Oh no, I've finished Duolingo!!

[SnugglyJumpersMakeItBetter]

I've been learning German for 2 years, largely through Duolingo. I've now 'completed' it and am just left revising! Gutted, I thought it would keep teaching me new things indefinitely! I feel a bit like that guy in the crowd of joggers following Forrest Gump who stands there and shouts 'Now what?!' as Forrest walks away.

Even 2 years later I can't actually speak German! I just recognise a bunch of words, but am still very shaky on actually stringing them together for myself. Can anyone recommend an app that's as fun and addictive as Duo but that actually really helps teach you to actively use the language?

2 years and you don't speak the language at all?
I would go for online classes 1:1.

I'm learning French, using the Paul Noble cd course and finding it very useful for conversation. He also does a German course- I've just checked- it's on Amazon. It seems to be functional skills but might be worth a look https://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-German-Paul-Noble/dp/000748626X

I would love to, but no way can I afford it!

I recently read this about Duolingo, good for vocab but not learning the language. For listening you could listen to German radio or watch German films and for writing maybe find forums in German? For reading could look at German news sites but for speaking you probably need to find someone fluent to talk to.

@SnugglyJumpersMakeItBetter

Try to find a German and teach him/her English for German lessons.

We did that online with my grammar child. Worked really well.

Read German books. Watch German films.

Michel Thomas. Er ist sehr gut!
Meine Bibliothek hat einen " Language Club" Hier konnen Sie Sprachen sprechen!

vielleicht konnen sie etwas ahnlich finden? I lerne Deutsch auch mit duolingo!

Your library may also have, german courses, books in german, dual language books.

Learning another language is a waste of time

Openlearn has German courses for all levels.. and they are FREE!!
Also listen to German radio.. lots of regional ones, start with kids radio.. helps with word order.. even just have them on in the background..

Try this guy... You can sign up and receive a daily email with verb juggling etc, watch his YouTube videos, or pay for his course and try to attain some qualifications through Telc or Goethe.

Duolingo is a useful supplement but never teaches you about sentence structures or the many rules of a language.

www.herrprofessor.com/en/howd-you-say-in-german-i-want-to-experience-something-new-2024/

Have you considered an online (or in-person) Meet-Up group?

Dummkopf

Hi Snuggly,

na, gut gemacht! Ich kann’s gut glauben, dass Duolingo die Sprache nur im ganz begrenzten Sinne lehrt - jetzt musst du das Gelernte aktivieren.
Ein Tandem ( wie oben erwähnt, wo du Englisch lehrst und gleichzeitig Deutsch von einem Muttersprachler*in lernst) ist sicherlich das Beste dafür.

Ich kann auch das Sprachforum bei leo.org empfehlen - da kannst du ruhig Deutsch schreiben und Sprachfragen stellen.

Eine andere Möglichkeit wäre es, Deutsche Welle online zuzuhören. Es gibt generell auch Untertiteln nach Bedarf und falls bei YouTube kannst du auch die Geschwindigkeit langsamer setzen.

Falls du einige Euro im Monat doch zur Verfügung hättest, kann ich durchaus Easy German auf YouTube empfehlen, das kostet um die 5 Euro monatlich glaube ich. Ich zahle für Easy Italian (es gibt für viele Sprachen einen Kurs) und es lohnt sich absolut. Man spricht auch dort eine sehr moderne Sprache, und nicht das typische ‘Schuldeutsch’. Viel Erfolg jedenfalls - toi toi toi!

@OneLemonOrca

Why?

???

Easy German podcast and YouTube videos

I'll bite

https://www.citylit.ac.uk/blog/benefits-of-learning-a-new-language

Actually I live in another country and my DS speaks three languages, so it's quite useful when working out how to claim on my insurance, explain my health problems, or just exist really, thanks.

I was learning German at school for six years and I have never felt like I have actually learnt it. And I have the advantages of my first language using noun declension and sharing a lot of german phrases.

Decades later I am still able to express some things (my rendition of "sorry I don't speak much German" is deceptively good), understand some texts, but I have never crossed the line to being an active user. And, I'll never cross it without making the big step of getting some purpose, some specific way of using the language which will drive the rest.

Why do you learn it? Do you have some specific intention? What would be the achievement you would like to celebrate on day?

When I was learning English, the big step for me was taking a 2 weeks language school on the UK and realising I actually could use English enough to get around, including arguing with a ww2 museum volunteer in Devon about my country's history)

Do it again but switch it to German being your native language and you're learning English.

Thank you! I've bene very tempted by Paul Nobel as he seems to have a fun and engaging style. I've heard that his books don't teach German word order correctly though, so I'm wary!

I watch German Youtube kids channels, and occasionally glance at news articles. Films and radio would be too advanced for me at the mo. I'd love to progress to that though! I have a couple of audiobooks that I know inside out (Pippa Langstrumpf, for example) with a German reader, which I find really useful as I can kind of 'connect the dots'. If anyone has any suggestions for other really well known kids stories aimed at 6-9 year olds that I'd be able to get the German audio version of, please fire away!

Unfortunately I think the average German speaks better English than we do, and therefore doesn't need lessons!!

Which website did you go through please?

I do read German books, but only really 'Conni' and other very basic kids ones.

Thank you! That would have been a good idea, but when I asked my library seemed very taken aback at the idea - they don't have anything like that! It doesn't help that I live in the back of beyond. If I were in London or the home counties I think I'd fare much better.