Our big anniversary 2025: 30 years of German Tuition - 20 years of Deutsch in Freiburg

by Barbara Classen

The story behind German Tuition

Back then, it was very easy and cheap to rent a small classroom. Half of my team and a few students still remember the attic room near Old Street. It's in East London, but still very central. Back then our rent was £200 and the contract was 2 pages long.

In this attic we had small classes and our legendary film and conversation club. There was always a German film on the first Sunday of the month. Who remembers those big televisions and VHS tapes? There were drinks, salmon sandwiches and lots of fun. And there was one rule: Only speak German!  Back then AND today, I believe that immersion in a language with all your senses is the key.

There were many small groups and individual lessons, and it was much easier to fill the groups than it is today. Today, 5 people with the same level of German who have time at the same time is almost like winning the lottery. Society has become very individualised and today we mainly offer one-to-one lessons. (And when we put together a small group, like our book clubs or sometimes a beginners' group, it's wonderful!)

Back then we still had a blackboard, then came the whiteboard and today it's almost always a shared screen.

The European Framework of Reference for Languages (A1-C2) didn't exist back then, but it came very soon. I remember our first textbook ‘Themen’. In chapter 1, there was a hitchhiker who asked another hitchhiker: ‘Hallo, hast du Feuer? (Hello, do you have a lighter)’. Fewer people smoke nowadays and is anyone still hitchhiking out there?

By the way, 30 years ago there was no (significant) Internet and no website. Advertising media were the Yellow Pages, Time Out and notices in libraries. Enquiries came by phone.

In my first year as a freelancer in London, I took a handful of flyers and personally introduced myself to around 100 companies in the neighbourhood. It was a dark winter afternoon, and it felt a bit lonely. But that's how I found my first corporate client, a telecoms company called COLT. That's how it was back then...

In 2005, I moved to Freiburg with my family and founded Deutsch in Freiburg. People can now take immersion language holidays here in Freiburg and the Black Forest and speak German in their free time. People who live in Freiburg also find us.

We had a website early on (1998), but were late with social media. During the pandemic I made an incredible number of videos for Facebook and still do every now and then on Instagram and Facebook @germantuitionlondon.

Back then we only taught face-to-face, now we mainly teach online, but we are very happy when we can teach in person.

Without my wonderful team, none of this would work. Some of us have been working together for 20-25 years, we know each other well and we also have a lot of students who have been with us forever and feel like family. The presence of these people always helps me to overcome difficult situations that arise from time to time.

I am incredibly grateful for this language school anniversary. There won't be a big party in 2025. The team and students are too scattered for that. We're doing something different: 2025 will be a year with lots of free activities for learning German: In Freiburg, in London and online. Always in small groups of a maximum of 5 participants.

Photogallery above from left to right: Opening party in Blackall Street (1995), our 20th anniversary in a pub near Black Friars (2015), Eva teaching a small group in Temple Chambers (our second class room, 2011-2021), Esther teaching online during the Pandemic.

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