As many of you may know, I started my German education last year through Rosetta Stone, a computer program. With it came a free year of online tutoring, which I must admit I didn't take advantage of as I should have. Its theory is that adults can learn languages the same way as children- inductively. (The deductive method focuses more on charts and mechanical memorization, and is better suited for just reading.) So I was presented with pictures and basic sentences, all getting harder and harder as I went through various exercises. I supplemented this education with a grammar book and vocabulary flashcards. The flashcards were probably the most successful, but also the least inductive, since I was not learning the words in their proper contexts- context being essential for inductive learning. The grammar book was good to bolster what I had been learning inductively but didn't yet understand, and it gave me answers to my many questions.
The tutoring through Rosetta Stone was alright; I should have done more, but many times I would cancel the tutoring sessions for activities with friends over the summer.
I began Rosetta Stone way back in the summer of 2011, though I didn't really pick up speed until this summer, when I worked through almost 3 full levels in 3 months (mid-May to mid-August). I knew that even after working through Rosetta Stone, my German wouldn't be up to par, so I signed up for the Goethe Institut, an educational institution that prepares students for study at German universities. Travis Berg had gone to one before his studies at Oberursel, so I decided to do the same.
Goethe Institut was good; I'll admit that I don't feel smarter or more proficient in my German than I thought I would be after being there for four weeks. Nevertheless, I can understand German better, and my sentences are grammatically more correct, though by no means perfect. Rosetta Stone had taught me enough to skip the 'A' level and start in B1.1, which is about in the middle; it was a good fit for me. Our teacher was very strict and corrected our German speaking at every mistake. She mixed inductive and deductive teaching styles, and always encouraged class discussions over a variety of topics, trying to get us to use our new vocabulary. The class was about at my level, and it was a relief to speak with people at the same speed as mine, over topics in which we had a similar vocabulary. They were a fun group of people, ranging in age from 18-50, many of whom were students of various disciplines. I was was the only American (though there were also two Canadians- one French and the other not), so I was always asked to clarify a word in English, since everyone in the class knew English. There were people from Brazil (pronounced Bra-sil, not Bra-zil), Iceland (ees-land), Denmark, Mongolia, Italy, and Japan. It was fun to hear all the different accents, though our teacher kept correcting them; we all had our pet problems. Mine was putting too much of an 'r' on anything ending in -er or -ar.
Goethe also offered a cultural program, with which we could attend lectures, go on tours through Berlin, or tour some museums with a group. I took advantage of some of these, about two a week, though the best ones were offered Sunday morning, to my chagrin. You can see some of my photos from the city tours in my other posts. This is where being in Berlin really made a difference. Goethe has about 10 locations around Germany, unfortunately none in Frankfurt, and though the education is about the same everywhere, I doubt I could see as many interesting places anywhere else than Berlin.
So overall my stay in Berlin was great. Goethe was very helpful, and I had five weeks to see the various sights in Berlin without needing to cram everything in at once. I couldn't imagine trying to see Berlin in a few days, but I know it's necessary for many tourists. There's a lot I still haven't seen, namely art museums, but those will have to wait until I can appreciate modern art a bit better, which I doubt will ever happen.
After I finish my blog posts about touring Berlin (I still have 2 left), and one more about the Wendish area, I think my frequency of blog posts will decrease a bit. School here starts in a few weeks, and I won't have as many pictures to post or stories to tell.
Here's some pictures of Goethe; I can't claim that they're absolutely fantastic or are part of the wonders of Berlin, but they were a part of my daily routine in Berlin, and I figure I might as well have some color in this blog post.
The cafeteria where we ate lunches and drank coffee during our break.
The various programs offered each day.
The mediotech, where I spent some of my mornings doing homework and studying.
The courtyard, where I saw some very dubious plants being smoked. I did not participate, in case you were wondering. Also where we met for the various trips and tours.
A red Ampelmännchen! These were popular in East Germany.
They are also the inspiration for Peter Eckardt's blog, which you can read here: http://lutheranampelmann.blogspot.de/
Peter was the Fort Wayne exchange student in Oberursel last year.
And now a green one! Behind the stop light is the U-Bahn station that I'd take to the Alexanderplatz S-Bahn station, when I didn't feel like walking the distance to Hackescher Markt, another S-Bahn station.
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