Today in class, the energy reflected the weather outside: rainy and drowsy. With so many tired students in the room, it was hard for us to start the lecture. However, our teacher was innovative and creative enough to help pick up the energy levels within the room. We had to create adventure (Abenteuer) stories using verbs with prepositions. We also listened to another adventure story while learning more vocabulary (as always!). We also clarified the negative words such as niemals, noch nie, nichts, nirgendwo…etc. and accentuated sentence placement.

For the adventure story, our group wrote the following:…und dann hörte er einen Bär. Er hat sich vor dem Bär erschrocken, und er möchte nicht auf diesem Bär warten, deshalb lauft er weg. Nach eine Weile, er fühlt sich besser, und hat ein Mann getroffen. Er hat ihn um hilfe gebitten.Leider habe ich die letzte halbe Geschichte verloren. But I thought it was quite good practice!

My second week at the DeutschAkademie is still going very well. So far, this week in Munich has had absolutely beautiful weather. The SUN was shining on Sunday, Monday (yesterday) and even some today! It made me so happy to see such beautiful weather outside. In class we had left the windows open and I was able to sit in the sun a little during class….I must say it was really enjoyable!On Monday we had a valuable lesson on Imperative Sentences. This had cleared up a lot of confusion for me, as I had heard these imperative sentences in every day German life, but was not able to understand why the forms of the verb had changed! I appreciated how we were able to learn imperative sentences too: Our teacher had played us a song from a well known German artist (Philipp Poisel)! We were then able to a) listen to some music in german, b) listen to a german band that other Germans from the area typically listen to, and c) learn from it!Today we had a good review over imperative sentences in the way we grouped together to talk about our own culture. In my class, there is a man from France, 2 from Spain, a girl from Norway, a girl from China, and another girl from Italy! Since I was paired with the guy from France, we talked for 25 minutes (all in German!) about our own cultures, and the differences between them. I found it way cool that we were able to have the whole conversation in german (with the help of our dictionaries and the teacher, of course!) and that I now know a lot more about France! Hopefully he understands a little more about America :-)Today, my goal is to learn a few more basic verbs with the appropriate preposition (if there is one), and the case it is normally found. My teacher had given us this handout of basic verbs we should know, and I so far find this really valuable. I plan on expanding my verb vocabulary in the upcoming days!

My first week at DeutschAkademie was wonderful. I have been in Munich for the past 5 months, and before coming to the DeutschAkadmie, I attended a different Sprachen Institute in Munich. I must say, I am so glad that I changed, because when I compare the DeutschAkademie to the last school I attended, everything is better! The DeutschAkadmie is cheaper (!!!), has great teachers (I love mine! She is so sweet, she even offered to help me create my Resume so I can find a German job here!) smaller classrooms (I only have 4 others in my classroom, compared to the 20 I shared a class with previously) and flexible times (I scheduled my time from 12-3, which was the best time for me. However, it is nice for me to know that I can go earlier or later in the months to come).  Even the Secretary is so helpful and kind that I feel completely at ease here at this school.In week 1, I learned a lot of useful words that I ended up using almost everyday. Words such as “lebenslauf” und “bewerbung,” and the difference between “vorschlag,” “vortrag,” und “vertrag” were all learned within the first few days of the class. (They sound sometimes so similar!!) And what I also appreciated was that the teacher did not focus entirely on the book. We looked at the book for a few minutes to understand the weeks objectives and rules, but after that, we had different handouts to work on, some scenes from a movie to understand, listen to a song (and a good one, not a childrens song!!) and interpret it, and even play some memory games! And after every lesson, we covered the main points of the lecture, and reviewed the most important words. I am really enjoying the classes so far. Definitely worth my time and money!