Author: Jadranka Bokan
Learners often complain that they have difficulties understanding German spoken language. That is why they need to practice listening skills. There are many possibilities for that.
Do you prefer Watching German films and TV-series?
More formal listening
There are many listening sources with the specific purpose to help you practice your listening skills in German. This means that the texts have been prepared with that goal and they offer you some exercises too.
Deutsch-to-go is a good solution if you like it short and at different levels (from easy to difficult), like in school. Those are audio recordings prepared by native German teachers. 2 new texts are being published every week. You can find printable texts there too.
Deutsch Perfekt is actually a magazine for German language learners. However, they also have an online version where you can find many texts for listening and reading, sorted by their difficulty level.
Another solution would be Audio Lingua which also offers short recordings made by native German speakers (but not teachers) at different levels (A1 and above).
Slowly spoken news in German from Deutsche Welle are a good choice for advanced learners (B2-C1). News are being published daily.
Videos from the Wissen2Go YouTube channel is another respectful resource for advanced learners (C1-C2).
You can exercise listening at the levels A1 – C1 at the deutschlernerblog too.
Learn German is a YouTube channel with a great offer of audio books (A1 and above). Students just love Die ganze Wahrheit audio book. It is allegedly at the B1 level, but you should be able to understand a lot even if you are at the A2 level. The text (PDF) for this audio book can be downloaded here.
There is also another useful listening resource provided by Goethe Institute: Grüße aus Deutschland.
There is also a podcast called Slow German where you can find listen and read in German. You can listen to this podcast even if you are a total beginner. Topics are divided by categories.
Do you want to learn German with me?
More informal listening
If you like it less formal, then I would recommend that you listen to German pop music. There are many German bands and musicians, but my favourite is Clueso. His texts are simple and he was even a Culture Ambassador of the Goethe Institute. While you are working something else, you could listen to the radio. That is my favourite informal way of learning German. German radio stations vary from those who broadcast only news, over those who stream only radio dramas to those who are just regular radio stations with a lot of music.
