Sprachenatelier Berlin

Original Photo Rubber Duck and Mallard! by Mike Prince on flickr.com under CC BY 2.0 ; remixed. When it comes to learning a new language we've all faced the reality that it's a lot harder than what some people would have you believe. Let's face it, German is hard, like banging your head against the table when you can't even pronounce „Quietscheentchen“ kind of hard – I mean, it's a rubber ducky, how are children meant to pronounce that? But it's OK, we've all been there in those dark early days of learning a language, which is why Sprachenatelier Berlin is here to offer some helpful tips that will get you on your way to finally speaking German confidently in no time!  Don't expect to be perfect, so don't let it affect your confidence As we are well aware from reading the above, German is tricky. There is a lot to process when fi...

Taking a quick break from the language tips and advice to report on this week's news! You may or may not have heard that there was a fire in our beautiful old building late on Sunday night (10.04). At the top of the building above our three floors, there are shared flats. It was here where the fire started, and was later found to be caused by a cable. The fire took almost 2 hours to be put out, and the emergency services were still there on Monday morning, blocking off the area and managing the damage. Two people who live in the top floor were evacuated and, luckily, nobody was hurt in the accident. Sadly, the beautiful tiled roof was seriously damaged and will need some repairing, but the school only suffered from a little water damage coming down from the top floor. The school was closed on Monday 11 th April to ensure the safety of the building for teaching. As of Tuesday, classes were running in the school again and now of cou...

  Photo by Renato Silva , Sprachenatelier A few weeks ago, we posted about the common mi stakes that English speakers make when learning German. Well, this week, it's time to look at things the other way around. Having spent five months in Austria teaching school children and working with Austrian people, and now living in Berlin, I think I am fairly qualified and experienced to talk about the mistakes that German speakers make when learning English. Often the mistakes they make can be understood when you look at the German equivalent, because a lot of people are still in the DANGER ZONE (see last post) and are translating literally. So, scroll down and have a read. If you are a German speaker, maybe you can learn something, and if you're an English speaker, maybe you recognise some of these mistakes from your own experiences in Germany. Let's get going! But first... 1) “ L et me make a selfie!“ Remember the world...

The first, and perhaps hardest, part of learning a language is to get out of what I like to call the danger zone. Out of the „how do I say it in my own language“ mindset and into the „how do I say it in German“ mindset. Thinking exclusively in the target language is probably the most important technique to master. Because, as ideal as it would be to simply think in the mother tongue and come out with perfect German, that's not exactly how it works. And it is this tendency to keep thinking in one's own language that causes repeated mistakes. But not to fear! Because so many people do it, we've managed to find some of the most common mistakes that seem to repeat themselves. So let's have a look at some of them together and see if we can knock them on the Kopf.  Mistake #1 PREPOSITIONS If I could go back in time to my 12 year old self, innocent and naive, sitting in my first German class with my whole future ahead of me, excited and r...

  Zum englisch e Version , klicken Sie hier ! Letzte Woche entschied ich mich gemütlich einen Kaffee trinken zu gehen. Mein Buch zu nehmen und einfach ein paar Stunden in einem der kleinen süßen Cafés von Berlin zu entspannen. Ich bestellte mir etwas zu trinken, machte es mir in einem großen Sessel direkt am Fenster gemütlich und war gerade dabei, in Begleitung der angenehmen Hintergrundmusik anzufangen zu lesen, als mir nach einen paar Zeilen etwas auffiel. Ich konnte mich einfach nicht auf das Buch konzentrieren. Stattdessen konnte ich nicht anders, als den Unterhaltungen um mich herum zu lauschen (etwas, das mir mit meinem holprigen Deutsch nicht sehr häufig passiert). Ein Pärchen lernte sich gerade bei ihrem ersten Date kennen, ein paar Mädchen hingen quatschend und tratschend vor einem Laptop, und die ziemlich angespannten Versuche einer Frau mit ihrem Verlobten und ihrem Vater am Tisch eine Unterhaltung zu führen. Hier saß ich nun, in einer netten, ruhigen Nachbarsc...

 For the German version, click here ! Last weekend, I decided to go for a coffee. Take my book. Spend a couple of hours in a cute little café chilling out. I ordered my drink, got myself cosied into the big armchair that sat in the window, and was just about to start reading my book against the gentle background hum of music and conversation when after five minutes I realised something. I couldn't concentrate on my book at all. Instead I found myself totally engrossed in the conversations around me (something that doesn't happen too often here with my level of German). A couple revealing their life stories as they introduced themselves on a first date, some girls gossiping around a laptop, and the painfully awkward exchanges between husband and father-in-law, as the wife sat politely trying to make conversation. There I was, sitting in a quiet little neighbourhood of Berlin, and the only conversation I could hear was in English. Of course, we all k...

We are proud to introduce to you our new webseries: Interviewing students! With this project we want to give you the chance to get to know our amazing students from all around the world and discover something about their lives here in Berlin. For the first interview we had a lovely chat with Stefano from Milan, Italy. Each interview will be carried out in the student's native language, but don't worry! We are providing English subtitles for you as well. A great chance to brush up on your foreign language skills, right?   You can watch the interview here or on our Youtube channel . If you liked the video and want to keep up to speed on the upcoming ones then go and subscribe! And if you're doing a German course here at Sprachenatelier, watch out. You could be the next one!

For the German version click here During high school most of us had the opportunity to learn a foreign language. Normally we could choose between Spanish and French. However, most of us chose to study French. Why? Maybe all of your friends were studying French, so you didn't want to feel left out. Or maybe French sounds better and has a „higher status“ amongst languages. And indeed, French is all of these things, but so are all the other languages, including Spanish. So here are a few reasons to give it a chance : Travelling. Having new adventures in a totally foreign country, getting to know the people and the culture... Who doesn't love to travel?! It doesn't matter which country or continent you're heading to next, knowing a few basic phrases of the language is always a good idea. And that's where Spanish comes into play! Spanish is the official language of * drum rolls* twenty one countries! Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Dominican R...