German Language Program Objective

The Boston Language Institute, New England's leading language school, offers German language courses to individuals and companies. The quality of instruction provided in our German language classes are on a par with the best native German language school.

We consider it to be the major goal of our program to have you use German in as large a variety of real-life situations as possible. To that end, our German courses have been designed to build fluency in both the spoken and the written language. Communication in a warm and relaxed environment is an important feature of our programs, as is homework, which includes exercises for review and practice of the material taught in class. Moreover, by keeping the class size limited to twelve students, we ensure that each student will be able to actively participate.

German Level 1
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to conduct basic conversations and write simple paragraphs about everyday topics. This course aims to provide beginning students with a practical command of the language. Grammatical topics include pronunciation, counting, simple interrogatives, negation, personal pronouns, adjectives, the present tense and expressions of time and season.
(Deutsch heute, Introduction and Chapters 1-2)

German Level 2
After completing this level, students should be able to converse about everyday topics using the present and simple past tenses. Building upon the basic foundation provided in Level 1, topics introduced include the accusative, flavoring particles, noun compounds, adverbs, verbs with separable prefixes, demonstrative pronouns, modal auxiliaries, accusative prepositions, dativ and dativ prepositions, and the simple past tense.
(Deutsch heute, Chapters 3-5)

German Level 3
Building upon the skills studied in Level 2, students will acquire additional vocabulary with which to discuss a range of topics including, for example, their homes, hobbies and professions. Topics introduced include the present perfect tense, participles, local and special use prepositions, indirect questions, genitive case, expressions of time, date and number, da- and wo- compounds, as well as adjectives and their declination.
(Deutsch heute, Chapters 6-8)

German Level 4
Upon completion of this course, students can expect to converse on a broad range of topics with greater confidence and precision. Building upon the skills already acquired, students learn reflexive verbs and pronouns, infinitives with zu, modals, simple past and past perfect verb tenses, verb use with prepositions, comparison of adjectives and adverbs, and conjunctions. Historical and cultural information about both Switzerland and Germany is introduced to enhance student appreciation and use of the language.
(Deutsch heute, Chapters 9-10)

German Level 5
Having completed Level 5, students can expect to be able to discuss numerous topics with relative sophistication as well as to read and write multi-paragraph texts. Students at this level learn the conditional tense, the present and past subjunctive moods, wurde subjunctive, conditional sentences, relative clauses and pronouns, future expressions using the present and future tenses, and the impersonal passive voice.
(Deutsch heute, Chapters 11-12)

Conversational German
This program is designed for students who are already proficient in the skills taught in Levels 1-5 and who want to increase their conversational abilities. Conducted entirely in German, this course provides students with an opportunity to markedly improve their speaking and listening skills. Magazines, video and audio tapes, and other resources designed to provide practical opportunities for vocabulary development are selected to match student interests. Grammatical lessons are integrated in response to student needs and objectives.

Private Programs

Immersion Program

Text and Supplementary Materials

Since communication in a foreign language requires an understanding of the cultural context, our aim is to teach you the living language through carefully selected textbooks, newspaper and magazine articles and other relevant materials, rather than have you repeat and memorize tourist phrases.

Over the past seventeen years, we have reviewed many university-level German textbooks and have selected Deutsch Heute (Houghton-Mifflin) as the one that best fulfills the objectives of our students in the beginning and intermediate levels. Corresponding to the lessons in this book is a complete set of tapes with challenging exercises, which you may borrow for home listening from our Cassette Lending Library. Teachers provide suggestions for texts and supplementary materials at the higher levels. Books may be purchased at the Boston University Bookstore, 660 Beacon St., Boston or from our on-line bookstore specializing in foreign language textbooks, study guides and audiocassettes.

Tuition and Course Organization

Tuition for the German program at all levels is $449. There is a non-refundable $35 registration fee for first-time students only.

In addition to our core program, we offer a Daytime Intensive program which covers three to four semesters in eight weeks - offering the greater likelihood of actually speaking, as well as reading and writing, the language than a traditional university course. Tuition for the Daytime Intensive Program and the Group Immersion Program is $2,245.

The Boston Language Institute Guarantee

Because of the individualized nature of our programs and the high quality of our instruction, we guarantee your satisfaction. If you are not satisfied with the quality of instruction within the first two weeks of a main session, or the first week of an accelerated session, we will refund your tuition in full.
Refund requests must be made no later than the business day after the second meeting of a once-a-week or the fourth meeting of a twice-a-week class of a Main Session; and no later than the business day after the first meeting of a once-a-week or the second meeting of a twice-a-week class of an Accelerated Session.

Class Schedules

We encourage students to register at least a week before the session starts, especially since classes are limited to 12 students. A Program Coordinator will be happy to take registration information by phone (617-262-3500 x241), fax or e-mail.