It is so easy to fall into the routine of going to class, that we forget the country is more than what we see on the map on the wall. If you can get away for the weekend, I suggest taking the train or a bus to German cities to learn more about the culture, the language and the people. Personally, my favorite cities include Frankfurt, for the museum called the Frankfurt Book Fair, Leipzig for the Spinnerei, Dresden for the Dresden Castle, the art fair in Cologne, the boat show in Hamburg, the sunny beaches of Usedom and the Bauhaus in Dessau.

I’ve said this before, but having a sense of humor about learning German is key. If you haven’t checked out the list of German comedians – or even who has appeared in the news – then I suggest watching this video which focuses on education (specifically, a yodeling class).

The success of learning a new language is up to the student. However, an excellent teacher can help. Before signing up to any class, it helps a great deal for you to know your own best learning style – are you a visual learner, an audio learner? Do interactive projects strengthen your experience, or are you better off as an independent learner? Here are thoughts about learning and teaching.

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
― William Arthur Ward

“Real learning comes about when the competitive spirit has ceased.”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti

“Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.”
― Aristotle

“In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.”
― Phil Collins

“You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.”
― Galileo Galilei

“I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.”
― Albert Einstein

“I’m not a teacher: only a fellow traveler of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead – ahead of myself as well as you.”
― George Bernard Shaw

Deutsch Akademie offers a free online grammar course, offering more than 20,000 exercises for all levels, from A1 to C2. If you’re an independent learner, this website is for you. From the audio course to our beloved grammar, there is even a help function where online students can ask a German teacher for help when they have questions, throughout the textbook lessons.

If you prefer a dash of humor with a visual style of learning, check out the cartoon Bavarian characters on the German Flashcards website, while other German websites, like DeutschEd, offers online German lessons (including pronunciation) at Deutsched.com. If you’re in the mood for bookmarking websites for later learning, don’t forget the popular German Articles Tool and this vocabulary building website with structured exercises.

Something else I found was the Deutsch Akademie Conversation Club. If you prefer the face-to-face style of learning, you can join a group at your level by signing up at the office.

By following the story of one character and his friends, it’s like reading fiction. Whether you are near or far away, the Audiokurs Deutsch Für Anfänger is a great thing to have at home, which is published with Deutsch Akademie. The book is helpful for many reasons, most notably because the texts go from English to German in the same paragraph (“His friends were easily persuaded because they all love skiing, sie lieben Skifahren”).
Throughout the storyline, there are lessons in between, translations and vocabulary building, which match up on the CD. For every chapter, there is a page with new phrases in English (“That doesn’t suit me at all”) with the corresponding translation (“Das past mir gar nicht”). If you have worked with other German textbooks, you’ll know this reference point is helpful and the storyline is much more colorful than what you’d typically expect. There is also a section in each chapter for grammar and verb examples. The rules are explained in plain language with several examples. Sie haben Glück gehabt – You’ve been lucky.