georgiqg Triglot Newbie Spain Joined 4909 days ago 36 posts - 50 votes Speaks: Bulgarian*, Spanish, English Studies: German, Russian
| Message 1 of 4 30 November 2013 at 6:51pm | IP Logged |
Hello everybody,
I was trying to decide what to do on my vacation at the end of January 2014 and I thought that I could go to Germany and improve my German. I only have one week, so now I'm searching on the internet for intensive German courses in Germany. The first place I looked was the Goethe Institut, but their courses seem to be too expensive for me (about 800 € per week and I could probably spend around 300 €). Most language schools, of course, don't offer one-week courses.
I have been learning German for around two years (on and off). I've done some Deutsche Welle free courses ("Radio D" and "Wieso Nicht") and I have an Assimil book which I'm probably finishing in December, so I'm looking for a B1 course.
Has any of you done a one-week German course in any German city? At which language school? What's your opinion?
Thanks in advance.
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Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5014 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian
| Message 2 of 4 30 November 2013 at 7:17pm | IP Logged |
I was at GLS last year for two weeks. I am not sure whether the minimum you can sign in for is a week or two. It had some of the bugs all classes have got but it was still one of the best classes I have ever been part of. And it is a bit cheaper than Goethe.
Just a few tips:
1.Stay with a German family. There are other choices but this one is the best for your immersion.
2.Use German as much as you can. Anywhere. It is not true the Germans switch to English asap, not a single one did this to me and I was horrible ;-)
3.Avoid groups of bulgarian students. A lot of such groups from one country (or more with the same language) speak their language instead of German among themselves. I didn't mind being part of the French group much but as you are about B1 now, you should surely strive for a purely German week. It shouldn't be a trouble to avoid groups of bulgarian students, there are probably just as few as the czech ones during some parts of the year :-)
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Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6602 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 3 of 4 30 November 2013 at 7:28pm | IP Logged |
I think a private tutor is your best bet if you want to have classes. Also, as soon as you decide which city/region you're going to, look for online friends from there, especially language geeks ;)
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georgiqg Triglot Newbie Spain Joined 4909 days ago 36 posts - 50 votes Speaks: Bulgarian*, Spanish, English Studies: German, Russian
| Message 4 of 4 01 December 2013 at 12:12pm | IP Logged |
Cavesa wrote:
I was at GLS last year... |
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Thanks @Cavesa, that's pretty useful information. Before posting here at HTLAL I had already checked te GLS page out. Their offer looks very good, since they do offer one-week courses. The only problem is, I will probably not be able to go there the day before (on Sunday) and the first flight from Madrid (where I live) to Berlin is around 11:00, so I'm missing the first classes which start around 9:00. For this reason I'll probably go to Frankfurt (there are very early flights) or Munich.
Serpent wrote:
I think a private tutor is your best bet... |
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@Serpent, I have to admit I never cosidered that as an option as I thought that would be several times more expensive than a regular language course (even an intensive one). I'm going to investigate a little... Thanks!
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