Failing with Language Classes

On this blog I will share what I have learned about learning German and what I find works for me. As I move forward over the next several months, I hope to get you as excited as I am about learning German.

My best friend Mark lives in Berlin.  He has been fluent in German since he was 17. While he maintains an entire life speaking German in Berlin, I had never really been interested in participating, it just seemed too difficult. However, the moment Mark and I started a business together, that all changed. 

I decided to move to Berlin so that we could spend more time working together on our fledgling company.  So, before leaving my Washington, DC apartment behind I signed up for a German course at a language school.

I ended up taking two courses and spent a happy three hours there every Saturday for eighteen weeks. I didn’t learn much German at all. One of the problems was that all the students spoke English, so speaking German was not necessary.  Another problem was that I never completed the assigned workbook and CD homework for the week.

I blamed it on my crushing work load as an entrepreneur but the truth is that I didn’t enjoy sharpening pencils and pressing them into newsprint workbooks.  I always found better things to do.

It turned into a downward spiral – I never came prepared for my class because I didn’t enjoy the learning style, so I slowly began to become less and less motivated with getting up and schlepping myself downtown every Saturday morning. Unprepared and full of anxiety and trepidation I headed off to Berlin.

(First appeared on the Rosetta Stone blog)