How can one learn German quickly?

In general, it takes between 6 months and a year to learn German fluently. We have 7 recommendations for you on how to achieve it as quickly as possible.

1) Do the things you enjoy, in German

What are your personal preferences? What hobbies and interests do you have? Which YouTube channels do you follow? What is your favorite series? Which content is particularly interesting to you on Instagram or TikTok? What books and magazines do you like to read? What podcasts or audiobooks do you enjoy?
Identify your personal interests and then consume them in German. Whether you're interested in fashion, gardening, soccer, cars, cooking, architecture, or design - read the magazines, subscribe to the channels, watch the videos on this topic - in German. This is important because our minds remember things better that are interesting and relevant to them, and because you are already familiar with your favorite topics.

2) Practice regularly

Similar to sports or music, it is also important in language learning to dedicate a specific amount of time to it every day. For example, you should rather practice for half an hour every morning and every evening than once a week for four hours straight. Watch a German learning video on YouTube during breakfast in the morning. Do an online exercise in the evening before going to sleep. Focus on a specific grammar topic for one or two weeks, e.g., perfect or dative, until you really understand it. Some websites and YouTube offer many free exercises and a lot of well-made explanatory videos. Recommended are, for example: deutschlernerblog.de and schubert-verlag.de

3) Apply everything you learn immediately

In the very first German lesson, you will probably learn how to ask how someone is doing and how to respond to this question. Once you leave the classroom, you should ask everyone you meet this question - your friends, the nice neighbor, the bus driver, the cashier at the supermarket, your colleagues or fellow students, the ticket inspector, and the old lady walking her dog.
You should try to apply every phrase, every word, every question, and every sentence you learned in the German course. This will lead to misunderstandings and funny (or embarrassing) situations. You will meet or annoy people. But that way you learn and practice from the beginning, and only what you practically try out is what your brain really remembers. You can also mix in English or other languages. And you are allowed and will make mistakes, many mistakes. Only those who make mistakes learn. Small children fall down repeatedly, get back up, and keep going until they can walk. You should do the same.

4) Focus on important grammar and ignore the unimportant

German has a reputation for having complicated grammar. Books on German grammar are often frighteningly thick.
The good news is that you do not need three-quarters of this grammar for daily communication. A few examples:
German has four cases, but in spoken German we mostly use only three - the genitive is on the decline and is almost only used in written language or in formal language.
Of the three past tenses, we only use the perfect for speaking in everyday life (exceptions are haben, sein, and modal verbs). The other forms only appear in books or very formal communication.
German has two future forms, which we almost never use. It is easier to use the present instead of the future: "Ich gehe morgen ins Kino."

So you should focus on the grammar you really need when learning German (and you can find a good overview of the grammar exercises on our website):

This includes: accusative, dative, verbs in the present and perfect, verbs with fixed prepositions, reflexive verbs.

Other grammar topics you should understand, but never use yourself (unless you want to write a book in German or become a professor at the university). This includes, for example, genitive, passive, subjunctive 1, simple past, and past perfect.

Use your time wisely.

5) Find your own learning strategy

Every person is different, and everyone learns differently. Learning psychology distinguishes between three types of learners: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Most people are a mix of these, but for many, one is dominant. Visual learners need to see everything written down and write it down themselves. Auditory learners learn through repeated listening. And kinesthetic learners learn best by creating nice overviews, using different colors in their folders, painting posters, cutting out and pasting articles and pictures from magazines, etc.

Perhaps you are a musician and like to sing songs to the guitar - then play German songs. Maybe you have acting talent - perform small scenes in German. Perhaps you enjoy being an entrepreneur and like to sell things - sell (also online) in German. Maybe you enjoy reading comics - read German comics (e.g., Das lustige Taschenbuch). Maybe you enjoy writing poetry - write it in German.

Everyone should know themselves and use their own strengths, interests, and abilities for learning German.

6) Don't waste time learning German

If you want to learn German quickly, you must make smart decisions about what to focus on while learning. There is no perfect book that you could work through page by page, and there is no foolproof learning method that takes away the effort of finding your own way.
A sure way to waste time is the currently available learning apps. They usually keep you busy, giving you the feeling of doing something every day. But little surprise, after half a year of playing and having fun on your learning app, you are still hardly able to order a coffee in a café. To learn a language, you must practice and apply it in meaningful situations from the very beginning, and the artificial and arbitrary language snippets on learning apps are far from that. Another way to waste time is the endeavor to practice all grammar perfectly from the beginning before you start applying the language practically. It is nearly impossible to communicate flawlessly in the first weeks and months. Children don't do that either when they learn to speak. Focus on the necessary grammar and invest as much time as possible in practical application.

7) Find a high-quality German course

To reach a specific level, different language schools estimate different hours and weeks. It may be that a language school recommends taking an intensive course (20 hours per week) for 3 to 5 months to reach a level (e.g., A1). Even if some people may take that long to reach a level, it is possible for the vast majority of learners to learn much faster. For this, it is important that - the time in the course is used wisely (i.e., not spending hours reading texts silently or discussing homework)
- all teachers have a solid training as teachers of German as a foreign language,
- additional exercises on a learning platform support learning and help close individual gaps,
- classmates in the course are helpful and supportive,
- especially in beginner classes, explanations are provided in English when needed and questions are answered (monolingual German instruction is outdated and ineffective),
- a suitable textbook is used, but not worked through page by page, rather the best exercises are selected sensibly and supplemented with additional materials from other sources,
- grammar is explained step by step and in a pedagogically meaningful order that is easy to understand,
- additional events at the language school provide opportunities to practically test what has been learned from the very beginning.

Even if we are sure that many language schools meet these criteria, we believe that our courses are particularly suitable for learning German quickly and effectively. Try it out. If you do not like the course, we will refund 100% of the course fee (for four-week courses).