Ten years ago, I first started using Harry Potter to learn Arabic, and I wasn’t the only American living in Cairo using the same method.

Harry Potter is a great exercise for intermediate language learners. When I google the strategy, it seems a popular choice, if at times, answers seem to dissuade the pursuers. I gave up on Arabic Harry Potter, but now I’m onto German Harry Potter.

Many of us — especially in the millennial generation — have grown up with the stories from books and movies, from our surrounding social milieu. Hermione, alohomora, and 9 3/4 are ubiquitous references. Knowing the storyline and characters means context clues are generous.

I’m currently living in Austria trying to improve my German. I’m not surrounded by German in my everyday life at work, so my only advantage can come from reading and watching movies in my free time. I have noticed, however, a lack of language-learning resources for learning German through Harry Potter, so this is an attempt of fill the gap just a little bit, and hopefully inspire the making of more resources!