I know the struggle and unfortunately there is no way around it except listening and trying to fill the gaps with context until you are able to take it all in at some point. I tried listening “coffee break german” on youtube for awhile and think it helped, but it was a bit boring.
While I’m barely picking anything up, Gothe-Geschichten (on Spotify) seems far more applicable and useful. They still talk very slowly but it’s 100% German. I assume it’s around A2+, but it seems like even as a beginner A1 I’m making progress with it.
Easy German on YouTube is strange. It’s clearly full of B2+ speaking but it’s all very slow. There’s some segments for A1/A2 beginners. It feels like most of Easy German is more for the B1++ levels, where they need slow but complex talking (trying to reach Native…)
In all cases, slow German isn’t real German. It’s a useful stepping stone as I reach the next skill level, but it’s clear I need to find full speed practice somewhere somehow. Or in other words: slow German helps me learn new concepts. But I need something that reinforces my already known concepts and brings them up to native speed IMO.
It’s about the same speed as any news broadcast, so it’s still slower than German Comedy or real life German talking. But it’s the closest thing to a real but still beginner-friendly German learning material IMO.
That sounds like a lot of progress, nicely done.
I know the struggle and unfortunately there is no way around it except listening and trying to fill the gaps with context until you are able to take it all in at some point. I tried listening “coffee break german” on youtube for awhile and think it helped, but it was a bit boring.
Coffee break German seems too slow for me.
While I’m barely picking anything up, Gothe-Geschichten (on Spotify) seems far more applicable and useful. They still talk very slowly but it’s 100% German. I assume it’s around A2+, but it seems like even as a beginner A1 I’m making progress with it.
Easy German on YouTube is strange. It’s clearly full of B2+ speaking but it’s all very slow. There’s some segments for A1/A2 beginners. It feels like most of Easy German is more for the B1++ levels, where they need slow but complex talking (trying to reach Native…)
In all cases, slow German isn’t real German. It’s a useful stepping stone as I reach the next skill level, but it’s clear I need to find full speed practice somewhere somehow. Or in other words: slow German helps me learn new concepts. But I need something that reinforces my already known concepts and brings them up to native speed IMO.
The best I got for that is the nearly daily A2 level news briefs from DW. https://learngerman.dw.com/de/kurz-und-leicht/s-69137519
It’s about the same speed as any news broadcast, so it’s still slower than German Comedy or real life German talking. But it’s the closest thing to a real but still beginner-friendly German learning material IMO.