German night classes for travellers

Good work harvyk1 – I think it’s great that you don’t want to be one of those “they all speak English anyway, so why f*()en bother?” Aussies you see trolling around Europe, eating McDonalds for every meal because they’re too scared to interact with locals.

You should also try some of the night classes offered by secondary colleges, like Lake Ginninderra and Canberra Colleges. They cost about half as much as the ANU courses and are good quality.

harvyk1 said :

I’m in no way scared, and I know that people over there speak English, but still it’d be nice to be able to at least have a basic understanding of German, for when I come across the one or two people who have no English.

Besides I’m one of those people who like to immerse myself in the culture (inc language, even if it’s only a little) of the places I go.

Absolutely agree about immersing yourself in the culture. We made an effort to always speak the local language. However, you appeared to be more worried about not enough people speaking english in your opening post. If that’s not the case then go for it! You’ll enjoy the holiday much more. 🙂

I’ve just started at the ACT German school who are currently teaching out of Dickson College. They’re great! http://www.actgermanschool.org.au/

There is also Das Zentrum in Civic. http://zentrum.blogspot.com/

I spent a few weeks in Berlin recently and while the majority of people do speak English it is useful to know some German. Not everyone speaks English, the signage is in German and people open up more when you make the effort.

Good on you and good luck!

The ACT German Language School is also good, although their website isn’t. They’ve been around for donkeys and have it down pretty pat. They are at http://www.actgermanschool.org.au/

Also, anyone UNDER 40 should have good english as it became pretty mandatory in schools. Anyone over that won’t. Learnt that staying with my dad’s 60+ friends over there several years ago 😛

It is amusing that you make sure you ‘don’t mention the war’ when in Germany yet in Tegel airport there is a model of Von Richtofen’s Fokker dreidekker plane!!

grundy said :

Dont bother, everyone there speaks English.

The proprietress of my hotel in the middle of Frankfurt had no English whatsoever. Not even “yes” or “no”. I was astounded, and very very grateful to have packed a German phrasebook for my mere day and a half stay in Germany.

How about STUKA!!!

Although that’s really only mentioned by the tourists.

ACT German Language School. I am currently studying there, and the semester has already started. The classes are full now, but they offer a beginners course again in Semester 2.

http://www.actgermanlanguageschool.org.au

Not to mention bigfeet the classic ‘Englander Schweinhund’.

No need to do any study. I learnt these useful phrases through years of “Commando” comics.

Try them out when travelling:

Achtung Englander!
Jawohl, Herr leutenant
Gott in Himmel these Englanders fight like madmen. (not sure how German that is)
Ach, Mein Gott.
Kameradan, nicht schussen, nicht shussen!
Hande Hoch!