Of the things I have done of a tourist nature since I arrived in Berlin I think the Berliner Fernsehturm has been my favourite.

Among other things you can see the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate the Olympic Stadium, the Museum Island and the Potsdamer Platz. All of which can be seen from the tower’s 360 degree view. But for me the best thing to see was the difference in architecture from the buildings in the East and the West.

Tickets are about 10 euro each. There is also a somewhat expensive restaurant you can dine at.

Berlin has no shortages of bars and clubs as my Deutsch Akadamie colleagues and I found out in recent weeks gone by. You are spoilt for choice in a city full of quirky bars and insane clubs. Every different area of Berlin has something on offer most notably Prenzlauer Berg, Mitte, Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg. The latter being my favourite. This differs immensely from my hometown of Dublin where most of the night scene is based in the city centre. Another vast difference I have noticed is the opening hours of bars. They essentially close at whenever time they want to (which is rarely before 5am).

Here is a picture of my Deutsch Akadamie friends and I outside a bar in Kreuzberg.

These are my favourite exercises that we do in Deutsch Akadamie. After completing a section or covering a specific series of grammar or vocabulary my teacher Annette gets us to write out different dialogues between two or three people utilising the new German skills that we have been taught. This practice is really an efficient tool for instilling a practice to memory. I find it to be at its most effective when we are studying the position of German verbs in different sentences. In this instance German is particularly different to English.

…and practice makes perfect.

So I wanted to summarise the first 3 weeks of my 2A course at Deutsch Akadamie. I have certainly learnt alot of German in this short time but what has surprised me the most was the breadth of the topics in which we covered. The 3 weeks have really helped me expand my vocabulary base. I now have a more fluid grasp of the Grammar. In particular my knowledge of Akkusativ, Dativ and Nominativ has come on heaps and bounds. My teacher Annette and the course book helped me understand how the different forms function.

We have also completed a wide range of listening excerices which have helped me develop an ear for the German language

Having not had a television in my flat I have resorted to radio for the past 2 month. Despite alot of English and American songs being played it’s a great way to practice your hearing techniques. As a result of listening to copious amounts of radio here I am able to understand the Berliner accent somewhat better.

A problem with watching Television in Germany is that alot of the programmes are produced in foreign countries and are hence dubbed. I have been told that seeing an actors lips moving the wrong way for what he is saying can be detremental to your learning.

And by the way  Star 87.9 FM is the best radio station I have ever heard.

Here’s the new radio I bought in Saturn beside Deutsch Akadamie.

When conversing in German the toughest thing for me is not understanding what words are being said to me but actually what words are being said. The Berliner accent can be quite hard to understand and takes a lot of practice to get better. In my opinion one of the best exercises in class that we do is listening to the Themen Aktuell CD while reading the  the text in the book.  I find this helps every aspect of my German from vocabulary and grammer to pronunciation and the ever important word recognition skills.

I have found that the best place to practice what I have learnt at Deutsch Akadamie is at home. I currently live with 3 German girls. They are great resource to enhance my German language skills correcting my mistakes and providing much needed German conversation.

I found the room on www.wg-gesucht.de here there are an abundance of advertisements for flat-shares and it also has an option for listings in English. I would be hesitant to look for rooms on craigslist as rooms I saw advertised appeared to be scams at later stages to me.

Here is my new clothes hanger that I bought in IKEA and recently assembled.

The Untergrundbahn (U Bahn) and Stadtbahn (S Bahn) are the two types of railways operating in Berlin. The difference being that the S Bahn stations are further spread apart and hence is faster over longer distances. Both types have about 7 or 8 different lines that operate throughout the city connecting at different points. Combine these excellent public services with a host of bus and tram networks and one can travel effortlessly through Berlin. The trains operate from 04:30 to 01:00 but night buses follow the U Bahn lines at 30 minute intervals when the trains are not operating at night.

Tickets are available for different areas of Berlin and various lengths of time. But I have found the best value ticket to be the Monat kard (€72). I generally use the U Bahn 3 times a day, so over a month’s period each trip works out at less than €1 less than half the price of a one way ticket.

Deutsche Akadamie also offer an online grammer course free of charge. Its quite comprehensive there is over 20,000 different grammar and vocabulary exercises. Its structured according to the European Framework of Reference for Languages so you can find your level effortlessly. And what’s more is there is a forum where a teacher will answer for questions.

What more could you want?

This is the book that the teachers in Deutsch Akademie teach from. Its quite well put together and its really helped at during my time at Deutsch Akadamie. Its a combination of listening, grammer and vobulary exercises. Its written entirely in german which supports Deutsch Akadamies policy of teaching only through german. The book is illustrated with bright colourful pictures. I’ve had a lot more success learning words in German when seeing a picture beside in the German word than simply memorising words on a sheet of paper.