Why Learning German in Germany Is Harder Than It Looks: What Research Says

Moving to Germany creates an obvious expectation:

You live in Germany, so eventually you will learn German.

The reality is much more complicated.

For an adult migrant, learning German doesn't happen in isolation. People may simultaneously be looking for work, dealing with authorities, caring for children, getting qualifications recognized, adapting to a new country and trying to build a social network.

And research conducted in Germany increasingly shows that successful language learning isn't determined simply by motivation.

A large body of research involving refugees and other recent immigrants points to something much more complex:

German proficiency develops through an interaction between access, exposure, education, opportunities to use the language and people's actual living conditions.

Exposure to German May Be the Most Important Factor

One of the most important studies comes from researchers Yuliya Kosyakova, Cornelia Kristen and Christoph Spörlein.

They followed recently arrived refugees and other immigrants in Germany using longitudinal data from the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees and the IAB-SOEP Migration Sample.

Instead of treating language learning simply as attending a course, they examined three major components:

Efficiency — how effectively someone is able to learn.

Incentives — the reasons and motivation someone has for learning.

Exposure — how much contact someone actually has with German.

Their conclusion is particularly important:

“Exposure to the destination language is the main driver of proficiency.”

The researchers found that exposure was more important than efficiency and incentives combined.

For refugees, structured learning through language courses was particularly important.

For other recent immigrants, informal exposure in everyday life played a somewhat greater role.

The implication is powerful:

Wanting to learn German is not enough.

You need opportunities to actually encounter and use German.

You Can Live in Germany Without Constantly Speaking German

This helps explain an experience familiar to many international residents.

Simply living in Germany doesn't automatically mean spending your entire day speaking German.

You might live with people who speak your first language.

You might communicate with friends in English.

You might work in an international company.

Your university programme might use English.

Your social media, entertainment and online communication may happen almost entirely in another language.

The Kosyakova, Kristen and Spörlein research distinguishes precisely between formal exposure, such as language courses and education, and informal exposure, including opportunities to use German in everyday life, with friends, at work and in the neighbourhood.

Their results suggest that this exposure is central to language development.

So there is an important distinction between:

living in Germany

and

living your life in German.

They aren't necessarily the same thing.

Language Courses Really Do Matter

There is sometimes a temptation to dismiss formal language courses and say:

“Just go outside and talk to Germans.”

Research doesn't support such a simple conclusion.

For refugees in particular, structured language learning appears to have substantial benefits.

Kosyakova and colleagues found that completing language courses was associated with considerable improvements in German proficiency, and reaching higher course/certificate levels was associated with additional gains.

Another study provides even stronger evidence.

Researchers Agnieszka Kanas and Yuliya Kosyakova exploited differences in the local availability of language courses in Germany.

Because refugees were assigned geographically under German allocation and residence rules, the researchers could examine what happened when people happened to live in areas with different supplies of language courses.

The results showed that greater local availability of courses increased the probability of:

learning German,

completing a course,

receiving a language certificate,

and ultimately:

entering employment.

The researchers conclude:

“Limited access to such courses can delay host country language learning, language certificate obtainment, and labor market entry.”

This is an important result because it shifts part of the discussion away from the learner.

Sometimes the problem isn't:

“Why didn't this person learn German?”

The relevant question can also be:

“Did this person have sufficient access to effective opportunities to learn German?”

More Language Courses Can Even Affect Employment

The Kanas and Kosyakova study goes one step further.

An increase of one standard deviation in the local supply of language courses was associated with approximately a:

3 percentage-point increase

in refugees' probability of entering paid employment.

And the employment effect persisted over their duration of stay.

That doesn't mean that a language course magically creates a job.

Instead, the study provides evidence of a chain:

access to courses

→ greater opportunities to learn

→ course completion and certification

→ improved integration into employment.

This becomes particularly relevant when employers themselves require German proficiency.

If a vacancy asks for B2, the language certificate is no longer simply an educational achievement.

It can become part of access to the labour market.

Contact With German Speakers Matters Too

BAMF research based on the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees found that both participation in language courses and contact with Germans were particularly beneficial for improving German proficiency.

The research also found that contact increased over time, especially through work and vocational training.

This produces an interesting cycle.

You need German to access many jobs.

But employment itself creates opportunities to speak German.

So:

German can help you find work.

And:

work can help you improve your German.

The two processes reinforce one another.

But Not Everyone Has the Same Opportunities

This is where the story becomes much more complicated.

BAMF research shows substantial differences between groups.

Younger, better-educated and male refugees tended to progress more quickly in German.

Older refugees, people with lower educational backgrounds and women with small children progressed more slowly.

The difference involving childcare is particularly revealing.

In 2019, refugee women with small children reported spending approximately:

1.5 hours per weekday

learning German.

Women without children spent approximately:

2.3 hours.

Women with older children:

2.2 hours.

These differences might look small on a single day.

But repeat them across weeks and months and the accumulated difference becomes substantial.

This illustrates why statements such as:

“They've lived in Germany for three years. Why don't they speak German yet?”

can overlook major differences in people's actual opportunities to learn.

Sometimes People Stop Courses Because Life Happens

The same BAMF research documents several reasons why people may discontinue language courses.

They include:

starting a job,

moving,

having a child,

or finding the course material either too difficult or too easy.

Some people were also still participating in part-time courses at the time they were surveyed.

This makes adult language learning fundamentally different from learning a language at school.

An adult learner isn't simply a student.

They may simultaneously be an employee, parent, job seeker, caregiver and newcomer navigating an unfamiliar bureaucracy.

Legal Uncertainty Can Slow Language Learning

There is another obstacle that has almost nothing to do with grammar.

Immigration status.

Yuliya Kosyakova and Holger Brenzel studied how the duration of asylum procedures and legal status affected refugees' integration in Germany.

Their findings showed that lengthy asylum procedures impeded investment in German-language acquisition and delayed entry into employment.

Receiving a decision on an asylum application increased the transition rate both into employment and into a first language course.

The researchers write:

“Lengthy asylum procedures impede investments in acquisition of the language of the host society.”

Their interpretation is that legal certainty matters.

When people don't know whether they will be allowed to remain in a country, their incentives and ability to make long-term investments—including learning its language—can be affected.

Again, this demonstrates why language acquisition cannot be explained simply by motivation.

Learning German Takes Time

Another misconception is that language learning follows a clean staircase:

A1 → A2 → B1 → B2 → C1

and that people simply move upward every few months.

Long-term German data tell a different story.

BAMF followed refugees who arrived in Germany in 2015 and 2016.

By 2023—roughly seven to eight years later—more than:

90%

reported at least intermediate German proficiency.

The majority reported good or very good German.

Among members of this arrival cohort who participated in language-support programmes, 86% had attended an integration course by 2023.

That's a success story.

But it also demonstrates something important:

language acquisition is a long-term process.

For many adults, meaningful proficiency develops across years rather than weeks.

Even After Four Years, People Were Still Actively Learning

BAMF data provide another revealing number.

Refugees reported spending an average of:

3.3 hours per weekday learning German in 2016.

That declined to:

2.6 hours in 2017

2.1 hours in 2018

and:

1.8 hours in 2019.

So even after an average of approximately four years in Germany, people were still actively investing time in improving their German.

The BAMF researchers also explicitly caution that time spent learning is not itself a measure of learning efficiency.

Someone can therefore invest hundreds of hours into German without necessarily progressing at the same speed as another learner.

Progress Can Also Stop—or Go Backwards

Language isn't something that you simply unlock permanently.

If exposure disappears, proficiency can stagnate.

BAMF's research during the COVID-19 period provides an unusually clear example.

When courses and social interactions were disrupted, contact with Germans decreased.

Researchers found indications that German proficiency among some respondents stagnated or even deteriorated, with already disadvantaged groups particularly vulnerable.

That reinforces one of the central findings across these studies:

Language needs to be used.

Passing an exam isn't the end of language acquisition.

The Problem Isn't Simply Motivation

This may be the most important conclusion from the research.

It's very easy to explain unsuccessful language learning as:

“They aren't motivated enough.”

But Kosyakova, Kristen and Spörlein's longitudinal analysis found something particularly interesting.

Of the three broad dimensions they investigated—

exposure,

learning efficiency,

and incentives—

exposure was the strongest.

Efficiency came second.

Incentives were less consequential in their models.

That doesn't mean motivation is irrelevant.

It means that motivation alone cannot compensate for an environment in which someone has few opportunities to learn and use German.

You can desperately want to speak German.

But you still need:

time.

learning opportunities.

exposure.

practice.

feedback.

people to communicate with.

And a learning environment that works with the rest of your life.

So Why Is Learning German Difficult for Adult Migrants?

The research points to a combination of factors rather than one simple explanation.

There are individual factors: age, previous education and learning efficiency.

There are family factors: particularly childcare and the amount of time available for learning.

There are social factors: how frequently somebody interacts with German speakers and uses German in everyday life.

There are institutional factors: availability of language courses and opportunities to obtain certificates.

There are professional factors: whether somebody works in an environment where German is regularly used.

And, particularly for refugees, there can be legal and administrative factors, including uncertainty about residence status.

Most importantly:

these factors interact.

Someone who gets into a good language course, starts working with German-speaking colleagues and develops German-speaking friendships receives enormous amounts of additional exposure.

Someone studying alone while caring for young children and rarely interacting with German speakers faces a completely different learning environment.

Both may be equally motivated.

Their opportunities are not equal.

What Does This Mean for B2?

Reaching B2 is particularly important because this is where German starts becoming much more professionally useful.

At B2, learners aren't merely expected to understand basic everyday communication.

They increasingly need to:

explain complex ideas,

understand longer texts,

express opinions,

justify decisions,

write structured messages,

understand professional communication

and participate independently in conversations.

And, as we saw earlier, real German employers explicitly require B2 for positions ranging from nursing and skilled technical work to production.

This creates a difficult situation.

People need German to access more opportunities.

But access to education, employment and German-speaking environments can itself help people improve their German.

Language can therefore become both:

a key to integration

and

a barrier to integration.

That is precisely why accessible opportunities to practise German matter.

What Can We Learn From the Research?

Perhaps we should stop asking:

“Why haven't they learned German yet?”

and start asking:

“What opportunities have they actually had to learn and use German?”

Research conducted in Germany gives us a surprisingly consistent answer.

Courses matter.

Exposure matters.

Using German matters.

Contact matters.

Time matters.

Life circumstances matter.

And learning doesn't stop when somebody finishes a course.

That's one of the ideas behind Konnektoren.

A classroom course may last several months.

But language learning happens every day.

Konnektoren provides interactive German grammar and vocabulary practice that learners can return to outside the classroom—at home, on their phone or whenever they have time to practise.

It isn't about replacing teachers or language courses.

The research actually gives us good reasons to value structured language education.

It's about making another part of that learning environment available:

more opportunities to practise.

Because the evidence increasingly suggests that successful German acquisition isn't simply about wanting it badly enough.

Learners need opportunities to learn, practise and use the language again and again.

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Research & Sources

Bernhard, S., Bernhard, S. & Helbig, L. (2021). Erfahrungen von Geflüchteten beim Deutschlernen: Langer Weg mit Stolpersteinen. IAB-Kurzbericht 26/2021.
Research combining representative survey data with extensive qualitative interviews about refugees' experiences learning German.
https://iab.de/en/publications/publication/?id=12043927

Kosyakova, Y., Kristen, C. & Spörlein, C. (2022). The Dynamics of Recent Refugees' Language Acquisition: How Do Their Pathways Compare to Those of Other New Immigrants? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(5), 989–1012.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2021.1988845

Kristen, C. & Seuring, J. (2021). Destination-Language Acquisition of Recently Arrived Immigrants: Do Refugees Differ from Other Immigrants? Journal for Educational Research Online, 13(2), 128–156.
Research involving approximately 4,600 recently arrived young adults in Germany.
https://www.diw.de/de/diw_01.c.824540.de/s_13066.html

Kanas, A. & Kosyakova, Y. (2023). Greater Local Supply of Language Courses Improves Refugees' Labor Market Integration. European Societies, 25(1), 1–36.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2022.2096915

Kosyakova, Y. & Brenzel, H. (2020). The Role of Length of Asylum Procedure and Legal Status in the Labour Market Integration of Refugees in Germany. Soziale Welt, 71(1/2), 123–159.
https://doi.org/10.5771/0038-6073-2020-1-2-123

Brücker, H., Croisier, J., Kosyakova, Y., Kröger, H., Pietrantuono, G., Rother, N. & Schupp, J. (2019). Language Skills and Employment Rate of Refugees in Germany Improving with Time. DIW Weekly Report.
https://doi.org/10.18723/diw_dwr:2019-4-1

Niehues, W., Rother, N. & Siegert, M. (2021). Spracherwerb und soziale Kontakte schreiten bei Geflüchteten voran. BAMF-Kurzanalyse 04|2021.
Longitudinal analysis based on the first four waves of the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees.
https://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/EN/Forschung/Kurzanalysen/kurzanalyse4-2021_iab-bamf-soep-befragung-4te-welle.html

BAMF (2025). Ten Years in Germany: Language Acquisition and Language Support of Refugees from 2015 and 2016. BAMF Brief Analysis 06|2025.
Long-term analysis of German acquisition among the 2015/16 refugee arrival cohort.
https://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/EN/Forschung/Kurzanalysen/kurzanalyse6-2025-ibs-gefluechtete-spracherwerb.html