Rachel W. says, "I have taken German lessons from the Goethe Institute and university courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. Ursula far surpasses any teacher I have worked with! It's not just the fact that she genuinely cares for her students and comes to each lesson well prepared, it's also that she sets a high bar and pushes you to become the very best language learner you can be. Here are a few examples: 1. Most language teachers let minor errors with prepositions, case, and adjective endings slide. Ursula makes sure that you notice when you are repeatedly making a mistake, which is helpful for nipping bad habits in the bud and for training your ear to pick up the nuances of the language. 2. Most teachers give you a set list from which to memorize vocabulary, then quiz you on it later. Ursula keeps you motivated with regular assessments, but diversifies her questions beyond a given list so that you have to use your creative abilities and your existing knowledge to guess your way to the answer. This has enormous value for learning new phrases and making them a meaningful part of your working vocabulary. You also learn lots of synonyms in the process, and learn to differentiate them from each other in a way that rote memorization cannot achieve on its own. 3. Ursula tailors her teaching strategies to her students' unique needs and learning styles. My lessons are structured around a test prep book, but we also make time to discuss essays, presentations, and even email drafts that I've written and would like to edit. These lessons require advance preparation, but whenever I'm swamped with a busy schedule, Ursula steps in with a lesson plan that keeps me learning and immersed in the language. Once, when I was moving apartments, Ursula needed no prompting and designed a whole lesson on negation (a weak point for me), complete with a presentation of key ideas, practice sentences, and exercises to work on afterwards. I'm so grateful for the level of care and forethought that goes into each of our lessons. Can't recommend Ursula more highly—I'm thrilled to be working with her." Read more
