Step 5 Klugscheissen. As a marketer, I was always told: Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. In Germany, it’s the opposite: Never let a story get in the way of truth. For Germans, truth is sacred and prayed to from the altar of fact. Therefore, it’s also very important…
Step 4 Hate Schlager, know every word. If you’ve ever seen the 1999 movie Idle Hands, you’ll know there’s a rare condition called Alien Hand Syndrome, in which a person’s hand develops a will of its own, actively working against the wishes of its owner. Germans suffer from a lesser known but equally debilitating condition,…
Step 3 Stick to the rules If you’re been to the cinema here, you’ll know the seats come in two types and prices – neckache and non-neckache. Neckache is the first rows from the front, and to be at the back you’ve got to pay more. I’ve not seen tiered seat pricing in other countries.…
Step 2 Say what you mean English is not about what you say, but how you say it. German is both, but more the former. So what Germans say tends to be direct and prepared with minimal ambiguity. Ruthlessly efficient, if you will. In English, for example, if you want someone to do something for…
Step 1 Speak German Every nation has done things it should be embarrassed about. Dark acts in its history. The Germans are no exception. You know of what I talk – the German language. Deutsch is mostly an incomprehensible jumble of exceptions. A dungeon designed to trap foreigners and hold them hostage, repeatedly flogging them…
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” Although this quote by philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is already more than a hundred years old, it is especially relevant again in today’s world. Languages open doors for you in many ways. How best to learn languages and what role stays abroad play in this.…
As fate would have it, he came to Switzerland with his family as a sixteen-year-old boy. From being silent to starting to speak he developed and refined his own method of learning foreign languages – far more effective than what we are used to from school time. He is ready to share it with all…
Csaba was one of the most successful students at VOX. He learned German from A1 level until B1 level with the TELC German exam passed in 6 lessons of 60 min of individual lessons at VOX. We shaped a highly individualized program for him that matched exactly his learning way, and it produced really amazing…
It all started with Russian. In the beginning, Pawel said that he is not gifted for language learning because he is rather talented in maths. After the first Russian course at VOX and a successful experience, he also took a German course. Then he said that he understood how the VOX method works and decided…
1. ARE THE GROUPS NOT TOO BIG? It is important to consider that the bigger your group is, the less time you will have to actively speak and the less time the teacher will have to address your personal needs. Ideally, the group size should not exceed 5 people and the teacher should balance the…