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Learn German with Herr Antrim: User Guide

You found the website Learn German with Herr Antrim and/or the YouTube channel of the same name because you want to learn German. Let me help you get the most out of this by showing you around a bit.

700+ German Learning Videos

If you are looking for a particular topic, I probably already have at least one video dedicated to that topic. Simply search for it from my channel page or from the YouTube search bar with the words “Herr Antrim” after the topic name. Accusative Case, Dative Case, Genitive Case, Present Tense, Present Perfect? I’ve got videos for all of that.

If it is a popular enough topic, I might have an entire playlist about that. You can find those by searching on my channel page or filtering your search to include only playlists when searching on YouTube. My playlists don’t always exclusively have videos made by me in them. Sometimes I put together playlists around a grammar topic with the best YouTube videos about that topic.

Herr Antrim’s Best Playlists

My most popular and subsequently my most helpful playlists are featured on my YouTube channel page. At the top of the list you will see my hour long live master classes. So far there are four. The first was about the present tense. After that I covered the accusative, dative and genitive cases with one hour each.

Looking to take your German skills from nothing to something or from something to something more? I have a Beginner Playlist and an Intermediate Playlist for that. Just looking for some random videos at either of those levels? My older series are great for that. If you want to learn grammar, but want it in more digestible chunks, check out the 3 Minuten Deutsch series. Long story short, I have a playlist for whatever your needs may be.

Paid Extras

If you didn’t already know, I created a 3 hour long video which combines 20 lessons for beginners. That video is available for free, but there is an e-book that goes with it, which is not free. This is my personal recommendation to any one who is just starting to learn German. Along with the e-book, you will get worksheets and answer keys for each lesson, a ton of mp3 files for various lessons for which it makes sense to have audio files such as the alphabet and the conversation examples. You also get access to my exclusive Quizlet flashcards to help you practice the vocabulary learned in the e-book.

Herr Antrim’s Shop & Teachers Pay Teacher

For every new video I upload I create a worksheet with answer key, an mp3 version of the video and a video script as a Google Doc. You can get these on an individual basis from my online shop, for instance if you liked a particular video I made and wanted a bit more to go with it. Those are usually $5 each. The same worksheets are usually available on Teachers Pay Teachers, but I am pretty bad about forgetting to post them there. This is mostly because Teachers Pay Teachers takes a percentage of the sale, while on my own website, I just have to pay a PayPal fee.

Patreon

Those materials are also available to my Patreon supporters who chose to support my channel for $2 per video or more. The bonus for you is that you are only paying $2 per video instead of $5 each on my website and the bonus for me is that you are paying for every video instead of just the one video you wanted.

Channel Membership

There is also an option directly from YouTube to get these materials by becoming a channel member. Since YouTube introduced levels I have made four levels available, similar to what I offer on Patreon. For $0.99 per month, you simply get mentioned during every video as a channel member, which is also true for all of the other options. For $4.99 per month, you get access to all of the video scripts every month. This includes side-by-side scripts in German and English with stories. For $9.99 per month, you get access to the same perks my Patreon supporters get, which includes worksheets and so on. It is literally the same Google Drive folder.

History of Learn German with Herr Antrim

Before I get into the other stuff I want to mention in this part of this post, I want to say how humbling it is to have this many people who like and benefit from my work subscribe to my channel. I get comments on a daily basis from people who tell me that I saved their German grade or they didn’t understand something until one of my videos cleared up their confusion. I am proud to be a part of the German Teacher YouTube Community. We each share ideas and collaborate with each other to make it possible for anyone in the world to learn German. Reaching 75,000 subscribers means a ton to me, but it means more that I get to connect with individuals around the world who want to learn or teach German.

Why Herr Antrim Started Making YouTube Videos

When I started making videos in 2011, I had no ambitions of becoming a “YouTube Star”. I just wanted to make some videos that my students would enjoy and would help them learn German. I didn’t want to be famous, I didn’t want to make a million dollars on YouTube, and I certainly didn’t want to go viral. Absolutely none of that has changed. I simply want to help others learn German. Now I’d like to take a walk down memory lane to see where I started.

Herr Antrim’s Road to 75,000 Subscribers

I started my channel in January of 2011, but it took me until August of 2012 to get my first 100 subscribers. Just over a year later in October of 2013, I reached 1000 subscribers. It only took two more months to get the next 1000. In August of 2015 I crossed the first of what I consider to be huge milestones, 10,000 subscribers. Exactly one year later I made it to 20,000. Since August of 2017 I have been averaging over 1000 new subscribers each month. By the end of December in 2019 I had over 75,000 subscribers.

For a few years now I have been compiling and analyzing the data I get from YouTube analytics. The graph below that shows my running total of subscribers for each month shows how insane these numbers actually are.

Herr Antrims Path to 50k Subscribers — Herr Antrim’s Path to 50k Subscribers

Herr Antrim’s First Videos

Several of my first videos were just me using some stuffed animals to have a conversation and teach basic phrases. Those videos were awful for a long list of reasons. The wind in the background drowned out the sound of my voice. The camera I used was just whatever I had sitting around at the time, which was mostly used for taking pictures and didn’t take great video. Worst of all, however, I didn’t really proofread back then, so the videos were riddled with errors. They were so awful, in fact, that when I finally decided to get serious about making YouTube videos, I deleted almost all of them.

The oldest video that survived the purge of crappy videos when I started getting more serious about making videos is one that I made using a website called “Xtranormal“. I didn’t keep this video, because I thought it was great quality or anything. I kept it, because I liked the amount of sarcasm built into it and the German 3 students at my school were required to memorize “Der Erlkönig“. Xtranormal is still a website where you can animate little stories and it is just as awful and terrifying as it was back then. For your enjoyment, I have embedded the video above.

Herr Antrim’s Oldest Video Featuring His Face

The oldest video that actually shows my face (and my awful camera quality) is from February of 2012. It is simply me reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in German. I think it is a great example of why I deleted so many of my oldest videos. At 480p it is no wonder that it has just over 1,000 views and is over 6 years old. I did do a better quality version of the Pledge of Allegiance when I made a video about American Symbols of Freedom in celebration of Independence Day in 2017. You can still watch the original awful video embedded below.

Click here to watch Herr Antrim’s new video of the Pledge of Allegiance in German.

German with Puppets

I would consider almost all of the videos I made before the first German with Puppets video in 2013 to be absolute garbage, but I don’t think I should delete videos just because they are bad quality. I only delete videos if they are detrimental to the educational process.

When I started the German with Puppets Series, it was the first time I started making videos with a real goal in mind. I wanted to cover all of the grammar topics in the two classes I teach (German 1 and German 2). Between July of 2013 and March of 2014 I uploaded 30 videos for my German 1 students and 19 for my German 2 students.

As soon as I finished each of the puppet series, I started creating videos for the worksheets that my students had to complete that went with the puppets videos. I didn’t finish those videos until March of 2015 and I used them as online assignments for my students until the end of the 2017-2018 school year. You can see an example puppet video below.

Herr Antrim’s Märchen

In between puppet videos and worksheet videos, I started uploading three kinds of videos on Mondays. Each Monday was a different category. The categories were Märchen, songs and resource reviews. The Märchen were a way for me to get back to using the puppets without having to write my own scripts. The script writing process takes a lot of effort and time. Märchen are easier videos to make, because I simply read a story that someone else wrote and animate it or use puppets to act it out. I have included an example from this series below.

Herr Antrim’s Songs

The German songs were fun to make, but ultimately painful to watch. I can’t carry a tune in a bucket and half of the time, I’m not even on beat. There is a really good reason I haven’t made a song video in a while. I am always trying to improve my video quality and me singing will never be good quality. You can see why I stopped in the embedded video below.

Herr Antrim’s Resource Reviews

The last category of videos I made during this time is one that I would like to get back to some time in the future. Every 3 weeks, I would upload a review of a resource that you can use to learn German. Some of them I hated and some of them were really good. Some of them I still use to this day. I know there are a lot of newer apps and websites that people use and I would love to get back to reviewing them from a teacher’s perspective.

Herr Antrim’s German Learning Tips

On Wednesdays I uploaded German Learning Tips. The first several were legitimate tips like how to think in German or read more fluently, but then I transitioned to videos about various topics I felt like talking about. I am actually really disappointed in the way that the series turned out, because they stopped being actual tips after the 17th video. The videos are good, but calling them “German Learning Tips” is a bit disingenuous.

3 Minuten Deutsch

After the puppets videos and the worksheets videos were done I started doing other grammar videos on Fridays. I wanted to break German grammar down into smaller digestible videos. That’s why I started a series called “3 Minuten Deutsch“. It is still one of my most popular videos series. I don’t consider the series to be “complete”, but it is pretty extensive. After video #69 I stopped making them, but I might get back to them at some point. I actually have several of the topics planned out, but I just haven’t found the time to write the scripts and make the videos. I’ll add that to the list of things I would like to get back to. That list is getting pretty long.

You can get a ton of extra materials to go with the 3 Minuten Deutsch series for FREE here.

A1/A2 and B1/B2 Video Series

In January of 2017 I decided it was time to make a change. I had been making the same kinds of videos for almost two years and my style was starting to get stale. I decided to keep doing the 3 Minuten Deutsch Series, but I dedicated Mondays to the A1 and A2 levels and Fridays to the B1 and B2 levels. These two series have been insanely popular. I am very proud of the way they have turned out. I made a total of 50 episodes for the A1/A2 series and I plan to do four more videos in the B1/B2 series to make it have an even 50 as well.

All of the A1/A2 video materials are available for FREE here.

All of the B1/B2 video materials are available for FREE here.

Beginner and Intermediate German with Herr Antrim

As much as I really like the A1/A2 and B1/B2 series, I hated the fact that I didn’t plan the entire series out from the start. Every video was basically just whatever I felt like making that week. Towards the end, I started making the Monday video and the Friday video have a similar theme, but it never really had the organization that I really wanted to. As a teacher, I couldn’t let this lack of organization continue, so I started working on a way to change it all.

The ultimate goal was to put all of these materials into an e-book and sell them on Amazon and iTunes. I currently have the beginner series completed and the accompanying e-book can be found here.

Herr Antrim’s Annual Break from YouTube

Towards the end of each school year (May) it becomes more and more difficult to make videos. I am in charge of several things that all have to come together at the end of every school year. That’s why several years I have chosen to take the entire month of May or June off from making videos. In years when I didn’t take a break there were occasions when I couldn’t make videos on certain days. I thought that was worse than simply making an announcement that I wouldn’t be uploading videos between date A and date B. If there is ever a break in my upload schedule, don’t fret. I will be back in due time. In the meantime, enjoy any of the other 700+ lessons I have available on my YouTube channel and website.

How can I help you learn German?

Now for the part where I ask you how I can help you. I am always looking for ways to improve this channel and the ways I help you learn German. How can I help you more? What can I do to make your German learning journey easier? Send me an email if there is anything I can do to help.

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Herr Antrim is a highly experienced German teacher with over 20 years of engagement with the German language. He holds a bachelor’s degree in German with teacher certification and is currently pursuing his master’s degree. Since 2009, he has been teaching German to high school students and is now the World Language Department Chair at Edwardsville High School. In 2011, Herr Antrim launched the successful YouTube channel Learn German with Herr Antrim, which has garnered over 200,000 subscribers. Through his channel, he has collaborated with renowned German language learning YouTube channels such as Deutsch für Euch, Easy German, Get Germanized, and Lingoni German. Herr Antrim is the author of Beginner German with Herr Antrim and Elementary German with Herr Antrim , catering to A1 and A2 learners, respectively. He is currently working on a B1 level follow-up book and a dedicated guide to mastering the German case system. Additionally, Herr Antrim offers the Deutschlerner Club, an online course subscription that provides learners access to his comprehensive A1 and A2 courses along with weekly bonus lessons. This club is designed to give students continuous and structured learning opportunities. With his extensive background and dedication to teaching, Herr Antrim is committed to providing high-quality German language education and resources, making him a trusted authority in the field.