Language Tutoring – one on one

Individual. Our language teaching is tailored to the likes and dislikes, the strengths and weaknesses of each individual student. Developing a friendship with a foreign language is a lot easier when words come from situations familiar to the student. Once the student has caught fire, new and difficult concepts and vocabulary can be introduced.

Grammar. Learning a foreign grammar is easier if the student understands the grammar of her own language. A typical English speaker, for example, has only a vague idea of their own language's cases and verb aspects. Once this is understood, German cases will become familiar. Thus, some time will be spent with the grammar of the mother tongue before moving on to the foreign language.

Speaking. While a grammar foundation is important, the primary reason for learning a language is to speak it. Speaking means expressing oneself with the few words that one has learnt, even if the words may not be completely correct. If one cannot say directly what one wants to say, I encourage to take a detour by using the words one already knows.

Enunciation. Speaking a language requires enunciation that is good enough for a native to understand. Before learning about foreign enunciation, however, a student needs to understand the sounds of their own language and how they perceive them. Two examples: A typical US English speaker pronounces "metal" and "medal" identically. French and Spanish speakers make no difference between the sounds in "beach" and "bitch" (which can lead to funny misunderstandings). We therefore make a student hear and understand her own language before teaching the new sounds.

Memory. Language learning brings a lot of joy but it remains strenuous and studious. From the onset, new words will be written down by hand because this enforces memorisation. Likewise, fundamental grammatical rules will be learnt by heart and repeated often. Complex and rarely-used rules will be taught later and as needed.

Books. We use a variety of printed media for teaching, most importantly textbooks provided by the student, or phrase books. We also use newspaper articles, comic books, song lyrics and similar. 

Languages we teach

Conversation. For people who want to learn how to converse, we teach German, English and French at beginner, intermediate and professional levels. When teaching bilingual students, we attempt to make references to both languages. The language used in the lessons can be English, German, French, Spanish, or Italian. Age: from 12 upwards.

Travel. For people who travel to a foreign country and who want to show their respect to the people or want to be a little familiar with the signs, we teach short travel courses in language and script in German, French, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, and Greek.

With a little preparation, we are able to also teach travel courses in Russian, Hebrew, Turkish, Bahasa Indonesia and other languages. 

Passing exams. We assist young adults in passing their German or French language exams at school. We focus on short-term goals adhering to curriculum and text books used at the school. 

Courses and Fees

A lesson lasts one hour for which we charge $50 USD plus a travel fee for lessons taught at the student's home as opposed to my home or a café.

The number of lessons needed to achieve a goal will be assessed by us and set by the student and/or the parent(s).