Report card
July 28, 2018 § 8 Comments
I finished my 2-week intensive German course at the Vienna branch of the Goethe Institut on Friday. It’s hard to compare courses because I’ve never taken one before. On the whole it was really good and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to dive into German for a couple of weeks while enjoying an amazing European city.
The program has 4.5 hours a day of classroom instruction, which is a lot, by which I mean completely draining and exhausting. But the lessons are only part of the program. The other half of it, or more, are the daily events and tours arranged on your behalf. This is where you really get to put into practice all of the things you’ve been doing wrong in the classroom.
If you were to do the entire program from tip to tail, it would be a 12-hour day most days, because the events continue into the evening. As with most things in my life, I wasn’t really able to take full advantage of all that was on offer because, bike riding. It is really hard impossible to do a 7-hour beatdown, then class, then attend a Stammtisch. Oh, well.
For many of the other students you could probably replace “bike riding” with “massive consumption of alcohol.”
Goethe Institut v. Belgian Waffle Ride
The easiest way for a cyclist to understand anything is to compare it to cycling. In this case, the 50-hour course of advanced German approximated the BWR. So if you’re considering something like the Goethe Institut, here is a handy-dandy list that will let you compare, contrast, and do something else.
- Distance: Comparable. 50 hours of intensive German coursework with lots of grammar and 19th Century reading selections is like doing the dirt sections on the BWR … for 140 miles, backwards.
- Pain: Legs empty. Head throbbing. Throat dry from extreme dehydration. That’s how it feels to listen to a presentation in German on “Hydroelectric Power in the Swiss Alps.”
- Cost: BWR, about $150 for 8-12 hours. Goethe Institute, about $950 for approximately 120 hours.
- Sense of accomplishment: BWR gives you a t-shirt that says “Participant.” Goethe Institut gives you a certificate that says “Participant.” Neither organization is about to call you awesome just because you gave them money.
- Gewgaws: BWR gives you a bag filled with gewgaws of varying utility. Goethe Institut gives you a textbook with CD, neither of which you will ever use again.
- Course: BWR is a well thought out, impeccably planned route that includes a lot of pain for everyone and ultimate collapse. Goethe Institut follows a careful plan of helping you realize that mastery of German is within your grasp if you can only live to be 200.
- Food: BWR food is nourishing. Goethe Institut offers you coffee from a vending machine that is better than Starbucks, which isn’t saying much.
- Scenery: BWR scenery is fantastic even though you don’t see any of it. Goethe Institut scenery is world class and you get to see all of it plus panhandling plus as much secondhand smoke as your heart desires.
- Music: BWR offers pop music on the PA. Goethe Institut offers Vienna, e.g. Mozart.
- Comrades: BWR fellow riders are all self-flagellating nutjobs. Intensive German students are, too.
- Sag: BWR has frequent sag stops with pro hydration. Vienna has cappuccino every 100 steps.
- Comrades: BWR riders are mostly Usonian, male, white, middle-aged, and delusional. Goethe Institut students come from all over the world and are of all ages. Also delusional.
- Recovery: BWR, about a month of drooling and aching. Goethe Institut, no recovery required.
- Shame quotient: At the BWR you are only moderately ashamed of sucking because you’re alone most of the time and you can cut the course. At the Goethe Institut you are surrounded by people as you endlessly make a fool of yourself, like telling to the waiter “Pay my bill, please!” instead of asking him for the “Bill, please.”
- Pride quotient: BWR is “I suck but at least I did it.” Goethe Institut is “I may be a dumb American but at least I’m dumb in the local language.”
- Overall awesomeness: You’ll never forget either.
END
Cycling in the South Bay 
I learned something from b your blog today: your name is Franklin. May we call you Frank?
You may, along with a whole host of other folks, friend and foe alike but mostly foe, call me anything you like!
Also, kind of shocking that anyone learns anything here. Oh, well. No one’s perfect.
Leider denken zu viele im Goethe Institut dass man immer noch Grammatik lernen muss um etwas Deutsch zu spechen können. Man lernt eine Sprache meistens durch deutlichen Unterhaltungen mit anderen Menschen. Man lernt auch durch lesen….am Internetz, zB. Auch durch Videofilme, die Englischen Untertittel haben. ( Ich habe zwei Monate –Sommer 1987–im GoetheInstitut-München verpasst. Wir waren 15 Studenten in der Oberstufe…aber…O Gott, zu viel Arbeit! Zu viele Hausaufgaben! Radfahren habe ich lieber! Du auch, ja?…
I did both. And I like grammar!
This reminds me of a month-long Goethe Institut German course I took in Salzburg, Austria back in 1972 at a place called Haus Wartenberg. Das Haus was also our residence and mess hall and it was great fun to interact with students from all over the world in German. I see the place still exists but now as a hotel and restaurant.
http://www.hauswartenberg.com/
When the month was over, I got on my bike and rode from Salzburg through Germany to Düsseldorf and back down to Frankfurt. So I also combined deutschlernen and Radfahren, and I also like Grammatik.
Good times!
Disclaimer: Just because I like it doesn’t mean I’m any good at it!
It’s amazing how many people’s lives have been changed by studying abroad, almost as if understanding other people makes the world a better place.