Wanderlust Travels out of Weymouth, Massachusetts offers small group, German immersion trips to Germany for teenagers.

Here's the announcement from founder Emily Johnston:

Im Sommer 2014 bieten wir Schülern im Alter von 14-18 Jahren aus den USA zwei besondere Trips um die Schönheit der deutschen Sprache und Kultur kennenzulernen:

Unser 3-wöchiger Immersion Trip richtet sich an Schüler mit Deutschkenntnissen, die diese vertiefen wollen und die Städte Köln, Bonn und Aachen erkunden sowie den naturbelassenen Eifel Nationalpark erwandern wollen.

Zu eben diesen Orten führt unser 2-wöchiger Introduction to Germany Trip. Dieser richtet sich an Schüler ohne oder mit nur geringen Deutschkenntnissen und legt den Fokus auf das Erleben der Kultur der Region.

Wir konzentrieren uns auf kleine Gruppen und reisen mit nicht mehr als 12 Schülerinnen und Schüler, da wir glauben, ihnen so ein tieferes Erlebnis unserer Trips bieten zu können. Wir sind darauf bedacht, die Schüler nicht nur in ihrem Sprach- und Kulturverständnis weiterzubringen, sondern auch persönlich zu stärken, indem wir Erlebnisse mit Wissen verknüpfen und ihnen ein Selbstbewusstsein in die eigenen Fähigkeiten mit auf den Weg geben.

Schauen Sie sich gerne unsere Website an unter www.WanderlustTravels.org und emailen Sie uns mit allen Fragen die Sie haben an This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Wir freuen uns bereits jetzt auf den Sommer 2014 und auf Ihre Schülerinnen und Schüler, die gemeinsam mit uns in einer spaßigen und sich gegenseitig unterstützenden Gruppe Deutschland erleben möchten.

Freundliche Grüße und ein erfolgreiches Jahr in den Deutschkursen wünscht Ihnen

Emily Johnston

Founder of Wanderlust Travels, LLC

Sprachbar is a podcast from the Deutsche Welle for advanced German learners; it helps you understand the latest and greatest in idioms and headlines in German news. 

Take for example the podcast "Staumeldung," or traffic news; this podcast clarifies actual Stau (a traffic jam) and the figurative use of Stau in German politics as well as in daily life.

In the Sprachbar related vocabulary is italicized, e.g. Staumeldung, zähfließendem Verkehr, Autoschlange, stehenbleiben, auflösen, Totalschäden. The meaning is perhaps clear at first glance, and then comes the idiomatic meaning.

Sprachbar offers well-written articles with audio (in MP3 and WMA formats), a transcript, questions to check your understanding, and finally a task to complete. In this case it's a half-page statement regarding the advantages and disadvantages of cars and the traffic jams that result from too many cars being on the road at the same time.

It's easy to see why the German Grammar (Quickstudy: Academic) is the "World's #1 Academic Outline," as it is a very good resource for German learners.

Here is what I think after my first few months of working with this guide, a few Vorteile (advantages) and Nachteile (disadvantages).

Vorteile:

1. The "Nouns" section gives guidelines for the groupings of nouns by suffix, topic (seasons, months, days of the week, etc.)
2. The clear layout makes each section easy to read and for their length, each section is surprisingly in-depth. I find this a sign of quality. Descriptions are concise and effective.
3. It's 4 full pages of help in understanding German grammar, laminated and pre-hole-punched for a 3-ring binder. It will last!

Nachteile:

1. While all the information is there, it could be even better if the section "Declension of Adjectives" used only one row (not two) for each case. It's a bit hard to read, but it is a small font size.

In Wisconsin, natürlich!

The Deutscher Sprach- und Schulverein (or German Language and School Society of Wisconsin, Inc.) is a state-wide Society that provides an annual German test and an essay contest for high school students in the state of Wisconsin.

To participate you must be currently enrolled in a German language course at a public or a private high school in the State of Wisconsin. How long you've been in that course determines what you are eligible to participate in.

2nd through 4th year high school students may take the National German Language Exam (from the American Association of Teachers of German).

3rd and 4th year high school students may participate in the DSSV Essay Contest;

Deutsch Perfekt is having a special contest for new subscribers to Deutsch Perfekt. When you order a subscription between now and February 28th, you have a chance to win 100 issues of Deutsch Perfekt! That's one copy of every issue they've printed thus far.

(And it's awesome, trust me--I have all 100 myself!)

You also have two options for receiving the magazine, either as a printed copy or as an e-paper and the e-paper costs a bit less than the printed copy.

Click here to read the details in German and to order your subscription! Remember, this offer expires February 28, 2014!

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Do you have questions about Deutsch Perfekt that I can answer for you? Write your qestion in the comments below! I'm more than happy to tell you about my favorite magazine!

Sometimes students say to me, "But you learned it so quickly--it was easy for you!" They hear that I became fluent in German in less than 6 months and they immediately think that I had it easy and I never made mistakes. I made lots of mistakes! Here is proof--an embarrassing story about how I mixed up my words and even though the situation turned out just fine, I was still pretty embarrassed.

Even better:  in this video you will learn how to differentiate the words that I mixed up so that you won't make the same mistake I did.

Remember, in this situation, more is less...embarrassing. ;)