No. SmarterGerman is all about simplicity. With an All Courses Membership you get access to 10 courses for the price of one. If I had to fiddle with 20 diff. kinds of subscriptions, I’d have to hire someone to deal with this nonsense and you’d pay twice as much. And I understand that 29,90€ / mo might be a lot of money for some which is why I offer generous social discounts that reduce that price to 9,90€ / mo and if the shit really hit the fan even to 1€ / mo. All trust based. I mean why would you lie to me, right?

So: A1 alone costs 29,90€ a month and A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, A1-Exam Prep, B1-Exam Prep, DSH-Exam Prep, Grammar Course and Trandem Training all together cost 29,90€ a month. 

A standard German course in a group anywhere in Germany costs 250€ / mo. And they move on whether you keep up with the group’s speed or not. You need 2-3 months per level and once you are out of school, you can’t reach your teacher for questions anymore.

And in language schools they often speak German which in my 25+ years professional and personal opinion is making learning German a lot more difficult than it should be. I base my opinion on science: https://bilingual-approach.com/

Even in Africa and India a month in such a group costs easily 100€ / mo. So you do the math, okay?

Of course, I understand that €29.90 per month can be a lot of money for some. That’s why I offer generous social discounts — fully trust-based — that reduce the price to €9.90 per month, and if things are really tough, even to €1 per month.

I trust you to be honest — why would you lie to me, right?

If you can’t afford the regular €29.90/month but can manage €9.90/month for a high-quality German course, apply for the Social Discount. It reduces the fee for my All Courses Membership to just €9.90/month.

If even €9.90/month is impossible right now, you can apply for my Scholarship, which brings the price down to €1/month.

Please note that this scholarship is made possible by those who pay more – it’s a community effort. Therefore you’ll be asked to pay this gift forward to others in the future.

The scholarship also comes with a few other reasonable conditions, which I explain in detail on the scholarship page.

If you truly, truly can’t even afford €1/month, don’t give up. Write to me via my homepage, and I’ll make you a personal offer. You might receive free access for as long as you need it – in return, I’ll simply ask you to pay this kindness forward once your situation improves. 

Please understand: I can’t promise access to the scholarship or free plan. These options are reserved for highly motivated and disciplined learners, because they cost both me and the community money. They’re an investment in people who face hardship through no fault of their own — but who are determined to change their lives and help others in turn.

As there are no live classes included, it starts whenever you are ready and ends either when you have achieved your goal or when your access period ends.

All my courses are accessible exclusively through my Membership subscription. As long as you are subscribed you get access to my courses. 

This course provides you with everything you need to reach the designated level of the course. For B1 we have a special course to prepare you for the exam.

Jein. Quick technical support is of course provided for free. If you need support with your studying you need an active paid subscription to my Personal Support Membership. If you subscribe to my bundle you’ll get a solid 50%discount so it only costs you 10€ instead of 19,90€ / mo. 

No. This is an all inclusive German language course.

No. You need an internet connection.

Yes, of course. The mobile version of the course is beautiful and there is even an app for Android and iOS. Some features like our vocab trainer, the community widget or the dictation tool are not available in the app though. Therefore it’s highly recommended that you use the mobile browser. Ideally however you don’t work on a mobile as mobile phones are simply not made for proper studying. If you have no other choice, so be it but ideally you get your hands on some 100€ laptop and take that. Doesn’t have to be fancy.

I’ve created smart and simple techniques that will allow you to practice and improve your speaking skills on your own. You will find them already in Lesson 01.

That depends on you. You can safely assume that it takes the same time as in any standard language school. If studying 4.5 hours per day, 5 days per week, A1, A2 and B1 each take 2 months, B2 and C1 take 3 months.

But you don’t have to stress yourself as you can take all the time you need. And you might even be a lot faster than that. How long such things take depends on many factors above all the time you put into this and your capability to learn languages which is again influenced by many many factors.

Here’s a simple technique to calculate how long this course might take you if things go smoothly: You can measure the time it takes you to finish Lesson 01 and multiply it by the total number of remaining lessons (around 49). Divide that by the number of hours you have available per week and you got a number you can work with and adjust when needed.

No. I don’t offer any officially acknowledged certificates as those are a giant bureaucratic hassle and I prefer to keep loving what I’m doing. BUT you can easily sign up for such an exam at Goethe or TELC or ÖSD certified institutes and pay a fine, I mean fee of anything between 120-200 USD and get a nice piece of paper to show to anyone who’s interested.

Not specifically, no. My courses simply teach you German the way it should be taught, highly efficient and highly enjoyable. Whether you use that to impress your Austrian mother in law or become Germany’s next Bundeskanzler, that’s totally up to you. Like you can use a knife to murder someone, you can also use it to save lives on an operating table. All I deliver is a knife for you to use. And it’s going to be sharp. If you get what I mean. ^^ 

To be safe: there’s no specific preparation for any professional use of the German language. Simply because that also not needed. I consider so called Berufsdeutschkurse rather a questionable offer as the main difference in many such courses is different vocabulary. For that I wouldn’t pay a single cent more than necessary.

Some of these courses, when lead by professionals might be helpful IF they teach you also specific ways of communication with clients like a Patienten-Doktor Gespräch. But even that might not be worth the ridiculous amount some language schools charge for it.