Hello everyone,
And welcome back to day number 21 of the Advent Calendar. You might have noticed that day 20 was missing and that’s because I was outside running errands pretty much all day yesterday and when I got home I was so tired that I really couldn’t focus.
So we’ll get two treats today, essentially.
Hooray :)
And both of them are nothing special and very special at the same time.
Let’s start with the first one because… I don’t know. I just like to start with the first one. I’m old school in that way.
So yeah… treat number 1 is… drumroll… a Youtube channel.
I don’t usually recommend German learning Youtube channels because I think when it comes to learning grammar, a “slower” medium that needs more engagement from the learner is better. And also, many of the Youtube channels that explain words and usage are… well… not too reliable in terms of content.
And you all know Easy German, so I don’t have to recommend that one.
But I do occasionally “check what’s out there”, just to have a feel for the scene, and recently I found a channel that I think is the perfect type of content for German learners who are A2-B1 and who are looking to improve listening as well as vocabulary.
The channel is called Eleos corner | Learn german and it’s basically a young woman doing sort of Podcasts and Vlogs in German for German learners.
She speaks about different topics of daily life and sometimes it’s just her talking to the camera, other times it’s more like a vlog, so with footage from her daily life.
And there are several things that I really like.
- She’s actually a native speaker (many big Youtube German teachers are not)
- She speaks very slowly and very clearly and doesn’t use complicated structures.
- She repeats niche words, puts them on the screen and explains them. Much like Anja does from Learn German with Anja, just way less hectic.
- video production is good and down-to earth. No flashy nonsense and no AI.
- She doesn’t shill her pdf or course all the time
- She doesn’t do “click-magnet” content like “AVOID THESE 3 MISTAKES”, just to have content
- She seems to post regularly and engage with the audience (she’s still small enough of a channel to do that)
- She’s very authentic, honest and likable.
All in all, it feels a bit like the old YouTube where people would kind of just be themselves, without everything being geared toward getting famous and making passive income. BUT at the same time, it is specifically made for German learners.
Here’s one of her recent videos, that’ll give you a good impression.
Here’s again the link to her YouTube channel.
And now let’s get the second treat.
YourDailyGerman as an App
You can “install” YourDailyGerman as an “app” on your phone and computer now.
The proper term for this is “webApp” and it’s basically still a website, BUT it has its own icon on the screen and you do not lose screen-space to the browser bar anymore.
So it looks and feels like an app to some extent, but you can’t download it from the actual app stores, and it won’t work offline. Basically, a first step :).
How to install it?
Basically, your browser should recognize that this is “installable” now offer you to do it.
On desktop, you’ll find a little logo in the address bar of the browser, and it looks like this:
This is on Chrome, and it might look different for other browsers, but that’s basically where it is.
And on mobile, the browser should actually offer it to you as an overlay saying something like “YourDailyGerman – Installieren”.
When you click that, you’ll get an symbol on your phone and you can basically navigate to open my site directly, without the browser, and I think especially if you use the dictionary, that might be very useful.
And that’s it for today!
Let me know what you think of the YouTube channel and also if you have other similar channels that you watch and would recommend.
And let me know if the app works and if that’s useful at all.
Have an amazing 4th of Advent and I’ll see you all… morgen :)
Eleos ist sehr süß und interessant- vielen danke!
I am actually a big believer in youtube videos, simply because I cannot really engage with written content all the time. So I listen to youtube videos as podcasts when I’m doing dishes and other boring stuff. It’s not as effective as actively learning with full concentration, but hey, life is not all about efficiency. Also, we the german learners do need to hear a lot of german to get passive listening ability.
So here are three youtube channels that I’ve found in the passing year, that greatly helped me step my german up (all native speakers):
–YourGermanTeacher: specializes on teaching grammar in more traditional way, by thoroughly explaining grammar, giving examples and excercises. Run by a duo of a German and a Swiss teachers. Great for complete begginers.
–Simple German Network: german teacher generally talking about his life, travels, german Redewendungen, but also about grammar and daily-slang. Great for beginners and intermediate learners, with his videos I’ve greatly upped my listening comprehension.
–Deutsch mit Rieke: german lady teacher, talks almost exclusively for high level students: B2 and C1. I can’t really learn much from her, sadly, as I am not nearly that level, but some will it helpful.
Honorary mention: German Potato- not a language teacher, but just a german girl explaining german culture. I learned some stuff from her I would like to forget, about Bernd the Bread and german tv shows about alcoholics, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
To add the icon on safari on iPhone
You tap the three dots
Then you tap the SHARE icon
And then tap the the option that says “more”
Then “Add to Home Screen” which is in the bottom section of the menu
You have the option to have it “open as web app” or not… opening it as a web app means it acts more like a self-contained program, in that it doesn’t show URLs or anything anymore. And maybe other things. Dunno yet. Unchecking that option means that it opens in your default browser so the icon is effectively a simple shortcut to the website.
Vielen Dank für die Empfehlung! I really like the presentation in Eleo’s Corner. I also have found “Chill German”episodes to be helpful as well as the Slow German podcast wordlists.
No kidding, I have been thinking over the last few days that I should make a quasi-app icon for YDG as I am in a heavy app-flipping phase at the moment, and I was also thinking I should suggest you suggest it to everyone, I think having one that links directly to the dictionary would probably help a lot with page views and if you put the instructions directly on the dictionary? or maybe as a main menu link? that a lot of people would go for it.
That said, I have no idea how to do it from your instructions here (safari on iphone) and I’ll have to look it up somewhere else.
Can’t check out eleos because I have youtube bricked at the moment but I appreciate channels like that so much and that this comment section is gathering a list of them, and also that there seem to be more of them as time goes on. People are learning to value how important it is to provide a big chunk of comprehensible content for learners to actually practice understanding, rather than informing them about grammar and definition and being gimmicky. My contribution to that list is Natürlich German, do you know it? She has studied the comprehensible-input based methods and actually knows how to present comprehensible content across all levels. Like, I’ve put on a lower-level video of hers for my parents who know zero German and they could kind of understand it. I found her channel the most helpful when I was in B1ish, I would watch a video or two with hers over my breakfast. I found her particularly good for telling folk tales, she has a gift for “recounting” and I felt a very pleasant resonance between the stories and the sounds/nature of the language.
The podcast that was great for me during that time was 14 Minuten, a step or two below easy German. The guy has also studied how CI works and is really good at circling over sentences he just said and rephrasing them a few ways so we absorb meanings, or defining newer words using simpler words. It’s also a really pleasant blend of interesting and boring – just interesting enough to want to understand it, but boring enough that you don’t care if you miss something. I used to wash dishes listening to it. Gosh maybe I should do that again, it would get me washing dishes regularly again….
Tangent… Obviously I am NOT a CI purist by any means (speaking of arguing on Reddit, OMG I used to love fighting with them), there was a huge wave of them on Reddit a year or two ago, people who blatantly insisted learning ANYTHING *about* a language was not only inefficient but also damaging, from grammar to vocabulary to anything – there was one person who insisted it was damaging to learn the alphabet – and that you can truly only and best learn by reading and listening to content you can understand, so that your brain practices understanding the language. I do however appreciate that fighting with them brought me into contact with their main point, which is, I think, sound – to understand a language you need to practice understanding the language. It’s like with swimming or playing an instrument – theoretical knowledge is great, but it’s only a support. I feel that most old school langauge-learning blatantly favor theoretical knowledge over experiential practice, and that’s why language programs in schools have been soooo ineffective
I wish we heard a little more from you on EasyGerman! I know you hear that a lot. Your episodes always made me laugh SO hard and I basically never get that with German content. I wish they would stack up a bunch of language-specific questions that they generally don’t really know how to answer (which is good, it keeps them natural) and talk with you about them so people would get an idea about your approach.
Funny thing: I’ll actually spend New Years with Cari and Janusz in Poland :).
The thing with Easy German is that they’re a business and they do have DaF people on staff, which are also active in their Discord. They’re nice and we like each other but it still might be weird to bring in external expertise.
Also, they’ve reached a size that is so huge that being mentioned by them has a significant boost.
So I feel very hesitant about asking them to collaborate because I would gain a LOT while for them it’s just a normal Monday. Of course I could use some exposure every now and then, but yeah… I feel weird asking about it now in a way I didn’t feel when they were still just the two of them in their apartment.
And then, Manual is very very professional with the Podcast and I don’t think he’s interested in the more “shooting the shit” type of episodes. And it’s 100% his baby, the podcast is.
But yeah, I wanted to do a video with them last year, but we never could find the time, and I’ll defo talk about it next week.
About CI.
whenever I hear “comprehensible input”, I shudder a little because I feel like it’s such a buzz word at the moment. Basically the new word people use to SEO and market their stuff. It’s not a bad idea, and her channel is probably a good channel, since you’re definitely a critical learner who knows the field. I just don’t like the “branding”-vibe of the term. I have heard that term a lot this year, I think someone (Stephen Crashen) is running some marketing campaign. And yeah… part of this branding bullshit is to dismiss everything else because “comprehensible input” is not just comprehensible input, it’s THE WAY!. NEW! AMAZING. SCIENCE! RESULTS! SEXY! NO EFFORT!
About the App Icon:
You probably saw it, but a user described how to get it done in a comment here. Here’s the link :)
https://yourdailygerman.com/yourdailygerman-as-app/#comment-88862
Hi Emanuel,
Firefox on android works like this:
Open Firefox on your Android phone or tablet.
Visit webpage for yourdailygerman.
Tap the menu (three vertical dots)
Tap on “The Add to Home Screen” panel which will appear. An icon will appear on one of your screens.
Drag the icon to your preferred spot on your home screen or tap.
Fröhe Feirtage,
Kev
Ps the same works for Google Chrome on android.
Oh, amazing, thank you very much. Vielen lieben Dank und dir auch schöne Feiertage!
Hi Emanuel. I must be doing something wrong as I can’t see the app thing in the Chrome browser and I am sure you double checked things.
By the way, happily exploring some of the grammar and enjoying your style. It resonates with me as an Australian maverick. Would you say you are a maverick? My bet is you are…….cheers Peter
Hmm, are you using desktop or mobile?
If on desktop, so you’re basically only seeing the star?
As for maverick… I wouldn’t say that I am in life, at least not an actualized one, but I definitely am in the realm of German teaching. I started because I hated language course and especially textbooks and I almost never do any “research” to see how the teacho-sphere explains something. I hate their stupid degree fetish that they have. “wE oNlY tAkE tEaChErS wItH a DeGrEe”.
I’m really happy I DON’T have a degree in this field because it narrows your view on how things should be explained and the field of grammar instruction is super duper stale for it. No one ever tries anything new. So yeah… in that sense, I’m a maverick. I hope to actualize that in more areas of life, lol.
I have a whole list of German YouTube subscriptions I’ve never watched, just like my bookmark graveyard :D
Some channels I liked at some point (mostly B1/B2):
-Deutsch mit Rieke
-ExpertlyGerman
-Natural Fluent German
-Simple German Network
It’s crazy how the space has exploded with channels. There used to be so few 6 years ago and there are so many now :)
I liked what I saw in Eleos! Thanks!!
Eleos Corner was a bit slow for me but I did like it. In the last year I’ve been doing the EasyGerman podcasts so I’ve gotten use to a faster pace. I think I’m getting close to a B2 level but still have some B1 “holes”.
On YouTube and along the lines of not pushy and just a nice person is Freunde der Sonne.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCKY2Q515_w
He’s low budget and so it’s just him talking, but I’ve always enjoyed what he’s had to say. He repeats the word or phrase he’s sharing, which has helped me.
Oh, I’ve seen him too, recently when I “explored” current German learning YouTube. He speaks slow but it’s VERY authentic in a way that I think he doesn’t speak much differently in normal life.
I could tell from his videos that he is most likely a German teacher who has worked at a school or real life classes at some point because they ALL have this typical “ja?” that they throw into their sentences when they explain something. Anja from Learn German with Anja does that a LOT, but he also does it. It’s kind of a déformation progessionelle :)
He also has some videos with much faster german as challenges, z.b.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1rPDKAF8PY. But yeah, most of his stuff is understandable even for unexperienced learners.
Hello,
No typos!
Will check the video later, I’m busy myself today, but this calendar seems to have been giving us lots of resources :)
Bis morgen!