Category: Learning German

Many countries are still in lockdown and many people are working from home with plenty of extra time at their hands. That’s an extra 90 minutes a day in London if a one-way commute takes 45 minutes. Multiplied by 5 working days and, voilà, there are 7.5 hours every week that need filling. After the […]

I’ve been teaching German on a one-to-one basis and in group settings for many years. I now find myself teaching German online to continue earning a living and to minimise disruption to existing students so that they can progress with their German language studies during this Covid19 crisis. Until February 2020, I was no advocate […]

With the new decade just three weeks old, New Year’s resolutions are high on the agenda. Folks have all sorts of good intentions for 2020 and for some it is learning a new language. In the UK, only 34% of 15 – 30 year olds speak a second language. That’s very few compared with Denmark […]

Spanish is on the increase, French is on the decrease and German is hardly being learned at all in UK schools. 80% of all 15 – 30 year olds in the EU speak at least one foreign language, in the UK only 32% of 15 – 30 year olds speak a foreign language. Learning a […]

We often get asked, whether there is a market for learning German in the City of London and who learns German and why. Yes, there is a large market for foreign language learning, especially German. Corporations approaching us are German companies operatingtheir staff to learn German or reacquaint themselves with the language at some stage. Then there are people […]

It can be exciting to learn a new language; it gives you new opportunities, helps you learn more about another culture and happens to be very impressive! Whatever reason you have for deciding to learn German, here’s five top tips to not only help you learn faster, but learn smarter and be on your way […]

German is widely spoken in Europe: Count the 83 Million inhabitants of Germany, add Austria, the German speaking part of Switzerland plus Luxemburg, and German speaking minorities in Northern Italy, Southern Denmark and the Alsace in France and you get the picture. Of course, there is more than just the holiday aspect, since Germany is […]

Technology has without doubt made language learning far more accessible and may have even been responsible for some people taking up a foreign language as it’s a great way to have a little taster before committing to a formal course. However, it can also be incredibly tempting to use the technology at our disposal as […]

The Goethe-Institute is a German cultural organisation which for over 50 years has been promoting interest in, and study of, the German language around the world. Back in 2007, it launched an ambitious project which saw a series of events take place worldwide under the banner “The Power of Language” (Die Macht der Sprache). The […]

A recent study of languages used on the internet* shows that German is one of the most widely-used languages in the online world. It’s hardly surprising that English is the most-used language, being the main content language for a massive 55% of all websites. Just under 6% of websites use German as a content language. While this […]

A frequency dictionary can be of great help when learning German. It does not, however, replace a good conventional bilingual or monolingual dictionary. Let’s have a look at a few German words and their frequency in the German language: the most frequent word being the definite articles der, die, das and their various forms. You […]

You must have come across words that you never seem to be able to remember. Why is it that when learning German you remember some words better than other words? The answers is word frequency. Word frequency analysis is not new and dates back well over 100 years to 1898 when Friedrich Wilhelm Kaeding published […]

As a nation the British don’t have the best reputation for being proficient speakers of foreign languages. Changes to school curriculums are attempting to remedy this situation and prevent future generations being thought “lazy” by the rest of Europe because so many of us don’t take the trouble to learn a second language. But is […]

One of the things learners of any language frequently bemoan is the lack of opportunities outside of their lessons to put into practice what they’ve learnt. Your German classes will help you develop your speaking and writing skills. However, you can help yourself to further develop your listening and reading skills by availing yourself of […]

You are learning German and wondered where you can practice listening and comprehension? Podcasts are a great way of listening to German on the bus, on the tube or whilst walking. There are a number of podcasts and it can take quite some time to work through them all before you find what suits you […]

If you are looking to learn German, then you might consider a self learning course, contact a language school or engage a private tutor. Autodidactic learning is probably the most cost effective way of picking up a new language and you don’t have to schlepp half way across London to attend classes. Some get quite […]

German is widely spoken in Europe: Count the 80 Million inhabitants of Germany, add Austria, the German speaking part of Switzerland plus Luxemburg, and German speaking minorities in Northern Italy, Southern Denmark and the Alsace in France and you get the picture. Of course, there is more than just the holiday aspect, since Germany is […]