Just like listening to podcasts to learn German is a great way to improve your German, YouTube has also got some fantastic resources to help you on your language learning journey.
But YouTube is huge and it has a LOT of content, and not all content was created equal! To help you out and save you some time finding the best, we’ve put together a short list for you containing several different kinds of channels about learning German, Germany and the German language.
Find the ones that work you!
Learning
First up, the following channels are great for learning your first words and sentences or for improving your German skills with what are, essentially, lessons at different levels. It doesn’t matter if you’re a complete beginner or you understand ‘a lot more than train station’ in German, there’s something for everyone.
Learn German
Learn German covers grammar and vocabulary in a structured way using short and very clear videos. It has a course format, going from absolute beginner (A1) up to lower intermediate (B1) and grammar topics and vocabulary videos that are independent of the courses and a great way of reinforcing basic concepts. It is particularly appropriate for beginners or for those that are coming back to learning German after a while and want to refresh and/or reinforce the fundamentals.
Learn German with Herr Antrim
If you’re looking for a course on Youtube to get an English speaker’s perspective and insights into learning German, Learn German with Herr Antrim is a good place to start. This bow-tied German language teacher from the U.S. regularly uploads structured content mostly for beginners but also for intermediate learners. His creative and entertaining style and the fact that he keeps his videos short make this channel an excellent option to fit in to little gaps in any personal schedule to keep that learning going.
Learn German With Jenny
Jenny is an experienced teacher and language learner that produces fantastic videos that are like short lessons for learners of all levels, from beginners all the way through to advanced. With almost 380,000 subscribers and over 38 million views on her YouTube channel alone, it appears that a fair number of people agree that her style of slow and clear explanations with a wealth of examples and content designed to get you to improve every aspect of German at every level is worth taking a look at!
Deutsch mit Marija
Marija Dobrovolska, a Latvian ethnic Russian that lives in Germany, provides an interesting perspective for intermediate and advanced learners. This German teacher and polyglot is an experienced language learner and she knows what she’s doing! In her videos, she teaches intermediate and advanced level German as a foreign language in a crisply enunciated German with a very soft Russian accent. This channel is a little bit too hard for beginners, but it’s a great option if you’ve been learning German for a while or a studying for an exam.
Gaining confidence across topics
Once you’ve got the fundamentals (or a bit more than that) down, the key to improving quickly and gaining confidence to be able to function and communicate well in real life can be summed up in three words: practice, practice, practice! Ok, that was just one word, but it’s importance to language learning success can’t be stressed enough so its repetition is justified.
The next two channels provide you with what you need to be better prepared to cope with what people might throw at you by having content in German about a myriad of topics, spoken by German native speakers.
Easy German
Part of the Easy Languages family, Easy German is a channel where you can hear real German, as it is spoken in the streets by real people, but talking about certain topics and selected to be easy to understand. The channel mostly features Cari and Janusz from Berlin as they go out and ask people questions about daily life. The videos are subtitled in both German and English to help you along making them a great resource to develop your vocabulary. This channel uploads very regularly at a range of levels making it a fantastic complement no matter what your current level is.
Authentic German Learning
Berlin resident Mark Rösler regularly posts videos in German about anything and everything from recycling in Germany through local dialects all the way to self development while learning a language. He makes an obvious effort to speak slowly, making this channel particularly appropriate for intermediate learners who want to be able to understand and talk about more than the usual things that are taught in German courses.
Productive breaks
Another important thing that you should take into account when you are learning German is that it can be a bit difficult, even if maybe not quite as difficult as many make it out to be. Because of this, you need to work hard at it, but it is also important that you take breaks to allow what you are learning to ‘mature’ within your and to make sure that you don’t burn out and give up on learning.
These last couple of channels on this list provide you with some material to keep you going on your language learning journey while on a break (they are mostly in English, even if the hosts are German). They are relaxed, fun, and a bit goofy, but keep you learning about German and the German speaking world.
Don’t trust the Rabbit
Hamburg native Trixie talks about the German language, German culture, funny German words and cognates and different and curious ways to say things. This channel is not quite about learning German, but rather more learning about German using fun, sweet and often cheeky approach to German language, culture and society. Becoming one of the ‘Rabbit Community’ might be a good way to mix things up a bit and take a break-not-break (in a sorry-not-sorry way) from your hard work learning German!
Get Germanized
Finally, join Dominik and let him help you get Germanized! This channel is a bit of good natured fun in English and German about all things German. It contains language lessons, tips about learning German, insights in English about German culture and interviews, all done in a quirky and entertaining format where each episode is basically Dominik discussing a topic.
Input in various formats is the ‘fuel’ that you need to power your German language learning journey. If, for whatever reason, you feel that the above resources are not enough, here at Chatterbug we’ve also got a fairly well-stocked media library with hand picked and transcribed content for you to dig your teeth into as well. If you’re looking for a more interactive experience, you can find the best places for online German lessons here. At the end of the day, where you get your input from is not really that important, as long as its quality is good and its quantity abundant! Safe travels!
Want to learn more?
If you’re feeling inspired, sign up below for a free two-week trial and a Live Lesson with a private qualified tutor to start speaking a new language for real! Our classes are structured around exercises created by language teachers, so there’ll be no awkward silences – we promise! 😉
And don’t forget to check out our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages for more language content!