Give me an A!
Give me a D!
Give me an H!
Give me a D!
What’s that spell?
It spells… oh… uh… Advent Calendar 2025, let’s goooo!!
Seriously, welcome to the epic YourDailyGerman
German learning Advent Calendar 2025
For those of you who have found me only this year, here’s what the Advent Calendar is:Every day until Christmas, I will post a little for German learners.
That can be a quick word of the day, a quiz or quick exercise, a new German learning tool, a give-away, a cultural observation or a piece of useful advice for learners, like “Use this” or “Don’t use that”.
Many of you are long term followers of the Calendar and participate in the comments every year. That’s kind of what makes the calendar for me, and it’s why I keep doing it every year even though in summer I usually say “OMG, this year I’ll take a break.”
But yeah… I just checked and this year is actually an anniversary because the calendar is turning 10!!
And so it’s kind of fitting that this calendar is going to be … different.
This time it’s different – Part 1
There are two main differences – the first one is that the calendar will get the paywall :/.
People with memberships be like “Yeah, I don’t even care.”
I was really on the fence about this, and in a way I still am, because Christmas season is about giving. But the reality is that it is a LOT of work for me every year and I cannot afford to do this for free at the moment.
I do feel the impact of AI on the business side of things quite heavily – many people don’t find my site anymore because they get their questions answered by ChatGPT or the AI feature of Google.
But what’s even worse is that there are many new websites covering the same topics that I cover but written with AI, sometimes even with faulty information, but they really show up high in search and push down my content.
Now, I’m not really complaining. In a way, it’s a good push to innovate and evolve and I have plenty of ideas for how to do that, but the key thing is time.
I know that if I do a calendar, I’l barely work on anything else – not the book, not the card game, not the prefix verb dictionary, not the other book, not the gender learning game, not that ChatGPT plugin idea i have.
Long story short… I do want to do a calendar, because I know many long term readers enjoy it very much and so do I, but I need to put my business glasses on this year.
So if you are not a member but you have enjoyed the calendar in recent years, please consider joining for real.
And if you cannot afford to, or you can’t pay because you don’t have a credit card or whatever… please shoot me an email and I’ll sign you up. Many people have donated into the sponsor pot for you and even if that run out sometimes, I’ve never exclude anyone who really needs help.
But yeah… Calendar posts will be regular posts from now on. I don’t like doing this, but not doing it doesn’t feel right anymore either, so here we go.
This time is different – Part 2
So when I did the calendar for the first time 10 years ago, it was actually a way to have LESS work. I was still working as a bartender and bar manager at the time, and Advent Season was very busy, so I had less time to write.
Well… this worked for exactly one year and then the calendar evolved into an absolute stress fest. I remember many evenings where I was sitting at the bar after the day, having an Old Fashioned while monitoring staff and writing the calendar post for the day. Oh man, good times.
But yeah, the calendar was always a lot of work, so I started trying to prep it. Last year, I did the best prepping job so far and I had a LOT of content prepared, but it still wasn’t enough to cover the full distance and the downside was that I spent all November prepping, pretty much.
And then, with posting and answering comments and all, I was working every day anyway, so last year, I ended up with the calendar being priority for TWO months, not just one.
So this year, I will try a brand-new approach developed by scientists on podcasts called… winging it!
Yeah, like in the good old bar days, I will wing the calendar.
I do have a long list of topic ideas, but I have not written a single line yet and I have no plan what to post on what day.
The topic list is good, but we’ll see how it goes. I will definitely be late some days :).
What I do have prepared though are the images, at least some of them. First, I wasn’t sure what to do after last year, but I do have an idea that got me excited, so yeah… I want to do it.
Anyway, that’s it for today.
Welcome to the Advent Calendar 2025 everybody!
Man… I’m a little nervous. The pressure is on for real.
But yeah, I’m really looking forward to seeing how it unfolds but I’m pretty sure we’ll have a good German learning Advent Season, so I’d say… schönen Tag and bis morgen :)
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Your expertise and wit make it a really great learning platform. along with all thats happening we as learners are very thankful for all you do.
Is your dedication and your hard work to teaching the German language to all of us who want to learn. It is the hard work you put into something like Advent calendar, being a business owner myself I understand how much hard work that is. That is why I finally came a lifetime member!
Thanks for the support and I’m really happy we got that newsletter thing solved for you even if it took literal months :).
I just can’t thank you enough for giving insight into all the weird and strange corners of the German language. You dive deep into topics many other sites won’t even touch – AI or otherwise. Vielen Dank!
Danke für das schöne Feedback!!
I will keep saying it: this is the best place to actually learn German period
Danke :)
I love this site–it is irreplaceable! Keep on keepin’ on!
Will do :)
I hope winging it works for you. It’s so tricky to balance stress levels with this kind of stuff. You want to be generous to both yourself and your audience :) I think that the winging-it style makes sense with the paywall, because your subscribers are people who like to hear from you, and have probably already read a lot of your useful stuff, so I suppose it could mean less pressure to be particularly innovative.
I always think of you this time of year, partially because I get the advent calendar emails but also because advent means I play “O come O come Emmanuel” in about 500 churches and I don’t know anyone else with that name…
I understand about not being pushy, and it is very appreciated – especially the lack of auto-renew, which would rake in lots of money for you but does in fact feel spiritually aggressive, and really sets you apart as a “content creator.” I also think there are probably lots of people with lifetime subscriptions who would like to tip you every now and then and a “tip jar” option on the membership page would not offend anyone’s sensibilities, and also allow our appreciation to flow back to you more easily.
I remember back before I found your site, how I was patching together information from all kinds of different articles and sources, filling up notebooks, then eventually found one of your articles and put a star by it in my notes and writing/underlining “this author is GOOD”… glad I found it before google became the weird AI-echo chamber it has become. ChatGPT is SUPER helpful, and I’ve used it a lot in attempting to read books (finally), but I recognize that the words and rules that REALLY stick are the things I’ve read here, I think in part because there is some kind of sense-memory of engaging with a human and humanistic sensibility. AI phrases things so perfectly that you can see right through them like a crystal, and there’s nothing really to anchor onto.
Anyway, enough of singing your praises, I’ll leave that for church, and happy advent.
Thanks a lot for singing this :).
Seriously, I appreciate it.
When I read something and get the whiff that it’s AI, I stop reading.
Someone once said “If no one bothered to write it, why should I bother to read.” and I think that is true.
If I want AI text, I can just go to AI and get it tailored to me, based on how I like my explanations.
And I have found that I have become REALLY intolerant of certain turns of phrases. Like the “list of three with increasing length” or the “it’s not (just) A, it’s B”.
These are such strong tells and I always sigh internally when I read them.
I also get what you’re saying about there not being anything to “latch on” to. I feel the same… nothing. I feel more when I talk to it directly, because I’m kind of having an internal dialogue but augmented.
But on a website or in a Youtube video, it feels so empty.
I think when we write and read, there’s the conscious layer on which we communicate, and then also our “subconsciousnesses” (no idea what the plural is) communicate. It’s something we don’t really have direct control over. The writer can’t control what they’re sending out, the reader doesn’t really know what’s going in. But we do notice if it’s missing because half of us is reading something and the other half is like “Wait, the page is empty.”
How is your Hungarian going, by the way?
But we do notice if it’s missing because half of us is reading something and the other half is like “Wait, the page is empty.”
Yes exactly!
And I think in some ways we brought this on ourselves, by requiring so many people to write things that aren’t expressions of their true feeling, so that subconscious “page” is actually saying things like “I am struggling, I don’t care about this, I’m just trying to complete an assignment, I’m portraying something I don’t feel”… so we’ve become accustomed to a disconnect between the two “layers.” Like, the weird smarmy voice people use in commercials, is so uncanny, dishonest, and straightforwardly manipulative – and we just get used to it. So AI-generated crap is just one small step past this dissociated material. It makes me nauseous honestly, I feel like I have an allergy. It’s like you said, when I see AI tells in text, my eyes glaze over and I can’t read it.
It is different with ChatGPT or whatever, because it’s like an advanced search engine. And I also find that it makes all the difference in the world when someone just says “I asked ChatGPT about this and it said:” or “I couldn’t figure out how to phrase it so this is what ChatGPT said and I agree:” because there’s still a personal connection. But if we’re expected to accept AI-generated material as if it came from a person, even a total stranger? I just can’t take it in.
Thanks for asking, I had a really productive 2-or-3 month burst with Hungarian a while back, in which I was quasi-successfully carving my own learning path. The AI websites – and books! – are a HUGE problem with Hungarian… just page after page of absolute nonsense and falseness… This was my second big burst with Hungarian, I think in the first one I was learning about the nature of the language engouh to discern what material would be good or not. I didn’t find much material that was both decent and directed towards beginners, but I did figure out how to work with a combination of ChatGPT, reddit, and physical notebooks to get ahold of what I know I need to know.
That little burst ended when I found out my Hungarian-American grandfather was actually probably an affair baby and I’d never be able to find his birth certificate. Sooooooo I probably have to forget about citizenship through descent of any kind. (It was also a bust with my Polish great-grandparents – they came here too early.) But I still like the language (hate Polish) and I’ve laid a good foundation to come back to. When I come back, I’m going to leave a Hansel-and-gretel style trail of lernmaterial for other people in my position.
Anyway, I’m back on German now, kind of. It’s all on the back burner at the moment because I have a lot going on work-wise, but I want to get really good at it. I am finally at the level where I can deal with books and audiobooks, which is relatively passive and also so, so, so helpful for fluency, so I’m super happy.
I’m listening to the Werner Herzog audiobook (Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle) which I basically cannot recommend enough for B2ish people… he talks slowly and clearly, with a relatively simple vocabulary, but EVERYTHING he says is interesting, adventurous, and, um, einzigartig.
Ver sad to see the freebie go, but you are right, competing with KI is tough. I was one of your fans when the first Advent Calender was born.
I‘m sure that your members will enjoy just as much as I did, or even more. Your work is of high quality and very helpful to us lerners.
All the best and thanks for sharing your feelings with us.
Wow, thanks for following for this long :).
And like I said in the mail, anyone who wants to join but can’t afford to can just send me an email and tell me. No questions asked then.
AI had it’s uses, but your site is my go-to for information with context. Thank you for all you do.
I agree, You are THE best explainer of German language with all its foibles. I doubt I will ever use my German, but I have enjoyed being a member of your site for the last few years, especially the Advent Calendars.
Thanks a lot, and thanks for sticking with the site throughout the years.
I’ve not been reading your page on a regular basis, but I love it nevertheless. I admire all the work you do and your absolutely marvellous writing style, so no questions asked – if subscription is needed, subscription will it be. :) Thank you!
Hi Emanuel, Hi everyone!
I’m new to the squad here, perhaps one of the latest additions. I just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to this community, BIG thank you to the members who sponsor access for learners who can’t afford it. I’m one of those people, and I’m studying German to hopefully continue my education in Germany, so your support truly means a lot.
This is my first year joining the calendar, and knowing it’s been going for 10 years honestly says a lot about your dedication. It’s really encouraging to see something kept alive for so long. I hope you keep going your work genuinely helps people like me stay consistent and not lose hope.
I’m grateful to be here, and even as someone new, I already feel welcomed. Thank you for creating such a supportive space.
Advent Calendar is super. Thank you so much.
Still excited and glad to be a member!
Fernsehturm spotted :)
I really appreciate your taking the time to do this, that’s why I just joined up with a lifetime membership. Please keep doing this for as long as you are able. I’m in Los Angeles California your lessons go out all over the world.
Much appreciated! Grüße raus nach Cali!
Hi Ema!
Totally understand and support your need to put the Adventskalender behind a paywall. It is worth the subscription.
Regarding your obervations regarding a dwindling audience there is no doubt in my mind that AI is taking over, which I see as a potential positive development in many ways. Comparing your content to AI however is WAY left field.
This social media-formed communication, everythiing a F**king Thumbs up or some stupid emoji, our own generated AI (Artificial Interaction, Artificial Intimacy) Great! Super! Looks cool! and every content heavy reply being no more than 5 words – mostly because people are no longer used to reading an entire paragraph – and how could they when they subscribe to several different social media platforms.
Please don’t change YOUR content because although the numbers of literate people who take the time to read, enjoy, savor, learn are dwindling, our appreciation for you IS genuine. And we need you and the others like you.
As for AI – the truth is, most people use ChatGPT like google – which is NOT how AI is meant to work – so they are shoothing themselves in the Po by setting themselves up for the replies they receive. To use AI sucessfully requires that one puts time into giving background info, and sitting with AI for extended periods of time for discussions, and digging where you and your computer stand. Again, these social-media formed emoji replies are NOT what AI is created to do. Google it and wade through the kazillion bogus info-sources.
Don’t blame AI – it’s the user’s fault, not AI. AI is a valuable tool, and like ALL tools, it takes practice using it. Like a piano, or a carving knife.
Also, the economy is bad. Really bad. Stores closing, People are cancelling subscriptions to Spotify, Netflix and all that stuff (that I never had). You are one of the first to go which says NOTHING about your content – it says a lot about what our priorities have become.
Don’t see AI as a competitor, see it as an ally – a tool. And like with all tools, they are not useful in every situation. You can’t really put your piano to use when you are on the toilet. Nor can Ema use AI to generate content – not until you train it to think like you and trust me – that takes less time than you think. You’d be suprised. And scared.
All vibes, keine Sorge :) I think everyone in your community is down for the ride for whatever feels right. Your site is still the best source of information. Was recently in an intensive B1-B2 course where I had to learn a lot of new words and was trying to use Leo for a dictionary, cuz you can add words to a flashcard deck quickly on the go, but it also isn’t the best because they include so many definitions on one word it was hard to figure out which definition I should use for the flashcard, so I used your dictionary to cross reference. Anyway, you’re still the GOAT and looking forward to whatever you work on next :)
Just echoing all the love. Excited for the winging-it energy this year :D
Please don’t stress too much..or any. Sometimes I don’t get to read the daily calendar post until after the holidays! So it is busy on both sides of the calendar. Please just ‘blather-on’ :-) on any topic as you see fit. I will assume I can speak for all of your patrons and say ‘We enjoy YOUR work, and learn something every time we open a lesson!” Thus, as a ‘lifer’ patron, just do what you can and like. Please.
I’m sorry AI is getting you down. I recently asked AI a question that I knew the answer to, and received an incorrect answer. I will not be relying on AI for anything, and hope others come to the same conclusion.
It’s great for some things, and overall, it’s a positive.
The challenges for sites like mine are not so much the AI itself, it’s more SEO people. So many articles exist on topics like “what does doch mean” now written by people who really don’t do anything beyond paraphrasing other sources but SEO-optimizing it, all to drive traffic to their site and sell their e-book or course or app. The AI now makes it infinitely easier for this type of content to be pushed out and it just overall lowers the odds for people finding me.
But yeah, this kind of pressure to innovate is necessary in a way… annoying, but necessary :)
Law’s gates!
Tuck mi ä seckent.