Learn German: News by Readle

I used to be a Spanish teacher several years ago and can attest that this app is potent & has greatly accelerated my rate of grasping the German language! I’ve done multiple levels of Rosetta Stone & Babble for casual language learning (French & German) in addition to using lots of techniques I learned when becoming a foreign language teacher. However, my husband recently accepted a job we couldn’t pass up and now I need to kick my pace into high gear so I can get certified in language fluency exams in German in order to be able to get a job there, too. While there is no one magical path to fluency (it doesn’t fall outta the sky, folks!) …this app is potent and in just a few stories I’m already a big fan! I love each of the features- it’s user-friendly and the built-in tools cover everything I need the instant I need it all-the-while exposing me to new and valuable vocab & grammar. Reviewing vocab and verb conjugations is easy & self-directed. This is worth every penny of the subscription fee & is a Top Shelf product!

The idea and concept for this app is excellent. My very first impression was excellent, but I’m glad I gave it week of use before rating. It seems like some of the stories have real voices reading them, but then some of the newer ones have AI voices. While it’s impressive how far AI voices have come, I wouldn’t pay $10 per month to learn a foreign language from a robot voice. That’s more appropriate for something with a free version like Duolingo. Also, it doesn’t seem like they have added any C1 content for a couple months, which is the content I would be most interested in. Lastly, there isn’t any mechanism by which the user can report bugs, errors or mistakes. I see many stories where the quizzes are buggy (it just displays single numbers as questions and answers) and I just tried an older B2 story where the audio won’t load and it loads the same single translation word for every word starting a couple sentences in. I’ll glean what I can from this app, but will probably cancel after 1 or 2 months max, which is a shame, because this would likely be an app I would perpetually subscribe to, despite the high monthly price, if it were less “abandoned” feeling to me.

I’m so grateful to have come across this app. I purchased a couple of digital German books “for beginners” so that I could start reading now that I’ve started studying German but I realized I’m still too early along in the learning process to be able to read even the “beginner” books. Here, stories are nice and short, easily digestible, so it doesn’t feel overwhelming. Each story is accompanied by its reading level: A1, A2, B1, B2, etc. I can easily click on an A1 story and be rest assured that I’ll be able to handle it, while also being exposed to new words and never growing bored. On top of that, they have tabs within each story - a section for vocabulary terms specific to the story, a little section on some grammar tips, and even a quick mini quiz to test your knowledge of the gender of a few nouns found in the story. I would’ve liked it if the quizzes were a little longer, and maybe even asking a reading comprehension question or two (ideally, with both the question and answer in German), but I really can’t complain. I like to click on the vocabulary section before I begin reading/ listening to the story. It helps me start off on the right path, and I go through each of the other sections following my reading. You can click to listen to the pronunciation of any word in the vocabulary tab and just as well anywhere within the story tab. Yes!! You can adjust the speed to a slower pace to help you better understand the audio recording if it suits you. You have the option to choose from a small selection of free stories which are constantly reset with new ones, and you can pay a subscription fee (with two options for pricing - and an annual price that is unbelievably reasonable!!) for full access to all stories. I’m using the free version now, and plan to purchase the subscription once I attain a higher level of reading. I’m very happy with this app and very happy with the pricing offered. This app offers an immense amount of value. I highly recommend it if you are looking to learn German.