Hello everyone,
and welcome to a new episode of review of the day, this time with a look at
Anja’s brand new German course
Many of you probably know Anja, but for those who don’t: Anja is a YouTuber who has one of the biggest German channels out there, with almost a million subscribers and she’s part of what I call “The golden generation”, together with Easy German (the absolute GOAT), Lingoni (with Pesto and Jenny), GetGermanized and Deutsch Für Euch.
Anja has loads of cool videos on her channel but she’s also created a few online courses, which were okay. I mean… decent courses… doing their job.
But they absolutely PALE in comparison to what Anja has created over the last year. If you ever need an example for what “stepping up the game” is… it’s what Anja did!
Because she made her course into…
…an entire comedy series!!
The great thing about videos with native speakers is that you get to see language used in context and in real life.
And if there’s an overarching story and fleshed out characters, then learning German is like watching Netflix … just with cases :).
Here’s the official trailer for Anja’s new show:
The setup for the series is pretty standard and we know it from many textbooks or the famous learning series Nico’s Weg by Deutsche Welle:
The main character Katie (played by Anja herself) arrives in Germany, makes friends and has all kinds of small and big adventures.
Each scene is a short little dialogue filled with useful words and phrases, or chunks as Anja calls them in her learning system, so you see loads of useful vocabulary in context and “in the wild”.
And for each video, you get a script where you learn one or two bits of grammar and you get loads of exercises to practice the grammar and the vocabulary of that lesson. And for each lesson, there’s also a comment section where you can ask all questions you might have and get answers from NATIVE speakers (or Anja herself, if she has time).
So it’s similar to what some textbooks are doing, except it’s actually in video, way more interactive and way more not boring :)!
Eventually, she wants to create courses for up to B1, but for now the A1 course is finished.
Here’s what you get in detail:
The first season of the show (which is level A1) has 20 modules in total, each coming with 3 short video scenes (about 2-3 minutes long).
That makes 60 video -lessons in total.
For each video, you’ll then get:
- mp3 of the dialogue
- pdf with the transcript in German and English
- explanation of the grammar topic of the lesson
- a list of useful words and chunks
- a bunch of exercises (as pdf)
- flashcards (using the Brainscape-System)
- native speaker comment support
After the challenge, you’ll have seen how many important every day situations play out, you’ll have learned loads of useful words and chunks and you’ll know most of the basic grammar of A1 like pronouns, some cases, conjugation, negation and so on.
It was originally designed as a 10 week program, but once you’re signed up you have full lifetime access, so you can progress however fast or slow you want.
The Pros
1) The humor and spirit
Those of you who know her Youtube channel are familiar with Anja’s bubbly personality and positive and engaging energy.
If you like that, you will LOVE the series!!
The story is great fun, there’s lots of quirky humor in every scene and you can see that the people are really enjoying playing the roles.
It’s really fun to watch and you’ll remember loads of phrases and words just because the scenes are so engaging.
Oh and speaking of the people playing the roles… that’s kind of an all star cast. Brad Pitt, Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo di Januzsro, Carilett Johannsen.. they’re all there.
2) The Actors
. Anja has invited loads of guests from the German teaching Youtube, Insta, TikTok scene so there are plenty of familiar faces. Dein Sprachcoach, Deutsch mit Maria, LerneDeutsch... even Cari and Januzs (the absolute GOATs) took a role.
Oh and I’m somewhat of an actor myself ;)
So it’s not some random actors, but people who actually have something to do with learning German, and that you might already know.
Sure, the acting is a bit goofy and giggly at times, but that’s part of the charm honestly. Ain’t no need for method acting in a series like that :).
3) The production quality
The production quality is great! Images may not look as slick as Nico’s Weg sometimes, but that series had an much higher budget and all the resources of the Deutsche Welle. Anja had professional equipment AND professional people for camera and audio on set and it really shows.
4) The narrator
This might sound like a weird one to point out, but the series also has a narrator that leads us along Anja’s journey and I think he does a phenomenal job. Really professional and engaging.
5 ) The bonuses
Yes, you get bonuses. Along with the new course, you also get access to Anja’s other (smaller) courses like the ones on cases, modal particles, articles and sentence structure. I have not checked those out, so I can’t tell you details, but yeah… lots more for you to study.
The cons
1 ) You’ll only get what you put in
The videos are really fun to watch and you can pick up vocabulary just from doing that. The setup as a challenge and the comment sections for each lesson will also help stay engaged. But at the end of the day, it is still self study. It is YOU who needs to sit down and read the script with the grammar explanations and do the exercises. And you’ll have to do some supplementing with other sources, especially if you’re a complete beginner.
So you need to be aware that YOU are responsible for how much you benefit from the course. If you don’t put in the work, you won’t get the results :)
2 ) The exercises
I didn’t get to try out the exercises thoroughly, but as far as I can tell, they’re mainly based on pdf. So I think you need to either print it, or fill it on the screen and then compare with the solutions.
Something a bit more interactive would have been a better choice here in my opinion. Not because you then “learn better”. Doing the exercises as a printed pdf is probably superior in terms of learning. But the chances that you do the exercise is much higher if it’s an actual online quizz. At least for me it’s that way. That goes back to point one, essentially – you need to have some self study skills and motivate yourself to really benefit from all the material.
3 ) The price
The price for the course is €347.
A lot of work and funds went into the creation and I think it’s definitely a better investment than a random A1 German course, especially when you factor in all the bonus material.
But it’s still quite the price tag that shuts the door for a not so small number of people. It is what it is, but it’s still a pity :)!
Overall verdict
Anja’s new course is an amazing project with lots of fun and love (and work) in it.
If like Anja and you want to learn the basics of German is a fun way and you have some amount of self study power, then I totally recommend this.
And they have a 30 day money back guarantee, so you can give it a try and see if it works for you.
If you’re now like “Sounds awesome, I want to sign up” then you need to take action right away because
Sign up
The price is currently 297 Euro for one season. You can pick whether you want season 1 or 2 or 3 and then they’ll offer you the other one for a good discount.
Here’s the link for the direct sign up:
Oh and this is an affiliate linke, so if you sign up through them, Anja will have to give me a kickback.
I mean… I didn’t get payed for my roles, and I prepared like 6 weeks in a bakery, just to nail the part :).
Cool… so that was my review of Anja’s new course. If you#re somewhat of a beginner or you want to refresh and you like Anja’s style, then it’s an absolute win.
Much more entertaining than Nico’s Boredom, that’s for sure.
Let me know in the comments, what you think about, and if you have any questions about her course. I’ll try my best to answer all of them, and if I can’t I’ll ask Anja and her team :).
To wrap it up, here’s a little outtake from our filming at the bakery, have a great week and I’ll see you next time.
***
Is there still a discounted code?
Hey there, I really need to update this post, sorry for the confusion!
So there should be a code “EMANUEL” for 15% discount, but I just checked and it’s not working.
I’ll have to get in touch with Anja’s team about it. I’ll let you know!
They’ve actually set it up as a 10 week challenge, so all participants start at the same time and take the journey together.
You’ll get two videos per week (60 videos in total)
That doesn’t add (multiply, rather) up. 2 videos/week * 10 weeks would equals 20 videos.
I think you get 2 units per week, each unit having 3 videos. So that’s 6 videos per week, or 60 videos in 10 weeks. (That’s what Anja’s own site says.)
Oh true, I got confused… it’s definitely 60 videos, so 6 per week :). Thanks for pointing that out!
Ich habe schon mal beim YouTube gesagt, aber als fortgeschrittene Deutschstudentin (B2-ish), brauche ich die A1 Lernmaterialen wahrscheinlich nicht. Trotzdem würde ich mir die Serie gern anschauen. Es wäre toll wenn man ein anderen Preis nur für die Videos (ohne Kurs) bezahlen könnte. Das würde mich sehr freuen!
Super Idee!!
Ich hoffe, Anja überlegt sich das, für die Zukunft.
+1
Cool. But =nearly $600 NZ dollars for me. Whoa! Hope it works out for her. I mostly use Seedlang + Easy German + Anki app + here, though I’ve been a bit slack over here. I came here because I loved your love of kartoffeln over on Easy Germany/Seedlang. :-)
Wow, the potatoes led you here, that’s great :)!
Yeah, Anja’s course is definitely an investment. You really need to treat it like an course, where you have to show up several times a week and do the work. Otherwise, you’ll not get your money’s worth.
Question: Do I retain access to the course after the 15 weeks? If so, the price tag might be worth it.
Yes, it’s lifetime access. The 10 weeks is really just an option if you need a bit of “pressure”.
Also, you’ll get a hefty discount for the later “seasons” (A2 and B1, already in the works).
Hiya,
No need for typos today.
Way too expensive for me and I’d rather spend that much on one-to-one, which I actually do. But Anja is great and I enjoy her videos, so it should be a good course for those who can afford it and enjoy online formats.
Emanuel the baker – no need for that violence :)
Bis bald!
Actually, yeah, I never thought about it this way, but you can get quite a fair amount of one on one for that money :).
As for the violence… she is basically stealing cookies in that scene and we were trying out how to end it.
They did not put that into the final version, though. And I totally messed up a plant with my hurling. That’s why I am so embarrassed. The owner of the place was serving customers while we were shooting and he was nice enough to let us film there. All during Covid restrictions, mind you. So I felt really really bad for knocking down his plant :D.
Jemand, der deinem Blog schon seit mehreren Monaten (oder länger) liest, ist wahrscheinlich nicht mehr A1. Daher ist die Werbung für diesen Kurs in deinem Blog möglicherweise nicht der beste Weg, um dieses Angebot bekannt zu machen.
Es scheint sehr lustig zu sein, aber 300 € sind mir zu viel für ein bissel Unterhaltung.
Ich applaudiere jedoch allen, die so hart arbeiten, um uns diese wunderbaren Inhalte zu liefern!
Ja, der Betrag macht nur Sinn, wenn man wirklich mit dem Material arbeitet :).
Aber es gibt viele Leser hier, die irgendwo zwischen A1 und A2 stehen. Manche lernen Deutsch langsam, als Hobby.
All the best. Not my cup of tea.
Seems waaaaay expensive
It’s in the high segment of online courses, no doubt.
To me, it makes sense if:
Then, it’s a better deal than an in person course somewhere. But if you just want the videos as a fun supplement, then yeah… it’s too much.
Mein Top Drei: Easy German (podcast und videos) ich liebe Caris Haarwechseln sehen, Anje – sie ist ja viel, aber… das format (Deutsch/Englisch rücken an rücken) werkt sehr gut für mich, und YourDailyGerman. Ich benutze YDG wie ein “deep dive” oder “drill down”. So viel verstehe mich nicht, aber stück ‘by'(?!) stück ich besser jeden tag sein. Ok…ja, Duo Lingo jeden Tag. Es ist ein Werkzeug. “Skill and Drill” ist hilfereich zurzeit für mich.
Anje – sie sieht meine Ehefrau aus. Ehrlich! Danke für die discount code. Jede Dollar is hilfereich. Es freut mich das Ihr (yall Deutsche youTubers) sind freundlich mit einander. Ich habe YDG via Easy German gefunden.
Dein Sprachcoach – wow…ich weiss nicht. Sie is hübsch und (bailing on German for a second). Sometimes I feel there is too much HER in the product. I like her pronunciation help, and she does good ‘clarifying a word’s usage’ videos but all of the pictures of her and various outfits, posing and makeup…lots of her. I think it is more for the Tik Tok world than me. I still follow her, but given my level, I spend a lot of time looking up words and phrases.
Weider…Danke.
Ha… ja, ich verstehe genau was du meinst mit “Dein Sprachcoach”. Wobei bei Anja’s Videos auch sehr viel Anja drin ist.
Aber es ist irgendwie anders. Auf Instagram gibt es echt viele Deutsch-fluencer und fast alle sind Frauen, wie Dein Sprachcoach.
Ich habe den Verdacht, dass das im Hintergrund von einer Firma koordiniert wird (Netzbekannt – eine Online Marketing Agentur).
Aber ich habe keine Beweise :)
Diese Leute (Sprachcoach, Deutschlera, Lerne Deutsch, etc) sind für mich zweite oder dritte Generation. Anja ist definitiv OG :)
I hope that you (and the other web-personalities who care) can make a living or be monetarily rewarded by your efforts. It takes a toll having to crank out content, and I appreciate the work. You also have to be ‘out there’ publicly in a way that many who use their brain more than their attitude and sex appeal find intrusive. Your cameos in other’s media is good (I think). For me, you are the ‘crusty-mad-professor’ who lives on the hill – but when you need to KNOW something soup to nuts (British), you get deeper. (Sorry, I don’t know you at all so I apologize if that is way off the mark) The Easy German podcast can get deep – but on social issues. That is cool, but different. I love the depth of a single verb or noun that you present. The better I get, the more I understand, and the more I want to know. You are language and the interaction of language and culture..but language over culture. Despite your humor, which is great, it is a more serious look at something. YDG, EasyGerman, and Anje are my gradient – with others perused based on youTube ‘suggestions’. But y’all are everyday. Thank you for being you.
I think most of the people on youtube and insta do make a living around their channel, though some may have to do one on one teaching.
I’m making my living from the blog, too, and I’m quite happy I don’t have to crank out that much content. It kills creativity when you HAVE to do it.
I can set time aside to build new features like the audio recorder or the dictionary and I really love that.
I think you got a good mix with your gradients :). We’re all three very different in style and content, so there’s very little overlap. And these two are my favorite competition by far. And Easy German are also my friends, which I’m really happy about . They’re such great humble people. They deserve to be number one!
You’re absolutely right, Emmanuel, they deserve to be Number One! And their humility draws me in as well. Und deine Blogs sind herrlich! Ich lerne immer so viel davon, obwohl ich Muttersprachlerin bin :)