This page is written for students planning to take German 102 who found German 101 difficult, for students who have not taken a German course for a while, and for students who did not take German 101 at the University of Michigan. The suggestions are listed roughly in order of priority.
0. Review the Modul 1-6 Vocab Lists: Practice with Quizlet, Read through the Lists, Form Sentences!
1. Review/Preview the German 101/102 Legacy Video Lectures, Worksheets, and Online Exercises
2. Easy German and Super Easy German
3. Review the basics: Pimsleur German. Great for improving listening & speaking skills!
4. Duolingo and HelloTalk – daily practice and German conversation partners
6. Graded German Reader; More Reading Options
7. Subscribe to Mango or Yabla German via the LRC
8. MORE Self-Study advice and resources
0. Review the Modul 1-6 Vocab Lists: Practice with Quizlet, Read through the Lists, Form Sentences!
Vocabulary is learned most effectively in smaller chunks. If you are feeling ambitious and have enough time, try to set aside 15-20 minutes, 3-4 times/day to read through the lists and/or to practice with Quizlet, or to try forming simple sentences with the vocabulary (Idee: Mein Pinguin…). Use the following links:
- Quizlet: Deutsch 101 & 102 an der Uni Michigan Note: You may find it more productive to practice with the individual Module Quizlet sets (Modul 1, 2 usw.), rather than the cumulative Modul 1-6 set!
- Modul 1 Vokabelliste
- Modul 2 Vokabelliste
- Modul 3 Vokabelliste
- Modul 4 Vokabelliste
- Modul 5 Vokabelliste
- Modul 6 Vokabelliste
- Advice for forming simple sentences quickly is here.
1. Review/Preview the German 101/102 Video Lectures, Worksheets, Online Exercises, and Vocabulary Resources
Click here to access the Legacy Video page. Scroll past the vocabulary section at the top. You will see three columns:
- The left-hand column includes links to video lectures summarizing the basics of German grammar. Note the list of topics for each video.
- Pause the video lectures as needed; watch them multiple times. Focus on the topics you want to review!
- Make up your own example sentences using the new structures, until they feel easy.
- Make flashcards out of example sentences you find useful! Here is some advice for making flashcards.
- The center column includes links to online exercises and worksheets accompanying each video. The videos, and hence the exercises and worksheets, include some details that we are no longer covering in German 101, but all of the materials included are worth looking at!
- Ignore the right-hand column, which links to outdated vocabulary resources!
- If you want to review as much as possible in a short time, try to watch one or two of the video lectures in the left-hand column every day (more would be too much to absorb at one time). There are only six, so you could cycle through them multiple times until the material feels familiar. Follow up each lecture by trying the accompanying exercise/worksheet in the middle column. Focus on what feels most helpful. If you have more time, work through the lectures systematically in order. Spend about 3/4 of your overall time on vocab practice (see (0)), 1/4 on grammar.
- You could also look ahead at the video lecture and vocabulary for chapter 7 and chapter 8 – the chapter 8 lecture includes the segment on the Future tense which we learned in Modul 6 (9:28-12:35).
- The video lectures address the Nominative, Accusative and Dative individually. To prepare for 102, you should also review and try to memorize the Basic Chart of Forms of der/das/die, ein-words, and Pronouns, and read through the two Case Overview pages linked to this page multiple times. Try the exercises linked to the Case Overview page, especially the Diagnostic Exercises. Ignore the info on the Genitive Case on this page and in the Basic Chart!
2. Easy German & Super Easy German: Two great series of videos with enthusiastic hosts (the series began as a high school project!) introducing German language and culture in clear, simple German. Access both playlists for free via the Easy German home page. All videos include clear subtitles in German and English. Paying for a membership supports the site and gets you access to additional features.
3. Review the basics: Pimsleur German. Great for improving listening & speaking skills!
Pimsleur Level 1 may feel easy, but is a good starting point for building confidence and fluency in speaking and listening.
Pimsleur uses an audio-based approach to teach a wide range of languages. You can find Pimsleur audio (or CDs) in most public libraries. Look for something like “Basic German” or “Conversational German” or simply “Level 1,” and if you like it, look for the “Complete Course” collections, which exist at three levels. The basic idea is that you are taught how to say a few words, and then systematically asked to form sentences with them, e.g. Say “Let’s meet at half-past five.” There’s a pause for you to say it if you can, then you hear the model answer, then you repeat the model answer, then you’re prompted to say the next sentence, etc. Every few sentences, a new word or phrase is introduced. The method is slow and methodical, but very effective at getting you to use the German it teaches you with confidence. It will only work if you attempt to say each sentence when prompted (and then repeat the model answer). Note their advice to repeat each lesson until you have mastered 80-90% of it before you move on to the next lesson!
If you like Pimsleur, I recommend using it in combination with a flashcard program, where you can enter words and phrases you want to be sure to remember, and with an online dictionary (e.g. pons.de or dict.cc).
If you like the Pimsleur approach but find it too slow, you could experiment with the German materials by Michel Thomas, which use a similar approach, but proceed more quickly (but also less systematically).
4. Duolingo and HelloTalk – daily practice and German conversation partners
Duolingo is a free app (for Android, iOS and even Windows phones) with the explicit goal of making language learning fun and addictive. Practice vocabulary, grammar, speaking and listening. Constantly being improved.
HelloTalk is a free app (Android and iOS) for finding conversation partners around the world and at home. Enter the language(s) you speak and want to learn, then find partners by language, location etc.
Links to Duolingo, HelloTalk, Italki and other resources are here.
Don’t be shy about talking to real people: German-speaking tourists and exchange students, friends and family members who speak German, German-speaking online gamers etc.!
Finally, you can talk to yourself in German – out loud, or in your head. Tell yourself in German what you’re doing, what you’re seeing, what you’re thinking. It’s fun, makes you more mindful, and will help you learn to talk about the things that are most relevant for you! Use a translator when you don’t know how to say something; mark words and phrases that feel useful as “favorites”!
5. Listening practice: extr@ auf Deutsch; Lernen to Talk Show; “Videos zum Spaß”; German Audio on Netflix; German Series & Movies on Campus and Online
extr@ auf Deutsch is an entertaining soap-opera spoof. The German is simple, clear, and useful, and the videos are captioned to help you follow along. An exaggerated laugh-track lets you know when a joke has been made, and some of the jokes are funny.
The Lernen to Talk Show is a series of 4-7 minute videos filmed once a week by a student who went to Germany for a year in 2011/12, to document his progress in the language. Each episode is carefully subtitled (and often also annotated) in ways that also show you some of the mistakes he makes as he speaks. Click around to find a starting point that matches your current level.
Videos zum Spaß: These videos are organized in accordance with their correlations to the chapters of our former textbook, Vorsprung, but can be useful practice at all levels. The links are accompanied by explanatory notes, ranging from general comments to detailed transcripts with translations. Choose what you like and use the related videos on YouTube to find more!
German Audio on Netflix: For shows produced by Netflix (Dark, Biohackers, Stranger Things, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, BoJack Horseman, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt etc.), there is a language menu at the lower right of the screen where you can set the audio (but unfortunately usually not the captions) to German. You’ll learn the most by setting the language to German and the captions to English and actively correlating what you hear with what you see.
- Here are complete lists of Netflix’ current original series and Netflix’ past original series. Many more series are available in German (and with German captions) on Netflix in Germany/Austria/Switzerland, but Netflix is very strict about attempts to fool it into believing you’re in Germany or elsewhere when you’re not.
German Series & Movies on Campus and Online: Lots of German series and movies are easily accessible via Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, etc. If you’re a UofM student and you’re in or near Ann Arbor, you can take advantage of the great selection of German movies at the Askwith Media Library in the UGLi, and in the Language Resource Center (LRC):
- Especially highly recommended series: Dark, Babylon Berlin, Biohackers, and Deutschland 83 (and 86, and 89). For other suggestions as to what to watch, try one of these lists:
- Check the Telescope website for info on German films and series worth watching, including trailers and details on where they are available online.
- Here is a survey of German film series that you can watch in the US, compiled by the Goethe Insitute.
- Here is another list of German television and shows available on Netflix and Amazon Prime. The rankings seem arbitrary, but the descriptions and availability info are very helpful.
- 37 Best German Films for German-Learners A great list, but aging (the newest entry is from 2006)
- On campus: Askwith: German Movies at the Askwith Media Library in the UGLi
- On campus: LRC: You can also watch lots of great German movies (including various American/British classics dubbed in English, like the original Star Wars trilogy, the Monty Python movies, some of the Harry Potter movies, The Big Lebowski etc.) at the LRC (you need to watch LRC movies in the LRC – which you can do in great comfort in their viewing area). Here’s the list of German Movies in the LRC.
- Here is a page with more info about German-language movies & TV.
6. Graded German Reader; More Reading Options
Extensive reading is a great way to build vocabulary and learn how the language works. The key to this is to look up as few words as possible, in order to read at close to a normal pace. Look up words only if (a) you’re lost, or (b) you really want to learn that particular word. A few ideas:
- Graded German Reader (by Crossgrove & Crossgrove): Well-thought out progression from texts for complete beginners to anecdotes, stories and fairy tales – but VERY expensive (over $100 for a 240-page paperback) ==> look for a used copy, or an older edition!
- Dual Language books in German with a facing page translation. Entering “Dual Language German” or “Parallel Text German” on Amazon will show you various options. Unfortunately, most of the available texts are VERY difficult. You could try letting an online translator turn any book into a dual-language book via the camera option!
- German versions of easy-to-read books you like and have already read. This may be too hard at this point, but could work if you find a German version of something very easy and familiar. Harry Potter is definitely too hard at this point – but if you want to try it, here is a page with links to vocabulary lists and chapter outlines for the Harry Potter series, which can help you read this book more efficiently.
7. Subscribe to Mango or Yabla German via the LRC
Click here to request a free subscription to Mango or Yabla. This is a great opportunity to access these valuable resources for free.
Mango Languages is an online language learning resource based in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Here is a video overview of how Mango works.
Yabla allows you to watch their library of authentic German videos (TV clips, music videos, etc.) with various features to promote listening practice:
- You can slow down the audio. The pitch will be corrected so it still sounds fairly normal.
- All videos are accompanied by German and English captions. For easier texts, hide the English ones. Click on words in the German captions to look them up in an online dictionary.
- The “loop” button allows you to play a certain segment over and over (click “Loop” at the point where you want the loop to end, then click on the progress bar where you want it to start)
- Click “play game” to see some fill-in-the-blank activities based on segments from the video clip.
- New clips are added each week. You can browse their library without signing in to see what’s available.
8. MORE Self-Study advice and resources
Here is much more self-study advice. If you have time, scan the list to see what resonates with you.
Viel Spaß und viel Erfolg [=success] in Deutsch 102!