Why Did I take German Course?

Hey again and welcome back!

I don’t know but maybe you are wondering weather yes or not to take a German course? So, I think this is pretty normal question and that it depends on your needs or you will or your interest or your maybe a matter of time? I don’t know you will have to ask yourself. Well, in my case it is a combination between will and interest. Since I was a kid in Israel that I wanted to learn this language. Even before I knew I am a quick languages-learner. And now, when I’m in Berlin for, at least, few months, I felt like it’s a good idea to learn German and I also felt that it is necessary.

Why did I peak DeutschAkademie? Well, I have few reasons: the first that when I was here for the first time, I met a friend of mine, who was living here, in Cafe Einstein, and she told me she is studying German right here across the street and was pointing the DeutschAkademie building in front! I liked the fact that it is right in Alexanderplatz, right in the center, right next to everything you need, if you need or may need. The second reason is I live very close and it is very convenient for me, just 10 min away with the metro! The third reason is the price. I felt that the prices were very fare and I could afford it so I singed up!


(Picture: 1+5=6 : Eins plus funf ist sechs!)

It’s a matter of numbers. Today was my 3rd day of German course and we learned die Zahlen (the numbers)! It was not so easy for the majority of my classmates. But one thing I liked was that Rudi, our teacher, gave us game dice (Würfeln) and we had to cast the dice between us and than say the numbers and the summary of the numbers and it was a nice way to learn in my opinion.

A tip: If you intent to take German course try to learn some vocabulary and numbers at home before or during the course – even if just to enrich your vocabulary and knowledge but it will make it easier for you later on at class 🙂

OK! That’s it for today, again- thank you for following my German blog! I hope I can help!
Have a great time in Berlin!

Tschüss!!

Tal

My favourite golden tea house

Ok, to be honest I only know one golden tea house but it’s my favourite! The grounds around the palace in Potsdam are so beautiful, and this royal tea house is definitely worth a visit. There are golden statues decorating the tea house depicting Chinese musicians, each one is mesmerising. If you’re on a tight budget or with friends who have short attention spans for roaming inside palaces, the palace grounds are free and on a nice day a picnic would be perfect.

I just wanted to share this favourite spot, as it’s one of my cherished memories from my backpacker travels 9 years ago and more recently since my move to Berlin this year.

On a side note, today I came out of class feeling more comfortable with Deutsch, well more accurately, less uncomfortable. Let’s face it, German is a tough language. I was trying to inconspicuously listen to people on my way home and I the only word I understood was „meine”, it was a small but mighty victory!

 

My First Day!

Hello again and thanks for keep following!

Yesterday was my first day at German course A1.1 at DeutschAkademie in Alexanderplatz, Berlin.
Although I speak 4 languages, in German I am a very beginner, and so I can say I was very excited to start German course in DeutschAkademie! I have to admit that I imagined the class room biger, but it is very cozy and it gives a good feeling and confidence.

I have very nice classmates from all over the world and a very nice teacher! My classmates come from Hungary, Portugal, Chile, Argentina, Italia, France and Nigeria and all of them are very nice! We were all shy at first but with the help of our teacher Rudi (German) we started to talk German at the very first day! Rudi is very nice and patience and shows a lot of knowledge in other languages too which I find as a very good thing because that way he can also show us where the words in German are coming from and make it a little less scary and a little more nice to learn this Language.

We learned the ABC and some more basic things like „what is your name and where are you coming from?” You say in German: Wie heisst du und woher kommst du? These questions are very common when you are a traveller, so the next time someone will ask me these questions I will sure know to answer: „ich heisse Tal und ich komme aus Israel!”.
So for the next time somebody asks you you’ll know what to say! 🙂

 

Today was the 2nd day and we learned about the verbs and how to ask for drinks in a restaurant. After greeting each other in German (it was easier than yesterday..) we learned verb conjugations (ich bin/du bist/wir sind/ihr seid) and later we practiced full sentences with each other. The sentences were mainly about coffee and other drink and I really liked it because I’m passionate about coffee so it’s cool that I know how to ask for coffee now! When the lesson was over I went with Sofia, my Portuguese classmate, to have a frozen yogurt in Alexa (big shopping mall just next to DeutschAkademie) and to get to know each other better. She is very nice and and we had really nice time together!

So, that’s it for today.. I will go to practice some of what we’ve learned today! I hope you enjoy your stay in Berlin and that maybe I can help you with some of the info I share here!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Tal 🙂

(picture: my study book and notebook, some of my classmates and Rudi our teacher who listens very carefully)

 

Berlin- Before I Start

Hello! My name is Tal Mahlev and I’m 26 years old from Israel.

This is my second time in Berlin. I’ve been here for a while. It’s been over a month. At first, I took some time to get to know the city better. I visited the Museum Island, Berlin Cathedral, Brandenburg Gate, Westside Gallery, Checkpoint Charlie, and so on.
( Picture: me on the background of the Old Museum in Berlin).


I’ve never lived in a city before.
This is a big change for me! I never left home before (other than travelling) and Berlin has a lot to offer! I’m looking forward to meeting you! I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

I would like to know more about this. I speak 4 languages: Hebrew, Spanish, English and Portuguese (and a few more but very basic …) Hebrew- is my native language, English- by learning at school, Spanish- by watching TV, Portuguese- by travelling in Brazil and just a few days ago I would like to learn English at the same time . The school is right next to Alexanderplatz and close to all shops, cafe’s and restaurants! I am very interested in teaching and learning English and German.

I want to learn more about my experiences in GermanAkademie Berlin!

See you soon!

Valley

That A-ha moment!

Have you ever had a moment where a key piece of information falls into place and a whole bunch of confusion is suddenly cleared up? A-ha! This actually happens to me a bit too often, makes me question how well my brain has been assembled. Anyhow, this „A-ha” moment happened to me today in class – we learnt how to count in German!

Since German is a complicated language I expected the numbers to be equally complicated, surprisingly it’s really easy. Ok so it does get a bit weird, I made up a rule to help: for anything between 20 and 99 just say it in backwards order and don’t breathe in between. I think old English was like this, Jane Austin’s books would spell people’s ages this way, e.g. „three-and-twenty”. Our teacher explained that the German government was thinking to simplify these number expressions but that idea has been thrown out the window; cheers for complexity!

Even though German is still scary to me, at least I came away from today’s lesson equipped with the power to say my age and recite my phone number.

Now if someone speaks German to me, out of the flow of incomprehensible words I will be able to snatch up any numbers they utter. A-Ha!

First day at school!

Like a 6 year old, I was anxious about starting school. Since class was going to start at 8:30am, my bag was packed the night before, I tried to get to sleep early (which was a fail), then in the morning I woke up way too early, and before I could convince my self to go back to sleep my brain was already anticipating the day. Despite the dubious start to the day, I arrived to class perky and keen, with my shiny new textbooks!

Our teacher, Kirima, is patient and sweet, thank goodness because German is an intimidating language. I felt lost and baffled a lot during today’s class, but I got through all the exercises ok so I suppose it’s expected that everyone will feel like lost sheep in the beginning.

So today we learnt how to ask „what’s your name?”, „Where do you come from?”, and „How are you?”. We learnt how to reply to these also, and there was a bit of grammar as well to help us start building an understanding of basic German. Three hours just flew by, and even though we learnt very basic things, by the end my brain was ready to call it a day.

It’s going to take some time to adjust to German eh.

 

 

 

Stammtisch im Oktober

Liebe Teilnehmer,

am 12. Oktober findet unser beliebter Stammtisch statt. Ab 20 Uhr geht es los im Cancún in der Nähe der DeutschAkademie am Alexanderplatz.
Wir freuen uns auf einen schönen gemeinsamen Abend mit euch.

Euer DeutschAkademie Team

#DeutschAkademie #Berlin #Stammtisch #DeutschLernen #MitSpaßzumErfolg #Alexanderplatz #Cancún

 

Me and Berlin, it’s complicated

Hi, my name is Komal. Last year, my partner and I received an opportunity to live in Berlin and we grabbed it with both hands, it’s always been my dream to live in Europe. So we said goodbye to sunny Australia and landed in Berlin right in the middle of winter. I was shell shocked for the first 3 months until spring finally appeared and I started to defrost.

 

After 8 months of being in Berlin I’ve come to the conclusion that life here would be more enjoyable if I at least understood what the lady at the cash register is trying to tell me every time I’m at Rewe or not having to start every conversation with “Sprechen Sie Englisch bitte?” I’ve started to cringe at myself.

 

With this as motivation, I enrolled into an A1.1 class at Deutsch Akademie. The reviews looked great, my piggie bank didn’t feel pillaged and the staff were super nice, which was a pleasant surprise! Customer service in Berlin can be rather underwhelming.

 

I’m so pumped at the prospect of having more than one German sentence to use!!

 

I’ll keep you posted on how I go over the next month.

 

Ein langes Wochenende

Am 3. Oktober feiert man in Deutschland den Einheitstag. In dem Einigungsvertag vom 31. August 1990 zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, wurde der 3. Oktober zum gesetzlichen Feiertagen bestimmt. Der Tag der Deutschen Einheit als Nationalfeiertag erinnert an die deutsche Wiedervereinigung.

Und privat hat man dieses Jahr gerade ein Paar freie Tage. Und ein bisschen Zeit, um das sonnige Wetter zu genießen. Man kann endlich mal was lesen, ein Café besuchen, alte Freunde treffen oder… einfach viel schlafen!

Nachher kann man auch ein Fest feieren. Zum 27. Jahrestag der Deutschen Einheit finden seit 1 bis zum 3. Oktober 2017 rund ums Brandenburger Tor viele Veranstaltungen statt. Viel Spaß am langen Wochenende!

Fotos vom Kulturprogramm im September

Liebe Teilnehmer,

es war heute ein sehr interessanter Ausflug in die Gedenkstätte Stille Helden. Die Führung war sehr informativ und wir bedanken uns ganz herzlich dafür bei der Gedenkstätte. Anbei haben wir noch Bilder für euch zum Anschauen.

Euer DeutschAkademie Team

#DeutschAkademie #Berlin #Kulturprogramm #DeutschLernen #MitSpaßzumErfolg #GedenkstätteStilleHelden