Mini Group Plus Course 20+4

Sprachinstitut TREFFPUNKT Bamberg is amazing. I began classes on a Monday, along with 16 other students, ranging in age and language skills from approximately age 8 (Level A1) to age 26 (Level C2), and up to age 60 (Level B1). We 17 brought the number of students in the school to over 40. By the end of that first day, though, all of the faculty and staff knew every one of the students by name. This is just one of the personal touches I found at Sprachinstitut TREFFPUNKT Bamberg.
The extracurricular events were well planned, interactive and interesting. They ranged from guided tours of various parts of the city to unique cultural experiences within the city, such as the "Badekultur" and the "Brauereikultur". One evening, there was a presentation of musical education, presented by a member of the Bamberger Philharmoniker. Most of the extracurricular events were included with one's tuition.
The school itself could not be better situated- directly among shops, cafes, and steps to the daily market. It is only a few blocks from the "VGN" central transit depot, where one can get a bus to any other part of the city. If one wants ot travel further, the main railway station is only 8 minutes away by bus and foot, or 10 minutes on foot only. I had to discover teh VGN app for myself. Information about the app and transit should be provided by the school in advance. It can save students a considerable amount of money!
Daily lessons were broken up into two periods of 1½ hours, each with a different instructor. Changing instructors for the second period is an excellent concept. It exposes students to different speech patterns, thus providing the opportunity to hear different accents, as well as to experience different teaching styles. I think that much more vocabulary was covered in Frank's lessons. Erik said, that his goal was to provide students with value for their money. He emphasised, that if he had permitted English in the class, or assigned less homework, there would be less value for the students. I completely agree with him and feel that I received full value for my money!
In my opinion, though, Erik relied too heavily on technology, so that when the technology didn't work (digital projector/internet), he would seldom use the whiteboard at the front of the class. A large part of learning verb conjugations, new vocabulary, points of grammar, etc. is visual. Merely speaking/spelling is not as conducive to learning a language, as being able to actually SEE the teaching point in writing. Erik's suggestion of using the "Deepl" app though was very useful, and I still regularly use it.
The school offers many different housing plans. I chose to live in a private home with a host family. I could not have asked for better hosts! They were very generous and often included me in many of their own social activities. They had a genuine interest in my background and aspects of my homeland. This led to many opportunities for lively and educational discussions. It also gave me more insight into Germany and its culture, form a German perspective.

The classes are small and the teachers are excellent.
They have different teachers throughout the classes which is great to get used to different voices and accents in German.

The material is easy to follow and fun to learn, there is a lot of conversation and because the classes are small you have plenty of chances to practice.

I've taken classes in another school in Munich and they have over 18 students in the class, I was there for 2 months and didn't learn much with 31 classes a week. I honestly think in two weeks with TREFFPUNKT I've learned more than those 2 months. I am coming back for another round soon. The school is excellent and I recommend it to everyone.

Very good / active social program. All of the staff were very accommodating / keen to take on board feedback. 1 bad teacher experience which was quickly addressed.

Unlike my only other language school experience, the course was very much focused on helping students pass language exams (B1 - C2), which was not my reason for attending, so most of the classes are very much text book based. Pros and cons to this, but individual 1-2-1 instruction available if the group classes are not to your needs.

In just two weeks I improve a lot my German. The teachers are amazing and the schools offers many social activities. They always want to help you and learning German with them is a lot of fun! They also give you many facilities with the accommodation and with the transport to the airport. Everything was very organized and that made me feel very safe. It was a super experience and I recommend it to everyone!

I had a very good welcome at the school. The teachers were very good and supportive, and I was in a small, lovely group of students with a wide range of ages, experience and interests. The facilities were very good, and the school arranged excellent local housing with a very friendly and helpful host. I enjoyed a mini city tour and stammtisch evening at a traditional pub with students from another course. It was great that the school is within walking distance of - well, everything! - and Bamberg is an interesting, friendly small city with plenty going on.

One small thing was that the general information said that I would then need to do a test on my first morning at the school - in the end I did not need to do this, which was great, but I didn't know that until I was taken into the classroom!

The class I was in was right for my level, and the work we did was a good mix of grammar and vocabulary that was new for me, building on skills, and revisiting things I had encountered before but was not very confident in.

My language skills and confidence did improve a lot even within one week.

The experience at Language International was good and in line with my expectations.

I have in general appreciate the quality of teaching with articular regard to:

- the type of book we had
- the kind of method being adopted
- the behavior of the teacher with the student/their competence in teaching (with particular regard to the lady which I had as second feminine teacher, I cannot remember her name unfortunately: extremely good, clever, clear, and patient.

Other teachers were, on the contrary, less patient and a bit nervous

I have appreciated that we were a small number of students in the course (which is one of the most relevant conditions to learn)

I have in general appreciated the facilities given the central position of the school, as well as the large and full of light room.
The student-room was of extreme usefulness, as well as the possibility to stay at school regardless your lesson time till 6.00.

I have not much appreciated the overlapping of personal/individual lessons with social activities, which lower the area of experience one might live there

My wife and I are 70+ so not the usual language school students. We had an absolutely great experience! Treffpunkt is very well run and the atmosphere is personable and accommodating. Cristoph and Kristina are great organizers and the teachers were always prepared and enthusiastic. Small class sizes are a definite plus, and we met the most interesting collection you could imagine of other students. There are well-attended extra-curricular activities are almost every day.
Also, Bamberg is a great place to study the language because people are willing to listen and speak to you in German even if you are not fluent, which we are not (not yet, anyway). In the larger cities people don't have the patience and usually switch right away to English.
We will definitely go back.

My one-on-one learning experience was very helpful in sorting out my experience learning on my own with DuoLingo.
My home stay was perfect in my opinion as my hosts and I has very similar interests and made me feel very welcome.
The institute was kind and helpful and arranged some interesting activities.
Bamberg is a very interesting heritage town worth visiting in its own right.
I should have arranged for a little more time with my teacher or two weeks extension but as I viewed the experience as a glimpse to see how I should proceed the experience was excellent.

The class was little and pleasant. However, in the first weeks the members' levels were not homogenous.
The teachers were well-prepared and qualified and ready to cope with our different needs. I have learned more than I expected.
The school location was excellent. It is in the city center close to shops, the river and green areas. The school facilities were average; maybe more PCs would have been helpful.

The school activities were ok. I was not interested in some of them but that was not a big deal. I would have liked to watch some cineforums, for example, or have some interactive evenings with Germans and not only with foreigners. But I managed to find my ways to get to speak to Germans.

The housing was good. Clean, tidy, well equipped. Only the house maid tended to control everything too much and was obsessed with cleaning - especially during the first days. I have always cleaned everything but she was always checking and this was annoying as I was there to study and not to be stressed.

I am going back to Bamberg for sure.