But the path from clueless to confident is more straightforward than it seems – and it starts with small, real-life wins.

The best advice I can give? Just do it. Nike got it right: forget the doubts, skip the excuses, and take that first step. Then take another. Get ready to see how much you improve just by doing. Here are your first steps:

1) Change your mindset

If you feel like you’ve tried a number of different things already, but nothing is going in, it’s time to get real.

Ask yourself – or count – how much time do I spend speaking German every week?

If the answer is – “I say one word or sentence in a shop every couple of weeks,” then here’s the good news: the reason you’re not progressing isn’t because you’re “bad at languages” or “German is just too hard,” it’s because you’re not really doing much!

The excellent news is: it can only get better with a slight shift in tactic.

2) Change tactics

I arrived in Germany 1.5 years ago, with the delusional belief that I’d be a C1 speaker by now. Ha! My progress has been slower than I would’ve liked (I’m impatient!), but on reflection, fairly swift considering I spend 8 hours a day working in English.

I’m currently between B1-B2, which allows me to operate purely in not-always-correct German out and about and on the phone, and to maintain friendships in German.

How have I got to this point? Rather than obsessing over this big goal of reaching C1, I started to focus on small actions. I practise my German here, there and everywhere. And I mean everywhere.

My warm and friendly physiotherapist was more than happy to tolerate my A2 German during treatments, and the shop assistants at Obi (Germany’s answer to B&Q or Home Depot) have no interest in speaking English, providing me with ample opportunity to google vocab and to rehearse asking what I’m looking for.

I’m not suggesting you co-opt a medical appointment to test drive your German, or bore a disinterested shop assistant with attempts to pluralise Nagel (is it Nageln or Nägel?!). Instead choose small actions that fit into your lifestyle.

3) Complete mini-missions

Try these 15 more socially acceptable mini-missions; I’ve put together this selection of actions that mainly covers speaking. I’ve also included a few missions to improve your listening (watch films/series – easy!), reading (add German news to your news feed and read only the headlines) and writing (download Bumble BFF and get texting).

Print off the below PDF and tick the missions off as you complete them 👇

You’ll be amazed how much confidence you build from completing these. Set yourself a time limit to complete them (I’d suggest a month if you’re between A1-A2).

Not sure where to start? I recommend using Bumble BFF to get used to forming sentences in your head; it worked wonders for my German when I first arrived.

Final thoughts

Once you’ve completed all 15, repeat the process, but ramp it up:

• Prolong each conversation beyond a couple of sentences
• Expand your TV tastes further (check out my 10 highly entertaining Netflix German series worth watching post for inspiration), and test out podcasts (read 10 great podcasts with free transcripts for A1-B2 German learners for ideas)
• Meet someone you’ve been chatting to on Bumble BFF in person

I guarantee that if you complete even one round of these, you will feel a real sense of progress with your German.

And when you say something really embarrassing, don’t shy away from it; retell it to friends to shake off the shame. If you still need proof that you’re not the only one who will make embarrassing mistakes, read about some of my worst language fails in my How to deal with embarrassing language errors: make them into a good story post.

Are you up to the challenge? Glück und viel Spaß!

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