In the first half of this article, I’ll focus on the economy and efficiency of learning German. And if you are rather interested in how to save time and money, you can skip straight to the second half.
The Pure Course Cost
In India, a standard German course costs around 100 USD per month. It takes at least 2 months to finish A1, A2 and B1 and 3 months to finish B2, C1 and C2. That means getting from scratch to C1 would cost you 1,000-1,200 USD if you’re a fast learner.
In Germany, the story is even pricier. One of the cheapest schools here, the VHS (Volkshochschule), charges 250 USD per month for a group course with up to 20 people. Even if you don’t pay for your classes yourself like e.g. in an Integrationskurs, someone still has to cover the 2,390 USD cost for that. And that someone is among others me. Well, of course not alone. That would cost me millions. Anyone paying taxes in Germany contributes to that expense. That’s a lot of money!
If you were to take German classes at the Goethe Institut in Germany, the cost would be a whopping 1,000 USD per month, totalling 12,000 USD until reaching C1. That’s a lot of money.
Time Is Money, right? RIGHT?
As we all know, time is money, right? RIGHT? So, while you are spending 900 hours sitting in class and doing your homework at home, studying German, you cannot do anything else.
If you only make minimum wage, that’s a loss of 900 x 13 USD, which amounts to a staggering 11,700 USD that you don’t earn. Even if your course is sponsored by taxpayers in Germany, you are still indirectly investing 11,700 USD in form of life time in becoming fluent in German. Quite a valuable investment, isn’t it?
Just a quick note because I have been misunderstood here before: I do not blame anyone for taking advantage (voluntarily or unvoluntarily) of the German Intergration Course system. Why would I? I’d love a free lunch myself.
But Money isn’t everything, right?
Sure, there’s more to learning German than calculating costs and time. In my next email, I’ll delve into the additional benefits of learning German that go beyond mere economics. Stay tuned!
The good news is that as of April 1st 2025 my A1, A2, B1 and B2 courses are available for free for everyone. I’m not kidding. I put a lot of thought into this and I need this to work out to restore my faith in humanity. Just kidding. I lost all hopes with Trump being re-elected. 😉
What to do with all the Money?
Don’t worry. I still offer quite a few fantastic paid courses which will help me keep my main language courses free. E.g. if you feel stuck with your German learning I recommend that you check out my “Unblock Your German” course. That’s exactly what it will do, unblock your German, even though you may not yet be aware that you have a block. 😉
Most learners come with plenty of them due to past learning experiences that haven’t been great. These experiences sit deep and influence your learning until you uncover or shall I say unblock them?
Give it a try! You can work through the entire course in 3 hours, and remember, you have my 30-day refund guarantee. No risk. It’s pretty chap to begin with and your purchase would support me Free German For All project (short: FAGA, FAGA caps and crypto coming soon).
But make sure to work through the entire course, please, and also don’t hesitate to reach out to me for help if things don’t seem to do what you expect them to do. It is a powerful technique that you’ll learn with that course, and you’ll be able to apply it to any other goal of yours as well.
Enough about money.