Game changer alert ! Your breakthrough to conversational German
Jennifer von inGerman 
From a few sentences to socializing in German for real, plus 3 reasons why this feels so impossible and a way how we can get you there
Do you ever wonder why it feels so impossible to break through to a conversational level of German?
Let's start with the symptom. That shows you how you can recognise whether this is affecting you at all.
You understand German quite well and can even say a few sentences, but whenever you're socialising, e.g. on coffee dates with colleagues or friends and family, and the majority speaks German, you try briefly but then switch back to English.
In other words, you say: "Hey, I can't really express myself in German the way I would in English, and I can't really count German among the languages I actually speak.
Let's first have a look at the possible cause for this: To put it simply, you don't have the right tools yet. Here are some tools for different scenarios:
You think you need to study textbooks
This means that you have too few elements built into your learning that you can actually enjoy. This is what many people suppress because they think learning works the way they learnt it at school. And they forget that they perhaps didn't have any fun at school either and gave up far too quickly because all the things they learnt didn't help them at all.
And then, of course, there's the point where many people say OK, I've got it, I need to have fun learning. Well, then I'll happily type away on the next colourful app. I've heard that you can really achieve a lot for your German with it.
And that's a total misconception, because these apps don't even know where you currently stand and if you don't know exactly where you stand yourself, you might waste a lot of time. Just to be back at the same point as before after a few months.
"Joa, but the main thing is that you had fun" 🤪 They think.
I don't want to make a big deal out of it, both methods are generally not bad, and I've used them before. But I think you should combine them with other methods to achieve your goals more sustainably, because if you only do apps, then you won't achieve the desired breakthrough of being able to express yourself authentically in German.
I myself and my clients no longer use such apps and have already made noticeable progress in 3 months. And many people always ask how I did it.
I used the 4-Step-Loop-System. We'll come to that in a moment.
So that was reason one: You study boring textbooks or click around in apps.
The best solution would be to use a method that is tailored to your next goals for enjoyment and system.
And I would advise you to use stories. That doesn't mean fantasy novels. They can also be very factual stories from real life. In text form, audio form, video form or preferably one of these things combined with text. It is important to make sure that the linguistic structures are not too difficult, but also not too simple. They need to be a little above your current Level so that you can develop your skills but don't give up immediately because you feel like you don't understand anything.
Can’t use the stuff that I learned in my German lesson
And that's another cause. You use too much generic input and so the input doesn't achieve your goals, namely to be able to converse naturally with your people in German.
And this is where it gets a bit tricky. We've all been there: we're stuck on social media or Google for hours, memorising useful things we could learn to improve our German.
And that's normal, but then we often find topics and content pieces that are only superficially related to what we actually need to achieve our goal.
And then when you sit down to learn, you have the feeling: Hhhm I don't really know if I need this for socialising in German. Or if I'm just doing it because I think, yes, you have to learn this if you want to be able to speak German.
What you learn doesn't match what you want to be able to do, and you can do that if you sit down and think about what skills and topics you actually need to be able to talk to your parents-in-law or work colleagues at the next dinner.
I've already done this for you in my group programme, for example. Here I've put together all the topics and skills you typically require for socialising in German so that you know exactly what your next steps are and don't have to find everything yourself.
Of course, I can't tell you which words you already know and which you don't, but there are typical words, structures, expressions, and pronunciation hurdles that come again and again. But more on that later.
Hey there, I’m Jennifer, a German teacher and Holistic Learning Coach and I help you get from a few sentences in German to socialising in conversations for real.
More about stories and learning German I have written on page 18 in my Guide to 21 Conversation Starters.
So if you're not yet familiar with it, feel free to download. I explain what story-based learning is all about and what you need for it. Have you ever tried it? You can message me on Instagram.
You think you need to know everything perfectly
You are afraid not to be understood or laughed at and feel these limiting thoughts that you sound like a child that just learns to speak.
These limiting beliefs are often the trickiest. I have been there myself for other languages and still am sometimes because I have a tendency to perfectionism and I want that people take me seriously amd am afraid that they wouldn't if I make mistakes. But this such a bullshit that we are telling ourselves.
For me it was super helpful to take group classes to tackle these beliefs and then implement step by step what I have learnt in reality because that way I had enough security that I was really understood and then also the necessary challenge character to be with others in the group and not just with a private teacher.
It's still a safe space, but it has the necessary social factor to jump over your own shadow and risk speaking in front of others. And that triggers a domino effect, because if it works in the group, we are more likely to dare to do it in real life. And tadaa, we get compliments on our work and perhaps our pronunciation and that motivates us to keep going.
A positive spiral, so to speak. I just love this moment. For myself, but even more so for my customers. It's just so cool to see when it clicks and you finally pick up momentum.
But back to the input in German, which is still not too simple and not too difficult.
Many people think that they should first learn grammar, words and pronunciation before they even read stories or listen to a podcast or simply enjoy something that interests them in German.
And that's where we come into the hot phase of this mini-training here
I would like to show you how you can do the same for German using the natural journey to your mother tongue that you went through as a child.
I have developed my 4-Step-Loop-System from this:
Step 1: Familiarise
So many people think that reading and listening only come after you have learnt grammar and words. But they don't realise that you can also use this for every step on the way to conversational German. And I'd like to explain that to you now.
A child first learns its mother tongue through its environment. It hears a lot of German and then at some point it starts speaking.
The child doesn't learn grammar first.
As adults, we can do the same and have the huge advantage that we can already read.
This means that we can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak - we take a topic that interests us anyway and listen and read at the same time. This speeds up the breakthrough enormously. We use two learning channels at the same time. The visual and the auditory.
Reading supports listening enormously, as we can recognise a word and, conversely, we can easily hear what it sounds like, which prepares us to recognise it in a real conversation while listening to it.
My colleague Andrea has already tried this with a podcast and he was amazed at how effective it is, saves time and is still fun.
If you want to try it out yourself, I would like to emphasise again that you choose input that suits your current skills. The structures used should therefore not be too easy or too difficult.
Step 2: Decode
Here you are decoding all the new structures, words and pronunciation. This is the step where most programs start which is too short, because then you learn something randomly without context and there is a risk that you might not even need what you are learning.
Step 3: Activate
In this step you are asked to practise what you have just learnt in many different ways. With interactive tasks and sometimes also with memorisation. Here it is important to choose a colourful mix and select what suits you.
This is the step on which most Learnapps concentrate solely. This means that steps 1 and 2 are completely ignored. This also shows you that apps and random videos are not a sustainable strategy, but can rather be used as a supplement.
Step 4: Use
And finally, Step 4 is active use with other people and feedback so that you can continue to develop.
I don't even need to mention that this is neglected in most apps.
This is often the only step you take in private lessons. That means you practise speaking and maybe you also get grammar explanations, but in the typical cheap private lessons you don't have a curriculum specifically tailored to you and your skills that builds on each other and maybe no input on German at step 1.
And of course the whole thing is a loop and then starts again from the beginning.
And just like with the Compliments I mentioned earlier, this loop naturally creates a positive spiral because you never start from scratch or randomly cobble something together, but everything interlocks like cogwheels.
The 4-Step-Loop-System is therefore a flexible learning strategy that depends on your skills, which means that you understand others in German and they understand you, so nothing stands in the way of the next gossip about how you spend your evenings.
Maybe you know already that there is an opportunity to get you to this breakthrough to conversational German together
This is the program inGerman Decoded. I have written a story that is tailored to your skills if you can already say a few sentences in German and built a large program around it that follows the 4-Step-Loop-System exactly.
It's a 10 week group programme and the next round will start soon.
And for the people on the interested list there are two special bonuses:
One is a Secret Sale access. This means that you will receive an extra link a few days before the programme opens for public booking. This can be important because places are limited to 10.
And secondly, you will receive a substantial early bird bonus on the purchase price.
The priority list is non-binding, which simply means that you will be reminded by email a few days before the secret sale starts.
When you sign up, it is just like telling me: Hey sounds interesting, send me all the deets when the time comes, Jennifer.
I'd definitely love to see you there and if you have any questions about inGerman Decoded and whether it's right for you, feel free to email me at info@in-german.com
Categories: : Mindset and Strategy
