Where to Read German Online

When you are learning a new language, one suggestion would be to change everything you do into that language. Focusing on language learning is tough, but if you really want to learn a language, you shouldn’t focus on learning. Just do what you normally do, but in the target language. With that in mind, here are my recommendations to help you read more German online.

Google News

If you own an Android device, you may have noticed that when you swipe right from your home screen, you will be given a list of news articles that you might find interesting. This can easily be changed into any language you want.

In order to do this on your computer, simply go to news.google.com and click “Language & Region” from the bottom of the sidebar. From there you can choose German. Now your news will be curated to you based on your interests and it will all be in German.

If you are trying to do this from your phone, you will have to change the language of the entire device to German (which I recommend you do anyway) or actually download the real Google News app and change it to German.

One of the cool thing about this app is that it allows you to curate the news you get so you can read about things you actually care about. For example: I read a lot of news articles about comic book characters (movies and comics) and things about Germany and politics. You can make this feed anything you want it to be and everyday you will have something new to read in German.

If you own an iOS device, don’t fret. You can get this app, too and it is just as easy to switch into German as it is on Android.

News for Kids

If you are still in the beginning stages of learning German, it is very unlikely that you will be able to read most German newspapers or articles meant for adults. If you still want to know the basics about what is going on in the world, but you need a simplified version of the news, you can find a lot of interesting articles on News for Kids.

This website doesn’t write about all of the news like the Google News app would. You won’t be able to find exactly the topic you want, but you will find simplified stories about what is going on in the world and a variety of other topics. As the name implies, this site is intended for children, but that’s exactly where you level of German understanding may be. Most of the articles are at or below the B1 level. Here is my complete review of News for Kids.

Slow German

This is a blog and podcast designed to slow down the German language to a rate of speech that learners can easily understand. Again the topics to choose from aren’t as varied as you will find on Google News, but what this site lacks in selection is makes up in value for learners. You can search by topics including: absolute beginner, everyday life, dialogues, food and drink, holidays and festivals, friends and family, history, health and society, art and culture, music, language, and transportation and travel.

There are audio versions to go with the text, so you can listen and read along. The premium version includes learning materials for each episode, an MP3 download, quizzes and more. I use the text all of the time in class to give my students something to read that isn’t the boring things out of our textbook. My full review of “Slow German” is here.

LingQ

One of the best sites for simply reading in German online is LingQ. It allows you to read in German on a ton of topics. There are preloaded lessons on a variety of topics or you can import your own lessons into the system. You can then save vocabulary words from the articles you read and save them for later. LingQ keeps track of your growing list of vocabulary and helps you retain them for later. You can see my full review of LingQ here.

*Links to LingQ are affiliate links. This does not cost you any extra, but if you upgrade to a paid subscription on LingQ, Herr Antrim earns a commission.

Google News

News for Kids

Slow German

LingQ

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