How Long Does It Take to Learn German? (All Levels) 

A1: 1 month A2: 2 months B1: 4 months B2: 6 months C1: 9 months C2: 12 months Vielen Dank, Herr Yoko!

I got TELC B2 93%+ in 7 months. It was very difficult for me and that's why I'm incredibly happy. Besides, I've been expecting results for almost six weeks! March 23 - visa and arrival (0 German, no preposition) May 23 - the first language lesson November 23 - A2 exam January 24 - B1 exam February 24 - LiD exam May 24 - B2 exam It took 14 months from visa (full zero) to B2. It took 7 months from A1 to B2. In fact, from March to October 23, progress was minimal (I worked, traveled and did my homework at a minimum). From October to February, I studied hard, and in 3.5 months of classes, part-time from A1 reached B1 (DTZ). In February, I did a naturalization test (it requires reading practice, so passive classes). In March, I dealt with courses, schools, documents and education. In April and May, for 2 months I studied fulltime every day 8+ hours and from B1 reached B2. If you remove the first months, all weekends and February, add time and discipline (conditionally, if I were a non-working student), you can learn in 4-5 months probably. Funny enough is that in June I was was doing math and all sorts of career/academic research, which means there was less practice and I forgot a lot. So that’s it. Anyone can learn the language, you just meed to spend a little time:)

I've self-studied, got my B2 in 7-8 months and now I'm studying in a Studienkolleg and for DSH III , it requires dedication but also enjoying the process otherwise you'll experience burn-out but the point is it's possible. ❤

I learned b1 in 6 month.. Then i prepered 1 month for exam questions ( goethe b1 ) I passed the exam.. Speaking 83 Reading 71 Writing 79 Listening 60 ( passing mark ) Listening was so much hard because they dont repeat the questions.. Now i am prepering for b2 ecam since 2 monthes...i will take the exam after 45 days.. So for b2 level it will take me around 10 months.. Note : i live in my home country- and i learn alone.. So if ypu live in germany you csn learn faster. Note 2: i learned german daily for 5 hours...if you you learn 2 hours per week...it will takes years to finish b1 level even

You have no idea how helpful your videos are. I'm halfway through A1 course and this video gave me a lot of motivation. As a Portuguese speaker, German is quite hard for me, but I won't give up. Keep up the good work, Max! 💪

Currently completed A1 on duolingo 😂

Another banger video! My German level is C1+, it took me around 3-4 years to reach here. I think there are a lot of factors influencing the time required to learn German and reach certain levels, some people have amazing polyglot characteristics that help them to learn any language faster. I believe it's the left hemisphere of the brain which concerns learning languages and some people just have a stronger left brain. Another aspect to reaching certain levels is, some people have language certificates for certain levels but it doesn't really correspond to their IRL skills, like as a foreigner myself, I've met a lot of people having b1/b2 certificates but when you hear them speak German, they barely correspond to what I would say is A2 level. So it just shows flaws in the testing systems like Telc/Goethe where you can basically hard-grind their testing patterns and obtain language certificate but your actual language skills are still below what the certificate states. Anyway, I loved this video and I appreciate the efforts you put into these.

Great Video Max! I agree, you can practically learn A1-C1 in 8 Months. As you said, the way to do that is to take intensive courses and make German learning your central goal, that's how I did it in less than 8 Months. If you learn it part-time, it will take much longer.

Hi Max, I just started learning German about a 1.5 weeks and I am very happy with my progress. I practice approximately 3.5hrs per day but what makes it easy for me is understanding the grammar behind the german language along with the pronunciations have helped me to leverage my english grammar as a native speaker.

Great video. It took me 10 months to get 2 DSH 3 in two differents Universities here in Germany starting from zero. I am a french speaker… I came here with a B2 and I’ve done my DSH without doing C1 German courses

In Turkey, one state university is in German. In there people learn German for to reach testdaf 4 in 2 semesters, starting from scratch. It tooks 1000 course hours.

Ich bin derzeit auf dem C1-Niveau (7 im Fach Deutsch B als Teil des internationalen Abiturs) und ich bin mit allem einverstanden, was du in diesem Video erklärt hast. Deine Videos sind ganz nützlich - ich hoffe, in 3 oder 4 Jahren fürs Studium nach Deutschland umzuziehen und die Infos/Tipps, die du mitteilst, sind unglaublich wertvoll :D

My Goethe-Zertifikat B1 result is declared on 30th of July 🤗😂❤️🥳😁😁😇😇 Reading :- 90/100 Listening :- 87/100 Writing :- 87/100 Speaking :- 90/100 Total : 354/400 Percentage: 88.5 % I have managed this without any Classes of Coaching It took me around 8 months to reach this from scratch !! ( Daily 3 to 4 hours a day )

Learning a language is not a sprint but a marathon, to reach proficiency or native level will take Langer, I'm talking about Goethe certification, I'm talking about the real fluency and proficiency that are demanded in some linguistic professions l

You are absolutely right i did A1 in one month and after living some time in Germany skipped A2 and gave directly B1 just in two months, this is where it becomes fun and i feel proud because i can speak German finally after studying effectively every day. And Yes IT'S COMPLETELY UP TO YOU

Das ist es, was ich bis jetzt gelernt habe, aber ich habe immer noch Probleme, es zu lesen und zu verstehen😅

I learn german in 6 months. Afterthat , I attempt German board 9 th class ( got 90+%)and now I'm in 10 th grade ❤

7:40 that's wrong, i'm not a native in english nor french as well as german and spanish, yet i'm pretty good with french while i use it everyday in my college, also i'm pretty good with english which i've learned it since my childhood, and spanish while i love it, but learning a language is absolutely not about studying it not at all, but rather is the consumption, i want you to consume german as a german native everyday challenging yourself to talk in different subjects like the natives do it, again and again, with a little slice of studying like 2 hours/day, and only focus the studying in german grammar, and this is how i did it for all of the previous langauges that i've had, studying doesn't mean fluency, studying doesn't mean learning especially in the topic of learning languages

My german level is A2 and ive been living in Germany for a year. I go to school here and i can barely understand the language. I wanna cry and go back to my lovely country. Too bad I can't. School is starting the day after tomorrow. So I hope I will survive. I WANNA CRY SO BAD. Wish me luck guys.

Thank you for the video! It came in time..❤

Gerne würde auch ich meine persönlichen Erfahrungen teilen, was das Deutschlernen angeht. Ich mache das absichtlich auf Deutsch, denn es geht ja hier schließlich um das Deutsche. So kann man gleichzeitig auch sein Leseverstehen verbessern:). Ihr könnt gerne die Übersetzungsfunktion benutzen, falls ihr etwas nicht so gut versteht. Mein erster Kontakt mit der deutschen Sprache war Anfang Februar 2023, als ich begonnen habe, einen Integrationskurs zu besuchen. An der Stelle gilt es zu erwähnen, dass ich vorher keinerlei Vorkenntnisse hatte und wirklich bei null angefangen habe. Es ging so weit, dass ich nicht einmal alle Buchstaben des deutschen Alphabets wie Umlaute kannte. Nach ungefähr 5-6 Monaten war ich bereits in der Lage, die normale Sprache relativ gut zu verstehen und etwas zu antworten, was allerdings nicht ansatzweise das war, was ich mir gewünscht habe. Also ging es weiter und im Oktober - nach ungefähr 8 Monaten aktiven Lernens - habe ich meine erste Deutschprüfung abgelegt, und zwar den DTZ B1. Die Ergebnisse waren - wenig überraschend - sehr gut. Im November war dann mein erster Deutschkurs zu Ende und ich musste mir einen weiteren Kurs suchen. Jedoch war es etwas schwierig, direkt mit dem nächsten Kurs anzufangen, was daran lag, dass es Jahresende war und es keine freien Plätze in herkömmlichen Deutschkursen gab. Damit musste ich mich halt abfinden und darauf hoffen, zum Jahresbeginn einen Platz zu bekommen. Mitte Januar ging dann endlich mein B-2 Kurs los, den ich allerdings nach eineinhalb Monaten abgebrochen habe. Im Zeitraum zwischen November und Januar habe ich nämlich viel selber gelernt und vergleichsweise viel Kontakt mit Muttersprachlern gehabt. All diese Anstrengungen hatten zur Folge, dass ich mich gut genug darauf vorbereitet fühlte, eine B2 Prüfung abzulegen, ohne den im Januar begonnenen Kurs zu Ende absolviert zu haben. Denn endlich war ich imstande, mich spontan und relativ fließend zu diversen Themen auf Deutsch auszudrücken und beinahe alles, was mir gesagt wird, zu verstehen. Also habe ich mich für die Goethe B2 Prüfung angemeldet, zu der ich Anfang Februar 2024 hingegangen bin. Nach ca. 3 Wochen nach der Prüfung habe ich dann das B2 Zertifikat mit dem Prädikat sehr gut erhalten. Neben der Prüfungsvorbereitung habe ich mich in der Zeit auch mit der Suche nach einem guten C1 Kurs beschäftigt und mir einen Tag vor der B2 Prüfung einen Platz in einem studienvorbereitenden C1 Kurs sichern können, der im März 2024 beginnen sollte. Dies war ein viermonatiger Intensivkurs, den ich logischerweise bis zu Ende besucht habe. Im letzten Monat dieses Kurses lag der Fokus fast ausschließlich auf der Vorbereitung auf Telc C1 Hochschule - eine Prüfung, mit der dieser Kurs endete und den alle Teilnehmer, deren Ziel das Studium an einer Uni war, mitgeschrieben haben. Zu ihnen habe auch ich gezählt und die Prüfung Ende Juni 2024 abgelegt. Vor wenigen Tagen habe ich endlich das begehrte Zertifikat mit dem so sehr gewünschten Prädikat sehr gut erhalten, das mir nun so viele Türen öffnet. Abschließend lässt sich festhalten, dass es bei mir ungefähr eineinhalb Jahre harter Arbeit gedauert hat, das C1 Niveau zu erreichen und es mit dem entsprechenden Zertifikat nachzuweisen. Eine genaue Stundenanzahl kann ich leider nicht genau ermitteln, doch es war fast immer ein ganz normaler Acht-Stunden-Arbeitstag plus Wochenende. Das Wichtigste dabei ist, dass ihr ein klares Ziel vor Augen habt, wofür ihr das Ganze macht, und jeden Tag darauf hinarbeitet. Ansonsten würde ich behaupten, dass es nahezu unmöglich ist, große Erfolge zu erzielen, ohne für sich die Frage "wofür ich das mache" beantwortet zu haben. Viel Erfolg!

I am studying German now and I can say one thing - I find German much easier than English. I have studied English since school, but I can't speak that language. But German is clearer, more logical, there is structure, there are rules. Words are read the way they're written. In English you have to guess how to pronounce words....

What you are saying about learning German in Germany seems rather reasonable. If we look at a Goethe Institute Language Program in Germany, their approach in the 1980's was 8 weeks, 6 days a week and 6 hours a day per level of proficiency. For the 4 months I was at such at language school ,that worked for me and most of the students in attendance. Since then I am more interested in learning local dialects from Austria and Switzerland. I put the least amount of emphasis on learning the Grammar and more on hearing and reading comprehension, followed by annunciation and thinking in that language variant. Don't for get to consume some of of the German styled food and beverages in enhancing your learning abilities. Art and Music live performances are also highly effective.

You've clearly explained! Conclusion: "It's all depends upon the time you're investing"

As usual clear videos and straight to the point, thanks for the great content!

Level zero here but I've heard some German words on RU-vid. I'm browsing around for a starter. Show me the way coach! 🙏

I started learning German 5 years ago. I never took any paid courses, because it wasn't necessary, I wanted to proceed at my own pace. I completed Duolingo's course in maybe 6 months (I still do it just to maintain my streak). I then moved to the official app called A1-Deutsch by VHS. Completed it in 1 month and passed the Goethe exam with 89% Same for A2, I used A2-Deutsch by VHS. Got 79% on the exam. Came to Germany for master's (in English), took courses at the university and kept doing B1-Deutsch. After that I moved onto B2-Beruf (coz B2-Deutsch doesn't exist). I don't intend to take an exam until the citizenship process requires it. On the side, I watch German cartoons and talk to my work colleagues and fellow students in German, just for fun. Germans say my German is close to C1, non-Germans say it is between B1 and B2. I think the non-Germans are more honest in this case :D.

I love your content max, would love to meet you one day, I'm coming to Germany in October 2024.

Took me 4 years to be fluent in German. (And I live and study in Austria for 3 of them) - means I can speak with natives and write e-mails pretty quick nowadays, even 6 months ago I struggled. Only recently kinda fixed my accent. C1 gave me almost nothing in this language btw, I think these exams dont show the real picture. I got C1 in a 1.5 years of learning, just by learning out dialogues for the speaking part - my real output level was like A2 at best. I suggest everyone to ignore these sorta certified "achievements" - you're like half way up there, keep your routines up. My mistake was to stop immersing as hard, but even living in the country you should keep reading at least 1 hour a day and watch TV shows. C1 = you get basics down, but not harder verbs, not adjectives, not Deagentivierung, not Nominalisierung or Redewendungen. I did first year through refold, then uni language course for a semester, then 2 years of Uni.

Just Completed my B1 level and started my B2 level in Germany. Thank you for the videos Really appreciate Your effects .

@maxyoko ~ Hi, I would like to ask about that, what I can learn now as C1or C2 in German language. I am Vacation but still I would like to be in touch with german language.

I have wanted to study german for 2 years, been to Munich for 90 days in those 2 years, and am not even A1 proficient. Spent thousands on at home materials and courses and can't even fluently read children's books and English is my native language. I work 84 hours a week so it's tough to get time and motivation. Going to Germany to study November 1st just not sure what school yet. I heard you read every comment hoping you read mine. Cheers 🍻

In the official German Integration Curs schedule is 700 h almost a year to take the B1 level. I know it quite well because I am doing it

Hello. Good morning from Uzbakistan. Bro, I have been watching you since 2023 and you are absolutely helping me to know about Germany. Everything you are doing and sharing are complete useful. My German language level is A1. I reached this level in 2 months. And now, I need your help. Can you provide me with some online recourses? Thank you ✊✊✊

I took German for 2 semesters as an elective course.

If I only count the months that I have been learning German it comes out to a little over 4 years. I feel somewhere between B2 and C1. I have 450 Hours of listening time. (Very focused listening) and have spent another 300 hour or so reading. I would say that matches up somewhat closely with the number in the video. so around 700~ hours of study. I have spent almost zero time speaking. So my speaking would be at a A1, but I think if I really focused on it for 3 months I could get to a B2 level.

Starting on 16 August 2024 at 12:25am (+3 Greenwich), wish me luck

Im almost done with my A2 level. Just need to revise all the grammar topics before I head on to B1

Finished A1 in 3 weeks now aiming for B2

Awesome. Brilliant content.🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪

Right now am literally 0 in Germany i don't know anything but i will start my journey this day. I have a goal and i will achieve it whatever it takes

I'm first yay! Sadly I'm still under A1 level, but hoping to improve my vocabulary at a faster pace.

I almost finished A2😅

I am A1 sadly but I can hold a good conversation over text

I started learning german at the end of october 2023 , gave my b1 Goethe exam in may and had cleared all the exams in one shot .. my results 1) sprechen -- 69 Lesen--93 Hören--73 Schreiben--79 Now im preparing for b2...

Thanks max elder brother ❤️

A1 on Duolingo But I want to get better with my grammar

You are inspiration for all those who think after year drop or gap year they will not be admitted to German universities but I would love to know your year drop story 😮😮

i have been learning english since 8 years in school. I never learned it myself. now i am 16 and i have a2+ level. i also started to learn german in june and now i have a1 level. as for russian it was too hard to start learn english in school furthermore there was ugly teachers which have a0 level and couldn't correctly read words. there is only in 9th grade i have fine teacher.

It takes your life and your after life just to learn German

im studying B1 and studying for the A2 prüfung

Depends if you want to learn German or just get 60 marks in an exam. It took me 7 years to get a good pass in C1. B2 was split into B2.1 and B2.2 and same with C1. So those two levels alone took 4 academic years. A1 and A2 and B1 all an academic year each. I am working on the principal that C2 cannot be done in under 2 years as this is near native fluency.

Even I'm learning on Duolingo still in A-1

It is essential that one quits learning German via one's native tongue, or one will always be stuck in a "learning German" mode. Like it is for the Germans, one must move to the cognitive association mode of that which applies to the sounds of German. That's the really difficult part :-)

How many words do you need for B2? B1 is 3000 and C1 is 9000.

In which university you are in. What about TUM ?

I should probably be somewhere in B2 but i started when i was really young and had no idea how to study, then i took a nearly year long break so im trying to come back from that. I think im A2 or B1

Love u brother

Thanks from🇰🇷

Just completed a2 in about 4 months

I'm stuck between A1 and A2 for six months 😭

Back to ukraine i learn English starting from pre-school in 5 years and up to the end of university. After university i could not find a decent job in international company because my english was something like A2 i guess :) in few years after i probably increase it to B1 and found a decent job. Now, in my 30th i receiced a job offer in UK and had to pass at least B1. I secured B1 without a problem and now living in uk for 2 years already. But overall after so many years of learning i could say that environment and motivation is super important. In Ukraine we dont have a lot of foreigners and so it is really hard to find a motivation as u never exchange language with anyone. I found a proper motivation when i switched to EU server in moba game back to uni times, at least i improved my speaking and writing a bit

It really depends who were kept in mind while making those frameworks. For us Indians who are multilingual and knows 2-3 language on average Germany is not that difficult to learn considering it is bit similar to English. So, for us around 6-10 months is enough to reach B2 level.

Goethe A1 91% :)

I just start B1 please recommend a tv show for me

Hello i love you brother I'm from Bangladesh ❤

Hey! I find your contents really really helpful. You're the only German RU-vidr I can rely on 😅. And I would be super grateful if you would answer this question. I have a GED diploma, as far as I know GED is not accepted in Germany. On the other hand, since Germany is a federal country, is there a chance of me getting accepted in a German public uni in some states? Would SAT help? Even though I may not be accepted directly, do I still have a hope for at least studienkolleg?? And does that rule also apply on Ausbildung? Do I at very least stand a chance for Ausbildung 😢? Or has the country already established a rule like "We don't accept GED anywhere" ?. I've been learning German that's why it is my dream destination if possible Thank you for reading!!!

Hello Max, So I want to study in Germany by fall 2025 and I am zero in German rn. I started A1 with a teacher but I was really confused so I think I am gonna start with your course and see where it goes. btw I am a fluent English speaker so realistically do you think I will be able to reach B2 in the span of year?

Thanks for the video, quite helpful. If I want to work and live in Germany, what level do you recommend one to reach atleast? A C1?

I know not a lot German beyond like, greetings, and thanks to my German friends,Scheiße. Now I went and learned Japanese, and I'm still not fluent in that, but I think this will be easier. I need to be at B2 level by this time next year because I want to study for my master's degree in Germany (english program, but they still want me at that level). I'm hoping my brain will go "omg this is so much easier than being abused with kanji" but we shall see.

From April 24 towards end of July i achieved a 91 B1 level its possible very possible

I’m a VERY new German speaker I’m not even A1 I started studying yesterday alone and I’m 13 I’m using doulingo is me struggling to remember a word from the first day is bad or is it normal ? Cuz I just started yesterday I will go to Germany next summer I kinda of keep forgetting words and idk if it’s bad or not cuz I’m not even lvl A1 and I’m 13 I want to learn Germany so badly

These numbers strike me as really unrealisitic to be honest. I know for a fact native English speakers master Spanish (a bit) faster than German in all cases. When I had studied these number of hours in Spanish, a lot of it even working 1:1 with a teacher, I wasn't at these levels. Maybe theses are classroom hours and you have to double them to get true hours of study? That seems more possible... (I learned Spanish as an already advanced language learner, so it wouldn't be reasonable to assume I was "learning it the wrong way" in this case..) C1 or C2 sound reasonable as-is with the numbers given & vocab size for the tests. But there's no way a native has a vocabulary that small.

A0.1 is my current level 😅

Make a timeline video on 2025 student ( masters )

What level of German is required to get TDN4 overall!? I am planning to finish B2 and do C1.1. Will that be enough for a Testdaf TDN4? Or is B2 enough?

thank you for this!! 🫶🏼

i have 66% in graduation what are my chances to get admission in german taught programs ?

nice video

Hello max I'm the person who is in Germany and wanted learn german as fast as possible i believe in your speedy german course however i would like to know if there is any discount pr something who wants learn a1+a2+b1 in budle course with discount? There are many courses in market but i have my solid trust in yourself. So wanted hear your thoughts on this and it's important for me as well

Any one freshly started ? I need a study partner to share the journey and practise

Well I'm well into my teens and last year my school(igcse) started a FIT in deutch A1 course as an after school activity with the exam at the end of the course at the local gothe institute and i passed with 46/60. In the beginning, my school starts MFL(multi foreign language)(French or German)lessons in the regular time table after year 2 and i was in my school since year 1 .My first German teacher was good but i was like 7 years old at the time and she left after my second mfl year. Following that, all of the teachers were mediocre at best and i didn't really learn much until year 7 when we got a new German teacher who was good but couldn't he didn't have control over the classroom and we were only 7 out of 20 students in the classroom learning German, the rest was French. He also relied on the fact that we knew proper German at the said level to which we didn't. For example we had a spelling bee this year and i got into the final round and it was y9 vs y8 vs y7 in English, German, French and we were supposed to say the words letter by letter to the corresponding's word's language alphabet and i didn't know the alphabet and i had to learn it like 20 mins before the spelling bee started and ofc i forgot about some letters like the h,i,j,k,v,w ofc in German and don't get me wrong I'm a high 80s and 90s student but because we usually spoke English during the mfl session i forgot the alphabet when i took it in year 2 .In year 8 I took A2 and it the FIT class is only like 13 students and we and the same teacher(the one who couldn't keep control of the class) and i was half a grade away from just passing which has only happened to me like once or twice when i was young. I have visited Germany twice. I could understand some words here and there and could get past an interaction so long as it is in formal German and not in an accent. And now i don't have time to retake A2 and i want to study post grad aeronautical engineering in Germany. So yeah that's basically my whole problem with German and its almost impossible for me to learn German from the start again

Make a video on studienkolleg entrance exam math type please 🥺

Ok so here we go, as of today I started to learn German, and the thing is I'm desperate, and I NEED IT !, my level is basically knowing the alphabet which takes a day to learn. I will send update under this comment section as a chore and way of keeping my head clear, so lets see how fast can some one really learn German ! next update: 31 August.

I don't even have time to study 1 hour a day

Well i studied 5 hours today

Brother, could you make a video on accommodation in Dresden city and other western side of german cities such as Leipzig etc.

I studied german in a studienkolleg for a year and a half, i passed the fsp, and i was told that counts as a C1 german level( i'm not sure though), but otherwise the last german certificate i got is B1.

When the German of Stuttgart is different to that of Bavaria and Berlin . . ., proficient-to-fluent in what type of German that is not Hochdeutsch/Standarddeutsch.

mine is a1

Brought the course book test yourself complete German it starts from beginner to intermediate b2 level. Dunno how many days will it take for me tho. Seems super easy to do in a shorter time.

IS IT NECESSARY TO GIVE ALL LEVEL EXAMS? or we could just directly give b2 exam after learning the previous ones?? pls tell

do i need c1 to study economics at university in bonn/ koln/ dusseldorf? I dont think i am going to learn german so fast (today i ened a1 course), but i really dont want to skip year to learn language...

To everyone posting their progress here, could you suggest some online youtube channels or online free websites that helped you or you found useful to a certain extent to learn German ?

Current level is a2

What do you think about DW as a main source for studying? They use the nicos weg movies Btw great video you really offer priceless knowledge

Can you inform international students about bachelors in germany? Would be appreciated from your subrcibers

What about how many words you know I have studied or learned 30.000 Words. But I still don't feel like I'm fully there yet Do you have any advice?

I got the B1 after 1 year and 6 months🤡 (studying around 2h per day, 4 hours weekends). I don't know if this is possible for most people.

Hey. How do the classrooms look in german universities and whats the lecture duration. Secondly, during class of you need to go out, can you leave and return bavk to the class?