The next Buchgemeinschaft meeting begins next week on Dienstag, der 15. Mai. If you're interested in joining us, I invite you to check out the details below and in the event posting (click the button at the bottom).

Buchgemeinschaft is an easy-reader book club for clients at the A1-A2 levels of German. This month's story is Blinder Passagier, about a stow-away on a boat motoring down the Rhine River. The story has short chapters of just 1-3 pages and uses mainly the present tense. It's jam-packed…

Now that you know what "A1" means on your book it's time to know that there are more resources available for you to learn German at your current level.

Welcome to

Easy German Book Club

«Buchgemeinschaft»

a new, A1 level book club

for German learners

If you are already living with less or a minimum amount of possessions, or would like to, this philosophy works in your favor when learning German. Experience a language which is significantly more predictable than English; German is a great language to explore!

You'll also discover here how, in many ways, German is actually easier than English. I say this as a native English speaker, a near-native German speaker, and an instructor for both languages.

Of course both languages have their own un…

And how to get the most out of each book!

If you are an A1 German learner, then that means you are at the beginning level of German. You're a beginner. It stays that way for a while.

The A1 level is key for you because it gives you the basics of German grammar. A1 is the foundational level for all other levels. I frequently tell people:

Think of the A1 level like the foundation of your house. You can't build a house on sand. If you don't have a good foundation, you're going to have a lot of…

There isn't much of a secret to language learning because it's all about working with the language as much as possible over a length of time. However I can give you tips on how I learned to speak German fluently (and I mean--I could say anything I wanted or needed to say) within about 6 months. Konjunktiv II? Kein Thema. Polite discourse? Absolut! Telling someone off? That, too.

Don't get me wrong--learning German in 6 months was really tough. I started at an A2 level (the second-lowest level) …

5 Ways to Re-Use Your German & Learn More in the Process

There is one key ingredient to students who learn the most in their German lessons:  they repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.

My first German teacher was (and surely still is) an excellent instructor. She told me if I wanted to learn a new word in German, I'd have to use it 28 times.

28 times!! That's a lot of repetition. (If that's an average, sometimes it goes faster--say 20 repetitions, and sometimes it takes longer, say 40 repet…