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Language school recommendations in Berlin #1

Closed gavin-norman-sociomantic closed 8 years ago

gavin-norman-sociomantic commented 9 years ago

Andrew said:

I went to http://www.gls-sprachenzentrum.de/ for a few weeks and they were pretty good. Morag is currently at the VHS though and it is very cheap and just as good. In fact Morag considers it better as the demographics of the class are different.

"VHS" = Volkshochschule ("people's high school"): http://www.berlin.de/vhs/kurse/deutsch/integrationen.html

gavin-norman-sociomantic commented 9 years ago

Michele said:

i've heard BSI is good and it's nearby i did an intensive course at die deutschüle in neukölln and i definitely do not recommend it but it was cheap

gavin-norman-sociomantic commented 9 years ago

Wolf said:

sprachpunkt psp was decent, privat i think volkshochschule is the best bet if you can find the right schedule

gavin-norman-sociomantic commented 9 years ago

About the demographic difference between GLS and VHS, Andrew said:

GLS had a number of younger people who were on a kind of "study holiday". Some were more focused on "holiday" than "study" I think. The VHS tends to be people who personally want to improve their German. For example Morag's class is mostly "long term" residents (like us), people on study visa who have to reach B2 by a certain date in order to take up university places and refugees.

gavin-norman-sociomantic commented 9 years ago

Andrew:

I should say getting a VHS place can be difficult - they are often over subscribed - so book early.

gavin-norman-sociomantic commented 9 years ago

This looks like the mother lode!: http://www.manama.diplo.de/contentblob/3331000/Daten/3635752/Downloaddatei_Sprachkurs_Studium.pdf

gavin-norman-sociomantic commented 9 years ago

Andrew said that the tricky thing with the VHS, from the point of view of using a course there to get a visa, is that their courses are 17.5 hours per week. The language learning visa and study visa require that your course is at least 18 hours a week. I'm sure the VHS deliberately puts their courses under this limit.