Tag Archives: Deutsch course

Weekend Tip – Grüner See

Vienna is a wonderful city but sometimes we just need to get rid of all the people and go out in the nature. Austria is an especially beautiful country with well preserved and clean nature and breathtaking mountains. Well, let’s combine the natural treasures and the mountains – let’s go to Grüner See!

It is a small lake in Styria, surrounded by gorgeous mountains and lust forests. The name originated because of its vivid emerald-green color. The crystal clear water comes from the snow melt from the karst mountains and it’s really cold, only 6-7 °C. During the winter, the lake shrinks (it already starts in July), and the surrounding are is used as a county park.
It reaches it’s utmost beauty in May – June, when it is the deepest, about 12 meters.

It was very popular amongst divers but now, to protect the sensitive environment, it is not allowed anymore. For swimming it would be too cold anyway.

It is a 2.5 hours drive from Vienna. There is a short walk from the parking spot, then you can go around the lake on a well maintained path. It is also called as „the Caribbean in Austria“, because of the stunning green color of the water. A lot of Americans visit it, because some say that this lake is even nicer than Lake Tahoe, in Nevada. (Well, my husband told it and he is from Styria 🙂 ).
But judge it on your own, it really worth to visit 🙂

 

 

Moving to B1. First thoughts!

Finally, this week, I made the big jump of moving from beginner level German classes (A1, A2) to middle level and I think its been an interesting change and one that must be shared with future students who will be making the same transition in due course. After all, it always helps to know the experience of people who have taken or are taking the same journey as you are! Additionally,it would also give me a chance to fondly remember the amazing time I had in the beginner courses at Deutsch Academy Wien!

Hard work ahead!

First of all, B1 does announce itself in with big bold headlines! The books are feel different and structured quite differently. The words we learn are noticeably longer (its German after all!) and more abstract, so cute cartoonish pictures to explain words are largely done away with. Instructors help you with the transition of course, but the message is clear – its a bit more serious now! Themes get more sophisticated and classes are more packed and some of us have to spend our break time going over new words that are not that easy to comprehend. Instructors also engage students assuming a certain comfort level in spoken and written Deutsch, so its quite a different ball game. Its generally the students who have to be more animated to get across to the teacher now!

All that being said, I really must mention the excellent coaching that we received at Deutsch Academy in the earlier levels as its the main reason for us being able to keep up with the demanding course work. I can definitely appreciate the effort that teachers spent drilling in basic concepts and lexicon into our brains, now that we have to rely on it so much for further progress. In many ways, B1 builds on top of concepts learnt in earlier courses and cements them further, so having strong basics matters more than ever. A big, heartfelt thanks to my instructors and my fellow students at the Zieglergasse location for all the help they extended to me over the past couple of months! I am grateful for it now more than ever!