To preface I passed the A2 certificate from Goethe in 2019 and took one B1 class at university. Lived in Germany in the past 4 years but only used English for work + friends. However I do consume a lot of German media without subtitles or translations.

Had to do the B1 exam for my permanent residence application. Booked the earliest date and only looked at the exam papers the night I booked the exam (2 weeks before exam date). Did the reading and listening part of the sample exam and was able to get all correct. So clearly my German media consumption played a pretty significant role. Did not study for listening + reading after that (got full points in actual exam as well)

The problem began with writing, first attempt was absolutely horrible. GPT had to pretty much correct every single word. So daily writing of one part of the writing exam for GPT to check. At the same time used anki to memorize all words in the B1 goethe word list. This is pretty important since sometimes the words would appear in writing and reading questions. Faul and Gewalt appeared in sample writing questions and I had zero clue at the time what they meant, end result was incredibly off topic essays.

Youtube videos by learn German relaxed with Gabriel was incredibly helpful for the writing part. I memorized an opening + closing template.

Don't be too concerned about grammatical mistakes- GPT still corrected every second line of my grammar the day before the exam but I still got 98/100 from the actual exam. The book Dieses kleine Buch ist für dich was extremely helpful for learning grammar.

Oral was the one I cared the least about because everyone told me yeah just pretend to be confident they don't care about grammar. This kinda bit me in the butt when I started studying for it 4 days before the exam... Prepare a proper template for the presentation! Also actually practice planning something. My partner had no clue what to say and it was incredibly difficult to carry on the conversation. I know i butchered the grammar completely but I kept talking so still ended up with 80+.

The sample questions are very representative of possible questions: my oral presentation topic was an exact match to one in Cornelsen Prüfungstraining (I chose the other topic though since that one was more fun).

The results came out in 4 weekdays. I highly recommend doing the digital version, lots of benefits including countdown timer on screen + headphones for listening questions.

So if you have lived in Germany for a while and has a solid A2 foundation, its 100% possible to study for B1 in two weeks after work and pass.

I saw the chat records between my boyfriend and his friend.

My boyfriend said: 'Mit dem girl.' Then his friend said: “ Bro, zeig die olle mal“

After that, my boyfriend sent a photo of me. Both my boyfriend and his friend are Germans, but I am not. Can someone please explain what this means?

I moved to Berlin about a year ago, and I've been self-learning German for over a year now using a mix of YouTube videos and ChatGPT. I'm now able to convey basic ideas (sometimes without mistakes!), as well as understand bits and pieces of things that other people are saying on the street.

I found a format that works for me: I instruct ChatGPT to create a scene (I prefer this to be an imaginary scene, so it might be something like "A comedy scene where two robbers are making their escape" or "A cosmic horror scenario on a ship"), I then invent two characters and "act" as one of them, while ChatGPT plays the other. We carry out the dialogue in German, and I ask it to correct my mistakes as we go.

It's pretty cool to be honest, I notice that it has some fascinating comedic timing, or the ability to set a dark atmosphere, depending on the scene.

If you are a fan of role-play or improv, this is a cool way to learn a language

Context; I'm an American, and deeply ashamed and embarrassed about current events, and looking for words to encapsulate the way I feel.

Edit: Corrected the typo / autocorrect issue ("dolls") in the first sentence. Didn't mean to offend US guys. Sorry for this!

I had a few voice calls with folks from the US for language exchange. Quite a few of them started with something like "Wie heißen Sie?" and stuck to the formal form.

I immediately "offered them the Du" as we say in German. Some of them were not able to speak in the informal form while being quite okay with "Sie"-sentences.

I recommended that they focus on "Du" since this is friendlier and doesn't feel so distant.

I have to admit that I live in cologne and this is an area where nearly everybody is using Du. Even government employees can be addressed with "Du", as long as you obviously don't use this to offend. At least the "formal Du", where you use the plural even when talking to just one person, is safe to use 😉

What do you think about this? Are you German learners learning both forms or focus on a specific form?

Edit: Corrected the typo in the first sentence. Didn't mean to offend US guys. Sorry for this!

Sorry for the generalization. I recently joined a language school in my quest to master the German language one last time. And I was immediately reminded of how uninspiring the Deutsch als Fremdsprache courses are.

Over the last 10 years or so, I’ve taken German language courses at universities, specialized language schools, and Volksschulen. Yet I’ve never had that “OMG, this teacher is so inspiring; they make me want to master this language” feeling.

For context, I’ve taken German classes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and it often feels like most German language teachers are somehow forced into this career path and can’t really inspire or motivate students. Maybe group classes just suck, and 1-1 learning is the way to go.

I wouldn’t say I’m the worst student in the world. I’ve taken English, French, and Japanese language courses at various levels and have always had at least some inspiring teachers who helped me stay motivated. I can’t say the same about my German language courses, though.

Rant over!

Anyways if you are taking German lessons at advanced level 1-1 level shill me your teachers info .

Ich hoffe = I am hoping

jeden Tag = every day

zu schwimmen = too swimming????

The last two words are confusing. In Duolingo, the translation is: I am hoping to swim every day

But I can't make the word-to-word mapping of the English translation with the original German. Is there another meaning of zu schwimmen?

I'm not a German or English speaker, but I've seen friends on the forum (Germans) who don't seem to have any extra difficulty understanding English?

I tried to learn German with ChatGPT. It runs a vocabulary practice mode where it gives me a word in my native language, and I must respond with the correct German translation including the article. Words that were answered incorrectly are repeated later. I wanted to practice 20k most popular words in batches of 50 words.

I'm either doing some wrong prompting or it's impossible. ChatGPT often accepts wrong articles and gaslights me when I point out that it made a mistake. It repeats words too often that he has already asked about, even though it was not supposed to repeat the ones that were answered correctly.

Although it can recognize a spoken German word and write it down correctly, the transcription appears in my native language. I think this might be the problem.

Does anyone have an idea how to create a simple German vocabulary practice mode with articles that is also effective?

Österreichisches Deutsch wird nicht in ganz Deutschland verstanden, oder? Ich bin es aber etwas gewöhnt, „einarbeiten“ statt „nacharbeiten“ zu verwenden, da ich einmal bei einer österreichischen Firma gearbeitet habe. Meine Chefin kommt aus Aachen. Was sagt ihr dazu? Siehe unten den Wörterbucheintrag:

Unter Bedeutung Nr. 3:
Einarbeiten Übersetzung einarbeiten Definition auf TheFreeDictionary

Alright boys and girls, I have PASSED Goethe B1 exam 😭🎉🎉🥳

First the scores:

B1 Lesen (29/11) : 70/100

B1 Hören (29/11) : 47/100 B1 Hören (10/12) : 73/100

B1 Sprechen (29/11) : 65/100

B1 Schreiben (29/11) : 73/100

I only prepared for Sprechen and Schreiben thinking that would be enough for Lesen und Hören as well but I failed Hören. I got the result on 05/12 and immediately booked Hören exam in another city for 10/12. I gave the first Hören exam on paper but the second one was taken on laptop. A laptop with headphones is way better than paper exam especially for Hören.

For Sprechen, I prepared an introduction before the exam with ”cool“ phrases. I took more time in this section and the examiner was ”frustrated“ lol. I would advice you to keep it simple and short :) Next, she asked me not to look at the paper while talking even though I haven‘t looked at it even once during the exam. Now I was pissed and was about to throw the notes page to the side in front of her but I kept my calm lol. It is really important to look at your partner‘s face while talking. Also my partner didn’t know any German at all so probably that led to lower marks.

Now for the preparation, I did Grammar for month 1 and just ”exam preparation“ for month 2.

For Grammar, I did Essential German Grammar, 2nd Edition. I don‘t like to read one thing from here and another from there. This book is very well structured with a lot of exercises. It covers Grammar upto B2 level and is an introductory book from the author of Hammar‘s German Grammar. If you buy paperback version, it is a bit costly but the pages are thick and nice. I can fully recommend this book even for beginners who want a structured academic style German Grammar book.

For month 2, all I did was to revise Sprechen and Schreiben model test papers from Youtube. I learnt all the vocabulary and Redemittel from these youtube videos. I did approx 50-100 examples of every Teil of Sprechen and Schreiben and revised it again. I used online tools to download subtitles/transcript of videos on Obsidian. I used Chatgpt A LOT to understand words , its conjugations and example sentences. Chatgpt is ESSENTIAL for learning a language. You can also grammar questions and write a letter and ask chatgpt to proofread it.

In short, I am happy. I needed this B1 certificate for naturalisation. I could have done a lot better but I also work from 08:00 to 17:00 and gave myself only two months for it.

I am glad to have finally made it. Ask me anything and I‘ll reply 😄

Hi! I wanted to make small survey. How do you feel if a website communicates all in lowercase? I mean all nouns are not capitalized, the sentence starts with lowercase. Does it feel right to you? Does it feel like more friendly manner? Or it evolves more negative feeling?

I live in Germany and work as a software engineer, but I use English for most of my work. I want to start learning German properly, and I’m curious if anyone here has tried using AI voice tools like ChatGPT Voice or Gemini Live regularly.

Did it actually help with your speaking or listening? Any downsides or things you’d recommend doing differently?

Would appreciate any experiences or suggestions.

Heute habe ich Schlagermusik entdeckt, und ich finde sie richtig klasse! Die Sängerin und Sänger singen ganz klar, fast jedes Lied ist ein Ohrwurm, und sie äußern immer große Leidenschaft.

Such nach Schlagermusik auf Spotify und dank mir später.

🎵*Wo sind allllll die Indianer hinnnnn? Wannnnnn verlor das große Ziellllll den Sinn?*🎵

(Please skip my post if you’re here to spread hate)

Hi! I am and I am currently learning German (A2) so I started wondering whether it’s okay to use “es” to refer to nonbinary people or not?
Pronouns in German are different than English and es doesn’t exactly mean it because Tisch ist ein Er, Lampe is ein sie und Kind und Mädchen sind es.
I could ask the person about their preferred pronouns but what should I do when talking about a person who doesn’t even know German and use they/them in English?
Yesterday I was trying to talk in German about one of favorite singers (who are nonbinary) to practice, and that made me stop for a moment.

And thank you so much🩷🩷

Hello everyone,

I was in a bit of a shock when I learned that the German name Karl was actually pronounced without a "r". Is there any reason/law for that?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Is it possible to always use ß instead of ss? For example: Er muß eßen (not Er muss essen) Er hat gegeßen (not Er hat gegessen)

Because I know some words can be written with either ss or ß, such as daß (dass), müßen (müssen) etc.

Als ich erfahren habe dass schweizer grillieren statt grillen sagen war ich total begeistert. Können wir das bitte normalisieren. Das veranschaulicht den Prozess viel besser... es nicht einfach nur grillen - nein es ist grillieren - so wie dinieren, flanieren oder garnieren. Ein schönes edles Wort.

Hi! A new learner here. I've been studying german for only over a month now (with Duolingo), and the language hasn't become that weird... YET. So what is the most nonsense nonsense grammar rule in german (in your opinion)? Thanks!

im a 20yo asian-american guy who loves learning german in college. my family, even tho they still support me learning german, always tell me how useless german is since everyone there speaks english so well. they say that everyone in germany speaks german so fluently that its pretty much impossible for german learners to actually practice and that natives frequently get "annoyed" and "impatient" with foreigners since it would be easier for them to just speak english. can anyone attest to how accurate that is? i know germany has one of the highest proficiency rates in english, but i still am very interested in the language and want to visit someday.

In another German learning subreddit, several people who are allegedly native speakers claim that the following two do not mean the same:

- Es ist 12.

- Es ist um 12.

(In the context of Time of Day)

One person also claims that "Es ist um 12" does not mean "It is 12 o'clock" and if I say it that way it's "wrong".
Instead, the sentence means that some event will take place at 12.

To me, all this is absolute bullshit, but since it's more than one person arguing this, I'm now unsure if this is some regional difference I wasn't aware of.

I'm from Berlin and to me "Es ist 12" is just a colloquial, shortened version of "Es ist um 12" and they can both mean "It's 12 o'clock".

Am I missing something?

**** EDIT ****

So it seems to be the case that there really is a regional difference.

There was a TV show in the former GDR called "7 treffen sich um 8". So maybe it's an East-West thing.

Danke für Ihre Hilfe.