Migros Klubschule - German Intensive

Complaints Corner
1
Hey Everyone,

I am stuck in a bit of a pickle and need some advice. I am at the end of my second week of my intensive course at Migros in Luzern. The first week we had two different teachers rotating between lessons and it was fine because both were quite good and quite clear when teacher. This week we got our teacher who will teach us for the next 3 weeks and I am VERY disappointed. She is all over the place, she does not explain things clearly she makes us do the same activities over and over again, there is no variety and instead of getting us to work in pairs so that everyone is getting practice she makes us read out individually and the whole class has to listen. I really don't know what to do? I have paid ALOT of money for this course and I left the lesson today having just repeated everything we did yesterday and feeling like my head is no clearer. She gives us homework which is un-related to what we are doing so the only way we can complete it is to look up the answers.

Please give me some advice.....

2
Hi Chardie

I don't know how useful my input is, as I live in Basel, but I've been doing intensive German at the Migros Klubschule here since November, and my experience has been the opposite. Our teacher is very focused, energetic and clear and she is the reason I have carried on until now! I do remember feeling completely shell-shocked at the end of Week 1 though and as though I had understood nothing; I spoke to the teacher, told her I understood nothing (!) and she came the next lesson with a sheet for all of us with the types of instructions she would give us (e.g read aloud/listen/work in pairs etc). I'm not saying this because I'm gloating, please don't take it like that - just to validate you in thinking that your learning experience isn't good!

I guess what I'm saying is maybe start by speaking to the teacher, and phrasing your concerns as diplomatically as possible. I was a teacher in the UK and much preferred my students coming to me first when they were unhappy. If things don't get better then I guess the next step is to speak to someone else at Migros - perhaps Reception could help you with this, or someone else on here might know. I do think that learning is so important on the teacher delivering things clearly and being well-organised, and you have every right to expect this.

I sympathise hugely - if I can be of any help (even if only to share how it should/could be done so your case has more weight, should you decide to complain and try to get transferred/money back) then do PM me.

Sarah.

3
I did German intensive classes at a Migros in Zurich, and while I had a decent teacher, all we did was repetition. We sometimes worked in groups, but not very often, and most of the time just went around the table taking turns saying our piece or reading from the book.

In comparison to lessons I did with my colleagues, from a private teacher, I found that the whole Migros program was learning by constantly repeating the same thing. Our teacher would only ask us a question that was phrased the same way, if she had said it any other way we wouldn't have had any idea of what she was talking about. All answers we gave to her were the same, canned, repeated things.

If you're not that happy I would suggest speaking with someone from reception - hopefully they will help. I find it kind of strange they are rotating teachers in and out, you would think they would want some consistency as everyone has a different style of teaching. Should you decide to stick it out I would suggest going with a school that has a more conversational approach for your next batch of lessons, Migros gives a good start but I don't think it's the best program out there.....as they say, you get what you pay for.

4
hi chardie,

im on the last week of my intensive course too but thankfully have a superb teacher. she is very good and unlike what you have mentioned. since the schule guys have changed your teacher thrice already why dont you go upto the reception or one of the counsellors there and explain your prob to em? im sure some help will come through. i agree its a lot of money that we are meant to pay them so they sure owe you an explanation or atleast a way out.

good luck!

aks

5
Hey Guys,

Thank you for your replies, well I am an English teaching studying a bachelor of Education and fresh out of CELTA therefore I think that is why I am so baffled. I was thinking it might be the Migros with the repetition etc. You are right if someone asked me a question differently I would have NO IDEA how to answer.

Can anyway suggest other schools in Luzern as I am determined to learn.

Can you pull the plug in Week 2 and get your money back?

Kind regards,

Charde

6
I think the rules about refunds are very restrictive... best to ask beforehand!

7
Have you tried doing the exercises to see if you still feel the same

way? If you just try to plug ahead, maybe it will come to you.

8
If you can travel to Zug i suggest www.thelearningplace.ch

9
I'll tell you what I tell everybody. Migros school is WHACK! The teachers are mostly old ladies who are all over the place with no teaching method, who make you memorize useless vocab (like horse saddle, christmas cookies etc) jump from topic to topic without making sure that the previous one was set in stone.

Best advice. Put out an ad for somebody who would exchange their German for your English or something spend 30 minutes just talking to them. Buy some books and teach yourself. Go as slowly as possible and repeat stuff you already times as nauseum so you dream at night about it... It'll actually go faster then the "fast" methods.

10
Hi Chardie

Sorry to hear about the problem you're having at Migros Clubschool. Nothing worse than paying lots of money, getting motivated to learn and then having a teacher that doesn't work for you.

Unfortunately I've no advice for your specific situation with Migros, but I have stumbled across a very good german course sponsored by the Canton (in my case ZH). I pay sfr10 / hour (mine is only 2 hours per week, although I beleive they do an intensive course as well). OK - you have to also be lucky and gel with the teacher.

I did try to have a quick look at the Canton Zug website for intergration courses and didn't find any within my 5 mins search (but I didn't find any on the Zurich site either!). Perhaps call your Gemeinde or Canton and ask them if they support any intergration programs. If you're lucky maybe Zug provides one too.

Good Luck

11

I thought whack meant good?

I'm an old lady myself and though I don't jump arround always took 'whack' as a compliment....

12
You need to check the hip-hop dikshionari grandma...

13
Chardie, what is your level of German?

You can really learn a lot by yourself, and with other learners.

I have been learning German for the past six months using whatever I can find on the internet, these are the 4 websites that I use most often.

1. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/ Deutsche Welle

2. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/ Audio/Podcasts/Language Courses.

This site gets two mentions because it is so good, and has such a variety of stuff. For elementary learners the Warum Nicht courses bi-lingual, audio and textbooks are available. For more advanced learners look under Deutsch XXL- Sprachbar, Stichwort, Alltagsdeutsch- these podcasts are thematic, and you can download the PDFs. All this stuff is really high quality and totally free.

These guys deserve a medal.

3. http://www.nthuleen.com/teach/grammar.html Grammar and Vocab worksheets.

This website is by a teacher at an American university (Deutsch 101 J ) and she has kindly posted all the materials that she has made and uses in her classes. Fantastic for elementary-lower intermediate level students. There is lots of clear grammar worksheets, and the tricky grammar is explained in English. Take a look at the adjective endings stuff; I broke my head on adjective endings for months, then read the worksheets here, and a lightbulb came on.

4. http://pukkagerman.com/index.html Talk the talk. This podcast aims to teach German slang; the podcasts and tapescripts are free, and it’s bilingual. I like it, but German idioms, don’t always work in Switzerland.

and no 5 www.slowgerman.com a short 3-5 min podcast on a topic with a transcript.

Don't give up on Migros, it may be crap, but it's an opportunity to pratcise. And to find people to study with, start your own study group. I know it sounds odd, but apparently correction, written or spoken, means very little in terms of langauge develoment, so if you are a learner with teaching know how organise practise sesions with other learners, ok no one can definitevley correct each other, but as a teacher you should be able to set up practise scenarios, and it's practise that counts.

Good luck,

check out slowgerman

Sa

14

will do, had american freinds in my youth, apparently misled me in transatlanticjapanapes type fun. i'll have some ovaltine and retire.

15
I had 3 different teachers at Migros in Luzern: 2 were good, 1 not so good. My wife had 2 different teachers who were both good. I think that it's just bad luck to get a lousy teacher but it also depends on the rest of your class. I'll probably go back to Migros again as I didn't have that bad of an experience.

My wife has a friend that also had a bad experience with the Luzern Migros and switched to Alemania . He was quite happy with that school. Good luck to you.

16
Migros school for language is fine up to a level, say first 6 months, but in higher lev els, go for other choices.

17
I also went to the Migroschule for the intensive course. I would really recommend that people find their course elsewhere! I had 2 teachers that were totally opposite teaching styles and it was really discouraging. Also, the class "limit" was supposed to be 12-14 students, but we had 16 in our class! Almost every student in the class started complaining after day one, but nothing changed except for the number of students (to 15, and, ironically, we were still over the limit!) per class on the Migros website! Not cool. One student happened to be from a big-shot company so we received an official "apology" but I am not going back and am advising others to avoid Migroschule as well. They were so unhelpful at the "help desk" and claimed that they could do nothing; yet, they refused to give us any email addresses or phone numbers so we could to someone who could help us resolve our problems. In the end, they were just stalling for time. Don't go to that school - you might get a great teacher, but chances seem pretty slim from what I have heard and experienced.