Ear-training with Minimal Pairs?

Question

I came across this article on Minimal Pairs that seemed to perfectly describe the issues I have been having: not being able to clearly differentiate between the different sounds and vowels. The research as presented on Fluent Forever seems perfectly logical and sound, but the only dedicated resource to using minimal pairs for learning a new language is from the Fluent Forever website.

This seems really weird to me. There are so many resources on using minimal pairs in speech therapy for English speakers, but I cannot seem to find any such offerings for learning an entirely new language. It seems like the only option is to buy or create your own Anki deck, which works okay but could be much much better, in my opinion.

Are there any other resources for using Minimal Pairs to learn German phonemes?

Answer 1

Here is what I ended up using, which has been reasonably successful:

• The Fluent Forever German Pronunciation Trainer

The actual minimal-pair cards I did not find particularly helpful for minimal pair listening, but the major value I got from it was learning the spelling<->pronunciation rules

• Rhinospike

Here you can request native language speakers to read aloud texts. There are a number of minimal-pair recordings on there that you can use to make your own minimal-pair cards. Just make sure you get one where the pairs are not pronounced immediately one-after-the-other: people tend to say pairs of words with a rising and then falling inflection, which spoils the usefulness of the recording. There are several high-quality minimal-pair recordings available there, you just have to piece together the cards yourself.