Hallo, ich bin Nicole!

Originally from Wisconsin, I moved to Germany in 2003 and spent 5 years there before moving back to the US in 2008. Luckily I had many opportunities to travel around the country, scroll down to see a map of places I've been in Germany/Austria/Switzerland!

When I moved to Germany, all the German language learning I had was 20 hours of one-on-one lessons; I attended the Goethe-Institut Düsseldorf for 2 months. That was all the language training I had. Luckily my first instructor helped me attain the groundwork of a solid grammatical basis from which my German language skills flourished at the Goethe-Institut.

I became fluent in German in less than 6 months. It was really hard. I have an aptitude for languages, but still, it was real work.

One of the reasons I became fluent quickly is because I had no other choice than to speak German. I moved to a small city where most people only spoke some English. I like to say I lived auf Deutsch.

First I taught voice, as my college and master's degrees are in vocal performance. (More on that here.) I taught myself all the vocabulary for teaching voice and piano and taught almost exclusively in German. I also taught English as a Foreign Language to kids, adults, and teens, including a corporate course (5 days per week for 40 weeks) in business, technical, and general English. In 2005 I acquired a CELTA certificate, which qualifies me to teach English as a Foreign Language to adult speakers of other languages. What I've discovered since beginning to teach German in 2010, is that language acquisition uses the same skills, no matter what you're learning.

So here I am, continuing on this path of foreign language instruction and now taking it world-wide by teaching live lessons online. Find out more about lessons here or click on Blog to read my blog.

Danke, dass Sie gekommen sind!

 

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German Language Skill:

Mastery:  Level C2 of the Common European Framework for Languages  (See also).

 

Experience:

Learn German Online with Nicole:  400 hours (as of December 31, 2015)

Germanic-American Institute:  adult language classes, children's language classes, one-on-one lessons & tutoring. Total:  700 hours

 

Memberships:

American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) - 2013 to present

 

 

I support the LearnOutLive independent online teachers directory.

 

Education:

Goethe-Institut:  Zertifikat "DaF Unterrichten" (Certification course for Teaching German as a Foreign Language), November 2015-voraussichtlich April 2017.

Goethe-Institut:  Prüferzertifikat (Test Proctor Certification):

A1:  Fit in Deutsch 1

A2: Start Deutsch 2

B1

B2

C1

CARLA Institute:  Using the Web for Communicative Language Learning, 2015

Autodidact:  Building Websites, Copy Writing & Newsletter Publishing, 2009-present

Deutschland:  5 years of Deutsch, Plattdeutsch, and Schwäbisch, 2003-2008

Goethe-Institut:  Mittelstufe II, 2003

Manhattan School of Music:  Master of Music in Classical Voice, 2003

Eloquia Sprachschule:  20 Einzelstunden, 2002

Augsburg College:  Bachelor of Music Performance, Voice, 2001