LEARN COMPREHENSIVE GERMAN

German 1 has been designed to prepare you for the most important and common situations you'll face in the German-speaking world. At the same time, you'll develop a strong foundation in how the language actually works, allowing you to go beyond simple stock phrases to actually building sentences yourself. This is a serious introduction to the language.

Right from the start, you'll begin working with powerful structures and key vocabulary so that you can build useful German sentences. After only a few sessions, you'll already be having meaningful interactions in a restaurant, and soon you'll be shopping, making plans with friends, getting around a city, going out for entertainment, and making travel arrangements with confidence.

You'll build upon these skills through practice with key verbs, nouns and adjectives, so that you can express your needs and desires in diverse situations with considerable detail. As you learn how to use all the articles in the different « cases », depending on their function in the phrase, you'll dive into a brand new world of shape-shifting nouns, adjectives and pronouns, as well as meaningful displaceable particles, turning some verbs into others…and that’s just the beginning of your trip into the beautiful logic of the German language.

German 2 picks up where the first level leaves off, deepening your grasp of the fundamentals through new verbs and conjugations, an expanding vocabulary, and a broad range of other key parts of the language. By the end of German 2, you'll have begun to make substantial inroads into becoming a more experienced German speaker, ideally preparing you for moving on to a more intermediate level.

You'll begin perfecting your knowledge of articles, adjectives and pronouns in the different cases, before expanding on the use of prepositions and how they imply different cases too. You’ll also review present conjugations and start looking at verbs in the past tense, including regular endings but also some important irregular verbs.

All these efforts will lead you to more complex and meaningful interactions in restaurants, travel agencies, stores, and with friends. You'll buy new clothes and items, as well as cell phone for your trip ; you'll try lots of new dishes too. And as your ability to express location —along with giving and understanding directions— grows, you'll find yourself thoroughly prepared for navigating any German-speaking city or neighborhood.

As with all Fluenz programs, these critical scenarios provide the setting through which your grasp of the language's fundamentals is steadily developed. By enhancing your ability with the central topics covered in the previous level (such as articles, pronouns, verbs, and genders), you'll solidify your foundation in the language. Meanwhile, the introduction of new structures and vocabulary (such as new adjectives, comparatives, and prepositions) combines with more serious responsibilities, such as going to the doctor and handling office tasks, preparing you to engage more seriously with the German-speaking world.

German 3 continues adding critical pieces to your communication, adding an impressive layer of subtlety and sophistication to your speech. You also begin to develop the ability to connect with German speakers around more personal topics, like family, work and leisure. By the time we arrive at Level 3, the foundation has been set for a pivotal moment of growth. Building upon all that has been learned in the previous levels, your depth and range of communication will quickly broaden.

First, you’ll learn more informal pronouns, and colloquial phrases and questions, so your conversations will become more fluid and natural. As your skills develop with more practice of the cases triggered by the new prepositions or verbs, and the related changes on the nouns, pronouns, articles and adjectives, you’ll really solidify your grammar basics, allowing you to tackle more complex elements like the role and use of direct vs indirect object pronouns. In the end, other important topics, such as new ways to express times and dates, will combine with more real-world vocabulary to bring you to an impressive level of competency in German.

Throughout the program, you'll use these skills at home and in the office, while talking to people about your studies and professional life, and in order to rent a bike or an apartment. You'll also shop, dine, take pictures, and enjoy the entertainment that the great cities and communities of the German-speaking world have to offer. By the end of German 3, you'll have taken a major step towards becoming a serious German speaker, capable of handling intricate conversations and complicated situations with confidence.

German 4 dramatically expands your ability with the language. While levels 1, 2 and 3 establish the strongest possible foundation, level 4 builds upon this base to get into areas of substantial complexity. It sums up all the essentials, and expands on them, increasing your vocabulary and areas of competence at a faster pace, to start preparing you for more advanced studies.

Starting with several major reviews and summaries: about prepositions cases, the plural of nouns, and the order of words in German sentences among others, this level then reaches a totally new dimension with the introduction of some key structures and expressions. From the addition of a new case (the genitive) to some crucial verbs and conjunctions, you’ll start being able to express advice, opinions, emotions, as well as to adapt your speech to all types of speakers and interactions. You’ll also work a lot on the past tense throughout the sessions.

These areas of the language fit perfectly with the situations you'll find yourself in as you journey through the level. You'll hold conversations about your family and childhood, cultural issues, interests, and more. At the same time, you will acquire the necessary skills for integrating yourself more deeply in a German-speaking community. You'll learn how to speak about season and climate, open or close a bank account, and handle more complicated issues. German 4 is where you begin to develop the ability to move beyond being just a tourist, student, doctor, or business professional who can capably interact with the German-speaking world: with German 4, you begin to become a part of the community.

German 5 builds on the skills acquired through all of the previous levels, adding substantial layers of subtlety and sophistication to your ability with the language. You'll master complex grammatical issues like the use of relative pronouns, double infinitives and more uses of the genitive case, as well as lots of new vocab, allowing you to communicate more fluidly with greater diversity in tone and structure.

As with all German programs, these skills are developed over the course of 30 full sessions that will take you on a journey through real, daily-life experiences in the German-speaking world. You'll plan memorable trips with friends, arrange meetings with colleagues, discuss the arts, and exchange delicious recipes. You'll also further your ability to handle those things that are critical to establishing yourself more deeply in a community, from taking care of legal matters to more formal writing.

By revisiting many areas and completing your skills in many essential situations, this level truly wraps up on what you’ve been building from the start. While there will of course still exist many ways to improve your German, and building a larger vocabulary will allow you to discuss a wider range of topics, German 5 will bring you to a point where grammar will no longer be an obstacle to communication. By the time you complete this level, you will truly be an experienced German speaker.