Hello,

I am trying to find a 1 week only intensive German course for a friend.

Can anyone recommend any good courses in the Zurich region? I have found the following so far:

Cactus
Benedict
Bellingua
Swissing
LSI

Has anyone been there and have any feedback?

Also, lots of schools say that on their courses for 20 or so weeks, it is possible to join and leave at any time as you can pay by the week. This seems a little odd as I don't see how you can benefit from starting halfway through a course and finishing before its over!? Has anyone done this?

Thank you very much, any help is very much appreciated!

Schönen Tag

What exactly would you hope to learn in a week?

If you feel like flushing money... I have a few suggestions that could likely be more efficient.

Hello

I think Bellingua is a good place to learn German but not in one week. One week intensive course is the worst thing I ve ever heard. Your brain needs time to bunker the informations, you need practice and time. I recommend at least a four-week course.....
Anyway, if you hold on to the one week course, try Bellingua!

A.

Thank you. I know 1 week is not long, but its for a friend who is very busy and is wanting to take a week off work in August to learn as much of the basics as he can during that time. Will have another look at Bellingua, thanks!

One idea might be to find a private teacher. It would be more expensive, but if you found one without going through a school, it could be 65chf an hour. Say 2 hours a day, then 2-3 hours homework per day.
Your freind would master the basics.
If I had a week and the money, that is what I would do.

Come now, for the level in question, you can find a student for 20-30/hour; Just check out the eth's Marktplatz.

Still won't retain anything beyond numbers/alphabet though.

I disagree, for beginners a qualified teacher is probably more important actually. If you start making mistakes at the start is very hard to rectify them later on. Plus beginners teaching is, arguably, the most skilled of all.

CHF65 per hour would be a very good price for a qualified and experienced teacher, in my opinion. I think closer to CHF80-90 is what you would be looking at.

What do you expect to learn in one week?

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English lyrics for German songs

Ok, I don't know anything about intensive German lessons...

But I had a lady staying with me for a month last summer while she was looking for an apartment, and she was taking a "beginners" French course at one of these schools with this "join the class at any point" policies.

After her second class, she came home in the evening and said "V, can you explain to me what the subjunctive is?".

Now, she spoke practically no French - and this was being advertised as a beginners class, and they were teaching them the subjunctive! I didn't start learning that until I'd been learning French for 9 years.

In addition to this small matter of total lack of suitability in terms of subjects covered, she told me these classes were very difficult because there were people of so many different levels - e.g. people who had only the basics, and people who were just about to be moved up to the next class up.

So based on her experience, I wouldn't recommend that kind of "free" approach for language learning.

In terms of private tuition, I second what others have said about the importance of an experienced and qualified teacher for beginners. I briefly tried to learn German through language exchanges, and gave up because I realised that my partners were getting so much more out of it than I was - because my German was so basic, and their teaching skills not up to the task of meeting my needs.

I like being optimistic but 1 week, even if intensive (can't be more than 4-5 hours a day) will teach you nothing. If there's even someone offering such courses I'd stay away from them, they seem like a rip-off attempt to me..

PS: 4 years in Switzerland, and my German is not that great

I am currently studying Bellingua and if you want to participate just for one week I think I learned already quite a lot during my first week. However, the way it works is that you have to find out from the school when the beginners class starts. I believe they start every 4 weeks and if you already know german you can join the class later on as well-if there is space. So I really recommend Bellingua but go visit them first to find out when the classes start they are very helpful at the office. Good luck to your friend!

And most important, have as many german speaking around you for the week as you can. Ban english! This is the best way to learn.

You can learn a lot in an intensive week - enough to get by at a very basic level- especially if you ditch your mother tongue and go for full immersion. You will have a head like a football (I remember it well) but it will pay dividends. Sadly I cannot offer to help as I live too far away- but would be quite happy to offer this for French.