Online German- what are my options?

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I stupidly have not been taking notes when this comes up on the board, and now I can't remember some of the programs that are out there for online language learning!  

 

We are already doing DuoLingo, and ds will probably be finishing up by summer.  

 

What I am looking for:

 

- online German with class-room like elements.  Either recorded or live lectures, and telephone/skype interaction (my recollection is that this was about once a week)

 

If you know of a good program that does not offer the telephone conversation part, this might be ok, as we do have access to native speakers.  

 

What I don't want:  Rosetta Stone or RS lookalikes.  

 

Thanks!

[Susan Wise Bauer]

Monica,

 

The Well-Trained Mind Academy is offering German this fall. Live instruction and plenty of practice. We're excited about this course--the instructor is a Ph.D. in German with university teaching experience, and she's coming on board with WTMA to help develop a whole department of online foreign language instruction.

 

German II will be offered next year.

 

http://www.wtmacademy.com/courses/classes/german-i/

 

HTH,

 

SWB

[3 ladybugs]

Monica,

 

The Well-Trained Mind Academy is offering German this fall. Live instruction and plenty of practice. We're excited about this course--the instructor is a Ph.D. in German with university teaching experience, and she's coming on board with WTMA to help develop a whole department of online foreign language instruction.

 

German II will be offered next year.

 

http://www.wtmacademy.com/courses/classes/german-i/

 

HTH,

 

SWB

 

Are you going to offer classes for younger grades? 

 

OP In Switzerland certainly you have access to classes and schools that teach german right? Are you wanting to learn Swiss German or German? I have been happy with my son's class in german that we do once a week. I am having to supplement a bit at home, but that is mainly because very little german is typically spoken in my home. 

Edited February 22, 2016 by 3 ladybugs

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Monica,

 

The Well-Trained Mind Academy is offering German this fall. Live instruction and plenty of practice. We're excited about this course--the instructor is a Ph.D. in German with university teaching experience, and she's coming on board with WTMA to help develop a whole department of online foreign language instruction.

 

German II will be offered next year.

 

http://www.wtmacademy.com/courses/classes/german-i/

 

HTH,

 

SWB

 

Thank you!  I see this is recommended 7th grade and up.  Will you restrict participation to this age level or allow younger students?  I don't doubt that he can do a high school level German I course next fall, but you may be reserving such a small class size to students in the selected age range.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Are you going to offer classes for younger grades? 

 

OP In Switzerland certainly you have access to classes and schools that teach german right? Are you wanting to learn Swiss German or German? I have been happy with my son's class in german that we do once a week. I am having to supplement a bit at home, but that is mainly because very little german is typically spoken in my home. 

 

Well, it's a bit tricky.  We are on the French side, and French/English bilingual.  I'm required to teach high German starting this year (3rd grade).  When our inspector saw what he was doing with DuoLingo, she was blown away, as classroom instruction at this point is still very light.  I just don't see the point in bothering with gentle introduction stuff if the child is actually capable of progressing in a more serious way.  

 

My husband has very good German, but not the time to teach it to the kids.  But he could correct and help with work if necessary.  My German is non-existent. 

 

There are lots of outside German classes (all in high German as Swiss German is just a spoken dialect), but they are either "enrichment" at the child level (i.e. songs and a handful of vocabulary words) or designed for adults and given at night.  

 

What I want is the equivalent of a high school course.  I don't see the point in messing around with "kiddie" materials, as he's perfectly capable of completing an adult introductory German course.  

 

I may look into finding him a local tutor, but want to be able to see what my options are and how much I need to budget.  Basically, I would love to get him up to a self-study level by middle school/high school.  

[3 ladybugs]

That is odd! My son is in a german class here outside Philly. It is supported in part by Germany to encourage people to learn german. I am not sure what they get, but they get something. My son is considered in 1st grade in Pennsylvania (late September birthday, we live in NJ and he is considered 2nd grade here, he learns at around 2.5 grade LOL ), and they have him learning light vocabulary and such right now. Next year though I have been told he will have a text book, and will be expected to do more. My son doesn't like to talk in Deutsch because he is a perfectionist (he doesn't want to say anything unless it is going to be correct, had this issue when he was learning english too!  :cursing: ) and I have been told he will have issues next year if he doesn't overcome this. 

 

Have you looked at http://www.pasch-net.deI don't know if it will help you but you might find something a bit more rigorous. 

 

Good luck!

[yvonne]

Monica,

 

The Well-Trained Mind Academy is offering German this fall. Live instruction and plenty of practice. We're excited about this course--the instructor is a Ph.D. in German with university teaching experience, and she's coming on board with WTMA to help develop a whole department of online foreign language instruction.

 

German II will be offered next year.

 

http://www.wtmacademy.com/courses/classes/german-i/

 

HTH,

 

SWB

 

Complete tangent, but if you're interested in developing a strong online French program, I have the perfect, native French instructor for you!

 

[...................]

My son is signed up for the Landry class because the teacher sounds so fun and engaging. She's essentially a world traveler and adventurer who went to college in Germany who now lives on a ranch....seems like the kind of person to make studying a foreign language exciting!

[Loesje22000]

This is not what you asked for, but knowing what you are doing for French, I would like to share this:

http://www.amazon.de/Praxis-Sprache-Literatur-Gymnasien-Schülerband/dp/3141208255/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51lk1UiFyaL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR120%2C160_&refRID=1N87FHSTETCJJM86VGJ9

 

As far as I could see this is the first volume of the serie, it runs to klasse 10.

It is comparable to the jardin des lettres series.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

This is not what you asked for, but knowing what you are doing for French, I would like to share this:

http://www.amazon.de/Praxis-Sprache-Literatur-Gymnasien-Schülerband/dp/3141208255/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51lk1UiFyaL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR120%2C160_&refRID=1N87FHSTETCJJM86VGJ9

 

As far as I could see this is the first volume of the serie, it runs to klasse 10.

It is comparable to the jardin des lettres series.

Thank you!  I will have my dh check this out to see if he'd like to use it with the kids.  

[crazyforlatin]

CLRC has a class called Young German,http://www.clrconline.com/young-german/

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

That is odd! My son is in a german class here outside Philly. It is supported in part by Germany to encourage people to learn german. I am not sure what they get, but they get something. My son is considered in 1st grade in Pennsylvania (late September birthday, we live in NJ and he is considered 2nd grade here, he learns at around 2.5 grade LOL ), and they have him learning light vocabulary and such right now. Next year though I have been told he will have a text book, and will be expected to do more. My son doesn't like to talk in Deutsch because he is a perfectionist (he doesn't want to say anything unless it is going to be correct, had this issue when he was learning english too!  :cursing: ) and I have been told he will have issues next year if he doesn't overcome this. 

 

Have you looked at http://www.pasch-net.deI don't know if it will help you but you might find something a bit more rigorous. 

 

Good luck!

 

I did some poking around for local stuff, and there are more options that I thought, but they are crazy expensive- $1500 a year.  

 

I think I'm just going to put an ad out for a high school/college aged tutor.  

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

My son is signed up for the Landry class because the teacher sounds so fun and engaging. She's essentially a world traveler and adventurer who went to college in Germany who now lives on a ranch....seems like the kind of person to make studying a foreign language exciting!

 

Thank you, I will take a look at this!  

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

In case anyone is lurking, this is another I had heard about and forgotten about and found again...

http://germanonline.okstate.edu

[3 ladybugs]

I did some poking around for local stuff, and there are more options that I thought, but they are crazy expensive- $1500 a year.  

 

I think I'm just going to put an ad out for a high school/college aged tutor.  

Where is that jawdrop emoticon!? I only pay a 1/3 of that! I know that I am getting a good deal, another school I know charges double what I pay, but that seems REALLY excessive! 

 

I wish you luck on finding someone!

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Where is that jawdrop emoticon!? I only pay a 1/3 of that! I know that I am getting a good deal, another school I know charges double what I pay, but that seems REALLY excessive! 

 

I wish you luck on finding someone!

 

Unfortunately, these are just Swiss prices.  This is a crazy expensive country.  Also, there are just not many options because every other child in the country is attending school and getting German for free.  lol.  :-)

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I think we will go with a combo of an online class- possibly WTMA, and a tutor.  

[Cleopatra]

My dd took OSU German Online for 2 years.  On the plus side:

 

1.  the program was created by a native German and you are always hearing native German speakers

2.  it is equivalent to immersion, without being complete immersion.  They try to do as much as they can in German, and I find the student progresses more quickly this way

3.  there is the benefit of telephone conversations once per week

 

On the negative side:

 

1.  I found there was quite a bit of busywork.  I really thought the language instruction could have been streamlined to get the same amount of information into the student without the copious amounts of paperwork.  But then again, I think it would be equivalent to any public high school course

 

2.  Because of the immersion factor, the teaching of grammar is rather haphazard.  I did prefer the emphasis on the former, but would have liked some structure (a textbook, or textbook-like materials or something) for the grammar.  Of course, one has to learn to be intuitive when learning a language, but eventually you're going to want to be precise too.  I found it a little weak in the grammar instruction.

 

3.  The telephone conversations are often with students.  There are good students, but if you get one who isn't working for you, you may have to advocate a change.  My dd had some good ones, and then ones that just asked her questions in English which was not what we wanted.

 

All in all, I would say this course is very good for getting the students to quickly understand and start conversing in German.  For a comprehensive course, though, I would recommend some support grammar books.  These are pretty boring, but they'd do the job.

 

I hope that helps!