Double Your Confidence in Speaking

She speaks pretty fluently. I would say her German has become pretty advanced.

Notice how effortless it sounds, how she doesn't need to think anymore when formulating sentences, what a rich vocabulary she has, and how correctly she speaks.

It seems like she has stopped thinking about what to say and how to say it, stopped monitoring her speech and everything is just popping up spontaneously, intuitively.

And what if I told you she achieved this:

Without studying any grammar rules
Without memorizing any vocabulary list
Without doing any exercises or drills
Without doing any homework
Without practicing speaking with a language partner

And without spending ONE EXTRA MINUTE of her busy life.

The Counterintuitive Secret to becoming more fluent and confident at Speaking

Between the first recording and the second recording Niketa focused on one thing and only one thing, it's what linguists and language scientists call Comprehensible Input.

Let me explain:

It’s actually a very simple idea all of you have already experienced with amazing results.

All of you somehow struggle with the German language, but at the same time, all of you feel very fluent, very confident with at least one language.

You name it: Your mother tongue.

How come acquiring your mother tongue seemed so effortless yet produced such amazing results?

Let’s take a deeper look into why you’re so fluent and confident with your mother tongue as opposed to German.

Let’s see what the main difference is between how you acquired your mother tongue vs how you’re trying to learn German.

How you can acquire German the same way you acquired your mother tongue

When you were a baby for the first 1-2 years you still didn’t speak the language.

In most cases before the first year you didn’t even utter a word.

And there is actually not one single baby on earth who came to the world and started speaking right away.

What did you do instead?

You listened to the messages of your parents.

But did your parents talk to you like they were talking to each other?

Not at all.

They talked to you in a way that was comprehensible to you. Using simple, easy language and progressing naturally step-by-step as you understood more and more.

When you uttered the first word, you had already heard thousands of messages which helped you create meaning and comprehension.

Or as Dr. James J. Asher, the originator of the Total Physical Response (TPR) method puts it:

"When speaking appears, language learning has already taken place. The first step is comprehension. Infants develop comprehension for at least a year before they say Mommy or Daddy. What's happening is that in the brain they are developing a map of the target language and when the map is detailed enough, speaking appears. It occurs in every language and every generation. Throughout history we never had people speaking before comprehension."

We can use a simple metaphor which explains the concept very clearly:

Imagine a glass which is filled up with water.

The water pouring in represents Input, so all messages the child is receiving which helps the brain create a map of the language in a subconscious way without even noticing it.

The water running over at the top represents Output, so the moment the child utters a word and starts speaking.

Before the child starts speaking there is a necessary “silent period” of input which fills up the glass.

And once the glass is full, output appears naturally.

Water sips over effortlessly.

Can you see that speaking is not the result of the child “practicing”, “repeating”, “memorizing” or “drilling” anything but just a matter of continuously filling up the water glass with “Comprehensible Input”.

Once the glass is filled up with enough Input, Output occurs naturally, effortlessly.

Now, understanding this concept of Comprehensible Input, it’s easy to explain why many students feel discomfort when it comes to speaking.

Most students try to say something when they are actually still not ready to express it.

The glass is still not filled with the words, the structures, the connections.

They might have “learned” a lot theoretically, but they still haven’t “acquired” it and have a feel for it in a subconscious way so that it just pops up spontaneously.

Let us analyze for a moment what’s going on when you feel discomfort, distress or even anxiety when you try to speak.

Why you feel discomfort when it comes to speaking

Let's start with a simple scenario.

Imagine you wanted to express: "I'm still learning."

How would you say it in German?

Listen to how this student is trying to express it (BTW, see if you can spot the mistake and correct the student):

Now, it’s not so much about being a beginner, intermediate or advanced student.

The pattern is always the same.

Students are not sure HOW to say something.

So what do students do?

Of course, they resort to the best tool they have at their disposal, their mother tongue.

You’ll start “padding”, which means using the knowledge from your mother tongue, supplying what is known to make up for what is not known.

So you’ll say things in German the way you’d say them in English. You’ll start “translating” subconsciously and saying things like:

Dann ich gehe zur Schule. (Then I go to school.)

Instead of:

Dann gehe ich zur Schule.

Or

Wenn ich war jung,... (When I was young…)

instead of:

Als ich jung war, …

Or:

Ich kann nicht den Tag erinnern. (I can not remember the day.)

Instead of:

Ich kann mich nicht an den Tag erinnern.

This padding feels stressful!

Why?

Remember our analogy with the water bottle?

It’s like having the glass of water still not filled up but trying to get water out.

It requires more effort to get water from a water well:

So what’s the solution then?

You need more Comprehensible Input to get a feel for how things are expressed correctly so you fill up your glass and make continuous progress as the input continuously runs over!

Now, you're not a child anymore and your parents most likely won't talk to you in German :-)

But you can create the right conditions, the right environment with the right ingredients so you can acquire German the same way you acquired your mother tongue.

What would these conditions look like?

You would listen consistently to messages you understand whatever level you're in, be it beginner, intermediate or advanced.
You would listen to and immerse into real, authentic messages and conversations like the ones your parents had in the context of their lives
You would get corrections and mimic your parents thus becoming more and more accurate with the accent and the grammar of the language in a natural way just by repeating correct sentences.

Since what we’re looking for is a similar immersive experience you had with the language when you were a child, a great analogy adapted to your current situation as an adult and Busy Professional would be that of an sports athlete who has a consistent training plan to make continuous progress.

Like a Pro Athlete you’ll follow a specific weekly “training plan” from Monday to Friday where you’ll listen to a series of podcasts on our Herr Professor App while commuting, while going for a walk or while having breakfast, and this way not wasting one extra minute of your valuable time.

You’ll go through a simple 5-step process in every lesson that will take into account whatever level you’re in right now and which will help you to take it to the next level.

At no point you’ll need to “memorize” anything or “learn” anything.

Just by listening interactively you’ll acquire the language subconsciously without even noticing it.

This will be a very counterintuitive experience for most of you because while it’s happening you won’t even know that it’s happening.

The acquisition process will happen subconsciously and involuntarily.

With time, you’ll just see the results of it:

Like the glass of water which is running over as it is filled up continuously you’ll just notice that more and more German words are popping up like bubbles without any effort when trying to speak and interact in the podcasts.

In Step 2 you’ll listen to our “Speak Confidently Intermediate” podcast so you uncover common hidden mistakes that you're probably making.

Think about it, what are the most common mistakes you still make when speaking?

And be honest with yourself.

Still simple structures from A1 like accusative and dative endings, pronouns, two-way prepositions and past tense or A2 structures like sub-clauses, relative clauses, passive voice, phrasal verbs and subjunctive?

Most intermediate students don't need to learn more or new structures, they have to become fluent and confident with what they’ve already learned.

Step 3:

Ich musste mich um das Haus kümmern.

To express "to take care of" we say "sich kümmern um".
It’s a tricky verb because it’s reflexive and goes with a preposition:
Ich kümmere mich heute um die Kinder. (I take care of the children today.)
Hast du dich gestern um den Hund gekümmert? (Did you take care of the dog yesterday?)
Nein, Peter hat sich um ihn gekümmert. (No, Peter took care of him.)

Those sentences oftentimes contain key elements that act like an unmovable barrier on your way to fluency and accuracy, they hinder you from making progress and keep you stuck at a certain level, which leads to that feeling of being in a plateau.

We’ll take those sentences and review all those challenging sentences in detail so you get a feel for how to express all those sentences correctly.

So to summarize, in this 5-step process you’ll basically listen to 3 types of podcasts:

In our Speak Confidently podcasts:

You'll listen to real-life talk and real-life conversations as if you were talking to a colleague or friend, this way you'll learn the real 80% of words and structures you'll use in everyday conversations
You'll overcome little by little the fear of speaking by listening to students who are going through the same challenges as you are
You'll learn things you still struggle with from students at your level and new details of the language from more advanced students

In our Weekly Round-Up podcasts:

You'll learn the "gaps" between what you want to say and what you are able to say, so you notice what you do not know or only know partially when trying to express something
We'll dig deeper into this "gap" and the EXACT grammar and vocabulary that keeps you still stuck at a certain level and hinders you from making progress
We'll help you get unstuck by showing you the hidden difficulties in the sentences students made mistakes with
We'll help you get a feel for how things are expressed correctly by showing you examples and scenarios in which those difficult words and structures are used in context

In our Fluency Stress Test podcasts:

You’ll do some quick translations similar to the Verb-Juggling episodes
You’ll see how other students are doing in these tests so you can overcome little by little the fear of speaking by listening to how they are going through the same challenges as you are
You’ll be able to test yourself, check what you’ve already acquired and check your progress

Repeating this 5-step cycle, consistently lesson after lesson you’ll go from speaking like this

But not so much for me, since I see my children every day.

So what's the best way for YOU to check YOUR progress?

Very simple, we'll check how you spoke a few months ago and compare it to how you're speaking right now.

So, every few months, I'll send you an email to check your progress in terms of becoming more fluent and more confident at speaking.

In the program I call this Growth Progress Review (GPR).

This way you'll be able to keep track of your progress.

We'll record a short audio, 1-2 minutes:

In the program you'll get step-by-step instructions on how to download our app and get started.

Do I need to listen EVERY week to ALL podcasts of the 5-step process?

No.

Always adapt the pace and volume to your personal situation.

First: the 5-step process represents a learning cycle, one lesson.

Some students might be able to go through the cycle in one week, some might need more and some might need less.

Adapt the time you need to complete a cycle and a lesson to your situation.

Second: The 2 most important podcasts are the “Weekly Round-Up” podcast that is like a summary where we review all challenging sentences of the previous Step 1, 2 and 3 and the “Fluency Stress Test” podcast where you can test yourself and check your progress.

So see the "Weekly Round-Up" and "Fluency Stress Test" podcasts as your "minimum core 2-step plan”:

Then, depending if you're a beginner, intermediate or advanced add those podcasts as you see fit and described below.

I’m still a beginner, do I also need to listen to the intermediate or advanced podcasts?

Not necessarily, but you can try in the beginning.

As long as you can understand 80% or more, it would make sense. But if, for example, the “Advanced” podcasts are incomprehensible, just skip them for now.

The 5-step process is not written in stone. Adapt it to your needs and remember, you can always switch to the “minimum core 2-step plan” and just add to it the Beginner podcasts in the beginning.

I’m an intermediate, do I also need to listen to the beginner podcasts?

I would suggest, yes, at least try.

As mentioned before, see it as a warm-up and check if you really can outperform the beginner students by spotting their mistakes and being able to correct them most of the time.

If that's the case, then yes, most likely you’ll find them too easy. In that case, just skip them and add the "intermediate" podcast and/or the "advanced" podcast to the “minimum core 2-step plan”.

I’m advanced, do I also need to listen to the beginner and intermediate podcasts?

Same as before.

At least, give it a try and check if you really can outperform the beginner or intermediate students by spotting their mistakes and being able to correct them most of the times.

If that's the case, then yes, most likely you’ll find them too easy. In that case just skip them and add the "advanced" podcast to the “minimum core 2-step plan”.

I’m quite advanced but still struggle to understand real German TV.

In addition to the podcasts of the 5-step process you’ll also have access to our “Speak like a native” podcast series with native speakers for the most advanced of you.

The problem with real German content is that it’s still oftentimes too fast spoken and unclearly pronounced which makes it incomprehensible.

In the “Speak like a native” podcast series you’ll listen to native speakers who still speak clearly, not too fast and still go into some details of the language.

These podcasts represent your last step before you can listen to real German content.

Do we just listen passively to the podcasts?

Not at all.

While listening to all these podcasts you’ll become part of the conversations and you'll always try to listen INTERACTIVELY and ask yourself 3 key questions while listening:

Can I spot the mistake of the student?
Am I able to correct the student before the teacher does?
Am I saying it right?

Then you’ll also always take action by speaking OUT LOUD:

whenever we correct a student and you hear us saying the correct sentence or writing it down word by word
whenever we ask in the Fluency Test: "How'd you say..."

How do I know if I’m at a beginner, intermediate or an advanced level?

Simple.

Check if you really can outperform the beginner, intermediate or advanced students when listening to the podcasts of Step 1, 2 and 3 by spotting their mistakes and being able to correct them.

Of course, not all the time, but most of the time.

And be brutally honest with yourself: Can you spot the mistake and correct it before the student gets corrected or do you just think you knew the answer after hearing the correction.

I am not good at learning by listening, I’m a visual learner.

I would argue that this is actually not true.

When you were a kid, you just listened to your parents, you were not able to read written words, yet it worked, you speak your mother tongue pretty fluently.

This is the same process here.

Trust that it can and it will work the same as it did with your mother tongue. You listened for years, then speaking appeared naturally as a result of comprehension.

What if I can’t focus 100% on the podcast?

No worries, this is a process you’ll get better at with time.

In the beginning, you’ll learn to get into the habit of including these podcasts while commuting, while going for a walk or while having breakfast.

If you’re not used to it, this in itself will take some time.

But never worry about missing anything because you haven’t paid attention to it.

On the one hand, keep in mind that you can repeat episodes as often as you want.

On the other hand, know that since you’re acquiring the language through real authentic conversations like you did when you were a child, there’s no need to worry about missing something.

Every lesson represents a new opportunity to learn and grow.

In the Weekly Round-Up, we’ll also review all important sentences of the Beginner , Intermediate and Advanced podcasts.

So be patient in the beginning and trust that with time the podcasts will capture your attention more and more as opposed to you making an effort to focus.

What if I miss a lesson?

No worries, every week a new lesson will be released, but you can refer to it whenever you're ready.

For every lesson a new 5-step plan will be released and you’ll keep access to all released lessons.

Since you’re acquiring the language through real authentic conversations like you did when you were a child, there’s no need to worry about missing something.

Every lesson represents a new opportunity to learn and grow.

In addition, you can review, and repeat the lessons any time whenever you feel like it.

How long will I have access to the podcasts?

You’ll have access to all released podcasts as long as you’re subscribed to the program.

What about “practicing speaking” with a language partner?

There is no need to intentionally “practice”, “train”, or “drill” speaking with a language partner.

Speaking will appear naturally, like when you were a child.

In most cases, it starts in a situation where you might be alone, more relaxed, without the fear of being judged.

Maybe you’re in the car listening to a podcast of this program and you notice that you can correct the student, that you’re able to say correctly what they intend to say or say incorrectly.

Or you just start trying to express ideas in German and notice that words are just popping up (remember the glass analogy.)

In the next stage you might be in the supermarket or a store and while you didn’t say anything when approached in German before, you now answer in German because you feel like German words are on the tip of your tongue.

Eventually, you’ll end up speaking more and more in your real life which is your ultimate goal.

Does this program also include Live Calls?

Yes, every week we have a 1 hour live Zoom Q&A Call at 12:00 and one at 20:00 where we answer all your questions about the program or the German language.

Can I use this program parallel to your program “From Zero to C1”?

Yes.

“From Zero to C1” has a different approach to achieve similar results but it's rather based on going through the standard grammar curriculum A1, A2, B1, B2 and C1 and also learning in an explicit way grammar and vocabulary.

“Double your Confidence in Speaking” has a more “natural” approach based on listening to real authentic conversations and learning in a more implicit way grammar and vocabulary, like the way you acquired your mother tongue.

If your goal is to take an exam I would suggest you follow the “From Zero to C1” learning system to prepare for and pass your exam.

If your focus is more on becoming fluent and confident at speaking and having real conversations I’d suggest you focus on “Double Your Confidence in Speaking”.

Besides that, while going through “Double Your Confidence in Speaking” nothing speaks against for example looking up grammar topics you’re curious about from the “From Zero to C1” program.

The “natural” and “effortless” way to Speak more fluently, more confidently and more accurately in your day to day life.