The following are the best resources for this dive, broken down by beginner, intermediate, and advanced.
We have tested each one and recommend them.
This German Resource Handbook Below
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Busuu is probably the most comprehensive language learning app on the market. This app teaches German down to the nitty gritty grammatical nuances, and really helps you to gain comfort using the language. One of its best features is that you can get feedback from native speakers on written and spoken exercises. Download from your phone's app store.
Category: Self-Study
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Clozemaster helps you to learn language in context. According to Clozemaster, learning a language through mass exposure to vocabulary in context is one of the best ways to build proficiency. The site/app uses well-structured fill-in-the-blanks and spaced repetition to ensure you retain new words.
Category: Self-Study
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The Assimil series is fantastic. The website is in French, but you can find English versions of their products on Amazon. If you speak some French, it's a lot more fun to order the French version of the courses, but English (and other language versions) are available as well. Go check them out!
Category: Self-Study
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Babbel is a language-learning website/app with a similar structure to courses you’d see in an online school curriculum. Includes short 10-minute lessons that work well for those with a busy schedule. Keep in mind that the program requires payment.
Category: Self-Study
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The German Fluency Project is a program of Break Diving (this website). We all work together to improve our foreign language skills in hundreds of languages. Visit www.breakdiving.org for more information about our not-for-profit corporate mission, and then visit breakdiving.io to join our inspiring worldwide community! We look forward to meeting you.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
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Even though it sounds like this is a Spanish language learning site, it actually is coded for many languages, including German. Conjuguemos helps you learn and practice conjugations through fun activities and games.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
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ActiLingua Academy’s Deutsch-Lernen is useful for people interested in learning German. In addition to offering beginner to advanced lessons on German, the website has sections for a sample online test, job application instructions, and jokes & quotes. Make sure to check it out!
Category: Other Apps & Websites
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Duolingo is a popular language-learning platform that includes both a website and a mobile app. It offers over 94 different language courses, including German. Duolingo teaches the basics of German, including some basic vocabulary and grammar. However, there is no way you will truly learn a language through Duolingo. It is best used as an introduction to a language and as a refresher to keep your skills up and to potentially build some new vocabulary. Note: their podcast on Apple Podcasts is excellent!
Category: Self-Study
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FluentU is a video learning site that helps you learn through real video conversations, similar to Yabla. Try it for 14 days free (as of this review).
Category: Self-Study
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Forvo is a fascinating tool that shows how words are pronounced in various foreign languages. Just type the word you’re looking for into the Forvo search bar, and voilà, you’ll hear it spoken by multiple native speakers. This is excellent for pronunciation. Note: it will take you a few minutes to figure out how the tool works, but it's worth spending a few minutes to master how it works.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
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This is a popular German course that includes downloadable podcast-styled lessons, videos, grammar explanations, and a vocabulary database and dictionary. Premium members gain access to PDF lessons, grammar reviews, dialogue audio, and interactive learning.
Category: Self-Study
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Get Germanized is a YouTube channel with educational videos about German culture and language. Video topics range from different ways to say common phrases in German to a description of a typical doctor’s visit in Germany.
Category: Video
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Glossika improves your fluency through a highly repetitive ‘listen and repeat’ approach. It uses an adaptive learning algorithm and structured content to help you improve. Definitely not a conventional course but you’ll be amazed at how effective it is at improving your fluency if you use it daily.
Category: Self-Study
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Hello Talk links you together with language partners to help you practice your German skills. Worth taking a look at.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
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Internet Polyglot is an awesome site that offers a huge variety of free games to help you improve your German vocabulary.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
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Language Drops is a language-learning website/app with a colorful layout that's a lot of fun. Teaching solely vocabulary (which is unique in itself), Drops starts with basic vocab and expands to offer highly advanced vocab beyond the scope of most other courses and books. For example: spaceship, garlic, riot police, and political coup. Note: unless you pay, you are limited to 5 minutes per day. If you can afford it, upgrade to the lifetime plan. Or, just be sure to do your 5 minutes every single day.
Category: Self-Study
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This is a Chrome extension that allows you to learn German by watching movies or shows on Netflix. It displays two sets of subtitles: one in your native language and the other in a language of your choice. Keep in mind that you do need a Netflix subscription in order to use this resource.
Category: Video
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This dictionary is probably one of the best available. If you're a serious German learner, use this site.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
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LingoDeer is similar to Duolingo. Some say that they prefer LingoDeer to Duolingo, so if you don't like Duolingo, give this a try.
Category: Self-Study
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LingQ is similar to Yabla. They describe the service as surrounding yourself with meaningful input that matters to you. You can start at an easy level and work your way up. It features a range of entertaining materials, such as YouTube videos, news broadcasts, blog posts, and Netflix shows. You can choose the topics that interest you and build your language lessons around subjects that will keep you motivated.
Category: Self-Study
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Linguee is a dictionary used to translate between German and English words. Aside from giving helpful information about word gender and verb conjugation, the site also allows you to search for the vocabulary word in real German articles, so you can translate phrases more accurately.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
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Living Language offers a very comprehensive course of self study, through both online courses and self-study textbooks. You can sign up online, or buy the self-study textbooks and audio on Amazon or at Barnes & Noble bookstores. Each set comes with three textbooks: beginner, intermediate, and advanced.
Category: Self-Study
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Mango Languages helps you to study foreign languages by adapting to how you learn using smart technology. Compare your own recordings with those of native speakers. Mango also gives tips on German culture.
Category: Self-Study
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Michel Thomas German is an audio course with a variety of levels to which you can commit. In some ways, it is similar to Pimsleur in that it is all audio. Many language learners like the Michel Thomas approach. Helpful for developing your ear in the language.
Category: Audio
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Project Gutenberg is an online library of over 60,000 free electronic books. This link will take you to a list of openly accessible German books.
Category: Other Books & Resources
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Rosetta Stone is a language-learning website/app that’s widely known and respected, but sometimes criticized because it only teaches you with pictures, when you could more quickly learn by having them just tell you that it's an apple using your native language. It features a TruAccent speech recognition program that helps you work on pronunciation. Keep in mind that the program does require payment.
Category: Self-Study
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Studying in Germany is a website designed specifically for students interested in studying abroad in Germany. It helpfully explains the advantages of visiting Germany as well as how you would go about doing so. It also has a short guide on basic German.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
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Yabla is an excellent site that teaches German through videos with adjustable speed of playback and definitions of words in the subtitles. It also has games and quizzes, but no grammar.
Category: Video
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