It is very important for me to learn German. My husband and his family all speak fluent German. His father knows English as well so we are able to have a conversation, but his mother only speaks German and it is very important for me to learn her language and be able to have conversations with her. We are also planning on having a family of our own and it is very important to us that I am able to speak english and german to our future children.

I have looked into all options of how to learn a language and feel the best is to surround yourself with the language and culture. I am looking forward to being able to do this and live in Germany for 3 months to really focus on learning.

I made the decision to come to Germany to learn German and stay with my husband´s parents in Weilerswist. I am taking the intensive course at BWS-Germanlingua in Cologne. While living in the USA, I tried to take German courses through Duolingo, Rosetta Stone and a weekly night course in Charlotte, NC. I have found that I am doing okay in learning words by themselves but I have difficulty when it comes to actually speaking the language. When reading I can pull out specific parts that I know, or when I am listening to my husband and his family talk, I can hear the words and have an idea of what they are talking about.

But when I go to speak the same words I find that I have a problem with pronunciation and am saying them correctly. Because of this issue I took the step to learn the language in Germany.

So far, I am enjoying my time at BWS-Germanlingua. We have class five days a week from 9:30-1:00pm with a break from 11:00-11:30. Followed by the intensive course from 1:15-2:00. My favorite part of the course is the intensive portion, I really enjoy the one on one that I have with the teacher. I would say that if I had one complaint or wish it would be for the intensive course to be longer than an additional 45 minutes. I find that I learn the best in that environment and would love to be able to spend more time focusing on that.