DW Nicos Weg review

Nicos Weg is Deutsche Welle’s free German course. It follows Nico, a Spaniard who moves to Germany, through a video series running from A1 to B1, with exercises, transcripts, vocabulary tools and grammar notes attached to each episode. It is the resource people point to most often when someone asks how to reach B1 without paying anything, and the one they name when a learner asks whether to carry on with Duolingo. Learners who use both usually run them together rather than swapping one for the other.

Verdict. The strongest free structured foundation for A1 and A2 German, let down by having almost no speaking or writing practice in it.

Best for beginners and returning learners who want a free, story-led course as their main course and will add other resources around it.

Less suitable for people who want a rule explained before they meet it, anyone who needs regular live speaking practice, and learners at B1 who need a B2 continuation, because there is not one.

At a glance

Dimension	Band	Why
Course structure	Strong	Repeatedly described as well built and aligned with standard A1 and A2 textbooks
Listening	Strong	The clearest reported gains, and the skill learners test themselves on afterwards
Value	Strong	Free, with no tier that withholds the exercises
Grammar	Good	Notes are praised on their own terms, though the context-first sequencing is contested
Vocabulary	Mixed	Good exposure, but retention needs DW’s own trainer or an external deck
Speaking	Weak	Near-universal criticism, and nobody treats the course as sufficient on its own
Writing	Weak	No writing exercises and no independent sentence construction

What learners consistently praise

Learners praise the structure more than anything else. Learners at C1 who have since moved well past it describe it as high quality and aligned with what standard A1 and A2 textbooks cover. One made the point that a self-directed learner does not know what they do not know, so a course built by professional instructors is worth having as the core of your study even if you prefer exploring on your own (r/German).

Learners like the story, and some finish the course just to find out what happens. An App Store reviewer who thought the acting overdone still kept opening lessons in a browser for that reason (App Store), and a learner on the Duolingo forum found the course well put together enough to enjoy casually, for the story alone (Duolingo Forum Archive).

People report the clearest gains in listening and reading. Two learners on r/German describe listening gains in particular. One used the full A1 and A2 films as a comprehension test after finishing an in-person intensive course and was satisfied with how much they followed (r/German), and the other, six to eight months in, said it built their listening through exposure rather than memorisation (r/German).

The grammar notes get praised on their own terms. A linguist answering a question about Goethe exam preparation judged the grammar teaching strong for the levels covered, while flagging that vocabulary retention needs separate tooling (Quora).

It often makes a concept clear. One learner who had been unable to get basic points of German to stick, even with the in-app tips of the Duolingo course they were working through, described this course as what got those concepts across, and credited it with unblocking their progress on the other one as well (Duolingo Forum Archive).

The best results reported came from two learners who had studied German at school before and worked at an intensive daily pace. One, aiming at the Goethe A2 certificate, worked through the A1 and A2 courses at four to five hours a day, took notes on every grammar section and copied out the vocabulary, and scored 92 out of 100, with 19 out of 20 on both reading and listening (r/German). That learner had studied German for six months at school before a five-year gap, and already spoke Spanish natively plus English at C1. The other had also studied German at school, worked at a similar pace and reported a similar result. Both describe a workload most people will not match.

What learners consistently criticise

Speaking and writing are left to you. This is the most repeated criticism and nobody really disputes it. One learner said the course has no writing exercises and no independent sentence construction (r/German). The A2 exam-taker raised the same gap without being asked: speaking and writing practice has to come from somewhere else (r/German). A Quora answer said the course cannot carry a learner fully on its own, and that reading, writing and speaking practice all need to come from outside it (Quora). Our recommended resources page lists the speaking options learners name, tutoring platforms and exchange apps among them.

Some people simply find it dull. A learner who reached B2 tried a few lessons, found them tremendously boring, abandoned the course structure and rewatched the films as immersion material instead, rating them decent for that purpose once past the more contrived opening stretch (r/German). This is a minority view among learners who otherwise recommend the course.

Reviewers who like the course complain about the companion app. A 2018 review described it as little more than a wrapper around the website, missing offline lessons, a glossary and copy-paste for looking words up. A 2023 review five years later made much the same complaint, praising the content and criticising the interface, and noting that plenty of other reviews said the same (App Store). So the complaint about how the course is packaged has stayed the same for five years.

It also stops at B1 with nothing built to follow it. One learner who had outgrown the course wished DW would build an equivalent for B2 or C1, and had moved to unstructured native material instead because no equivalent exists (Duolingo Forum Archive). Nothing free covers B2 the way this covers A1, so the choices above B1 are paid ones, and the Goethe-Institut courses run all the way to C2. Goethe-Institut learners commonly advise teaching yourself A1 and A2 and starting to pay at B1, which is where this course stops.

Where learners disagree

Learners disagree most about whether the course should explain grammar before its exercises use it.

A learner partway through A1 complained that grammar and vocabulary arrive at the end of a lesson rather than the beginning, so new words turn up with no translation and exercises demand forms that have not been taught. The example given was an exercise on the past tense of sein appearing before any explanation of it (r/German).

The disputed exercise on DW’s site: a gap-fill dialogue between Nico and Nawin with dropdown menus for the missing past-tense forms of sein, under an instruction to listen to the audio first

Other learners replied that the course does supply what the exercises need, through context, audio and translations. A native speaker who often posts in the subreddit said this is the design working as intended: you meet the form in context, work out what it might mean, use it, and get the explanation afterwards, which is how almost all language learning works once you leave the beginner stage. Others pointed out that the audio clip at the top of that page contains the correct form for every exercise on it, so the material is supplied before it is tested, just not as a rule to memorise first, and that the course has mouse-over translations for new vocabulary that the learner had probably missed.

So the disagreement is three-way: a design flaw, deliberate context-first teaching, or a learner missing the tools already on the page. The learner who complained later added that the audio is fast and the exercises are in German, which suggests all three can be true at once for a beginner with no prior exposure. Someone else who found the course helpful volunteered that they had studied German at school and could not say how it would land for a true beginner (r/German). If you are starting from zero, it is the thing to try before committing.

There is a second, smaller split over exam readiness. One Quora answer argued that understanding all of the Nicos Weg content is itself a sign of a strong enough grasp to pass Goethe B1. Another on the same question disagreed, arguing the course’s vocabulary is not the right thing to study for that exam and pointing learners to the Goethe Institute’s official word list. Nobody reports passing B1 on Nicos Weg alone. One learner used its A1 and B1 seasons as two components of a much larger stack including Babbel, Seedlang, the vhs-Lernportal course, podcasts and dedicated exam practice (Threads).

How people who rate it use it

Use the website, not just the YouTube videos. Several people arrive thinking the films are the course. The exercises, transcripts and vocabulary tools are on DW’s site and are most of the value (r/German).
Do the exercises and learn the vocabulary deliberately. The most repeated instruction, usually phrased as a warning not to just watch (r/German). DW has a built-in vocabulary trainer, and there are ready-made Anki decks built from the course word lists if you prefer those.
Take notes on the grammar sections. Both learners who reached strong outcomes did this, and one credited it directly for their exam result (r/German).
Expect to repeat units. Experienced learners recommend working through it more than once rather than racing ahead; one describes finishing A1, redoing A1, then doing the same with A2 before starting B1 (r/German).
Arrange speaking and writing separately, from the start. The course will not give you either, and every learner who reported good results added them from somewhere else. The speaking practice section of our resources page covers the usual options.

From B1, the lessons themselves are entirely in German, which is a step up people do not always expect (r/German).

At a glance

What learners consistently praise

What learners consistently criticise

Where learners disagree

How people who rate it use it

Sources