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I have began learning German recently, I am using YouTube videos and the Duolingo app, but I feel that this is not so effective so I would like to ask you if there are any free materials well structured which help me? I am interested also in making conversations; any recommendation for that?

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  • How could videos be a help to learn a language? Most videos need 5 minutes to explain a thing that textually would only require one phrase :-) Get a good beginners book. This is not free but imagine who should put effort into creating something worthy and then give it for free.
    – puck
    Sep 1, 2018 at 10:14
  • @puck thank you, don't you think that such videos are good for someone who just started? Could you recommande any books please? could you upvote my question because now i am restricted o comment others posts please ?
    – F.Marko
    Sep 1, 2018 at 10:19
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    Can you give an example for such a video? Generally I don't like videos to learn because you are forced into the video's speed instead of doing things in your personal speed. And because most videos are only clickbaits for commercial purposes, not to bring good content.
    – puck
    Sep 1, 2018 at 10:41
  • Possible duplicate of What is a good way to start learning German?
    – user unknown
    Sep 1, 2018 at 15:02
  • I linked to a very similiar question already asked. If you look at the right column, you see the now 2 times downvoted question "Best way to learn German" (might change in futur). I opened it in a new tab, and from there was a link to the duplicate, I mentioned. While editing your question, there are suggestions of similiar questions. You are expected to check them yourself, to prevent you from writing q. which get closed.
    – user unknown
    Sep 1, 2018 at 15:05

2 Answers 2

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Even if you like to watch videos, I recommend not to watch explicit those "language learning" videos. They are creating the illusion you are making progress, but in reality you aren't.

  • For learning the first steps of grammar, reading a beginner's grammar+textbook silently will help you concentrate on the sometimes complicated concepts much better than the overwhelming bells and whistles of a video.

  • For learning your first vocabulary, putting post-its with the German names of things (with their definite nominative singular article, please) on all the things in your household will help you much more. You will also learn adjectives and verbs that way. Seeing the nouns will make it a game to remember the right actions and supplements for them.

  • For getting in touch with the language, singing along to German music videos will get you much more experience how to intonate German correctly. (But not Rammstein et. al, please.)

  • For motivation, watching all-German (no subtitles either!) videos of topics you are interested in will make you want to understand that cursed dark elf language much more than any coursework you aren't really interested in.

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Wikipedia in English is a good free start. It has well-structured grammar articles as well as articles about german phonetics, pronunciation, and even dialects. For practicing your language for free I would recommand Facebook and chatrooms. For asking questions, this is one of the best websites you can use. And don't forget Youtube!

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    Actually best thing is to hear a word. Not read about how to speak it. Facebook or other chats? Never! People don't write correctly there for all kinds of reasons. This is a place to get spoiled but not to learn.
    – puck
    Sep 1, 2018 at 10:46
  • The point of learning German is to finally be able to communicate with native speakers, so personally I think knowing about colloquial German is as essential as knowing about standard German although it comes later on. From my experience at least with English, reading a little bit about phonetics would save non-native speakers much time trying to figure out how things are pronounced correctly by themselves. It's simply like somebody else has done the hard job for them.
    – user34137
    Sep 1, 2018 at 11:28
  • I totally agree that listening to authentic materials should go hand in hand with reading. In the same way using Facebook for the sake of practicing German should be accompanied by fully understanding that in there is mostly a non-standard language variety used, not to mention that FB has many groups and pages for learning German which would be helpful for beginners as well.
    – user34137
    Sep 1, 2018 at 11:29
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    Of course knowing phonetics is not bad. But you should hear the exceptions too. What I want to say with chats, there are so many wrongly written words, expressions and phrases. This is not colloquial language but more lazyness and sadly also stupidity. So if one presents "knowledge" from those chats in official life situations, I'd bet they appear more like an idiot than like someone wise :-) Nevertheless you are very right, reading or hearing audio is a very good idea. But please get something made with more effort. Else one could think "hey guuuys whazzuuuuup" is official english ;-)
    – puck
    Sep 1, 2018 at 12:18

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