Hey, guys! So if you’ve been reading any of my New Year’s Challenge update posts, you might have noticed me asking for recommendations of Twitter or Instagram accounts that either teach you or use Japanese regularly.
The reason for this is very simple: I spend a lot of time on these apps. And I do mean the apps; I use Twitter on my computer too, but not as often as I go through it on my phone (even when I’m sitting at the computer!). Plus, there’s only so much you can put in a tweet or an Instagram caption, so it means you get a kind of bite-sized piece of learning (usually explaining one word, phrase, or small grammar feature), so it’s something you can check throughout the day, knowing that you’re not going to be spending too long on it.
With that in mind, I thought I’d put together this post – because I follow a lot of people on Twitter and a lot of those are for language learning. If you’re learning German, these accounts may come in handy for you, if you don’t already know about them of course! 🙂
This is the Twitter account for the German teaching side of Deutsche Welle and it’s really useful. They link a lot to their own content (all useful), as well as posting multiple choice questions throughout the day that you can try out.
____ nach dem Essen von Obst soll man sich nicht die Zähne putzen.
a) Kürzlich
b) Direkt
c) beides geht— DW – Learn German (@dw_learngerman) February 24, 2016
This account doesn’t teach you German in and of itself, but they tweet a lot about Germany and things that are in the German news, as well as different resources you can use and their reviews of them. They link to lots of different content, so you should be able to find something interesting.
8 German tongue-twisters to leave your mouth in knots https://t.co/q1qivEraEh pic.twitter.com/g4TMP5PvfB
— Learn German Coach (@LearnGermanCoac) February 24, 2016
This really is a fun account! The person behind it usually tweets something in German and then follows it up with an English translation a few minutes later (though sometimes both are in the same tweet). It’s a really low-maintenance way to practise your German reading with fun, relatable phrases.
Google + Facebook + Twitter + Tumblr + Myspace: Das sind alles Gründe, warum meine Hausaufgaben noch nicht gemacht sind 🙂
— German should be fun (@LearnXDGerman) February 24, 2016
Facebook + Twitter + Tumblr + Myspace: Reasons my HOMEWORK isn’t done yet.
— German should be fun (@LearnXDGerman) February 24, 2016
Unfortunately, this account doesn’t seem to update as regularly as some of the others on this list, which is a shame, as it’s really a great resource. Sometimes images are shared through this account; often it’s links to their webpage (also a good resource!), but either way, it’s pretty useful.
Bei der Arbeit, während eines Films, beim Fahren … wo schlafen Sie sonst gut? 😉 pic.twitter.com/gEsTeAj50G
— The German Professor (@thegermanprof) January 22, 2016
5. Tagesschau
Okay, so we’re getting to the news section of this list. I follow a handful of news accounts in most languages I study, because the headlines are short and the content is relevant and they give you good insights into countries where the language you’re studying is spoken. Tagesschau is one of my favourites for German (I come back to it time and time again), and like all news stations, they update multiple times daily. I also recommend visiting their site for the ‘Tagesschau in 100 Sekunden‘ videos.
Zeige mir Dein Blut, und ich sage Dir, ob Du Krebs hast! Liquid Biopsy: großes Versprechen der Wissenschaft. 22.15h pic.twitter.com/VIDcdndNfN
— tagesthemen (@tagesthemen) February 24, 2016
This news account is one I started to follow when I first came to Austria; der Standard is an Austrian newspaper and so it has news that is more relevant for me. They also use Austrian vocabulary and expressions, so it has helped me to get used to some of those. If you’re planning to come to Austria for a while, then I recommend having a look at this one.
Facebook startete Emoji-Symbole als Alternative zum “Like”-Button: https://t.co/DNRSqqUPRV
— derStandard.at (@derStandardat) February 24, 2016
7. Der Spiegel
If you’ve been learning German for a while, then chances are you’ve heard of or read the German news magazing Der Spiegel. It’s probably at an intermediate-advanced level, but it’s really interesting – as are their articles online. Like all news feeds, it has headlines and tends to link to articles, but a good starting point is to see if you understand the headlines, then move onto the articles later.
Plastikteil: Mars räumt massive Probleme bei Rückruf ein https://t.co/nUYigFlzop pic.twitter.com/UzJcXRX1Sl
— Der SPIEGEL (@DerSPIEGEL) February 24, 2016
8. The Germanz
This account kind of reminds me of the Deutsche Welle one; they post small multiple-choice quizzes on their feed and then the answers later, while also linking to other kinds of content for learning about the German language.
kommen – wann – nach München – die Müllers?
___ ___ ___ ___? #LearnGerman #LerneDeutsch https://t.co/Lo4JgN1xrb pic.twitter.com/Cykzf0z6W2
— The Germanz (@MeetTheGermanz) February 24, 2016
Okay, so I have a small BuzzFeed problem… it’s just that their articles really aren’t that long and they’re interspersed with pictures – and what it means, is that I spend a lot of time reading BuzzFeed articles. Enter: BuzzFeed Deutschland. You get to practise your German and you don’t even have to read their articles if you don’t want to, because they post a lot of images on Twitter, too!
Hey @facebook… pic.twitter.com/ugfWre0Bl5
— BuzzFeed Deutschland (@BuzzFeedGermany) February 24, 2016
10. Jabba German
This Twitter feed seems to publish almost exclusively short grammar/vocabulary exercises, which is a fun way to check what you know. It’s definitely more fun than slogging through a grammar book and only takes a couple of minutes.
Exercise 3: Can you find the hidden German word?
Small tip: It’s a fruit 🙂 pic.twitter.com/VfYdobEsNC
— Jabba German (@JabbaGerman) February 23, 2016
That’s it! They’re my top 10 accounts for learning German on Twitter – but in reality, there are many, many more. If you think I’ve overlooked one for German, then let me know in the comments; and let me know about any Twitter accounts you use for learning other languages, too! I’m going to do a version of this post for Mandarin and Spanish in the coming weeks as well, so if you have any suggestions for accounts, I am open to them. 🙂 See you around!
Thank you so much, that was so useful!
No worries, I’m glad you’ve found it helpful! 😀
I’m so glad I’ve found your blog!