I am Swarali Pujari. I am from India and currently living in Munich. I am a Homoeopathic doctor by profession and had my own clinic in India. I have come to Munich 2 yrs back with my husband and my 5 years old son. My husband is a software professional and having his project in Munich so we are here. I like reading, writing blogs and traveling. I like to interact with people and like to know about different cultures. I wish to work in Germany so i am learning German language right now in Deutsch academy. Here I am having fun while learning and also I get to interact with different people here. As I mentioned that i am a Homoeopath and Germany is the origin of Homoeopathy I am really excited to work in the field of Homoeopathy after learning good German!
Swarali

The first time I saw the metro plan, I “felt bad”. It was hard to imagine that it would be possible to figure it out. I once asked about the system for making it easier to remember, but no one answer to this question. 

Now everything is clear, just work the rule “you need to do it yourself once, to understand everything”. However, without the Internet, it is sometimes “sad” and difficult to find the fastest way. 

A beginner may be confused by what is often shown S-Bahn (ground trains) and U-Bahn (Metro) on the same diagram together. From this, it seems that the metro system is endless. But when the plans for ground and underground transport are divided, when you know that all trains go through the central station Hauptbahnhof, then everything is fine. (in addition, you still need to know about different “distance circles” in order to buy the right ticket).

The stations look quite the same, but there are a lot of them. Therefore, traveling in the subway is very convenient. With this system, you can see the whole city easily. It saves time and energy. Also, you will have a wonderful training of the German language when you would try to buy the right ticket.  

Anna

Probably each of you heard that in Germany there are many different dialects. So this is the most serious problem of saving motivation for those who have just started learning the language.

My husband and I live in Munich, but his relatives live in eastern Germany and moreover in a small village. Especially in a small village, people definitely do not have a desire to use the standard German language for a beginner. You learned the language for long, you understand so much, you talk on the topic of migration or politics, and again …At one moment you cannot understand that you were asked ‘is it a strong tea or not‘… -_-

One more detail is interesting. Three months ago, I was glad to hear a few familiar words in a row and say 1 or 2 sentences. At this level, it seemed to me that the dialect was not very strong from what I had learned. The second time, I was shocked by how the same German language can differ, depending on where you live. In Russia, this does not exist. 

What to do with it, I have not decided yet. Learning all dialects is not possible. It is possible to learn one or two dialects, but in the first year of study, this greatly hinders the study of German as a whole. If someone has any ideas, write in the comments or to my mail rouva@mail.ru.  

Anna

The question is very tourist and subjective. =) Of course, I like walking around the historical center, next to Marienplatz, but there are many other interesting places that I like. 

For example, opposite the Deutsches museum (which you must visit, it will be interesting to everyone) there is a Gothic cathedral, which resembles a castle, with two beautiful towers

Just next to this place is very cool to sit on the river bank on a sunny day. The river is also very beautiful and fast, called Isar. People say this is a mountain river and I willingly believe them. Also In the Englischer Garten. There is a fast river, so fast that in summer there are people surfing 0.o… 

In Munich, almost 90% of the streets are very beautiful and it’s nice to walk there. One of these streets is Nymphenburger Str. It is possible to exit this street from the city center as well. There are not many tourists and you can just see how people live in the city.

Olympia Tower seemed to me a bit boring, so I recommend going to the observation platforms in the center of the city is much more impressive. But if you have a lot of time, then I advise you to walk around the city without a map. You can accidentally find amazing things!

Anna

Perhaps you have noticed that I am very much writing about school. It may seem that this is my main activity. Well at the moment it is. XD

I moved to Germany just a few months ago. I can say that those who have not lived for a long time abroad before it would be difficult.

I do not really miss the place where I was born. It’s a different matter. In the first month, it is a lot of unknown, you feel like a child again who need help. It’s good that I have help and support, so now everything is fine. However, who wants to move alone, you need to think about it many times.

Those brave people who decided to move to Germany and in my case to Munich, I want to congratulate!  Munich is a great place.

You will especially like it if you are over 23 years old. If you are only interested in parties, then Berlin is probably better.

Munich is a great place to live. I changed the city where I lived several times.  Munich is exactly the city where you want to stay and do not move anywhere else.

It is not a very big city, but super cozy. It is nice to be here because are many beautiful buildings, a lot of delicious food and a good climate.  Unfortunately, I don’t have yet friends who were born in Bavaria, but from the side, everyone looks friendly. On the street, every local resident will surely tell you “Servus”.

At the next blog, I will tell what you need to visit in my new hometown.  

Anna

In order for me to express my feelings accurately, I need one expression. I think that this one old phrase is known not only in Russia, but just in case I will tell you what it means. The phrase is made of two parts: the first one you name someone and the second part you add to this “of 80 level”. 

This means that someone is doing something at the highest level of skill.

I have already spoken about our teacher’s professionalism and that we use a lot of pictures and diagrams. But once was the highest level of demonstrations. Our teacher showed the skill of demonstration of 80 level.  
How do you appreciate that, for example, for repeating the word rainbow is used a real rainbow!  *(attention to the photo)

The ability of the teacher to quickly navigate in learning situations is an indicator of professionalism. For example, even today, just to clarify one word, we heard a beautiful short story from the life of a little drunk sheep in the mountains. 

Laughing heartily and using natural phenomena to translate words is wonderful.

Anna

The learning process can be annoying, even if there is a great motivation to learn. A student may tire of a long lesson even if he is no longer a child.
Some people think when a student is older than the more serious lesson should be. It is not true.

We all want fun, we all want to enjoy what we do. We can also enjoy grammar if we got the right approach. Jokes, interesting stories, pictures and music, all this helps to go thru the material faster and more successfully.   

In Deutsch Akademie is always fun. We laugh with the teacher heartily, but what is important and also fun, often is on the topic of classes! 
And this is a double benefit. Also, for example, we always have a small conversation at the break. Such a spontaneous conversation is better than 10 exercises from the book. 

Although one detail about talking. Do not believe the teacher when he says that he (or she) will not correct you so that you would not be afraid to speak later. This means that the teacher himself is not 100% sure of his knowledge. Although this does not happen with teachers who is a native speaker. Therefore, it is indisputably better to learn a language with a native speaker than with just a good teacher, also for this reason.

Returning to the main topic of this blog once again I will say the main thing. With a positive approach, a challenging educational process can be an interesting adventure!

Do you have fun in class?

Anna

Pupils often say: I had a bad teacher, so that’s why I know nothing. The teachers say: the student does nothing, how will I teach him? Who should work more? Who has more responsibility? The answer is well known: for success, everyone must work to the maximum.

A student will know nothing if his teacher has poor knowledge of the material or if the teacher doesn’t know how to find an individual approach to each student. The student will know nothing if he/she has no goal or he/she is bored. A good student should always remember – 80% of success depends on student work and only 20% of the work on the teacher. When both sides are super motivated, then everything works out. 

In Deutsch Akademie I got exactly the super motivated teacher who fills the gaps in the knowledge of each student. As well she fulfills an educational program. In the class we use all the necessary elements for learning the language: listening, reading, writing, speaking and practicing in grammar.

The lesson is very harmonious because grammar is given central place. The logical running of the lesson and various methods for fixation the new material make it easy to learn. It especially helps me that we begin a new lesson by small repeating the grammar of the previous lesson. Also, the diagrams and tables developed by the teacher are better than in any textbook that I saw. 

Therefore, I want to finish this blog by wishing you to find a professional teacher too or come to us in Deutsch Akademie

Anna

I’ve just started my A2.1 course and once again, I found myself overwhelmed. I sense a pattern here –feeling exactly like I used to during my first classes in A1: flooded with information from left, right and centre, anxious that I might not be able to keep up, but really keen to get good. Fast.

I’m what you could call a lazy perfectionist when it comes to learning new languages. Until I get them right, I don’t bother practicing them outside of my own mind (i.e by speaking to people, writing), probably because of the fear of embarrassing myself. I’ve done exactly the same with French or Spanish many years ago.

So with this in mind I started my German-learning journey a couple of months ago by speaking a cheeky amount of English in class (against DeutschAkademie’s rules…), hiding under the pretext that I simply understand new concepts better in this language. While this might be true, I am aware that it is also detrimental to my evolution, and that sitting in my English comfort zone will not push my limits enough.

But the thing is, in this new course my lazy perfectionism does not work anymore! People actually speak in German exclusively, be it by asking questions directly in German, or explaining new words to using synonyms. During my first class there were tons of question marks around my head: how do people know so much already? Am I in the wrong level? How do I ask this thing in German? How do I explain this thing to my colleague, without using ANY words in English?

Then it hit me… THAT’s what the learning strategy of this school is really about: throw you into the deep end and almost force you to find your way up. It’s painful, it’s hard and it’s uncomfortable. But I can totally see the logic behind it and it’s growing on me. After all, without this system my inner nerd would not have seen the light of day again!

Sintia

Hi everyone, Sintia here. I’ll be taking over this month’s blog. Before I start telling you about my Munich adventure, let me introduce myself.

I am Romanian, but have lived most of my adult life in the UK where I spent my Uni years and began my career in PR & Communications. And as with all “aww!” worthy stories, love has brought me to Munich . In hindsight, it was a huge step considering I did not speak the language and I did not know anything about Munich’s job scene. Buy hey, you gotta do what you gotta do when the heart asks for it!

Eager to fit in as fast as possible, I wanted to start German classes as soon as possible. DeutschAkademie seemed by far the best option. Now, as you know, DeutschAkademie’s rule is to speak ONLY German during classes. I was quite taken aback and took me a couple of classes to put my brain wheels in motion and really grasp as much information as possible. But then… it happened. My inner nerd has been unleashed.

I was a proper grammar nerd growing up. I lived and breathed it all my teenage years, and working in communications as a young adult, proper grammar has also been of utmost importance.

I really think it hadn’t actually hit me before that I am REALLY going to learn a language from scratch. And boy, there has been just SO much grammar rules and vocabulary to learn!

During my classes, I’ve turned back into the old nerdie me who hoped for more homework and who was glad and eager to take tests.

But please don’t get me wrong – I am faaaar from being a pro. I’m just starting my A2.1 class. But man, am I excited and keen to learn this language!

Bis bald!

Sintia