I built myself a German teacher: Dr Nano Deutsch 🦉
I have lost count of how many times I have started learning German. Every time, I got stuck in the same place: long word lists, boring tables and the question “where will I ever use this?” This time I tried something different and built my own app.
Dr Nano Deutsch is a personal mobile app I designed to learn German every day through short stories. The “Dr Nano” in its name is my nickname. Its mascot is a chubby orange owl with glasses and a stethoscope around its neck.
Why did I build my own app?
Most of the apps out there didn’t suit me. Some wanted a paid subscription, and others pushed me on to the next level before I had absorbed the current one. What I wanted was simple:
Short real-life stories, 10–15 minutes a day
Learning how words are pronounced as well as what they mean
Moving up level by level, without rushing
Practising with word games in between
No ads, no account; my progress stays only on my own phone
When I couldn’t find an app like that, I decided to build it myself.
How does the app work?
The app has five levels from A1 to B1, with 60 stories, 60 lessons and 361 words. Every day the home screen greets me with that day’s lesson and story.
The home screen shows the day’s lesson and story every day.
📖 A story for every situation
The stories come from everyday life: ordering at a café, buying a train ticket, explaining what’s wrong at the doctor’s, flat hunting, going to a job interview. Each story has three steps:
Words: First I meet the six new words in the story and listen to each one.
Story: Then I read the story. Whichever word I tap, its meaning and pronunciation pop up.
Quiz: At the end I take a 5-question quiz. A story doesn’t count as finished until I score 80%.
Tapping the word “Kaffee” shows its article, pronunciation and meaning.
🔊 Pronunciation in Turkish letters
This is my favourite feature. Every word’s pronunciation is written in Turkish letters, with the stressed syllable shown in capitals. For example, the pronunciation of Speisekarte (menu) is ŞPAY-ze-kar-te. Turkish speakers have a big advantage here: the ö and ü sounds in German are exactly the same as ours. I can also listen to every word and sentence with my phone’s German voice.
📘 One lesson a day
The lessons start with the alphabet. Next come basics such as numbers, telling the time and der/die/das, and step by step they build up to B1 grammar such as the Perfekt, subordinate clauses and the passive voice. Each lesson has a short explanation in Turkish, examples with audio and a 5-question practice round. Lessons unlock in order; I don’t skip ahead to the next one before passing the current one.
Each lesson has a short explanation and examples you can tap to hear.
🎮 Five mini games
There are five games to reinforce the words: Match Up, Quick Pick, Letter Master, Article Hunt (der/die/das) and Listen & Find. The games ask about my weak words more often. Words I have practised recently are pushed into the background, so I don’t keep getting the same questions. The position of the answer options changes every time, too.
Article Hunt: der, die or das?
🪜 A level system that doesn’t rush you
Moving up to the next level isn’t easy, and I designed it that way on purpose. There are three conditions for a new level to open:
Finishing the level’s 12 stories and 12 lessons
Mastering 80% of the words
Passing the 12-question level exam with 80%
The levels screen shows each story’s status and the next story in line.
🔥 Small motivators
A daily XP goal, a day streak and a weekly calendar are each a small excuse for me to open the app every day. The interface can be in Turkish or English, and there are light and dark themes too. Articles always appear in the same colours: der blue, die red, das green. Over time, the colours stick in my mind together with the words.
How did I build it?
At first there were 20 stories, then the lessons were added, and in the end it reached 60 stories and 60 lessons.
For those curious about the technical side:
The whole app is a single HTML file. It doesn’t use any external libraries.
The Android version is a small shell that opens this file full screen. Pronunciation is handled by the phone’s own text-to-speech (TTS) engine.
No internet needed; the fonts and all the content are inside the app.
No server, no account, no ads. Progress is stored only on the device, and I can back it up with a single tap.
Try it yourself
The app is open source; all of its code lives on GitHub.
Android: You can download and install the APK from the Releases page on GitHub (Android 7.0 and above).
Browser: The web version runs on phones and computers with nothing to install.
Your own content: To add a new story or lesson, you only need to edit a single file. The README explains how.
Every morning, over my coffee, I do one lesson and one story. I’m at A1 for now, but this time I have no intention of giving up. If you try it too, tell me what you think in the comments; I’m also open to ideas for new scenarios.
Viel Erfolg beim Deutschlernen! 🦉
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