A2

How do you tell your friend you're going to see her soon in German?

There are so many choices, and in German they're not direct translations.

In fact, so many German learners get this wrong, I use this topic as a barometer to tell me how well someone speaks German.

Today we'll break down and put together the many forms of:

• Bis bald!

• Bis später!

• Bis nachher!

• Bis Samstag!/Bis um 11 Uhr!

You'll hear your homework for this week, too, natürlich.

New Extra Homework!

Dow…

Frequently, very frequently I find myself confused by living in the US again.

The culture is simply so different from German culture, which is where I began my post-grad school life.

I couldn't put words to all of it, but then a friend of mine asked me recently, "Of all the places you've been, where did you have the most culture shock?"

It took me weeks to sort out my answer.

After considering the 21 countries and perhaps 18 states I've visited, I've finally got my answer.

In this episode w…

The German National Anthem is known as the Nationalhymne or Das Lied der Deutschen, "The Song of the Germans."

In today's episode of the podcast for German learners you'll hear:

• the current national anthem

• a bit of its history
  

• the German National Anthem sung in German (by yours truly!)
  

It's really important to note the specifics of this Anthem because there is a strong connection to German history, one that is to be remembered and respected.

Besides, wouldn't you like to im…

When should you use 'arbeiten' and when should you use 'funktionieren'?

All the answers are in this episode!

You'll learn these two verbs in the context of wine harvest, too, because it's wine harvest time.

Learning to differentiate synonyms in German works really well when you use context.

This way you can easily build a picture in your mind that will help you for all of your German learning.

If it helps, you can even draw yourself a little sketch of a scene you'll hear in this episode.

A…

Knowing how to pronounce hätte correctly in German is one thing. Using it correctly is another.

In today's German lesson you'll learn both how to say hätte correctly and how to use it in a few specific phrases.

Imagine how confident you'll feel knowing exactly what to say and pronouncing everything correctly. This will be a step up for your German.

Plus you'll learn how to say "shoulda, woulda, coulda" in German, which uses hätte, and will surely impress your German friends the next time they…

Synonyms in German function differently--they overlap differently--than in English.

Well, of course they do, right? Because it's a different language.

A lot of German learners - A1, A2 and B1-level learners confuse the verbs meinen, bedeuten, and heißen because in English they all mean "to mean."

bedeuten = to mean

heißen = to mean (also means "to be called," which you'll hear as well today)

meinen = to mean

UGH!

The good news is, there are ways to tell them apart and you'll learn them in…

Summer vacation (or summer holidays) are drawing to a close for loads of people in the northern hemisphere.

So what are these called in German?

Das sind die Ferien.

And why is that word so frequently confused with "feiern"?

Because they are so similar.

In this episode of the GermanWithNicole.com podcast you'll learn how to pronounce these two words, which article you should use with Ferien (it's simpler than you might think), and a couple of example sentences so you can remember which word …

In this 5th episode of the GermanWithNicole.com Podcast you'll learn what these designations mean for German learning.

You've surely seen this alphabet-number combination on German learning materials and maybe you've seen or taken a German language assessment test and received one of these combinations as a result. “You can take a class at the A2 level.”

But what does it mean?! And why should you care?!

Hint: Understanding these combinations will make your German learning life sooooo much eas…

And find out more about the first three episodes of the GermanWithNicole.com Podcast

The first episode of the GermanWithNicole.com Podcast is going to publish in only a few days.

The second and third episodes will follow soon after, and you can find out what those dates are in this short listening exercise.

Ihre Aufgabe:

Your task is to listen to the audio below and to note which dates the first three episodes will be released (auf Deutsch, natürlich) and then how often new episodes will b…

Once you're past the foundational learning of the A1 level of German you're probably ready to listen to something more interesting.

Something constructive, positive. Something that piques your interest.

The A1 level materials don't go very deep. Because they can't.

At A2 you can explore more topics and you'll start to listen to German in a different way.

But you don't want to go too far and get overwhelmed.

If the regular news is too hard and too scary for you, a good solution might be Stub…