Learn German the way it was meant to be taught.
DeTawk is a German learning app built entirely on the FSI German course, the curriculum used to train US diplomats for 60 years.
German has around 100 million speakers and is the most widely spoken language in Europe. Whether it's for a job in Berlin, a move to Vienna, or just because you want to actually speak it. It's worth doing right.
You've never heard of the FSI course? That's the point. It's not a consumer product. It's what serious language learners have quietly used for decades because it actually works. We took it, cleaned it up, and built a modern app around it.
No streaks. No bullshit. Just you, native audio, and a proven structure that gets you to real German.
You hear German before you read it.
Every unit opens with a dialogue broken into build-ups. You hear "good" then "morning" then "Good morning, Mr. Becker." Fragment by fragment until the full sentence clicks. Your ear picks up the accent before you've had time to think about it.
You drill patterns until they're automatic.
FSI's substitution drills are legendary for a reason. The focus isn't on memorizing grammar rules. It's on assimilating grammar by repeating sentences until it becomes second nature. You repeat variations of a sentence until the pattern lives in your muscle memory. It's boring in the best possible way.
Basic Sentences
A real dialogue broken into short build-ups, each with audio.
Notes on Pronunciation
Sound drills targeting the contrasts English speakers find hardest.
Notes on Grammar
Short written explanations of the grammar introduced in the unit.
Substitution Drill
A sentence with one slot that changes. You produce the full sentence each time.
Variation Drill
An English cue paired with a set of German variations to produce.
Translation Drill
The unit dialogue rewritten as prose, with an English column to translate from.
Response Drill
A question in German that you answer in German.
Vocabulary Drill
New words introduced in context alongside sentence structure practice.
Conversion Drill
Sentences transformed between forms: singular to plural, present to past.
Expansion Drill
A core sentence extended by adding new elements one at a time.
Transformation Drill
Sentences rewritten in a different grammatical form: active to passive, statement to question.
Finder List
Every new word from the unit, listed with its article.
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The Curriculum
The FSI German course is 60 years old. It's still the best one.
The Foreign Service Institute developed this course for US State Department diplomats in the 1960s. The goal: take someone with no German to professional working proficiency, fast. Students spent six hours a day in class, were pushed to speak only German within days of starting, and continued practising outside of class. The audio-lingual method they invented worked then. It works now.
Every single lesson, every drill, every dialogue in DeTawk follows the original 24-unit FSI sequence. We didn't reinvent it. We just made it not look like a government document from 1961.
24 units Full FSI German curriculum, start to finish
34+ hours Audio recordings
B2/C1 Professional working proficiency, the target level
1 Units live and ready to study
10 Sections structured learning steps per unit
110 Words vocabulary introduced in context, not lists
447 Sentences across all sections and drills
199 Substitution drills pattern practice until it's automatic
141 Variation drills build flexibility around core patterns
38 Response drills hear a prompt, produce the answer
25 Translation drills map meaning between English and German
17.5min Normal-speed audio native-pace recordings
31.2min Slow audio slowed-down for precise listening
Simple pricing.
Free
€0/forever
- Unit 01 (partial access)
- Basic Sentences (6 sections)
- Notes on Pronunciation
- Notes on Grammar
- Substitution Drill (4 drills)
- Variation Drill (6 drills)
- Translation Drill (6 drills)
- Response Drill (6 drills)
- Conversation Practice
- Situations
- Finder List
- Native audio for free sections
- Flashcards for free sections
€5/month
- All 24 FSI units coming soon
- Full vocabulary & sentence lists
- 34+ hours of audio
- All drills
- All flashcards
Questions & answers
Why is DeTawk based on the FSI course specifically?
Because it works. The FSI course has been producing genuinely fluent German speakers since the 1960s. The audio-lingual method (hear, repeat, drill) builds language intuition rather than vocabulary lists.
I've tried Duolingo. Why is this different?
Duolingo is optimised for daily active users, not for language acquisition. Streaks, XP, leaderboards. These are engagement mechanics, not learning mechanics. DeTawk is optimised for one thing: you actually speaking German.
Is the FSI course content free?
The original FSI materials are public domain, produced by the US government and freely available. DeTawk's app, platform, spaced repetition engine, and UX are what you're paying for.
How long does it take to finish the course?
FSI estimates ~750 hours of study to reach B2/C1 proficiency. At 30 minutes a day, that's about four years. At the FSI's classroom pace (full-time immersion), it's 30 weeks. The structure is all there and you just have to follow it.
Can I use DeTawk on my phone?
You can open DeTawk on your phone and get through the content, but it's not fully optimised for mobile yet. A proper mobile experience is on the roadmap.