Here is my confession: When I started learning English, I wasn’t a good student at all. I would say I am probably still not a good student. Vocabulary lists make me fall asleep and I have a hard time memorizing grammatical structures and tenses.
Yet, I discovered a way that made learning fun for me. That’s how I slowly became a better student and found myself at the top of the class. It made learning effortless, since I was already doing it every day: Watching my favorite TV series. The only change I made was switching the audio to English and watching it with subtitles.
If you make the switch to watching your favorite series in German, you will make progress in no time. This is not only true for advanced learners, but also for beginners. Getting used to the sound of the language will bring you ahead. Here is how to get started:
Change Audio and/or Subtitles to German
If you have a Netflix account, you can easily switch the audio and subtitles for your series. Depending on your skill level you may want to only switch on the German audio and add an English subtitle to it (or do the reverse).
Even if you have no trouble of understanding the German audio, I would recommend to leave the subtitles on to improve your writing and spelling skills.
Discover original German TV programs
On Netflix you can watch your existing favorite TV series in German. But why not discover some original German TV programs. You can watch German shows and movies for free on the mediathek of public broadcasting stations:
ZDF Mediathek: https://www.zdf.de/
ARD Mediathek: https://www.ardmediathek.de/tv
DW TV: www.dw.com
Recommendations
Are there German TV series that you enjoy? Which series are most suitable for beginners or advanced students? Share them with me to help fellow learners. Send me a message to have them included here! I would love to hear from you.