Need to improve German level asap

[Piginapokie]

I live in Switzerland. I did GCSE German so had a basic understanding before I moved here. I now speak good German in my every day life, including with my work colleagues and DH’s family. I can express myself well and speak about a variety of topics. However, we live in a minority language area. That’s made it more difficult to learn German, because I hear the other language all the time (including at home).

I need to study for my job. I need C2 German, but they would accept C1. I’ve done an online Goethe placement test, which put me at B1. I understood almost everything on the test, but was let down by bad grammar (I don’t know if a word is der/die/das etc. Pretty basic stuff, I know).

So I need to get studying German properly, asap. Has anyone got any grammar book recommendations? Or other tips? And does this even sound doable? I have 3 years to do this. C2 level feels very out of reach.

Hammer's German Grammar by Durrell is an excellent book for getting to grips with grammar. Other than immersing yourself in the language and surrounding yourself with people who speak it, I would suggest reading lots of German, whether news articles, fiction, whatever takes your fancy, and watching TV programmes, films etc in German. Are there any German courses you can attend at Volkshochschule or whatever Swiss equivalent is?

You might find something useful on Reddit, the appropriate sub is /German. You will see a lot of nonsense too though.

These two books are great for self study. Unfortunately for the C1 and C2 exams you need to get the grammar pretty down. So you are going to have to learn the der/die/das.
I am shit at languages but managed to get the C2 about 5 years ago. I have happily forgotten all the der/die/das stuff but can function in society.
What I can really recommend (I live in CH too) is to go to Germany to do the Goethe exams. It is cheaper, you sit all the papers in one day, and they give the results on the same day. Plus, they are going to be a bit more lenient because of the candidate pool they are exposed to.

Best of luck.

Sorry photos did not appear in post:
Books:
Grammatik aktiv: B2/C1 - Üben, Hören, Sprechen: Übungsgrammatik mit Audio-Download

Erkundungen Deutsch als Fremdsprache C1: Integriertes Kurs- und Arbeitsbuch

https://amzn.eu/d/dG03E1B

Hey OP, I found this grammar book fab. I’d start at the B1/2 level then work your way up to C1 so you’re not missing the grounding.

I had a tutor which was invaluable, I don’t have lessons any more but I can babble enough with friends and deal with normal situations.

try to learn the articles with the noun and learn the rules surrounding them, ie most (but not all words that end in ‘e’ are die, ‘-Chen’ endings are das. Then watch something in German you’re already familiar with in English, although the dubbed voices may sound weird!

Thanks for the responses, really helpful! I’ll have a look at the books.

@Sajacas That’s amazing you got your C2 certificate! I do hope that once I’ve learned the grammar properly I would do well in the test without having to learn much more. Without sounding big headed, I do often get compliments on my German so it can’t be that bad.

I only ever speak English to my family and German to everyone else. But I rarely read German, and never watch TV or films in German so I’ll give that a try.

Feeling a bit more hopeful now, thanks all!

If you didn't learn much formal English grammar in school, the book English Grammar for Students of German might be helpful - it gives you the tools you need to really grasp the explanations in the German grammar books.

Definitely also watch TV and - if you can bear it - listen to pop music in German.

Do you understand the grammar rules but just not know the noun articles, or do you not understand the grammar also?
If you don’t understand the rules, I’d recommend classes to get the logic. Otherwise start learning articles with nouns every time.
German is very logical once you get that logic, it becomes easy, but you do need to learn a lot of noun genders until it becomes automatic for the words you use everyday.
C2 is achievable, but you will need to immerse yourself in it.

If you need a German show to watch, Dark is an excellent twisty thriller... I had the English subtitles on and could almost understand some of the German by the third series, despite only knowing the very basic basics of the language.

It’s hard in Switzerland as you’re not hearing the German you’re speaking in the environment. Alastair Campbell (who’s fluent in German) recommended the Acht Milliarden podcast on The Rest is Politics and I try to listen to that, as well as German TV (have you watched Deutschland 83?)