Tonight, instead of joining the others from work to see the musical Bollywood, I had my third first German lesson.
First round was with the Goethe Institute in DC. Loved the class, the pace, and the teacher. I went twice a week for a few months. When the class ended I took a break because my future need for German was uncertain.
Second round was with Inlingua in Basel. Everyone in the class had fear of commitment and we never established a good pace. I had trouble making all of the classes myself due to my travel schedule. Progress was slow. When the class ended I took a break because I didn't want to speak German anymore.
Tonight I started lessons with a private tutor. He comes to the office and we work at my pace for an hour and a half each week after work. If I have to be out of town I don't pay and we just pick up where we left off when I get back.
Tonight he did an informal placement test. We skipped around through the topics to see how much I could do already. I like that we have a text and a workbook, that he explains grammar in English, that he assigns homework and that there is structure to the approach - much like language lessons in a classroom. On the other hand, we can speed up and slow down without anyone else to consider and have the flexibility to go off topic when I want to. I'll give it a few weeks but this seems promising.
I hope third time's the charm!
Posted from Basel
2 comments:
Alternatively: wander into the bar with your co-workers after office hours, there is nothing like a beer and a lot of giggling to improve one's foreign language skills.
Learning German is really scary for me, too.. I keep starting as well, worried that somehow it will jinx my relationship (with a german speaker) . I am the proud owner of a new Learn German DVD Rom. I have looked at it once in 3 weeks...
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