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What is your direct offer?
I offer Learn German Through Art German Courses Focusing on Everyday ConversationPSA: Self-Teaching a New Language is Easy and Everyone Can Do It
These days, you can find lots of language apps, online programmes and YouTube channels that promise you free and easy to follow resources to learn a new language without an instructor. While these resources can be help you to practice what you have already learned or give you basic language blocks to get around when you travel, most people will experience frustration and waste a lot of time trying to teach themselves a subject, especially a language that is foreign to them.
While we all have great intentions when we make plans to learn something new, when we do not have any type of accountability, we often get stuck or postpone our learning. Finding a good platform is difficult because as a language learner, it is often hard to determine where you should start, what course book, videos or audio recordings to pick for your progress.
Self-education requires a lot of discipline to keep motivated. Without a teacher you are isolated and don’t have anyone to support your individual strengths and weaknesses. Without other students, it is hard to compare how and if you are progressing. A good teacher will create a safe environment to encourage you and wants you to reach your language goal.
Learning a new language is not a short-term goal but requires at least a year of commitment when you want to confidently communicate in a variety of situations.
The purpose of learning a language is to communicate. You can learn tons of vocabulary and spend hours bend over grammar rules to perfect your sentences, but you have to overcome the fear to talk. The person across from you doesn’t care if you use the correct word or grammar but how you connect.
Moreover, acquiring the language skills for communication is as crucial as knowing a country’s traditions and culture to understand the people in the target country.When I came to Canada, I had the language skills after a two-year certification as a foreign language correspondent. During the full-time programme, the goal had been perfection. However, I did not dare to talk to people. Once I talked with different people, I became more and more confident. The more I learned about Canadian customs, the more comfortable I felt in different situations. I felt less than an outsider and more like part of the community.
If you want to find our how to learn German playfully and interactively to feel confident when you communicate with German speakers, message me.
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12 Comments-
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![Profile picture of KerstinPeters]()
Thank you, JessicaPetter. It is so frustrating to see how many people try it alone and struggle until they abandon learning the language.
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![Profile picture of JoelElfman]()
Kerstin this is great. Your paragraphs are really, clear, clean and compelling for each idea. I would consider sub-headers for some of the them. Intention; Commitment; Discipline; Communication. You might move your story up, and consider a client story. The only part that really threw me off is your title. The title felt entirely counter-intuitive to what I know, and it felt so far, from what I know, I wanted to avoid reading. Maybe there is another way to say it, that would bring me in. Or maybe the title can be more aligned w/ rest of the story. “Language Apps are Useful, but They Don’t Answer the Biggest Challenge”, “You can Always Learn the Words, but How Do You Get Comfortable w/ a Foreign Language” or something else.
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![Profile picture of KerstinPeters]()
Joel, thank you for the feedback. I was not too excited about the title and will still work on a more compelling one. Thank you for your suggestions.
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![Profile picture of KerstinPeters]()
I thought about several other Titles after Shannon’s title templates. How do you feel about the following?
Why You Shouldn’t Rely on Apps and Online Programmes to Learn a New Language
Why Learning a New Language with Apps and Online Programmes Will Leave You Frustrated
Why Hiring an Instructor to Learn a New Language Will Save You Time and Improves Your Success
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![Profile picture of KerstinPeters]()
Here is a slightly shorter version with bolded main points:
These days, you can find many language apps, online programmes and YouTube channels that promise you free and easy to follow resources to learn a new language without an instructor. However, most people will experience frustration and waste a lot of time trying to teach themselves a language that is foreign to them.
We all have great intentions when we make plans to learn something new. However, when we do not have accountability, we often get stuck or postpone learning.
Self-education requires a lot of discipline to keep motivated. Without a teacher, you are isolated and don’t have anyone to support your individual strengths and weaknesses. Without other students, you struggle to compare how and if you are progressing.
The purpose of learning a language is to communicate. You can learn tons of vocabulary and spend hours bent over grammar rules to perfect your sentences, but you have to overcome the fear to talk. The person across from you doesn’t care if you use the correct word or grammar but how you connect.
Moreover, acquiring the language skills for communication is as crucial as knowing a country’s traditions and culture to understand the people in the target country.
When I came to Canada, I had the language skills after a two-year certification as a foreign language correspondent. During the full-time programme, the goal was perfection. However, I did not dare to talk to people. Once I started talking with different people, I became more and more confident. The more I learned about Canadian customs, the more comfortable I felt in different situations. I felt less than an outsider and more like part of the community.
If you want to find our how to learn German playfully and interactively to feel confident when you communicate with German speakers, message me.
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![Profile picture of KerstinPeters]()
Unfortunately, the formatting of the bold words is not showing.
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![Profile picture of KerstinPeters]()
Here are the words I will emphasize: accountability, support your individual strengths and weaknesses, communicate, overcome the fear to talk, knowing a country’s traditions and culture
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![Profile picture of NancyChen]()
Hi Jessica,
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![Profile picture of NancyChen]()
…love your passion, it comes through here! Might it have more impact if you present your core argument point up front, like ” learning a language through fun, live interaction is way/infinitely/10X more effective than an online app”. And here’s why. I’d like to hear more about YOUR process up front; a bolder title would also convey your passion!
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![Profile picture of KerstinPeters]()
Thank you, NancyChen for the suggestions. I am still not happy with the title but will nevertheless use it for a FB live. Do you have any suggestion for the title?
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![Profile picture of KerstinPeters]()
Here are some more title ideas: 1) Why Apps Don’t Teach You Communication 2) Why You Should Not Rely on Apps to Learn a Language 3) Why an App Cannot Teach You Conversations in a Foreign Language 4) Language App Versus Human Instructor – How to Learn a Language Successfully
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Kerstin! I love what you do, and so well explained. I can relate: my husband is French, and his entire family is only French-speaking, so I was pretty motivated to learn the language!! I have done some of the apps and youtube channels and also some in-person courses. I can relate to the absolute frustration of trying to wrap my brain around that foreign language, and I could not have done it without the in-person help. I’ve spent hours in tears, KNOWING I’m an intelligent person, and I just couldn’t figure some of these things out until someone sat beside me and talked me through it. They’re just complicated, they’re so completely FOREGIN. My mother has decided to take on French as well so she can communicate with our baby girl (heart-melt), and I’ve now done the same for her…held her hand, chatting through some of the concepts that she just couldn’t quite get. Learning a new language without personal help would be like trying to climb a 30 foot brick wall without a ladder for me!!