Episode 17 - Why Pay for a German Course
Pay for a Course or Learn for Free?
2023-12-28 9 min
Description & Show Notes
In this episode of the Better German podcast, we are looking at the question of why someone should pay for a German course instead of learning for free on YouTube - or should you? What works better in what situations. We are looking at this subject so you can figure out for yourself if it works better for you to use free materials you can find or avail yourself of a paid course.
Summary
In this episode of Better German, host Susi Blumel addresses an important question: why pay for a German course when there are free resources available, such as YouTube? Susi shares her insights on the value of paid courses, like the expertise and infrastructure they offer, but also points out, when a free offer is just right for you. We are looking at how to accelerate your progress in learning German.
Understanding the Benefits of Paid Language Courses and Free Content: A Better German Podcast Episode
Bullet Points
- Key Points that paid courses offer
- Advantages of free material on YouTube
- what produces faster progress and results
- what to look out for when paying for a course
- Podcast vs. Courses
- upcoming beginner's course and challenge
Quotes
The Value of Paid Language Learning Resources:
"If you follow this podcast, You will actually follow the line that a student should be taking and you can learn German." [00:00:45 → 00:00:54]
"Online Learning: Not every paid course, honestly, is good, and not everything that is free is bad." [00:03:22 → 00:03:27]
Links
- Episode 14 - Watching Movies with Subtitles to Learn German
- Interactive Movie Guide to help you find German movies with subtitles on your level.
- Episode 5 - Introduction to German articles
- All Freebies for the Podcast
Here you can get early access to the upcoming A1.1 (total beginner) German course.
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I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe and share the podcast.
I would love to stay in touch, so for news, new courses and books, subscribe to my newsletter.
Do let me know, which subjects you would like covered!
And watch out for the next episode - I publish a new one every Thursday.
Transcript
Welcome to the Better German podcast.
My name is Susi Blümel, and I will teach
you German and everything around the
language , the countries and the culture.
So in this episode, I'm answering
a question that I was asked.
And she asked me, why should I even
pay for a course when I can just
go on YouTube and learn English
or German or whatever for free.
So that was an interesting question for
me, and I was actually thinking about it
for a while, and here's my take on this.
Welcome to the better German podcast.
My name is Susi.
I'm teaching you German.
And if you follow this podcast, you will
actually follow the line that a student
should be taking and you can learn German.
Also, by the way, and this is
for free, you can, get quite
a lot of additional materials.
So, if you go on better
german.info/podcast or on better
german.info/, and then the number of
the episode you're on, you can find
there the link where you can find
all of the additional materials.
You will have to register and
you will find, all the additional
material that you can download
for this podcast, there's a lot of
additional material in there already.
You have worksheets for different word
lists, you have worksheets for Sentence
Pattern that we did, you have worksheets
for things like, why learn German?
What is your reason to learn German,
to keep you motivated and, different
other things and more things are
coming and more things are going in
there, as the podcast is progressing.
So please go there and registered there
and get yourself additional materials.
However, actually for this particular
one, there isn't any additional material.
So, the question is why
would you pay for a course?
Well, to be honest, if you're happy,
with progress you're making and you
found something that is on YouTube
and you're doing fine, then great.
I'm glad.
What do you usually pay for is
either the time of a teacher.
So when you're taking a traditional course
like a course that is not online, or you
have classes with the teacher and you're.
paying for the time.
you're paying also for the
expertise to some degree, obviously.
And when you're doing an online course,
the difference between just materials
that you have online on YouTube and an
actual course is usually that when you
have an actual course, you can log in,
and you have a system you will be able
to see what you have done, what you
haven't done, and, things like that.
So there is, a certain infrastructure
involved in it and that's
something that you need to pay for.
Why should you be doing that?
Well, that depends, not every paid
course, honestly, is good, and not
everything that is free is bad.
However, if a person, like me,
decides to basically devote
their time to, build that up.
They will have to live off of something.
And that's something you pay for.
So, frankly, if I had another job
and I wasn't earning my money as
a German teacher, I just, couldn't
be spending very much time on that.
And probably I also wouldn't
be very good at it because I
didn't have the experience.
So basically, what are you paying for?
Why would you pay for a
course in your situation?
Well, if you found something that makes
you happy, that's fine, I said that.
But if you want, to get something
that is good and you're actually
getting value out of it, I think
it's good to get give it back.
I often, pay for things, even if I could
maybe get them cheaper because, hey,
I think if somebody did a really good
job with something, I want to reward
that and I want to help that person.
So that's one of the reasons.
The other reason is I think you
have higher accountability if you
pay for something, it shows that
you're more serious about it.
So that's another reason to pay for
a course, is your own accountability.
And then, I think the most important
reason is, usually a paid course or
in many cases, a paid course, will
get you faster to where you want to
go, because it's usually something
that somebody makes with the idea,
people are going to pay me for it,
so I have to really make a good job.
And if it's not the case, most
courses will give you a money-back
guarantee, and I would stick to those.
I personally probably wouldn't
pay for a course, where I have
no money back guarantee at all.
There are different
philosophies regarding that.
Some give you money back in.
seven days, some even longer.
So yes, I think that's a good thing
because you should be able to see if it's
a match or not, if you really like it.
But, a course will usually
get you somewhere faster.
So, and that brings me to the
last reason, why would you pay
for a course or for classes?
If it is something that will
get you to your goal faster,
then that's worth doing it.
Because if you just go on YouTube or
online and you start learning German
by yourself, it will, if you stick
to it, probably get you somewhere.
But doing a course - and if it does
that, then it's worth paying for
it - if you do the course, and then
you can get the materials faster or the
results faster actually, then that's
something that is worth paying for.
So good example is also
my podcast and my courses.
So I have this podcast, I'm really
working hard on giving you good
materials in this podcast and
actually, a lot of this material,
you will also find in my courses.
However in my courses, you also find
more additional materials and additional
practice and, I tell you, okay, now
do this, and then you get the answers
to see if you're correct or not.
So basically.
You can already, like there's
a course coming up by the way.
There's a, there are
two courses coming up.
The first one is the A 1.1 course
that's a total beginner's course,
You can already get access to it.
It's officially going to be released
next year, but as a beta user, you
can already get access to it now.
you can go on better german.info/courses.
And you will find all the
information there, or you can also
get on courses.bettergerman.info,
and you will get access there.
So that's the first coming
of course, coming up.
It's coming up next year.
And at the same time, there will be a
challenge also going to be released.
So you can go there and look at that.
And the difference between the podcast.
And the courses like, the podcast.
We'll take you through a lot of
things, but it takes some time.
And in the course, you get access to a
lot more material much faster, and you get
additional information on how to practice.
And there's also things in the
course that are not on the podcast,
because it's hard to put in a podcast
format, so that's the difference.
So if you just, if you want to
follow the podcast and you're
happy with it, obviously do that.
But if you say, okay, now I want to
get serious learning German, I can
see, that I can actually get there
then a course could be the thing.
And if you want to do a course with me,
then go on bettergerman.info/courses, and
you can already get an early enrollment.
And I hope I'll see you there, and I
hope I'll see you in next week's episode.
So see you, talk to you soon.
Bye bye