Step 5 Klugscheissen. As a marketer, I was always told: Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. In Germany, it’s the opposite: Never let a story get in the way of truth. For Germans, truth is sacred and prayed to from the altar of fact. Therefore, it’s also very important…
Step 1 Speak German Every nation has done things it should be embarrassed about. Dark acts in its history. The Germans are no exception. You know of what I talk – the German language. Deutsch is mostly an incomprehensible jumble of exceptions. A dungeon designed to trap foreigners and hold them hostage, repeatedly flogging them…
As fate would have it, he came to Switzerland with his family as a sixteen-year-old boy. From being silent to starting to speak he developed and refined his own method of learning foreign languages – far more effective than what we are used to from school time. He is ready to share it with all…
In Switzerland, Christmas is without a doubt the most important holiday of the year, no matter whether your family also goes to church or if you celebrate it as a non-religious holiday. It’s the time to come together with all your family members you generally try to avoid or stand outside in the cold sipping…
“Was ist deine Muttersprache?” is one of the first sentences my German A1 students learn in class. After all, a person’s mother tongue is a central part of their personality. For me as a teacher, it is especially interesting to know, since their initial strengths and weaknesses in learning German heavily depend on their mother…
Wrong, this is not the end. I mean, we will eventually need to speak in order to… speak a (foreign) language: should I really point out the obvious (obvious-but-not-that-easy)? Yes, we will need to make aneffort. But. It doesn’t need to be NOW, in front of all these people you don’t actually know. It doesn’t…
Or: “Stop the madness of constant group work” (Susan Cain) In order to learn how to speak a language, you need to speak. Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Talk to and with people as much as you can. Try. Talk about yourself and what you like. Share. Try again. Do like…
At the beginning of each course, I usually ask my students where they’re from and what brought them to Switzerland. Believe me, I’ve heard a range of interesting stories but at the end of the day it all boils down to either better opportunities or living closer to their loved ones. Since I think that…