I paid for courses at the start, which really helped. Beyond that, reading books in German, and dealing with German society in German (surprisingly hard to do

I paid for courses at the start, which really helped. Beyond that, reading books in German, and dealing with German society in German (surprisingly hard to do here in Berlin, as all the locals love to speak English, Jens Spahn excepted). Watch German TV. I’m also lucky to have a few German friends who tolerate speaking to me in German, despite the fact their English is near fluent.