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This business started out 10 years ago this month, in May of 2013. By mid-2015 this was a real part-time job, and now every week I teach two classes, over a dozen private lessons, and since I began teaching German back in 2010, I've taught a total of more than 5,550 hours of German.

Wir feiern heute! Wir feiern heute! We will celebrate today! Wir feiern heute!

In the episode/blog post you'll hear and see 10 of my favorite moments of the past 10 years – meine Lieblingsmomente der letzten 10 Jah…

I am Frau Warner and I am a B1 test proctor, which means I am qualified to give this exam with the Goethe-Institut.

The B1 class I teach, which meets on Monday evenings, just had their first of two practice tests, and they all did so very well! Ich bin sehr stolz auf sie! Ich bin sehr stolz auf sie! I'm very proud of them! Ich bin sehr stolz auf sie!

The next session runs April 24 – May 30^th, and the session will include B1 topics the clients in this class have chosen. I have a couple of ide…

der Stammtisch

der Stammtisch – an inadequate translation is “group of regulars.”

der Stammtisch

Today you'll learn:

• what a Stammtisch is in Germany and how it differs in the US,
• what you need to know before you go,
• how often to expect to attend a Stammtisch,
• where they take place,
• and something called Einmal ist keinmal.

Sind Sie bereit? Los geht's!

What is a Stammtisch?

A Stammtisch is different in Germany it is in the US, so let's start with the original Stammtisch:

• a regu…

Learning how to use a German-English dictionary effectively is one of the single skills which can really help support you in your German learning adventure.

German learners frequently ask: Which German-English dictionary should I buy? Is it worth buying the big one? How do I know which dictionary will be right for me? Are the online German dictionaries better?

In this blog post/podcast episode, I'll guide you step-by-step through which dictionary you can/should use as a beginner through the el…

There are three elements which make German hard (or easy...ok easier...) to learn:

1. Materials & Resources
2. Methods
3. Instructor(s) or lack there of.

Today you'll learn about these three elements and how they may make German harder to learn, or maybe easier.

Together these elements create one big constellation.

Which ones help you? Which ones are simply good enough? And which elements don't help you?

Definitely cue in to the next episode next week. ;-)

I got a little verklemmt in this one.

It's the One-Year Anniversary of this podcast! Hurra!

So first I answer a couple of questions.

Then there are three phrases in German on beginnings.

And to close it out: a boatload of thank-yous.

Danke. ♥

Authors and such mentioned in this episode:

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Hermann Hesse

Friedrich Nietzsche

Sigmund Freud

Carl Jung

Ingrid Noll

Christa Wolf

Christine Brückner (new to me!)

die Schadenfreude = pleasure at someone else's misfort…

Frustration can run pretty high when you take a German class but you just can’t seem to speak it correctly. The baker in Germany doesn’t understand you so you have to point and the person you ask for directions switches to English.

So why is it that you have taken class after class or lesson after lesson, but you still can’t speak German?

There might be more than one reason, and here are five which are common themes amongst German learners.

Which one stops you from speaking German?

Reason …

These are the three skills you need as a beginner, as a novice learner, as an intermediate German learner and beyond.

These are perhaps the most important skills I could help you acquire, no matter if you learn German for travel, as a hobby, or for work.

Without these skills, you won't make as much progress as you could make, given the time and energy you have, and you might find yourself increasingly frustrated.

Learning these skills might help you make more progress over time, and you may f…

What is German Sentence Structure?

It's hard, that's what it is.

You've got structures with dative, structures with the accusative, sentences with dass and with the passive voice. You need examples, you need it in a PDF, you need translations.

Good news: it's all right here in the A1-A2-B1 German Sentence Structure Guide.

In it you'll see 5 pages of clear examples, grouped together by level, and an English translation for each and every sentence.

There's also plenty of room for you to write…

There are a whole host of reasons for learning German, however when I asked my readers, they responded with new and different reasons.

Here are 5 different reasons people learn German (out of the many reasons featured in this episode), in no particular order:

• Ich liebe deutsche Musik. (I love German music.)

• Die Deutschen sind praktisch und das finde ich gut. (Germans are practical and I think that's good.)

• Sprache ist für mich eine große Herausforderung. (German is a big challeng…