by Erin McGann
Updated on January 8, 2024
Why are Lingoda’s German classes the best? We’ll explain…
What makes a German class good? You want to walk away feeling like you’ve learned something, but there’s different parts to learning a language, and different types of classes will teach you different things. All together, these different types of German classes give you holistic view of the language, and the ability to use it in different situations.
Lingoda uses several different types of classes so you can focus on one element of the language at a time, but obviously you can’t learn about grammar without speaking, or at least that would be very effective. Let’s look at how they work together.
These are the classes that focus on the nitty gritty of the German language. That can be anything from how you conjugate verbs, to managing those prefixes, or working through the different cases (again). But you’re not staring at adjective endings in a chart and then repeating them back to your teacher – there’s not much point in that. Grammar classes often have another theme, like cooking, talking about booking a holiday, or the environment, to give you a framework to use these grammar rules in context. So although you’re in a grammar class, you’ll still be conversing with your teacher and your classmates.
Reading comprehension is an important skill – whether it’s a letter from the bank or the sign describing the parking rules, you’re going to have to figure it out.
A reading class doesn’t mean you’ll be sitting there in silence, but each student takes turns reading the text out loud. This gives you a chance to really work on your pronunciation. That’s the benefit of having native speakers as teachers at Lingoda, they won’t let you get away with saying things incorrectly! You’ll also discuss the text and any words you don’t know with your teacher and classmates.
Along with reading, writing in German is also important. If you can’t express yourself in writing, how will you be able to become the next big German Instragrammer? Even if that’s not your goal, you will have to write emails and letters in German, and this is your chance to practice. Like in the grammar classes, you’ll have a theme to work from, and practice writing short texts, which you’ll read out to your teacher and classmates, as well as pop it into the chat so everyone can discuss it. Your teacher will be able to teach you some tricks to making your text come out sounding natural, and yet, professional.
Even though you’ve been having little conversations in all your Lingoda classes, a conversation class really focuses on your ability to flexibly come up with a dialogue in real time. It may seem terrifying, but you’ll be given a role playing situation to work with – like a waiter and a customer who is ordering food, or two friends discussing their holidays. There’s nothing like just having to figure it out to really get your language muscles working, and these little sessions will help break down some of your inhibitions when it comes to conversation.
This is a really useful type of class – it’s all about dealing with common situations. How to explain you don’t understand what’s going on, writing a CV, or coping with the residents’ registration office: these are some of the options of Lingoda Skills classes. You’ll of course learn vocabulary, grammar, and conversation skills, but it’s all applied to real world situations that you’ll find yourself in.
You can see how all these class types fit together to give you a really good overview of how the language works, and gets you speaking, reading, and writing in real world situations. With Lingoda’s native speaker teachers, you’re going to get the real details on how to sound normal, and not like a language text bot!
