61 Self-Paced Courses Don’t Work… Right?
2026-03-11 18 min
Description & Show Notes
Many learners believe that self-paced courses are the problem. They assume they need discipline, pressure, or a classroom environment to finally succeed with German.
But the real issue is something else entirely.
In this episode, I talk about a conversation from one of my recent workshops with a learner who believed he couldn’t succeed in a self-paced course. His experience is actually very common: people force themselves through classes for months or even years — and still never reach the point where they can actually speak German.
So what’s really going on?
We look at why many traditional courses struggle to produce real results, why motivation disappears when learning stops making sense, and why learning at your own speed is not the problem — it’s often the solution.
Free Live German Workshop
How to Actually Learn German https://bettergerman.info/workshop
Get Talking German Course
German for Beginners & Restarters https://bettergerman.info/course
Key Topics in This Episode
• Why many learners believe self-paced courses don’t work
• What really happens when people force themselves through classes
• The difference between motivation and discipline in language learning
• Why people naturally learn at different speeds
• Why group classes often cannot adapt to individual learning speed
• How learning can become easier when the process actually makes sense
• What it really means to “learn to communicate” in German
Mentioned in This Episode
How to Actually Learn German – Free Live Workshop https://bettergerman.info/workshop
Get Talking German
My step-by-step course for Beginners & Restarters who want to start speaking German in a natural and practical way. https://bettergerman.info/course
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Transcript
if this is not handled, then maybe
somebody will go and he will go through
the motions, he will go to the end
and he will finish and he will have a
certificate and maybe the certificate
will say, I'm now A2 B1, whatever,
but the real test, and that's the only
thing that I'm interested in is, I'm not
interested in what certificate he has,
I'm just beyond frustrated because
I've just recorded an entire
podcast episode and it was really
good and, it's not recorded.
That's maybe a little
behind the scenes here.
I'm not scripting my podcast episodes.
I do think about the subject, I do
often take notes, I do, think of
what I'm saying, I do select the
topics to fit to my concept and to
the flow of the podcast and so on,
but I do not script my episodes.
So when I speak for 15 minutes or 20
minutes, and it's not recorded, then
it's gone forever, and that's a shame
because this one was really good.
Okay, good, so this is an
episode, and it's actually the
third attempt that I'm doing now.
So if it really is bad,
then I'm very sorry.
I'm trying to give it to you
anyway because there is a lot of
stuff in here that is valuable and
that I really want to give to you
because I think it is important.
So anyway, how did I get
the idea of this episode?
I got the idea of this episode because I
was, holding a workshop the other day, the
"How to Actually Learn German" workshop,
which is the first step for anybody who's
interested in doing a course with me.
So the course that I'm currently offering
is the "Get Talking German" course.
It is a course that is for anybody
who's a complete beginner or who has
learned a little bit, but never actually
arrived to speaking or even people that
have learned a lot and never got to the
point where they were actually speaking.
And a participant told me.
that he doesn't like to do self-paced
courses because he thinks he will not be
disciplined enough to actually go there.
He says he knows himself.
If he's listening to the
podcast, he will know who he is.
And he also told me a little bit
of his story and he told me that
he had done an intensive course
for two months and now he's almost
at the end of a semester course.
I don't know how intensively, but he's
taking this course and, he's obviously
still not speaking German, otherwise
he wouldn't even be at my workshop I
don't know if I got to tell him, to
communicate that to him in depth or
enough, So maybe he is listening to
it, because I know that the reason
that he's having trouble is not German.
He thinks it's because German is a very
hard language, but it's actually not that.
I'm not saying that German is hard or
not hard, That's besides the point.
The point is whatever you are learning,
if you are using the correct method
and if you are getting good materials
and good support, you will be motivated
and you will remain motivated.
What he was thinking and saying is
that he feels that a self-paced course
doesn't keep him accountable, and if
you look at it, it's true, when you pay
for a course and it's a physical course
and you have to go there twice a week
for the evening, you will go there.
There's other people there, there's a
teacher there, and you've paid for it, and
if you don't go there, then it just goes
to waste and you're not going to do that
most probably, or the chances are higher.
Okay, good.
So now let's look at it.
So basically you're saying you have given
up, you hate it, you hate this course,
and you actually wouldn't learn it if
you weren't forcing yourself to do it.
So what I'm telling you is that even
though this may be something that you
have been used to for a long time,
particularly if you were at school
and, I guess you have been at school.
So you are there, maybe in the beginning
you were interested in it and then you
failed to understand things, and then
you became gradually less and less
and less and less interested in it.
You maybe put a lot of reasons there in
your mind because people usually don't
like to fail, why that is the case,
but it's usually never the real reason.
Maybe I'm going to do a separate podcast
episode about that, but in any case,
the problem is that you are no longer
motivated, the solution is not to be
forced because the point here is when you
go to my course or when we come back to
a course that works, if you are really
motivated at something and if you know
what to do and how to learn it, and if
you understand what you're doing, then
you don't have to force yourself to do it.
If there is a book and you're
interested in that book and you want
to read that book, you don't have
to force yourself to read that book.
And if you have to, if you do have
to, then there is something wrong.
Now the sad truth is if you don't
handle, if you don't fix what's
wrong there, you will not actually
succeed at that course anyway.
You will go there, maybe you will have
attended all the lessons, and you will
get an attendance record and maybe
you even get a certificate and maybe
you even pass an exam, but will you be
able to actually apply what you learn?
So in a German course, will you
be able to actually speak German?
No, you won't.
We have to fix what is keeping
you from happily learning.
Because if you don't fix that, you will
never learn German no matter if you force
yourself to go to that class or not.
Now let's look at how it can be
otherwise, and let's also look why
I have chosen self-paced courses.
Because the point is, even if all of
this is present, even if a student
knows what to do and how to do it
and understands everything that is
going on, he will not have the exact
same speed as every other student.
Let's look at it.
People learn things in their
individual speed, always and
some things are difficult for
you and then the next thing not.
You can take a look at that in anything.
For example, me and my sister I
think now that we're both adults,
we both like to talk, we are both
lively people, we both like to read
and we both like to dance and so on.
However, when we grew up, as little
kids, my sister, I'm a few years older,
I'm 12 years older, so she was standing
in her crib when she was like 10 months
old and she started walking, shortly
after that, she started talking later,
I don't know when she was like 14, 15
months as far as I remember, but she
was already running around at that time.
I was the other way around.
I was lying in my crib talking when
I was like a year old and Actually I
started walking when I was like one and
a half years old, and then I was sitting
and crawling and things like that.
It was hard for me to learn to walk and I
don't know, talking wasn't so hard for me.
I know from many siblings that it's
like that, and I know it even more
from kids that I've been tutoring,
and so on, everyone learns everything
at their own individual speed.
So let's say you have a list of 20 words.
The first word will maybe take you, I
don't know, 20 seconds, and the second
one may be taking you two minutes, and
the third one will take you longer,
and the fourth one will take you
shorter, and that's completely okay.
I'm inviting you to look at things
that you can do, and see, if you had
individual speeds, let's say mathematics,
you're doing 10 different problems
in mathematics and maybe they could
even be the same subject and maybe
the first is super fast and then the
second one takes longer, and so on.
So this applies to cooking,
to dance steps, to everything.
People learn at their individual
speed, and this is not a general
statement, this is even for every
single step of whatever you're learning.
And this is impossible in a group
class where everyone learns the
same thing at the same time.
This is impossible and that's why I am a
big advocate of doing things in individual
speed, and that's why I have put together
the course that I'm delivering now.
For many years I've taught
German in an open class.
People had their materials, so they
had their entire thing, everything
they needed to learn, and we
had certain hours of the week.
Usually it was two times one and a half
hours and everybody would come online,
offline as well, I've actually done it
both, and I had this small group of three
or four people and everyone was working on
their materials quietly, doing the things
that they can do quietly and I was working
with each one, to do this one step for 15,
20 minutes to practice this list of words.
And then the next one, and
then that person would continue
and do some written exercises.
And I went to the next one and I
did, 15, 20 minutes, and I practiced
this particular Sentence Pattern.
A Sentence Pattern is how I
teach people to make correct
sentences, to put words together.
This is what we're using instead of
grammar rules to say correct sentences.
I'm also, explaining that more in the
"How to Actually Learn German" workshop
So I kept doing that.
That worked too.
But the problem was we only had.
90 minutes a week, they could
do some homework, extra.
But at the end of the day there was
always a point where they couldn't
continue because they would've
needed more of my time, and there
was no possibility for anybody to go
significantly faster if they wanted.
So that's how I finally
came to this point.
This is not because I'm lazy, and
it's not even because I don't want to
do, one-on-one classes, I could have
teachers and could have group classes,
live and online but the self-paced part
is still the best way for example, how
are you doing it, in my course, you are
watching a video and you are learning
in that video how to pronounce a list
of 20 words, for example, and you are
repeating it and you know the meaning and
so on, and then you practice these words.
You can practice them by yourself,
but you also have regular times with
your study partner where you also
practice them and then you write some,
and then you watch the next video and
you do the next exercise and so on.
But maybe then there is this
one video and then you notice,
"No, I think I should watch it
again, because I still don't
know how to say these words."
And then you're just watching it again
and maybe for this other exercise, the
exercise you do with the words for one
list, you need 20 minutes, but for another
one, you really feel that you don't have
those words yet and you need more time.
So you take it and only when you're
self-paced you can actually do that.
And that's why I have self-paced
courses and the reason that they're
online really is, actually, I may
at some point have in-house courses.
The system is going to be the
same, but people come here,
so that could be a difference.
But most students in the world are
obviously not able to come to Vienna,
so that's why I chose online courses.
So I hope I have answered why
People believe.
self paced courses don't work and the real
reason is a self-paced course can work,
the difference is a course that is not
self-paced has a higher retention rate.
It has a higher probability that
the student will still walk there
and he will be sitting there and he
will be going through the motions
until the end of the course.
I'm not saying that every student only
goes through the motions, obviously, but
in German it seems to be an incredible
amount of people because I don't know,
only 20% maybe of the people that ever
start a German course actually arrive at
the end of being able to speak German.
So there is something structurally
wrong with courses, but it's really
not just about German courses.
But that just happens to be my subject.
The point is, if this is not handled,
then maybe somebody will go and he
will go through the motions, he will
go to the end and he will finish and he
will have a certificate and maybe the
certificate will say, I'm now A2 B1,
whatever, but the real test, and that's
the only thing that I'm interested in is,
I'm not interested in what certificate
he has, I'm interested in is the
person able to communicate in German?
I'm not even interested in,
can you say a grammar rule?
I'm not even interested
in, is he error free?
I want him to be able to communicate
and I want him to be able to understand,
and I want him to be able to clarify
things if he doesn't know, and I want
him to be able to become better because
learning is a progressive thing.
You will never completely
finish learning anything.
So that's what I'm interested in and
that's why sometimes people think
self-paced courses don't work, but the
only thing they don't work for is they're
less good at forcing people who are no
longer motivated to finish, and that's not
something that I'm interested in anyway.
So that's totally okay.
So if you want to learn, actual German,
and if you want to find out, a few
of the things that are a problem in
traditional German courses and how
they can be done different, like you
will actually experience it, then you
are more than welcome to, attend one
of the workshops that I'm holding.
It's "How to Actually
Learn German" workshop.
These are the first step if you're
interested in taking one of my courses.
The course that I'm currently starting
is the "Get Talking German" course,
The Spring '26 round of the "Get Talking
German" course is about to start,
so the enrollment is about to close.
So if you're interested in that
go to bettergerman.info/course
If you have any questions or if you missed
the workshop, but you're still interested,
you can also go to that page, it's
possible to book a clarity call if you
have any more questions about that course.
I wanted to communicate this thing because
I think it's really interesting People
are so used to courses or classes be
something that you have to force yourself
to go through and it shouldn't be like
that, and it doesn't have to be like that.
And I wish you that
learning is not like that.
If you want to learn German, and you're
not ready for one of the courses,
then definitely follow the podcast.
In that case, I would totally suggest
to go to the beginning of the podcast
and start listening from there.
hang in there, enjoy learning, Pleasure
to talk to you and until next time.
Bye.