Games · Studio ling.academy

Learn German by ear. Then prove it.

Listening games set in Café Fiedler, a Viennese coffee house where every clue is something you hear: an answering machine, a voice message, an old cassette. No grammar drills, no multiple-choice vocabulary lists. Just real German and your ears.

Café Fiedler at night: lit arched windows, chairs up on the tables, wet cobblestones and a street lamp

Free · Case 1

Listening escape game

Sperrstunde im Café Fiedler

You nodded off over the newspaper. Now it’s closing time, the chairs are up on the tables and the back door has a code lock. Four voices hold the four digits. Listen well, and you’re out.

A2/B1 · great ear training up to C1~15 minStandard German, Viennese accentEnglish help built in

“That was hard, I had to listen several times to get everything right. But so much fun!”Ayaan, B1 · finished in 9 minutes

Play now

Free · by email

The Fiedler File · Case 1

Nine pages to go with the game: all four recordings as text, exercises on the words you heard, minimal pairs, and example sentences with QR codes for the audio. Print it or keep it on your phone.

You’ll get one email to confirm, then the file. After that I’ll write when a new case comes out. Unsubscribe any time with one click. Privacy

Case 2 · Studio Premium

Something has gone missing.

Four suspects, four statements. One of them is lying, and you can tell by the way they speak.

Every month

A new case at Café Fiedler.

Same café, same regulars, a new mystery. New cases come out first in Studio ling.academy.

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How it works

Ears first. Reading later.

The same order as everything at ling.academy: perception before production.

Listen to solve

Every puzzle hides in a recording. The transcript only unlocks once you’ve solved it.

Tap any word

Underlined words explain themselves in German and English, including how Austria and Germany say it differently.

Ask the cat

Stuck? Strudel, the café cat, has three hints per puzzle. The third one gives it away.

Headphones on, and take your time. You can slow every recording down. Strudel doesn’t mind waiting.