I was staring at the screen, so nervous I felt the need to throw up. As someone who's been teaching languages online for years now, I can assure you that doesn't happen often. But this is not about me teaching: this is about me learning, and challenging myself.
The Zoom message: "Waiting for the host to start the meeting" disappeared, and the loading indicator appeared, signaling that I was joining the meeting.
It was the moment I was waiting for. The moment in which the nervous anticipation would give way to the calm of the "F*** it, here goes nothing."
My stomach knotted. I clenched my teeth.
A middle-aged woman with blue eyes and silver hair appeared in the small window on the screen and smiled.
"Guten Tag, Frau Minozzi," she said. "We can start with your exam simulation whenever you're ready."
My C2-level German exam was two weeks away, and that was the first time I spoke the language — with another person rather than to myself — since taking the B2 exam two years before.
"F*** it," I thought, but in German. "Here goes nothing."
Why did I do it?
Taking an exam is not a necessary step when learning a language, but since I love this kind of academic challenge, I decided I'd go for the hardest possible thing: the C2 exam.
If you want an idea of how uncommon it is to reach this level of proficiency from home, just consider that I had trouble trying to book the exam. Every language school I called was like, "Oh, we don't do that here, you usually only do it in Germany. Wouldn't you prefer to try with C1?" until I finally found an available date in Florence.
And they also offered the chance to do a simulation of the Speaking module via Zoom.
In the booklet with the "general tips" I received when I booked the oral exam simulation, I read:
"It's not really realistic to think that one can pass the C2 exam if one doesn't live abroad and has only attended German courses for a few years."
When I read it, I felt as if someone slapped me. Well, I never even attended courses! What were my chances?
"Maybe this time I really overestimated my skills," I thought. "I bit off more than I could chew. It had to happen sooner or later."
And it definitely will, but this wasn't it, because I passed. To be honest, I even got a perfect score in the Speaking module.
I'm not here to brag. Passing a language exam is not the same thing as being able to hold a real conversation in daily life; also, levels are not the be-all and end-all of language learning. Still, my adventure was a great success, and in the process, I learned a thing or two about how to learn a language from home.
The catch? This is what worked for me, with this language. You may be a totally different learner. But maybe some things I have to say can be helpful for you, too.
Things I didn't do to learn German
I didn't move to Germany
If I had a dollar for all the times someone told me, "You have to be there to really master a language," I'd have enough money to leave my job and travel to all the countries where they speak languages I'd love to learn.
And there are a lot of them.
Is it necessary to move abroad in order to become proficient? No. Is it an advantage? Absolutely. When you're immersed in the language all the time, you don't have to artificially recreate that condition. Input is everywhere, and varied enough — at work, in informal conversations, at the grocery store, on the TV, and in the media…
Maybe thirty or even twenty years ago, you did need to move to Germany to reach high-level proficiency. But not today, not in a world that is hyper-connected and increasingly smaller. At least, not if your target language is a widespread one, spoken by millions of people and with lots of resources available in print and online.
Sure, if you are not there, you need to be much more determined because you're not forced to learn the language.
More difficult? Yes. Impossible? No.
I didn't watch TV series in German
TV series were helpful for me when I learned English, but with German, I found them excessively difficult.
Accents, dialects, fast-paced dialogues, colloquial expressions, cultural references, and frequent changes of scene or topic made most TV series hard to follow for me, even with subtitles.
Or better said: yes, I was able to enjoy the show and understand the plot, but my progress in terms of language acquisition was limited to very common expressions and a bit of informal vocabulary here and there. Definitely not worth the time and energy.
I didn't use language apps
I can't say anything bad about language learning apps because I simply never tried them. I only downloaded a couple of them, revised the same ten vocabulary items for three days, then got tired of it and deleted them.
I'm sure there are better ones around. I just spend enough time on my phone already.
I didn't skip grammar drills
I might be a bit conservative on that, and it also depends on what your target language is and what your objectives are. But in my experience, grammar can't be avoided.
If you don't have a good grasp of grammar, you'll struggle to articulate more complex thoughts and even to comprehend texts above the basic level. This doesn't mean you need to remember each irregular verb, but you should be familiar with cases, rules, prepositions, and all that stuff.
I know those repetitive, mechanical drills are boring, but I'd be lying if I told you everything can be learned by listening to cool podcasts and reviewing flashcards.
How did I do it? In the most traditional way: I bought an intermediate German grammar book and went through it, page after page. And when I got to the end of it, I bought an advanced one and repeated it all.
That is surely the part of my learning routine I found hardest to stick with, but it delivered. The trick to make it sustainable? Don't do grammar only. If you've been sweating for half an hour on your adjective declination exercises, take a break and listen to a YouTube video about your favourite singer, or read a blog post in your target language. This'll remind you why you're doing it, and give you the opportunity to notice how the rules you've just been practicing are applied in practice, in real language.
I didn't join a German class
Language courses are great, teachers are often amazing, and the chance to practice conversation in your target language is a blessing.
Plus, it's cool to cut out one or two hours a week to be completely immersed in your target language. I would definitely recommend doing it; maybe individual lessons if you're a beginner, and group lessons if you're intermediate or advanced, so that you can practice short conversations with a partner and enjoy group activities.
I didn't join a German class because it is expensive, and I was determined to keep my language learning budget at a minimum.
If you, too, don't have much money to spend or can't make the time to regularly attend lessons, it's still possible to master your target language… yes, even the speaking skills!
Things I did to learn German
When learning a language, variety is key. Here are some of the strategies that worked for me, sorted based on the kind of skill they mainly helped me develop or strengthen.
Listening
YouTube videos and podcasts were definitely my go-to resources to improve my listening skills.
I started with a podcast for German learners, and let me tell you: nothing beats the feeling of being there, in my hometown in Italy, listening to actual German people and understanding them! That felt exciting.
After a bit of practice, I downloaded the (free!) ARD Audiothek app and started looking for interesting podcasts on topics I care about, like science, psychology, and German culture in general.
I wanted my podcasts to be fun and entertaining, but I also wanted to maximize my language progress by choosing podcasts featuring guests and interviews, so that I could be exposed to natural dialogue, questions, and answers.
Reading
For many people, including me, reading is the "easiest" skill to develop and strengthen. I made it a point to read as much as I could, and to choose varied resources: I started with Instagram posts and web articles because they are mostly short and not too complicated.
While reading, I would try to get to the end of the page to see how much I could understand, and only after that, I'd look up all the words and expressions I didn't get. This helped me both avoid interrupting the flow and strengthen my "expectancy grammar," that is, the ability to catch contextual cues and guess the meaning of unfamiliar words.
When I felt strong enough to switch to books and novels, I tried to gradually increase the difficulty: I started with short stories and clearly written nonfiction, then progressed toward thrillers and more complex writing until I was able to read the "big" ones — classics.
Speaking and writing
I already wrote extensively about my main technique here.
Vocabulary
I used small pieces of paper, writing a word or idiom on one side and its Italian translation on the other. I reviewed about twenty of them every day, and by the day of the exam, I had collected more than 700 of them! I mostly wrote entire collocations (adjective + noun, verb + preposition) to create sensible chunks of language that I could actually use in sentences.
Final take
Is that all? Yes, but a lot of this, every day for months and months.
There's no magic and no secret method behind how I did it. If anything, I can thank my good grasp of grammar, my experience as a language teacher myself, and my attitude toward language learning. Other people may need more or less time than I did, especially depending on whether they're as constant and disciplined as I was, but it works overall.
Looking back now, eight months after passing the exam, I can say that this strategy to learn German was as fast as it was hard. Between podcasts, reading, and exercises, I made sure to be exposed to the language about eight hours a day every day. That's exhausting, and not everyone has the chance to do that. Hell, I wouldn't have the chance to do it now!
Different languages, different goals, and different moments in life require different strategies. Not to mention personal dispositions, attitudes, and preferences.
I didn't write this story to tell you how to learn a language. I just wanted to tell you what worked and didn't work for me, based on the time and budget constraints I had and on the ambitious goal I'd set for myself.
Most of all, I want to tell you that you can do it.
Life after Learning
Another common myth is that a C2 certification is the be all and end all of language learning. Once you're there, there's nothing more to do. You're a "native-like". You can sit down and enjoy your multilingual life.
Truth is, a language certification is nothing like a driving license: you have to prove yourself again and again. When you're talking to a native speaker or writing an email and trying to express your thoughts, your C2 "native-like" certificate won't stop you from stuttering, forgetting words, and feeling stuck.
After the exam, I was so overwhelmed I had to take a break from German, and guess what? German took it personally. The bad news is, you can forget a language. The good news is, it'll come back stronger as soon as you give it some more time and energy.
So I kept going. I came back to the language I'm in love with. I swallowed my pride and even booked tutoring lessons, because the grammar is still there, but conversation skills and pronunciation need to be perfected.
I am still reading books in German, but now I'm no longer interested in complicated books with long sentences and complex vocabulary to enrich my "words portfolio"; rather, I had to acquire a taste for romance, because these are the books in which I find the most colloquial, everyday, basic expressions repeated over and over again. Expressions I already know, but want to use more fluently and naturally, without having to stop and think about them.
Now that I've learned the language, it's time to learn it better.
If you're looking for a non-time-consuming hobby, this isn't it. But if you're looking for a lifelong passion, I can highly recommend it.
How have you learned a language? And how would you do it, should you start now?