Hello Listener,

Just one thing is missing from making your German perfect.

A native German speaker.

Someone who can correct your mistakes. Someone who understands your strengths and weaknesses and tells you what to study next. Someone to practice with.

Ready to improve your German?

The NEW Premium PLUS subscription at GermanPod101.com, like Premium, gives you unlimited access to the entire GermanPod101 website. You’re getting:

• 650+ Audio and Video lessons and the lesson notes with every lesson,

• Premium Tools such as 2000 Core word list, Spaced Repetition Flashcards, Line by Line pronunciation, Voice Recorder, and more.

But here’s how you reach German perfection:

Premium PLUS gives you access to your own personal German instructor so you get…

• 1-on-1 Professional Assessment

Get a personal assessment of your German skills. Understand your strengths and weaknesses so you know what to study next.

• Personalized Self Study Curriculum

Your instructor will create a study plan based your needs. If speaking is your weak point, your instructor will design a study plan to help you start speaking like a native. Everyone’s experience will be different!

• Personalized Instruction

Get personalized instruction from a native speaker for continuous feedback on writing, pronunciation, and other language skills.

Click Here To Start Mastering German with Premium PLUS

Premium PLUS has been a hit on JapanesePod101.com for years and we’re quickly developing more Premium PLUS programs for all our languages. Stay tuned for more news on Premium PLUS!

Hello Listener,

Why go for anything less?

Right about now, the best of the best are gathering in London for the 30th Modern Olympic Games. That’s over 10,000 athletes, all aiming for a gold medal. Their eyes are on the prize. Are yours?

Want to learn German? You will.

Unlike at the Olympics, there’s no losing here; you only get better – day by day, word by word, grammar rule by grammar rule. So, don’t just learn a few phrases, learn to speak German the way you know your own language.

Go for the gold and go for fluency with GermanPod101.

Until the end of the Olympics (August 12th), save 30% on ALL Basic & Premium Subscriptions and unlock every single lesson we’ve ever made and will make.

You want to speak and understand German as it is spoken in real life. Our lessons have been designed exactly for that. You get the conversation first and learn the vocabulary and grammar behind it after.

Load these lesson on your smartphone and learn anywhere, anytime!

Extra Bonus: Each lesson comes with PDF lesson notes. Lesson transcripts, translations, vocabulary and grammar explanations are given to you in writing. Review after a lesson or read along as you listen!

And that’s just the Basic Plan.

Premium is different. It’s our most popular plan and is designed to cut your German learning time in half. Since you want to speak more German, you need more words.

A Premium Subscription gets you:

Go for the gold and go for fluency with GermanPod101. Save 30% on all Basic & Premium subscriptions until August 12th!

Better than Black Friday. That comes once a year.

This offer is once in a millennium.

Good through Monday:

Click here to get 1-Month Premium for $11.11
(55% OFF the regular price)

or

Click here to get 1-Year Premium for $111.11
(43% OFF the regular price)

That’s every single one of our audio and video lessons, PDF Lesson Notes, My Flashcards, My Word Bank, Core Word Lists, Lesson Quizzes, Review, Dialogue and Expansion tracks and so much more – for $11.11 for a single month, or $111.11 for an entire year!

Don’t let this once in a millennium chance pass you by – it expires Monday, November 14th at midnight! Just pick your deal and get started with our fun and effective German language learning system today!

Click any of the links below to upgrade before it’s gone!

Save 55% on 1-Month Premium — $11.11 for 1-Month

or

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Have you ever attempted driving into a traffic jam? Fairly splitting a dinner bill with a group of people? Logging into Facebook? All are popular and guaranteed ways of getting stuck and going nowhere.

Unfortunately German is no different. But before you admit shameful defeat and go on Facebook to express your anguish in a status, there’s something that will get you through!

One of the most trusted German dictionaries is now on the Mac.

Together with famous publisher HarperCollins, we’ve brought you the Collins Unabridged English Dictionary and Collins Thesaurus of the English Language. This time, it’s the Collins German Dictionary Complete and Unabridged.

This is the first and last German dictionary you’ll ever need. If you’re feeling stuck, building up your vocabulary base will boost your German from basic to advanced. The Collins German Dictionary Complete and Unabridged is the definitive German-English Dictionary for the Mac.

With the Collins German Dictionary Complete and Unabridged, you can:
-353,000 references and 494,000 translations covering a wide range of contemporary German and English
-quickly browse alphabetically using the convenient letter tabs along the top of the app.
-search begins as soon as you start typing in the search field, so you get results almost immediately.
-handy navigation buttons let you go back and forth through screens you previously visited. If you’ve ever used a web browser, you’ll feel right at home.
-automatically saves words you expand to your history, saving you the time and trouble of having to repeat searches or browsing.
-easily star words to bookmark them for quick access later in one convenient place
-step-by-step “Collins Help” guide for using the app and developer contact info under the Help Menu
-switch between German to English and English to German

Best of all, it’s clean and streamlined for elegance, simplicity, and speed. Perfect for learners and native speakers of German – whether going from English to German, or German to English!

What’s the lesson? Get a calculator, avoid traffic, log out of Facebook, and get ahead in German with the Collins German Dictionary Complete and Unabridged for Mac.

Click here to purchase the Collins German Dictionary Complete and Unabridged App for Mac!

Hello Listener,

Once in a while, we like to pop in out of nowhere and ask:

How you doin’?!

As in, how is your German progress going? How has GermanPod101 helped you with learning German, school, traveling abroad, or with your German grandmother?

We love stories from our listeners about why they started learning German, the adventures they’ve been on, and how German has become a regular part of their lives. Similarly, we also want to hear about your results and progress!

Whether you have a crazy story for us or just want to drop a few thoughts on how GermanPod101 improved your language skills – we want to know.

Tell us your story – email us at testimonials@Germanpod101.com

Hello Listener,

(For maximum impact, read in Old Spice Guy’s voice)

Look at our homepage. Now back to us.
Now back to our homepage. Now back to us.

Look different? It should! With the help of our wonderful users, like you, we’ve listened to your feedback and came up with this. Designing the homepage has been like watching a baby grow.

Our iTunes logo has also changed. You can see it on our Facebook and Twitter accounts!

So when you download our free audio lessons on iTunes and see a new logo… do not be alarmed. It’s still GermanPod101.

The Old

The New

We’ve decided it was time for a change here at GermanPod101.
Why the change? Well, We’re not just a podcast website – but a language learning system.

This design makeover is just one small step towards one giant leap to becoming a complete online learning system.

Thoughts on the design? Feedback? Please let us know in the comments below.

But Wait!
What’s that? Look below. There’s a link.
To our 18% OFF Back To School Sale that you’ve always wanted. Look again!
It’s still there but only until August 26th. Sadly, schools don’t lower their costs and neither do student loans. However, we do.

18% OFF any premium subscription. Use Coupon 2COOL4SCHOOL and save!

If you’re taking German this semester, you’re more than prepared. Just don’t sleep in class, unless you’re dozing off to the sweet sounds of a GermanPod101 audio lesson.

And If you’re not in school (lucky!) – you’re still a student of German. Join in on the discount too!

Note: The Back to School Sale Ends in 48 hours. Save 18% OFF now because your school never does this.

Google is the world’s biggest Search Engine.
Apple is the world’s biggest smart phone maker.
The Blue whale is the world’s biggest animal.

And now, our little Innovative Language Learning family has become the world’s biggest language learning app maker! Apple verified this themselves. Surprised? Us too!

In about 5 years, we’ve made over 600 apps across 40 languages that available on the iTunes store for the iPhone and iPad alone. Not to mention, our Android and Mac desktop apps.

Can you imagine? That’s more language packed in one spot than a United Nations conference. Except you could learn them all. Or some. Mastering 600 apps is only for insane overachievers.

Some of our most popular mobile apps include Survival Phrases for brushing up on essential phrases when you visit Germany, Gengo FlashCards for multi-sensory vocabulary learning, and the recently updated WordPower that gives you the core 2000 words and phrases necessary for daily conversation. The language is directly at your fingertips – you’re touching words and sentences as you learn them!

In fact, you can download some for free or unlock all features with our premium apps.

Head over to our Apps page for the complete list of apps and more information. You can also search the Android Market and iTunes store for “Innovative Language Learning.”

Try them risk free!

Let us know what you think. We update them regularly based on your feedback!

Premium Members, your Premium Account just got a whole lot more powerful! My Flaschards now allows you to study the German words you want by importing lists from audio and video lessons, your My WordBank and the German Core Word Lists 2000. Here’s a quick rundown of the new features:

My Flashcards Dashboard: My Flaschards have a brand new interface. Import words from any audio and video lesson, My WordBank and the Core Word Lists. Create, edit and delete as many decks as you want!

Create a New Deck: How you want to study is completely up to you! You control what displays on the front and back of cards. Create new decks out of the existing words in My Flashcards. Simple pick the words, name your deck and you’re ready to study.

Front of Card Display: The new My Flaschards load fast and are easy to use. Test yourself with native audio recordings. When you’re ready for the answer, simply click on the card to flip it over.

Back of Card Display: Learning sometimes isn’t as simple as just Right or Wrong. Our smart spaced repetition system will evaluate your progress from the three answer choices so you test more of what you need. Get extra review with sample sentences and audio.

My Stats: We track your progress in My Stats. Don’t just learn new words – master them! This chart will keep you motivated to master all the words in your deck!

My Flaschards is still in beta mode, which means, we’re still working out some kinks. If you’re a Premium Member, head over to My Flaschards under My Tools to try them out. These flaschards are part of your Premium Subscription. Something not working? Send us a message at contactus@germanpod101.com .

Not a Premium Member? For a limited time only, get 1-Month of Premium Access to GermanPod101.com for only $5 – that’s even cheaper than our regular priced Basic 1-Month Plan! Use coupon code FLASHCARDS at checkout to get Premium for $5.00. Hurry! This offer ends on June 30th, 2011!

Our annual Reverse Christmas countdown begins today with the biggest savings of the year! Save 50% off any Basic or Premium subscription until midnight EST tonight with our Secret Santa Holiday Countdown Tomorrow, the daily deal drops below 50% OFF, so upgrade to Basic or Premium right now. Just click the link below:

Half off GermanPod101 until midnight EST? Sign me up right now!

Everyday until Christmas, we’re offering a daily deal on our Basic and Premium subscriptions. Act early and save more. It’s as easy as that! We can’t tell you what tomorrow’s deal will be, but we can tell you that it won’t be as good as today’s.

New seasons of GermanPod101.com begin on January 3rd, so there’s no better time than now to upgrade to Basic or Premium. You don’t want to miss out on all the fun in 2011!

Have a fun and safe Holiday!

Peter & Team GermanPod101

One common mistake made by beginning language learners is to assume that expressions can be translated word-for-word from one language into another (see German vs. English vocabulary). They’ll take an expression such as “to bite the dust” and render it into something like “zu beissen den Staub.” Besides its word order problems (the phrase would go “den Staub beissen” in German), this literal translation makes absolutely no sense to a German-speaker. In the German language, when one “bites the dust,” one actually “bites into the grass” (ins Gras beissen), perhaps because Germany is much greener than the wild West associated with this expression in English, although the German expression goes all the way back to the 16th century.

German has many interesting and colorful turns of phrase, some of which are obvious in their meaning, and some of which are not. There are several other interesting “grass” expressions in German that relate to a variety of situations. Das Gras wachsen hören means to “hear the grass grow” or, in other words, to think you’re so clever that you can even hear the grass grow. Über etwas Gras wachsen lassen (to let grass grow over something) means to leave something in the past, to allow something to be forgotten.

An innocent word like Pantoffel (slipper) can take on hidden meaning in German. A Pantoffelheld is literally a “slipper hero.” However, most Pantoffel expressions have to do with being “hen pecked” or a husband/man dominated by a wife/woman. A Pantoffelheld is a man under the foot of a woman, a hen-pecked husband. The Held or “hero” part of this word is meant ironically.

Vogel (bird), is another dangerous word in German. To say that someone has a bird (einen Vogel haben) means they are crazy. To show someone einen Vogel (a bird) in Germany is the same as showing someone the bird in America – meaning that someone is crazy.

While we’re on the topic of animals, the German word Schwein (swine, pig) is one to take care with, since it can be a very insulting term. But oddly enough, “Schwein haben” (lit., “to have pig”) is good. The expression is used to say someone was lucky or “came out smelling like a rose,” as in “Er hat Schwein gehabt.” (“He was in luck.” or “He was a lucky dog.” ).

A few short-but-meaningful expressions: Ein Glückspilz (a lucky mushroom) is a person who experiences unexpected good fortune. Vitamin B is good connections (gute Beziehungen) to influential people, an expression that came out of World War II and food rationing. Vitamin B2 is even better connections. A fairly recent term is Schickie-Mickies for “yuppies.” A Windel-Mercedes (Windel = diaper) is a fancy baby carriage. The list could go on and on. The essential fact is that even if you are familiar with the German language basics, if you don’t know German slang you will be lost in many casual German conversations. Ordinary Germans use plenty of colorful slang phrases and expressions when sharing day-to-day experiences, chatting over a coffee at work or over a beer at the local bar. German slang is an essential part of everyday German conversation that strangely is often overlooked by German learners.