Goethe Institute - Learning German

[Guest mckee002]

I didn't find a topic on this but I think it's an important question to ask. I'm going to start taking German this summer and I wanted some opinions on the Goethe Institute. It's a bit pricy, but if I could take four nine week courses while I'm in a gap year and be prepared to take a language exam soon after starting a program that would be fantastic!

Does anyone have experience with this program? Is it geared more towards speaking than grammar/reading? Is it worth the price?

Thanks.

[tendaysleft]

I actually took the first two German levels at the Goethe-- A1.1 and A1.2? Or something like that? The program combines reading, writing and speaking, but I found it to be much more oriented towards speaking and making conversation. The teachers are usually great, and I found that the class progressed very quickly, which was nice.

If I have any advice, it would be this: the more classes you have per week, the better. A six-week course you attend three or four times a week is much better than a... twelve week class you attend once or twice a week. Also, a class that meets for 1.5 hours on tuesdays and thursdays (twice a week) is much better than a class that meets once weekly for three hours.

I think what I'm trying to say is, the more days per week you are immersed in the language, the better. The first class I took with them met four times a week, 6-9:30. This was a pretty serious timesuck, but the intensive schedule made it much easier to remember everything for the next class. The second class I took met only on saturdays and it was very difficult to stay immersed in the language during the huge weekly gap when I wasn't speaking any German.

[mbb2112]

Hi there, I took the A classes at the Goethe Institut two years ago to prepare for moving abroad to Berlin. I would say this - coming from studying languages at a university, the classes felt realllllly slow and basic to me. But, I'm used to having a grammar textbook placed in front of me and someone saying "memorize! you have a test tomorrow". However, I did the twice a week classes, and if I could do it over, I would definitely choose a more intensive course with more hours.

That said, my teacher was excellent, and having taken other non-university language courses since, I can fairly say that the Goethe Institut was the best among those. The cost of taking a language at a university is prohibitive, so this is a good in-between option.

Good luck!