Learning German with adult ADHD might seem daunting: Long words, convoluted grammar, near-endless sentences, combined with a tendency for German classes to be extremely dull, and the fact that it usually takes over a hundred hours before you can even have a semblance of a “real” conversation with an actual German.

As a long-time bilingual German/English language teacher who was recently diagnosed with adult ADHD myself, I’m familiar with the struggles of learning a language, poor memory and focus issues, procrastination, low motivation, planning and organizational hurdles, and a plethora of strategies and hacks meant to overcome them. I’m excited to share my experiences and help those interested in learning German to explore solutions that might work for them.

Here's a list of misconceptions, strategies, and advice for people who want to learn German but suffer either from adult ADHD, or are otherwise plagued by poor organization, procrastination, distractions, and bad memory (i.e. a whopping 25% of the US, according to one study):

1. You need a coherent, progressive structure - don't just dip in and out randomly

This might be the most fundamental misconception that professionals in the language teaching field have to contend with: The belief that exposure or interaction with the target language multiplied by time equals progress.

A lot of advice floating around is for people to just watch lots of Youtube videos in that language, or use apps that hurl vocabulary or phrases at you to memorize, or to use a huge variety of resources at the same time (this last one is an ADHD favorite, because the very act of acquiring resources makes you feel like you’re being productive, but you're really just hoarding). I once read this terrible advice online: Just take lots of trial classes here and there and learn German for free that way.

But the truth is this: The reason course developers spend so much time and effort creating course curricula and lesson plans is because things build up on one another in a language, and if you don’t start with a foundation first, your walls and roof and furniture will all be shaky at best, or collapse right away. Things get confusing, overwhelming, frustrating, disappointing.

Having a clear order to when language elements are introduced also ensures that these items can be repeated and recycled effectively later, helping to solidify the concepts along the way. This is called “progressive” in our field, because you’re going through all the steps of a linear path.

In short, you’ll need a structured game plan in order to learn the language. It’s much more than the sum of its parts, and in order to break the learning process down into manageable fun-sized chunks, the big picture must exist somewhere first. When you join a live language course, or a structured self-study program, it will be based on learning materials that were built in such a way. When you learn with a variety of youtube videos that are presented to you at random, or when you use apps that just serve bits and pieces of language, it will be a long and disappointing journey towards fluency.

A lot of advice online for ADHD people is to seek a lot of variety. If done right, teaching a language naturally contains a huge variety of topics, challenges, and surprises. But you should not seek variety in learning programs (obviously you can change programs until you find the best one for you, but then stick with it alone until you reach conversational ability).

2. Just talking to native speakers is NOT a good way to learn German

Tandem sessions are often touted as a free and fun way to learn a language. If you’re not familiar, the idea is that two native speakers of different languages sit down and have a conversation, first in one language and then the other, because each one is interested in learning the language of the other. The problem is obvious: Conversations are not possible when you’re not conversational in a language. And unless the two tandem partners are also experienced language teachers, they will have a very hard time getting the other person up to that level, and we’ll end up with the kind of random exposure mentioned in the previous point.

That isn’t to say that exposure, YouTube videos, tandem partners, chatting with an AI in the target language, or vocabulary apps don’t have their use: But I would not recommend any of them for learners below B1, since they end up being distracting, confusing, and sometimes just plain wrong (especially in the case of AI and untrained tandem partners). Definitely use them above level B1, though – they’re great for getting used to authentic language with its slang and colloquialisms, unique cadences, humor (yes, I said it), and cultural idiosyncrasies.

3. Internal and external distractions must be completely annihilated

It should go without saying that the “itch” to go check social media, write a short message, or play a quick hypercasual game on your phone affects not just adults with ADHD, but nearly everyone. We need to be really drastic if we want to get anything done: Lock your phone up in another room where you can’t see or hear it, for the duration of your study session. Turn off all audible or haptic notifications as a general rule… you’ve probably heard it all before.

Having a clear workspace is also essential. Your desk should be completely free and uncluttered, except for the items you need.

I created a user-account on my Windows computer called “Distraction Free”, and within it I turned off all notifications, ads, weather reports, news reports, changing desktop backgrounds, and uninstalled all apps and programs that did not have to do with the single work thing that I was trying to get done (in my case it was PowerPoint and video editing software). I changed the homepages of the browser to be blank. As an aside: It’s INSANE to me that this OS is routinely used in corporate environments, with all its built-in distractions – how is anyone supposed to get any work done? I never even logged into the browser so I wouldn’t be able to check my email. This worked really well.

I also won’t dwell here on what a game-changer good noise-cancelling headphones (in my case without music) and single-function gadgets (like the ReMarkable paper tablet) are. Working from the local library as opposed to your toy-filled she-shed or man-cave is also a dream, but kind of a no-brainer.

I want to go one drastic step further and ask you to consider cutting off anything or anyone that’s/who’s occupying too much of your brain space, unproductively - especially if strong emotions are tied up in there. Family member or “friend” constantly getting under your skin with their drama? Hit the pause button or cut them off for good. This was something I’ve recently had to do with a family member whose unsolvable issues were just dragging down my mood and motivation and wasting my time and headspace… but after having blocked them I have been able to be so much more productive and clear-headed. If at all possible, see if you can find a way to do it, too. You don't owe them anything).

Internal distractions (the above example is a weird external/internal hybrid, I think) should be countered by yoga or going for a run before sitting down to work/study.

The jury is out on whether food and drink are distractions or necessary parts of a good work setup. Let me know in the comments if you have a strong opinion on this. My guess would be that having a bowl of nuts in front of you is probably a good thing, but I have yet to try this myself.

But if in spite of all of this, you’re the type of person whose concentration usually implodes after a few minutes even if there are NO external distractions, and getting back to learning German, then the best solution here would be to find a self-study program that is progressive AND allows you to do a few minutes at a time, then return and pick up where you left off. We’ll discuss the options for this further down below.

Now, to get back to learning German on this topic: You’ll need to discover the most distraction-free environment in order to fully immerse yourself in the act of learning the language. Is it a classroom setting? Maybe – certainly many teachers in Germany would object to you doing something other than paying attention to them or staying on task while in their class. But I can also tell you, as someone who had to recently sit through 1.260 excruciatingly boring minutes of driving school, just because you’re not able to look at something entertaining does NOT automatically mean that you’ll be stimulated and learning what’s being “taught” up front.

Of course, if the teacher, methods, and subject matter are engaging, then live lessons can definitely draw our focus. This is especially the case with one-on-one (or two-on-one) tuition because you remove the boredom and frustration that comes from other students being much “slower” or “faster” than you, respectively, or just have distracting personalities or habits.

Apps? Course Books? Video language courses? Definitely, for lots of people – but only if the lessons are short, snappy, and follow a solid progressive curriculum, and if you can get rid of the distractions.

4. Getting started is much more than half the battle

If you’re anything like me, there are LOTS of things that you could be doing right now that would make a significant dent in your To-Do list. And they’re just a few steps or clicks away, really don’t take a lot of effort to get going - and we just don’t do them.

Partly they’re projects that would take a lot of time to finish and we just don’t have it in us to do that right now (like listening to an audiobook), or doing them would trigger a negative feeling (like looking at our monthly expenses) , or involve being creative or talking to a specific person or making plans when open schedules sound so much more appealing…  

But the fact is: On the rare occasions we actually START to do something, we usually stay on task long enough to make significant progress. And even if we don’t make a huge amount of progress, it adds up, and every tiny bit is infinitely larger than nothing at all.

Much more easily said than done. I find that breaking down big projects into smaller, digestible, and quantifiable increments makes a huge difference to how manageable the overall project seems. They should be sequential and not take too long to do (kind of like the progressive language courses we were talking about earlier).

If you find that your increment is likely to take too long, break it into smaller parts. Cleaning the car, for example, could be broken into steps that include bringing the supplies to the car, then each subsequent step could address a different section of the car. If you stop before the whole project is done, you can put a checkmark behind that increment and you’re that much closer to finishing (and in many cases you’ll just go ahead and finish the whole thing in one swoop).

But getting started is still hard because between you and the start of the task there are a lot of little steps that are each a big threat to our concentration and motivation. Having to click through a bunch of notifications to open a program, having to log into a password manager and get the password and then use 2FA with your phone to get into some online tool that you need… all while simultaneously hanging on to a particular thought or flash of inspiration that got us this far to begin with.

So, of course, as many of those hurdles as possible need to be removed. Your work area should be ergonomic (and this includes your desktop, with the folders and files in logical places where they need to be for you to access them when you need them). You should ideally already be logged into where you need to be. Your online tools should be linked on your desktop or on the home screen in your browser. Even on a mobile device, you can make shortcuts to webpages that appear just like apps on your home screen.

In short: Remove the hurdles, make accessing the stuff you need easy.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I want to refer here to habit stacking, one of the best takeaways from James Clear's book Atomic Habits: Think about something that you do regularly (brush your teeth, take out the trash, drop kid off at kindergarten, put your coffee cup in the dishwasher) and simply do the thing that you need to progress with right afterwards. So, if you’re in a self-study online German course, for example, get in the habit of watching 5 minutes of it right after something you regularly do anyway. Stack it on top of the habit you already have, in other words.

I find that to be an effective strategy to finally starting and getting the ball rolling.

Personally, I find that holding yourself hostage (“I paid a lot of money for this thing, so now I *have* to use it” or “I am earning three bites of cake for every mile I run”) often leads to being angry at ourselves for not living up to what we wanted to do. I personally would remove making deals with yourself as a valid strategy, but this might work for some people (interestingly, in his book Debt: The first 5000 Years, David Graeber writes that barter is traditionally not practiced among friends and family, but rather with strangers and possible enemies. Think about that the next time you want to barter with yourself.)

5. Avoid hurdles and take advantage of shortcuts

Now, some of you may have been wondering why I’m writing this article about learning German specifically, when so much of this advice could apply to any language – or any type of study or work, really. Well, aside from the SEO benefit (Deutschable is, after all, my site dedicated to helping people learn German), the advantage of shortcuts applies to German more than to almost any other language (except Dutch and other Germanic languages) for English speakers.

In a way, this is the synthesis of the previous points, because so much of the stumbling blocks to learning German have to do with not taking advantage of shortcuts: As a general rule, German teachers are not allowed to speak English in the classroom. One the one hand, it’s because it’s fashionable to conduct every single part of the lesson in the target language, and on the other hand it’s because the teacher may not be able to speak English very well – but most importantly it’s because by far the biggest market in the German Language Teaching Industry (GLTI) in Germany is huge, classic, cumbersome, government-sponsored “Integration Courses” whose purpose seems to be to move around a bunch of paperwork until the participant finally emerges with a certificate that they can speak German.

The people in those courses come from all types of places, have all types of educational backgrounds, and speak all types of languages (and usually not English). So it makes sense for teachers not to use English. Or (and I know I am painting with a huge brush here) make lessons that are particularly fun or interesting, rather than serving a relatively low common denominator.

Ranting about German classes aside, a few language schools have risen to the occasion and do provide German lessons with English as a possible reference language (though they are not common) and get to benefit from all the advantages (our “shortcuts”) that brings: Not needing to dwell on similar-sounding words, or the fact that there are three genders, or that we have definite and indefinite articles, or the general function of adjectives and adverbs… all this can be reliably skimmed because it’s so similar, allowing teachers and students to skip right to the differences and focus on those.

This eliminates a lot of boredom, increases motivation, makes it easier to focus, and stimulates our retention (memory). We also gain time to expand practice, and produce more relevant and contextual situations when we’re not weighed down by having to go over things we already intuitively understand and know.

The other obvious advantage of being able to use English while using German is that complex and confusing language elements can simply be explained in English, clearly and easily (ideally in the same way you’d explain something to a 12 year old). Modern teaching methods are allergic to even mentioning the word “grammar”, preferring for students to make mistakes and “discover” the rules naturally rather than simply being told what’s allowed and what isn’t. Can you imagine learning how to play football or chess (both also skills) this way?

Take advantage, if possible, of German learning programs that use English as a reference language. This could be apps, books, classes (though somewhat rare in Germany), or self-study courses online. It might even be an interesting idea to do an online course that’s based in an English-speaking country, though then your teacher might not be as close to a native speaker as you’d probably like them to be.

6. The Memorization Boogeyman

Memorization is hard for lots and lots of people, not just adults with ADHD. I don’t like it at all, myself, and you may be surprised to hear that in over two decades of teaching and teacher training, I don’t think I’ve heard it used even once. But people still think of “learning a language” as sitting down with a list of words, each of them written in one language and then the other, side by side, and somehow trying to remember them (“rote memorization” it's called).

That was definitely the supremely annoying way I had to learn French in school in the 90s, but I haven’t seen that type of thing in this millenium. What I have seen, though, that is similar (and I think similarly ineffective) is two-sided flashcards with a word in one language on one side, and another language on the other.

The problem with “memorization” or single words on each side of flashcards is the lack of context, and that’s, ironically, what makes it so hard for this method to actually produce memories. Our brains are not built to associate a word with a word. They are much more capable of associating words with pictures. Or they can pick up on and remember when words sound similar to each other. Or they notice that words and phrases are used in certain contexts and lead to certain actions… in other words, “learning” vocabulary should not be seen as a scary thing, or even something that needs to happen in isolation. Most often learning words is incidental, and through repetitions and context our brains just pick them up automatically.

And the same goes for grammatical structures, too. I believe that having them explained to you, in English, is important for you to know that corrections and misunderstandings aren’t happening arbitrarily (which would be frustrating) but follow easy-to-grasp rules. After understanding the rules rationally, we remove the frustration of chaos, randomness, and lack of control from the equation, and allow our brain to simply absorb and pick up the pattern.

Either way, you don’t need to stress German vocabulary and grammar. English-speakers are quite well equipped to pick up the rhythm and fill in the blanks on their way to fluency. Saying the right words will become part of motor memory (which, as far as I know, is not affected by the forgetfulness and brain fog of ADHD).

7. Don't use AI (yet)!

I am a big fan of using AI to help me in a variety of ways (except writing these blog posts, don't worry), as it caters to my sometimes scattered way of expressing myself... but I have to say that in its current state it is wrong far, far too often when it comes to explaining how German works. I recently wrote a whole article about what a poor teacher ChatGPT is.

Sure, it will give you plausible answers to your "why" questions, but they are more often than not very incorrect and would leave you far more confused than if you had asked nothing at all.

That being said, I think using LLMs to simply chat with in the new language, and have authentic conversations, it's really great. But as mentioned before, you need to get conversational first. So, I'd advise to stay away from AI until at least level B1.

8. Don’t feel bad about starting over and repeating things

As a typical adult with ADHD, you'll often find yourself in the cycle of starting something, then abandoning it, feeling bad about it, and then (ideally) returning to it... I just wanted to mention here that this is a VERY GOOD way to go about learning a language. They say that repetition is the mother of learning and there's actually MORE GOOD THAN HARM in revisiting things you've covered before. So don't feel bad. If you need to restart, go ahead. The more you do it, the better your German will get.

This got a bit long, and I could go on for a long time about different strategies and game-changers that have really helped me and many of my students, but I better wrap this up and almost certainly I’ll be writing more articles on ADHD in the near future.

But I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that I made my own German video course for beginners specifically for adults with ADHD, and those with attention and procrastination issues. Every point I’ve addressed in this list is taken into account in my program. It’s a progressive course, consisting of quick 5-minute lessons, everything is explained in clear English, and every lesson includes a smart interactive study quiz with lots of repetition of everything that’s been learned. There's no homework, no distractions (no external resources, downloads, study sheets, etc.), and the hurdle to start and move on is extremely low.

Best of all, it covers ALL contents of level A1.1 (and beyond) in record time, in very small and manageable steps. Check it out – I’d love to hear what you think. 😊