Choose the best online German course for you!
Relation between student and teacher is essential!
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No typical 'sender (teacher)' / 'receiver (student)' - a team achieves more together
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Honesty and reflection is important - on both sides
Learning German should be as much fun as possible!
Yes, you have to learn grammar theory and vocabulary, and that's not much fun for everyone. But if the students have a small sense of achievement, see that they understand something more or can express themselves in one way or another - that is extremely motivating.
Therefore, we want the students to discover the language and not be afraid of making mistakes, for example. Mistakes are part of the learning process. Of course, they have to be corrected if they are repeated too often, but if you constantly interrupt the students and point out their mistakes, it is very demotivating and the students become insecure. This is the worst thing that can happen.
We always want to remain flexible and not rigid.
In our opinion, there is no point in imposing a certain learning system on students.
Students always learn individually and there is no one method that works for all students equally. Since we have the privilege here of offering one-on-one German lessons online, we should cater to this individuality and always look for new ways in which the individual student learns vocabulary best, for example.
We want to test different learning methods and ways of practising in the course of the lessons and if the students feel comfortable with a certain method, continue on that path.
Teachers and students should work as a team!
We do not see our online German lessons according to the sender-receiver principle. Nobody knows everything - not even teachers. But a teacher can show a certain way to a certain path. He can open the door, but the student has to go through that door.
Therefore, teachers and students should work together as a team. Finding out together what works well and what doesn't is essential for good cooperation and usually brings the best results.
So don't be afraid to give your feedback on material, lesson design and learning strategies. The teacher should take your opinion seriously and be able to adapt his learning style to it.
If he or she cannot do this and insists on doing things his or her way, he or she is usually not a good teacher.
Learning German requires attention!
This is a very important tip for all beginners of German online courses.
Do yourself a favour: Learning German should not degenerate into compulsion and perceived work but also take the project seriously. You are investing your time and money and it would be a shame if you simply wasted both because you didn't approach it with the right attitude.
There are students who think that you can just learn German on the side. That it's enough to listen to a bit of German radio every day while working. Unfortunately, I have to tell you clearly: No, it's not.
Of course, listening to German radio can help a bit, e.g. to get used to the correct pronunciation, but there is no other way than to learn a new language (especially German) in a concentrated way.
It is essential that students make a conscious decision to learn German and engage with the subject accordingly. If I never do my homework, if I don't think for myself, if I never ask myself: "Did I understand that now or do I still have a question? If you treat German as a little side hobby project and think that you can get by with 60 minutes a week, you won't get very far and will lose motivation at some point.
Therefore, an extremely important note: you have consciously decided to learn German - great, welcome! But now you also prepare yourself mentally to take the subject seriously. Find one or more days and times during the week when you can concentrate on the project. Put your mobile phone away during this time if you are not using it to study, avoid any distractions. Find a good place in your home or at work and create a positive, focused working atmosphere. If children are shouting in the background, constantly interrupting you, or if work colleagues keep coming into the rum to ask you something, you will have trouble really learning anything.
And this is also important: do your exercises/homework. Again - We don't want to make a job out of it but we are all adults (except the children, of course) and we know why we are here. We have chosen a project and we should also approach the project with the necessary attention.
This is the most important tip: stay connected to the language! It doesn't matter so much that you have German lessons 5 days a week. It is much more important that you engage with German in some way 5 days a week. If you don't have lessons today, still use half an hour to an hour every day to practise, read something, learn some vocabulary. Integrate German into your daily life if you can. Then you will make huge progress and German is anything but difficult to learn!
You decide when, how much and how fast!
Once you have created a good learning atmosphere, you might think: "How often should I do lessons? Every day if possible, or just once a week and practise a little on the other days?" Both can work, it depends on the person. Normally we don't recommend beginners to do lessons every day because it can quickly become too much. Daily lessons can make sense if you want to practise a specific topic intensively.
The important thing is that you feel comfortable. You decide how much teaching and practising you want to do. When you want to do it and if you feel you should look at a topic again, let us know - of course we are happy to work on a topic until you feel you are ready for the next step.