AKSHAR’S EXPERIENCE WITH MY CLASS: MISTAKES YOU SHOULD MAKE

Recently I mentioned that in my class every student speaks in German from the beginning and that making mistakes is allowed. I didn’t realize how meaningful it can be for some of my students.?

Akshar is a little different from the rest of my students. He has been living in Germany for three years before starting my class. He is a student and an intern in a company he hopes to become his full-time employer. When he came to Germany, he didn’t know anything about the German language – not the first thing, but he knew that the quality of his life in Germany relies on knowing and speaking the language.

It didn’t take long for him to realize that “knowing” is not the same as “speaking”, especially if you are a foreigner in Germany.

He started to learn the language through the traditional classes. He stayed focused on the curriculum – new words, grammar, and completing tasks. Soon he came to a point where he knew the basics, words, articles, and grammar but he still could not speak. It has happened to him that he knows the word and says it, but people don’t understand him.

All that because he didn’t have a chance to work on his pronunciation. That is why Lightspeed German Learning is just what he needed to get ahead in learning the language, building a career, and in his personal life. He simply needed an environment where he could talk in German with people who can correct his pronunciation.

The thing is, many of my students say that the opportunity to make mistakes and be corrected in an instant is what really helped them to stop making the same mistakes over and over again.

Akshar also made mistakes while speaking German during class. A lot of them. During the first few weeks, he was very scared of speaking and making a mistake. But when he realized that every mistake is a learning opportunity and that making a mistake in conversation doesn’t necessarily mean that you cannot be understood, he could speak freely. We saw great progress after six weeks.

He is now able to correct himself, ask questions if he is not sure that he understood the other person, and can get around any situation while speaking German.

He says that before signing up for my course, he wasn’t confident enough to speak, especially in the work environment. When you are an intern and you are trying to present yourself as a professional, your speaking manner and attitude are the light your superiors are going to look through when assessing your abilities.

So no matter how confident Akshar was about his ideas and opinions, he was not able to fully express them and was feeling insecure about his language. That’s why he wasn’t presenting the best side of himself. He started to make mistakes he wouldn’t make otherwise.?

Now Akshar is able to speak in meetings fully in German, even in front of 15 people. He says that this is the result of constant feedback me and my colleagues gave him during the course.

By insisting on speaking only in German in classes, no matter what, and giving him the much-needed feedback, we made Akshar feel like he already knew the language, so after so many corrections, the speaking part comes naturally to him. Now, even if he makes a mistake, he is able to correct himself.

From a guy who didn’t know where to start, or how to say something, who was thinking too much before speaking, Akshar is now confident in his German and doesn’t overthink every word before he says it. His pronunciation improved so much that everyone at work love talking to him and has no problem understanding what he’s saying.

If you tried traditional language classes and are currently missing someone to talk to in German, let us set your personal and flexible learning plan with structured lessons, live classes, conversations practice, and constant support from our teachers!