Learning German in Berlin

Learning German in Berlin #

So you have been living in Berlin for a while, maybe even for years – but you fail to speak German fluently. It may feel weird switching to German even with friends, as your English gives you many more options to speak proficiently, to be precise when talking. People around you speak better English than you speak German.

One thing to remember: While Berlin is easy to navigate speaking only English, if you stay here for more than a couple of weeks you really truly do want to start training your German language skills: Emergency information – typically first available and more detailed in German. Dealing with public admin tasks – you’ll need German. You have kids – you need German language skills for medical appointments, for public admin, for Kindergarten and school. Even just getting quick access to news articles requires at least a basic understanding of the local language. And that is true if you want to relocate here, or if you consider yourself a digital nomad.

So here’s a writeup of things I’ve sent to too many friends already:

One warning at the very beginning: You must tell people that you want to learn German – find people who are patient enough to stay in German even if you are proficient in English. Otherwise a lot of people will quickly switch back to English which doesn’t help you.

One encouragement at the beginning: Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. The only way to learn the language is to practice speaking and talking with people. It will feel strange, you may feel less competent, but the only way to get better is to push through that and get better. Try it not only with close friends but also in everyday situations - especially in calmer situations. And don’t worry if the people you interact with seem somewhat unfriendly, less chatty than expected - chances are very high that’s not because of you but average north-German mentality.

If you’re looking to combine your language learning with doing good: You might want to consider leaving tourist hotspot or expat heavy areas - a general rule of thumb is to leave the S-Bahn ring, watch out for oportunities to help people go for a walk with their dog, help elderly people stay in touch with the younger generation and combine playing cards/ board games with learning German. Chances are high you’ll find people with a combination of great German language skills, low English language skills and lots of time and patience.

Online resources to get you started #

  • Goethe Institut operates globally, also has online resources for people learning German.
  • Tagesschau in simple German is a simple German language version of the public (meaning independent) daily news show.
  • Deutsche Welle has several radio shows and podcasts for German learners.
  • Berlin library gives you access to both, paper books, online access to local newspapers, Libby and Onleihe for digital books for 10 Euro each year. All you need to do is visit a library in Berlin, get your access card.
  • For a lot of fun stories check out the kids show Die Sendung mit der Maus.
  • For book recommendations – also for new books – checkout Stiftung Lesen.

There’s a ton of podcasts that also public news agencies make available. Take your favourite podcast app to find them.

For kids #

Having grown up in east Germany until I was nine I realized that there’s a ton of traditional kids literature that many people take for granted, that in some cases was new to me. So here’s me list of authors you should check out and a more general page on must read books.

Stiftung Lesen above covers a ton of book recommendations also for children of different ages. You want to checkout things around the yearly book fairs.

For more recommendations there’s an enitre list of classical kids books.

For more recent titles:

One final parting note: One thing you can try is finding a language buddy - that could even be someone at work with the deal being you speak German on every other day, a language that you speak at native level the remaining days :)

Calendar January 7, 2025
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