• Introduction
In this article, we are going to talk in detail about one of the non-boring methods to learn German: hiking.
We wrote another article for doctors on how to learn the German language. Some methods to learn a new language could be for some of you boring (e.g., sitting again in a classroom with a teacher!). Learning a language should not be “boring”. In that article, we explained also many non-traditional and non-boring methods of learning the German language: Link.
• How can you learn German while hiking?
During the hiking events, people walk distances between 5 and 18 km in one day. Hiking can help you in many aspects:
(1) You walk with a lot of people for like 4 to 8 hours, and then you will have plenty of time to talk to anyone in the group. So, you could improve your German. Moreover, if you have language questions, you can ask them. Unlike in a normal event in a restaurant or a coffee shop, in a hiking event, you do not stick to maximally four or five persons sitting beside you at the table. 😅 If you found that you do not have harmony with a certain person or if someone does not want any longer to answer your language questions, you can leave him and simply walk beside the next hiker. 🥳 Some hiking events I went to had more than 70 participants.
(Source: Google search and Website of Sam)
(2) Studies have shown that people learn new information better when they are (1) happy and (2) while walking/moving around.
During hiking, you enjoy the beautiful nature in Germany. It is like a small trip each time. You do not have to worry in anything about organizing the event or finding the best route, the event organizer will do that. So, you could simply remain concentrated on talking and enjoying nature. Maybe you can also write the new words you learn on your mobile phone. Moreover, there are usually a lot of foreigners on the hikes (mostly Indians doing a Master’s or Ph.D. degree in IT or Engineering).😅
(3) You do your health a great favor. Therefore, you can, among other things, learn better.
(4) Save money. You do not need to pay a gym subscription to be at the end running alone on a treadmill and waiting to do something more interesting. The money for a gym subscription could be invested in buying a new book each month or taking online German lessons.
(5) Make friendships with native speakers: Through repeated hiking events, you will make a lot of connections. People from these events do sometimes organize private events like birthday parties and other events for fun.
• If you are not used to hiking, is this a problem?
Do not be scared!
(1) Not all are professional hikers, and each one with a normal amount of fitness could join most of the groups. There are hiking events that are hard, but such groups are rare. Most groups are for beginners.
(2) If you found yourself at the beginning of a hike to be tired, you could discontinue the hiking event at any time. Therefore, choose for the beginning hiking events near cities and not in isolated woods (🇩🇪 der Wald).
• The weather in Germany is not seldom bad and cold, how can I go hiking in such weather?
I know hiking groups that go hiking all year (regardless of the weather). In hiking events, I learned, that:
There is no “bad” weather, there are “bad” clothes
So, if you buy warm clothes and rain-resistant clothes (like a plastic mantel), you will be fine.
• How can I find hiking events?
All over Germany, there are groups in social networks and there are certain apps, where hiking events are regularly organized. Everything is for free 🥳 You do not need to go alone.
(1) Facebook: Simply search for “hiking group in NAME_of_city” in Facebook. For example, “hiking group in Berlin”.
If you are in North Rhine-Westphalia, I recommend:
1. NRW Hiking Group on Facebook (link)
2. The group of the most famous hiker in Germany, doing his tours since at least 8 years for free all around the year in NRW: (https://t.me/hikenrw). The organizer is a Japanese PhD holder in physics. In some events of him, we were like 70 people. When Sam posts a new event, he writes: “The event will take place, regardless of the weather and regardless how many people show up” 😅😅 Sam has a website too where he posts photos of his tours: www.sams-studio.com
(2) The app and website “Meetup“: Alone on Meetup there are more than 90 free hiking groups all over Germany with more than 163 thousand members. A link to these groups is here.
This website is free. Only if you establish a group that will cost money.
(3) The app and website “Gemeinsam Erleben” (🇩🇪 Experience Together): The members are here mostly German and a bit old. Like a dating app, this app will show you events organized near your place. If you did not find events, you could organize events yourself, 🙂 The membership and the ability to organize events are free. We recommend this app a lot. You can do other kinds of sports and take part in other kinds of events.
(4) Internations: They sometimes organize hiking events, but mainly, social events for expatriates. The membership is NOT for free. But some events are sometimes for free.
(5) Couchsurfing: The website used to be great and free. The idea of this website was that you host and be hosted by people in their houses/apartments for free. They have a small events section. Unfortunately, you might need to pay a subscription to use this website.
(6) The non-profit organization “die Volkshochschule (VHS)” offer cheap hiking events, city tours, and biking tours. You can read more about what they offer here.
(7) The app “meet5”: I used this app in Bavaria (DE Bayern) and I noticed that most users are above 50 years of age. But this is not a bad thing, the older the people, the more ready and time they have to talk to new people.
Do you have other suggestions? We would love to know about your experience.
Want to learn more? Questions?
Join JETZT (🇺🇸 now) all of our groups & ask what you like
(On mobile phone: The links are at the end of this page/ On PC: On the right side)