Learn German ‘live’ online with the Language Guesthouse

"Slow but sure" they say, and, although you have had to wait a while since I announced it, we at the Language Guesthouse are now ready to offer you high-quality online teaching in addition to our residential language courses. By making the best use of the possibilities of new interactive technology, we can provide individual online language teaching based on your personal language level, your wishes and your learning needs. -

 

How does online learning work?

For online teaching we use the Zoom conference platform to provide a ‘virtual classroom’. In this classroom, we can work together, can see and hear each other, talk to each other or communicate via a chat program. We have a board on which we can write or draw. I can load text, images and drawings onto the board with instructions or tasks for you and can see how you work on these in the classroom. I can give you oral or written advice or additional materials, such as a grammar sheet with explanations and examples, or a list of words with explanations. We can work with video and audio clips. There are many different ways to make the lessons varied and exciting. You can save all texts and tasks that you get from me on your computer as a PDF file and print it. And you will get homework to prepare for the next lesson.

 

What do you need?

• A computer with Internet connection
• A Webcam
• Microphone and speakers (or better a headset with microphone)
• A directory on your computer (with sub-directories for your own system) in which you can save all the documents you receive from the Language Guesthouse Online
• A folder, in which you can file documents / tasks you have printed off
• The facility to scan teaching materials (e.g. your homework, when you have worked on a hard copy of an assignment sheet by hand) so that you can send them as an e-mail attachment. If no scanner is available, you can take a photograph of each page of your homework and send it via WhatsApp or Telegram or Signal
• Should you need anything else in the course of your online lessons, I will let you know in good time.

 

What should you do next?

• Work out how many weekly hours of lessons you wish to book
• Look at the availability schedule to find out which days and times are available and decide on a date / dates when you have time for lessons.
• Register for lessons at the Language Guesthouse Online by using the online registration formhere. The Language Guesthouse will send you an email in response.
• If you are not a beginner, but already have some knowledge of German, complete the online placement test and send it to the Language Guesthouse. You will normally get it back corrected within 2 days with a placement recommendation.
• Before the first lesson, you should download and install Zoom client (https://zoom.us/download) on your computer. Register on zoom (choose the free basic version)
• Your first 4 classes are free of charge. If during this time you decide you wish to continue with online lessons, please send us another registration, ticking the box 'Online German course' instead of 'free trial course'. Your course will then continue subject to payment of our course fees.

 

What is the cost of the lessons at the Language Guesthouse Online?

As a launch offer, you get 4 lessons of 60 minutes free of charge. If you decide not to continue with online learning, you need to do nothing further. Please note that you can only take advantage of this launch offer once.

If on the other hand you decide you wish to continue with your online course, there are the following three payment options:

• Weekly renewable contract: 21 Euro per lesson unit / one week’s notice. Weekly payment to be paid in advance by bank transfer or PayPal. Provided written notice (by e-mail) is given before Saturday 24:00 Clock CE(S)T, the termination is effective from the following Monday 0:00 clock.
• Monthly renewable contract: 20 Euro per lesson unit/ one calendar month’s notice. Monthly payment to be paid in advance by bank transfer or PayPal. Provided written notice (by e-mail) is given 7 days before the end of a calendar month, the termination is effective at the end of that month.
• Three monthly renewable contract: 19 Euro per lesson unit/ three calendar months’ notice. Three monthly payment to be paid in advance by bank transfer or PayPal. Provided written notice (by e-mail) is given not less than one month before the end of the three month period, the termination is effective at the end of that three-month period.Prices

Prices for online lessons are valid until end of January 2022.

 

Which is better, learning German online or ‘offline’?

This is really the wrong question, because online learning and traditional classroom lessons are not mutually exclusive. Each lesson form has its own advantages and disadvantages, they complement each other and therefore the Language Guesthouse, as a provider of high-quality immersion classroom courses, is not competing with itself in also offering online lessons.

We have listed below the relative benefits of the 2 forms of instruction we offer:

Advantages of residential courses

Advantages of online lessons

Direct contact between teacher and student; no electronic media are required. Consequently there are no technical problems with communication. Suitable for learners who are not so comfortable working with a computer. Real-life lesson formats are only possible when the teacher and learner are together ‘on the spot’. The authentic ‘German experience‘ can’t be replicated by a video. The ’virtual classroom‘ is always a classroom and not ‘real life‘. Our immersion courses offer much more than just language training. A residential course offers the opportunity for intensive learning, with freedom from work or household duties and distractions. The learner can concentrate fully on the experience of learning the language in its natural environment.

Lower costs than for a residential course: no travelling, no accommodation is necessary: you learn at home from your own desk. A course of lessons can be taken over a long period. You can use the opportunity offered by our online lessons to discover for yourself the quality of our teaching and then book a residential course. Alternatively, you continue your language learning after a residential course with us by means of online lessons. ...

Maybe you'll find out yourself even more advantages of the two ways of learning.

 

Availability Schedule

Each lesson lasts 60 minutes, that is, from the displayed time (for example, 14:00) until 60 minutes later (15:00). Please note that the times mentioned here refer to Central European Time (CET) or to the Central European Summer Time (CEST). CET is one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) / Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and CEST is two hours ahead of GMT / UTC.
To convert CET/CST to the time in your own country please go to: www.zeitzonen.de
Before your first online class you'll get an invitation via e-mail, which contains the access link for our virtual class room. Please on't be late, so we can use the full hour for our class.

available

Time booked by: Username

not available

 

Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
9:00 - 10:00
10:00 - 11:00
11:00 - 12:00
12:00 - 13:00
13:00 - 14:00
14:00 - 15:00
15:00 - 16:00	enuma
16:00- 17:00
17:00- 18:00		alexey			alexey
18:00- 19:00
19:00- 20:00
20:00- 21:00				20:30-21:30 albert
21:00- 22:00

 

Note: This schedule shows provisional availability! If your preferred time is not shown as available, please send me a note when you sign up, stating what day of the week / which other time you would prefer.

For the time being, no online lessons will take place when an intensive course is being held at the Language Guesthouse.(This will be announced here beforehand.)

Should it not be possible for the Language Guesthouse Online to provide a scheduled lesson for any reason, we will try to arrange an alternative date and time with the student affected. But even if a suitable alternate date cannot be found, you only pay for the lessons that you have received.

 

FAQ for Online Classes

What do I do if I can’t take part in a scheduled lesson?
Let us know via e -mail or SMS as soon as possible and no later than 12 hours before the scheduled lesson and provide us with the date and time of a replacement appointment that is shown as still available on our Availability Schedule. I will let you know as soon as possible whether the replacement appointment is possible. If not, then the teaching appointment in the relevant week must be cancelled and you do not pay for the missed lesson.

Can it happen that I still have to pay a lesson that I did not get?
Yes, if you fail to attend a lesson without giving us prior notice or send your notice of cancellation later than 12 hours before the scheduled lesson.

Do I need a textbook for the online lessons?
For now, I 'm going to work without a textbook and put together the material for each lesson individually from textbooks, authentic texts, educational material that is freely available on the Internet and self-created tasks. In individual cases, however, it is possible that I will arrange the use of a textbook with a student.

Do you have questions that we haven’t answered here? Then send us an email: