some people but not for others. So try this out and see if this works for you and finally puts a stop to playing Angry Birds or pacing around the room, imagining how amazing everything would be if you could learn German.