Learning German at Goethe

Hey

I am a business and languages ( French and Spanish) student at Strathclyde, but i have always wanted to learn German.

I have done some reasearch into this and found that there is a Goethe Institut in my city. I want to enrol into a course but not sure if this is the right one. SO if anyone has can they comment on if the teaching is good and wherether not it was value for money.

Any advice is appreciated :biggrin:

Note: I have no previous knowledge in German.

Reply 1

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Reply 2

xmarilynx

I've heard lots of positive reports about them but I have to say my experience was really negative. The teacher was a native speaker and really nice, the group was medium sized (around 10 people) and the Goethe Institut does have a great reputation (some unis will even accept their B2 certificate instead of an A Level, to give you an idea of how credible they are).

However, the main problem was how slow-going the pace was! It may have changed since and/or vary between institutes, but where I was each half level took one semester, so after 4 months you would have level A1.1 which is extremely basic and could easily be learnt in a couple of weeks. We spent 2 weeks (2 lessons per week consisting of 1.5 hours a piece) doing the numbers and another 2 weeks to learn the alphabet :o:

Compared to the Dutch course I'm doing now, where after one semester you have A2.2 level (admittedly we have twice the amount of contact hours, but we're making four times as much progress). I got the distinct impression they slow you down as much as possible to make money out of you.

It's probably OK if you have lots of spare cash and just want a fun little introduction to German while meeting new people etc, but if you want to make serious linguistic progress and see a return on your investment I'd recommend you look elsewhere. Doesn't your uni have a languages centre?

Edit: Of course the Goethe Institut does offer intensive courses as well, but they're eye-wateringly expensive - nearly £500 for 2 weeks.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 3

Izzie7

I had a really positive experience but I went in at B 1 level. I already had some basic knowledge and I progressed quite quickly after that. Judging from what other people said it might be better to get a foundation somewhere else and then go for the Goethe institute. They also have great libraries and sometimes small cinemas showing German films.

Learning German at Goethe

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