The vhs-Lernportal is a free government-sponsored online German course that has lessons from A1 to B2, and it is one of the best complete German courses available. The lessons are designed to immerse you in German and create an effective learning environment. You can choose to do your lessons entirely in German and learn new words and grammar through context, or you can use English translations to support you on your German learning journey. Because of the quality and variety of lessons, vhs-Lernportal is the best place to learn German.
When you first open the vhs website, you can change the language to English in the upper right corner. Then click on “I want to learn” and create a free account using your email address.
Once you have signed in, you will see all of the different courses you can enroll in. The first is a phonetics course, which is the best place to start because it will teach you how to properly pronounce German and some basic vocabulary and sentences. The second course will teach you A1 level German. A1 focuses on basic sentences and simple, everyday conversation. You can enroll in two courses at once if you would like to do these courses simultaneously or find that the first one is too easy. If you have never studied German before, focus on the first course.
After you have enrolled in one or more courses, you can view your enrolled courses in your VHS learning portal.
To access the main page and lessons for a course, click on the course’s name.
When you first open a course, it will take you to the course’s home page. This is where you can see your progress.
To view your lessons, click on the “Lessons” tab toward the top of your screen. You can then select a lesson to study or review.
Most lessons start with a video, where you are introduced to the topic covered in that lesson.
You will then get several different exercises to practice the lesson’s contents. This program focuses on practice and repetition, so you will get many chances to use what you are learning.
I also have an Anki deck you can use to study the vocabulary of each lesson ahead of time. This will allow you to focus on the grammar and sounds of German and less on memorizing everything. The Anki deck has two types of cards. The first is a recognition card, which will prompt you will the German vocabulary word and an example sentence. This tests your ability to recognize and understand a word.
When you flip the card over, you will see the English translation and grade yourself on how well you were able to understand the vocabulary word. Don’t worry if you don’t immediately understand the example sentence. It’s there to help you learn the context of a word. As you review and learn more words, you’ll slowly start to understand the sentences more and more. Also, because these cards have audio, they are great for shadowing practice. Try to read the sentences out loud before you flip over the card, then compare your pronunciation to the card audio.
The other type of card in this deck is a recall card. The card will show you an example sentence with the vocabulary word removed and the English translation of the word. Your goal is to recall the word as best you can. I recommend typing out the word as it helps with retaining the vocabulary word.
On the back of the card, you will grade yourself based on how well you were able to recall the German vocabulary word.
As you progress through vhs, I highly recommend doing the course entirely in German. Use Anki to learn vocabulary ahead of time and only look up words as needed while going through lessons. This will help you develop your German skills naturally, similar to how a native speaker would. You can use a dictionary to look up individual words or use a reading tool if you need more support.
Using the vhs-lernportal is pretty straightforward, but if you need any help, you can always reach out to the vhs-lernportal support team. Have fun and happy learning!
Other Options
If you would prefer not to use vhs-Lernportal and would rather learn through immersion and study grammar as you go along, then you can do that, however, the lack of structure may be a little overwhelming. If you’re interested in learning grammar as you come across it, then check out the following article on German grammar websites.
