What worked for me to learn German in Switzerland
Sunday, July 26, 2026After many years of living in Switzerland, and many years of half-hearted efforts to learn German, I have finally reached some level of success, as the statistics below summarize:
Learning German while living in Switzerland is somewhat tricky because of Swiss German. A simple sentence such as Sonst noch etwas? (“Would you like anything else?” in a shop) becomes something like Süsch no öppis?. The second barrier is that English is generally spoken to a very high standard. It is far more convenient for a native Swiss German speaker to switch to English than it is for them to persevere through my patchy, error-filled German.
Only recently have I become confident enough to stay in German, at least sometimes. It remains difficult because my English accent is all too revealing, but I now initiate more conversations in German and persevere much more than I used to. In this post I summarize some of what worked for me when learning German.
My exam experience
telc German A2
The exam was fairly standard and held no nasty surprises.
- Speaking: First you introduce yourself and answer a few simple questions. Next, cards are placed on the table and you create questions from them. Finally, you plan an activity with your partner. My partner was at a similar level to me and spoke clearly. Learn phrases such as Wie wäre es, wenn …? and Leider passt das nicht. As long as you can make suggestions, respond and reach an agreement, this should not cause too much trouble.
- Listening: Stay focused. I took a few preparation lessons on Preply, but I do not think they were necessary; the official practice material and free videos on YouTube and TikTok were enough for me.
- Reading: This was the easiest section of the whole test.
- Writing: I asked ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to generate exercises and then rate my answers. This worked well. Just make sure you use the correct conjugations and forms of address for formal and informal writing.
KDE: the Zurich cantonal German test
The KDE assesses reading and writing at A2 level, and listening and speaking at B1. If you have already passed telc A2 or an equivalent exam, the A2 parts will not cause you too much trouble.
- Speaking: The focus is on being understood - grammar and correctness doesn't really matter. And you can choose Swiss German or High German; naturally, I chose High German. As with telc, you introduce yourself (make sure you cover every prompt on the card) and answer simple questions. You then choose from a set of themes, such as Reisen, and speak about one of them. You speak to the examiners and the more you can speak without hesitation, the less questions you will need to field.
- Listening: This can be tricky because each exercise is played only once. During one answering-machine message my mind wandered, and that was that. There is also a Swiss German section, so I strongly recommend using the model test on the official KDE page and learning some basics. Han i, for example, can be confusing until you realise it means habe ich.
The core of what worked for me
Herr Professor
The biggest difference came from Herr Professor’s A2 and B1 courses. They are mostly audio lessons in which Manuel walks students through each topic. There is always a recap of the key concepts and a fluency test, where he gives you a prompt in English, leaves a moment of silence for you to say the German aloud, and then provides the model answer.
The courses also include written notes and vocabulary lists, although I used the audio more than 90% of the time. I am a software engineer by trade and, I believe, Manuel was previously an engineer too. The way he explains concepts and anticipates questions is an excellent fit for how my brain approaches things logically. He describes German in a way that makes sense to me.
Most importantly, the focus is on speaking German and doing useful things with it rather than passing exams, although passing exams is a neat by-product of the method. I paid €299 per level.
Double Your Confidence in Speaking
I supplemented the A2 and B1 courses with Herr Professor’s Double Your Confidence in Speaking programme. I was disappointed when it started to repeat itself after around 100 episodes, and I eventually cancelled my subscription. That said, I still highly recommend it.
If you subscribe for a year and listen throughout the week, including the weekly round-up and fluency test, perhaps during your commute, I would almost guarantee that sentences will start forming naturally in your head. I never felt that I had to sit down and memorise connectors such as dass, denn, weil and wenn; they came naturally after hearing so much of the language. Not everyone will like this method, but it was an astoundingly good fit for the way I learn. I paid €348 for a year.
If you are unsure whether the method will suit you, Herr Professor offers Verb Juggling for free. Each day you receive a short audio lesson working through a common German verb. Try it for a week or two and see whether it helps; the A2 and B1 courses follow a similar format.
I am currently working through the B2 course which was, yes, you guessed it, another €299. Compared with what I learned in classrooms or online with Preply, the difference is enormous, so I find the price more than reasonable.
VHS-Lernportal
At A2 level I also used the excellent free online courses from VHS. If you have time to work through them, they go into a good amount of depth and contain a useful variety of material.
Additional learning
Easy German
After passing the KDE, I took out an Easy German membership, which cost me €130 for one year. I listen to the podcast every week, watch a video and complete the online exercises. The content is consistently high quality, helps me understand different accents and pronunciations, and expands my vocabulary.
German-language television
Sometimes I watch Netflix films or series with German subtitles. I also watch programmes on SRF - I definitely need subtitles there! After watching Formula 1 on Swiss television for a while, I can now follow most of the commentary if I listen attentively. Quiz shows are good too: I enjoy 1 gegen 100 on SRF and Wer wird Millionär? on RTL.
TikTok
TikTok is a fantastic tool for German learning. While exercising on my cross trainer, I swipe through short videos from German teachers. Now that my German is more advanced, the algorithm recommends more native German content and my brain works through it just fine.
Some of my recommended accounts are German Coach, Esra, Deutsch erleben, Hallo Deutschschule, German with Sammy, Andrea and Deutschlehrerin Clara.
Books
I own far more German books than I would care to admit. I cannot resist buying them, but I have only used them in patches and would not attribute my progress to them. Some of the better ones are Deutsch lernen für den Alltag, Perfect Your German and Learn German with Stories.
Surrounding myself with German
Another thing that has helped is simply surrounding myself with more German. Every day on my way to work I listen to the tagesschau in Einfacher Sprache. It is spoken so clearly that I can follow it without much trouble and pick up new words along the way; though there aren't many uplifting news days and it's more words such as angegriffen that I am learning.
I also listened to the six-part Deutschlandfunk podcast Die Peter Thiel Story, which I could understand about 90% of. After finishing that, I moved on to Die OpenAI Story. These are podcasts about subjects that interest me, so I am motivated to listen to them.
How AI helped
A custom GPT for reading the news
I created a custom GPT and use it while reading German-language news sites such as 20 Minuten. I also built an iOS Shortcut that copies an article from Safari and opens the GPT; I then paste in the content. As far as I know, that final paste cannot be automated.
When I paste an article in German, summarise it in B1–B2 level German and show the English side by side, preferably in two columns. Then summarise the key vocabulary in a table below, including nouns and verbs. Finally, show some of the verbs in different sentences and contexts to help me learn them.
Speaking practice with AI
I also use ChatGPT voice mode. I previously used Gemini, but returned to ChatGPT after Gemini’s performance dropped. While walking or cooking, I describe what I am doing in German and ask it to correct my sentences. This is an effective way to learn how to say everyday things. You can also rehearse scenarios, for example an upcoming appointment where you want to practise the likely conversation.
I have a membership to Pingo AI too. It is quite good: after a conversation, you receive a transcript with suggested improvements. For some reason, though, I find myself using ChatGPT more; Pingo only gets opened occasionally.
Large language models can also work with audio recordings from the Voice Memos app on iOS. To prepare for the KDE, I picked a theme such as Reisen and spoke about it for five minutes in a voice memo. I then gave the recording to Gemini and asked it to correct what I had said and identify recurring mistakes. This method really improved both my speaking accuracy and my confidence.
What didn’t work for me
One-to-one tutors on italki and Preply did not work well for me. I particularly disliked Preply’s subscription and credit system: postponing lessons could leave me with credits that expired if I was not careful. That experience was enough for me; I will not use Preply again.
I can appreciate that regular one-to-one speaking practice would be valuable. The problem is practical: finding a recurring slot that works alongside my job and family schedule continually proves too difficult.
If I find more material that helps, I will update this post from time to time. I am happy to answer any questions. And viel Glück!