We have just moved to Switzerland, I am Swiss and my wife would like to learn German - she did a Geothe A1.1 during the pandemic and would like to continue. Ideally she would like to do these in person as you get a lot more out of them.
I have looked at ILS and Inlingua, ILS sounded good but the next group course has no registrants so it probably wont go ahead. I saw Migros Klubschule has one in Thun but i have read some pretty bad reviews on here. Does anyone have any suggestions of ones that have been good?
We are located in Spiez for the next 6 months before moving to Zürich, so Thun / Bern would be ok.
Migros did this, as did ILS. But I reiterate that if in a group class, your fellow students can either help or hinder the process.
In one exercise, we had to write the equivalent of German words and phrases in our language. Then we were paired up and supposed to correct each other. Except my partner didn't speak English and I didn't speak Russian. We had no idea whether the other was right.
Also some students only showed up sporadically, so they fell behind and slowed down the rest of the class when it came their turn to do something for the group such as read aloud or give a little talk.
But I've been here a long time and I've twice gone to German classes.. one 'private' the other Migros.
For me it doesn't do much good. A daily routine with a good online course (plus you tube) and, crucially, a speaking session with native for 30 mins, 3 or 4 times a week is the only way. So of course a private tutor is the best but there are other options out there.
In most cases you just need decent German conversational skills to feel comfortable here whereas classes are too often about the declination of the passive neuter adjective conjunction (i think I wasn't really paying attenyion for that bit)
I found the Migros school course ok to kick start me with the absolute basics, but our teacher wasn't brilliant and the group was a group of 15; I found that, after a while, some people (myself included) got better, while others didn't, so that meant we kept having to work at the "lower" level and not really progress. As I said though, I think it's ok to get you going, but in my experience the best way to learn a language is to force yourself to speak it as much as possible (or private teacher, but I dread to think what that would cost here ).
I did 6 months with a school here in Basel, and I changed teachers after the first 3 months because I felt she wasn't very good. The second teacher was better, but I still found that the classroom setting wasn't for me.
An alternative to group lessons is iTalki. It's essentially 1-1 German lessons with a tutor via Zoom (there are also conversationalists on there, i.e. people who aren't tutors but will speak with you for practice).
It's not technically 'in person' but I have found my own learning has benefitted astonishingly from it. You do have to find the right tutors - I think I tried 3 different ones before I found my permanent tutor. I now meet with her 3 times a week, and it's been brilliant for my progression.
Good luck, I hope she finds the right solution for her own learning journey
Same with Lingoda I guess (who also do private lessons btw). But I can't afford Swiss language school prices, and my nearest one is 45 mins away. So I guess it's better to learn and pay a teacher outside of Switzerland, than not to learn and not employ anyone!
I have attended many classes in Alemania Bern , they have branches in Zurich and Luzern as well, and I have found them to be very useful with all the levels I did. The group sizes were not big and their classrooms are spacious, if that`s important The material they used was from Hueber publisher (maybe, that has changed by now) and they supplemented it with photocopies of grammar exercises a lot. What I liked the most there was that they focused on listening, speaking, grammar and writing equally. Ha, I sound like I work for them I don`t! I just have lovely memories of the time there. They also do the prep for TELC Prufung if your wife is planning to take those in the future.
Agree with stefi_ge. I attended both Migros KS (A2 - B1) and Alemania Zürich (B2).
The recommended books were of the same publisher for both.
In case of Migros, I attended classes of 10-14 people, with 4 hours every morning while I was unemployed. Quite intensive, not completely personalized (of course, being a class) but overall well worth the money. YMMV depending on the teacher and the other students. Being in a class has pros and cons, the social aspect can be a big motivation factor!
In Alemania my partner and I asked for a custom timetable because then we were both working and wanted something more low-paced and also more tailored. More expensive as well, but amazing teachers, so again worth it.
In both cases I feel I made tangible progress, while with online non-individual learning after A1 I got a bit stuck.