Herr Antrim's Suggested Links
After teaching German in the classroom setting since 2009 and teaching on YouTube since 2011, I have come across many books, dictionaries, and online resources that are helpful for German learners as well as German teachers. This page is by no means an exhaustive list of the resources I like and recommend, nor are any of the links on this page sponsored in any way (except Amazon Affiliate links).
I'm sure you came to this page for a particular kind of resource, so I have separated them into categories for your convenience. Each of the categories listed below are clickable links, which will take you to my recommendations in that category and a brief explanation of what they are and why I like them. Within each category I have listed them in the order I would recommend them, meaning that the best resources are at the top. The ones at the bottom of each list are by no means bad. I still recommend them, which is why they are here. I just think that some are more helpful than others.
If you think I am missing a great resource that should be included on this page, please email me your suggestions. If I agree that it should be on this page, I will add it.
Resources Offered by Herr Antrim
Online Dictionaries
Teacher Resources
Reading German Online
German Learning Apps
German Learning Games
Resources Offered by Herr Antrim
Archive
I couldn't have a list of resources without tooting my own horn a bit. It is my website, after all. I have a few things to offer German learners. Maybe you will find some of them helpful as well.
1. YouTube Videos (obviously)
Since 2011 I have created a ton of videos. I currently have almost 700 videos on my YouTube channel. Every one of them can teach you something about the German language, culture or ways to learn about both. If you have made it this far on my website, you already know this, so I won't dwell on that too much.
2. Worksheets, Video Scripts, & More
For every video in the A1/A2 and B1/B2 Series I have created a video script (in German & English) and a worksheet with answer key to go with it. Before I started those series, I also made worksheets for the 3 Minuten Deutsch series starting with episode of 51. Several of my German Learning Tips videos also have worksheets to go with them. All of those things are available to those who support my work on Patreon.
In addition to uploading my materials to a Google Drive folder for my Patreon supporters, I have also begun uploading my materials to Teachers Pay Teachers. My goal for this summer is to upload all of my materials that I have created for Patreon to Teachers Pay Teachers. If you don't see what you are looking for on Teachers Pay Teachers yet, please email me and I will get it to you.
3. Recommended Books, Movies, & Resources
A while back Amazon came out with a new program called the Amazon Influencer Program. This allows people like me with online clout to create a list of product recommendations for their fans. When someone buys something off of the list, the "influencer" gets a commission kickback. While it is nice to get a few bucks here and there from this program, I like the fact that I can help people find helpful resources that they can't find online.
My Amazon Influencer Page includes my favorite German readers, classic German children's books, the entire Harry Potter series in German, German culture books, vocabulary trainers, grammar books, and German films. I'm sure there is something you will like there.
Now you can get "Learn German with Herr Antrim" t-shirts, hoodies, mugs and more on TeeSpring. Show of your love of the German language and your appreciation for my work by sporting some Herr Antrim gear. While this won't necessarily help you learn German, it will help promote German learning, which I think is pretty important, too.
Online Dictionaries
All online dictionaries include a few options and features that make them unique and more helpful than others in certain situations. It is important to first identify what and how you plan to use the online dictionary, so you can choose the correct one for your needs. I personally use each of the dictionaries listed for different reasons and I explain why in each description.
1. Dict.cc
My go-to online dictionary is dict.cc. If I need to look up a word or even a short phrase, this is my first stop. It includes more words, word combinations and phrases than any of the other dictionaries on the list. Simply stated, it is the most complete dictionary on the list. It even includes obscure idioms and colloquialisms that you won't find in any other dictionary on the list.
Of course, there are negative things about any site and this one is no exception. There is a dict.cc mobile app. I have it installed on my Pixel 2 XL. Every time I open the app it crashes immediately. Once I get rid of the notification that it crashed, I can open it again and it works perfectly. It is this one minor annoyance that makes it so that I don't actually use it very often on my phone. If I'm on a desktop or laptop computer, I use this dictionary almost exclusively, but it is too annoying to use on mobile. I will be working through the annoyances while in Germany, as you can download the entire language pack and never use data while using the app. This will definitely come in handy while traveling.
2. LEO
My go-to online dictionary for a long time (before discovering dict.cc) was LEO. It includes most of the words and phrases you will need, but there have been a few times that I couldn't find what I was looking for on LEO, so I had to move dict.cc. It is still a pretty handy dictionary and it includes audio samples like a lot of other dictionaries. One of the key advantages of LEO is the mobile app. It doesn't allow you to download the language pack like dict.cc, but it does work without crashing. When I am in class and I have a student who asks me for a word I don't know (which happens way more often than it should), I open up the LEO app and find it in seconds. It is a quick, light mobile app with a great user interface. It is available on Android, iOS, and Windows Phones.
You can even integrate it directly into your web browser, which allows you to find any word on any website without leaving the site. If you do a lot of online reading in German, but often find yourself opening a dictionary in another tab, this is the feature for you.
I have a more complete review of the LEO online dictionary and all of the other features available on their site. Click here to see it. It is several years old, but pretty much all of the information is still correct.
3. Linguee
Linguee is a different kind of dictionary entirely. I use this almost every time I write a video script. In addition to the usual word-to-word and phrase-to-phrase translations, Linguee shows you results of the word or phrase for which you are searching as it is used in articles and websites around the web. If I want to make sure that I am using a word correctly or to confirm that a certain phrasing is more common than another, I type it into Linguee and read a few of the results. If there aren't any results for exactly the phrase I typed in, I assume that it can't be phrased that way or simply shouldn't be. Sometimes I find a usage of a word that I didn't know was possible.
The Linguee app is available on Android and iOS and works perfectly. It is exactly the same as the online version and you can even use it offline, so you don't eat up your data allowance on your mobile device. This is a dictionary app like no other I have found. It is a must have for anyone who is really serious about learning the more intricate details of the German language.
Teacher Resources
Teachers beg, borrow and steal any materials they can get their hands on to make sure that their lessons are fresh, their classrooms are lively, and their students are engaged. I know first hand what it can be like trying to find something that you can use in class to reach as many of your students as possible. We all have our select resources we return to, time and time again. While I would love to think that my Teachers Pay Teachers page is on the top of your list, I have compiled a list here of where I go to get extra materials or even just inspiration for something new to try with my students.
1. NThuleen
You can't teach German in a classroom setting in the United States without at least having heard of Nancy Thuleen's website. While I usually stick to the worksheets page, which supplies me with more than enough extra work and instructions for my students to get through the toughest of grammar topics, she also has a ton of other resources on her site for German teachers. She has written numerous essays and articles about German literature. She has her own list of books that she owns and suggests for you, which is much more extensive than my own.
All of that is nice, but the tab that you want is the "Teach" tab. There you will find grammar worksheets, vocabulary worksheets, writing assignments, cultural information, worksheets for certain video series (unfortunately, not mine), song lyrics, and activities for classroom use (including games). If you teach it and it is German, you will find it on this website.
There are a few downsides, however. First of all, everything on her website is formatted in such a way that you really can't modify it without copying and pasting the text into another document and editing from there. This has cost me hours of cutting and taping papers together so they fit the curriculum at our school. There are also rare occasions when I have found errors either in the answer keys or in the worksheets themselves. Since I can't edit the original document, I can't simply fix the errors. That being said, you won't find a more comprehensive website for teachers of German anywhere on the web.
2. Deutschdrang
The way I found this site is an interesting story that I think bears sharing. A few years ago, a colleague of mine asked me if I had ever heard of a website called "Deutschdrang" and told me there were a bunch of materials for teachers there. I hadn't heard of it, so I looked it up. It is run by a woman named Yvonne Mattson. I recall going to college with a guy with the last name Mattson. Turns out, Frau Mattson teaches at the university in the city in which I currently teach. I started digging a bit... ok, I asked my friend from college if he knew here. Turns out she is his MOM.
Anyway, I really like her site. It is really extensive and completely free. She has been teaching German for over twenty years at the high school and university levels. She compiled her materials and put them into a website. You can now peruse those materials for free. Her website includes: handouts, worksheets, PowerPoints, online activities, video activities, reading comprehension exercises, and cultural information. She is Swiss by birth, which means her website also includes some things about the Swiss people and their culture as it differs from Germany.
I did a proper review of her site a long time ago and I even had a chance to sit down for a coffee and a quick video interview with her. Click the underlined bits in the previous sentence to see any of that.
This is the only paid website on the list. Here you can find lesson plans and activities to use in your own classroom. It will set you back £40, which is just over $50 at the time of writing this, for every 12 months. There is a list of what that gets you here. In my opinion it is worth it.
Reading German Online
When you are learning a foreign language, one of my suggestions would be to change everything you do into that language. Focusing on language learning is tough, but if you really want to learn a language, you shouldn't focus on learning. Just do what you normally do, but in the target language. With that in mind, I have a few suggestions for getting your news and other online reading materials in German.
1. Google News
If you own an Android device, you may have noticed that when you swipe right from your home screen, you will be given a list of news articles that you might find interesting. This can easily be changed into any language you want. In order to do this on your computer, simply go to news.google.com and click "Language & Region" from the bottom f the sidebar. From there you can choose German and one of the German speaking regions on the list. Now your news will be curated to you based on your interests and it will all be in German. If you are trying to do this from your phone, you will have to change the language of the entire device to German (which I recommend you do anyway) or actually download the real Google News app and change it to German.
One of the cool thing about this app is that it allows you to curate the news you get so you can read about things you actually care about. For me, there are a lot of news articles about comic book characters (movies and comics) and things about Germany and politics. You can make this feed anything you want it to be and everyday you will have something new to read in German.
If you own an iOS device, don't fret. You can get this app, too and it is just as easy to switch into German as it is on Android.
If you are still in the beginning stages of learning German, it is very unlikely that you will be able to read most German newspapers or articles meant for adults. If you still want to know the basics about what is going on in the world, but you need a simplified version of the news, you can find a lot of interesting articles on News for Kids. This website doesn't write about all of the news like the Google News app would. You won't be able to find exactly the topic you want, but you will find simplified stories about what is going on in the world and a variety of other topics. As the name implies, this site is intended for children, but that's exactly where you level of German understanding my be. I would rate most of the articles within the B1 level. I did a review of this site, too, which can be found here.
3. Slow German
Slow German is a blog and podcast designed to slow down the German language to a rate of speech that learners can easily understand. Again the topics to choose from aren't as varied as you will find on Google News, but what this site lacks in selection is makes up in value for learners. You can search by topics including: absolute beginner, everyday life, dialogues, food and drink, holidays and festivals, friends and family, history, health and society, art and culture, music, language, and transportation and travel. There are audio versions to go with the text, so you can listen and read along. The premium version includes learning materials for each episode, an MP3 download, quizzes and more. I personally use the text all of the time in class to give my students something to read that isn't the boring things out of our textbook. My full review is here.
German Learning Apps
If you need a bit more structure to your German learning, a good place to start would be an online app. I would never suggest that an app can make you fluent in German. The apps on this list should be used with other materials in order to make a complete language curriculum. That being said, I believe they each have their place in your German learning journey.
1. Duolingo
I'm sure you have heard of this one, but I doubt you are using it properly. Duolingo is great for an introduction to a long list of topics and ideas in a ton of foreign languages. Assuming Duolingo will teach you everything you need to know about a language is naive. My suggestion would be to do a level of Duolingo in order to introduce yourself to a topic and then go somewhere else on the web for more information about that topic. The information and examples given on Duolingo are nowhere near complete, but they give you a place to practice what you know and to get a baseline before diving deeper into a topic. Long story short, use Duolingo, but use other things too or you will never make much progress. You can find my full review of Duolingo here.
2. Memrise
Every serious language learner needs a place to store a list of words they want to learn and a way to review those words. Memrise does both and does it beautifully. At its base form, Memrise is a flashcard app, but it goes a step further and allows you to add in video and helpful memorization tips to your lists. When you are reviewing vocabulary it goes a step further than most flashcard apps by making you type out the words or phrases and increasing the difficulty along the way. I like Memrise so much that I created two courses to go with my own materials. You can find the course to go with my A1/A2 Video Series here and the one for my B1/B2 Video Series here. You can find my full review of Memrise here.
This site is one of the best ways to make lists and flashcards out of the vocabulary you come across while reading German articles and news online. You can import an entire article or just a word or two. The words and phrases you want to learn are then put into flashcards similar to Memrise and when you are ready to review them, the site will test you over your knowledge in the same way Memrise does. Learn with Oliver is a unique take on learning languages through reading. You can find my full review here.
German Learning Games
There aren't a lot of games out there for language learners and even fewer for German. I managed to find a couple of them that I really like and I thought I should share them here. To clarify what I mean by "German Learning Games", I mean only those things that not only seek to entertain, but focus on the educational part. There are a lot of games that claim to be "Language Learning Games", but they missed the "learning" part of their name. The two on this list get it all right.
1. Babadum
With a name like that, you know it has to be good. Babadum is essentially a gamified flashcard app. You don't get to choose the vocabulary. Instead it chooses the most used 1500 words in a language and shows them as fun (and sometimes funny) images. There are a variety of ways to play. You can have a word with four images, an image with four words, a spoken word with four images, an image with a list of letters to spell it with, of you can shuffle them all. It always says the word out loud when you choose it and it will show you the correct answer if you answer incorrectly. The only downside is that it doesn't include the article, which is pretty important in German. You can watch my review of it here.
This website is ancient in terms of the internet, but it has a quality that stands the test of time. It offers a variety of games to help you learn vocabulary and a few grammar topics. They are mostly "click the item that matches" type games, but they are entertaining enough and my students seem to enjoy them. These games, however, will only cover the very basic level things you need to learn. If you are at the A1 level, however, you will get a lot out of this site. Of course, I have a review for this site, too. Apparently they have released an update to the site since my review, which changes the layout considerably, but the games remain pretty much the same.