Hallo, mein Name ist Bella. I began my German Stage 1 module in my final year of studies as a Film, Theatre and Television student. As someone who always struggled learning languages in school, I was determined to try again at learning a language before I completed my time at university. But deciding to learn a whole new language in my final year was a risk, knowing how much work third year demands of you. I was definitely nervous walking into my first IWLP lesson; however, after just a couple of weeks I began looking forward to my lessons as an enjoyable change from everything Film and Theatre.

It got my brain working in a different way, which I think really aided my entire studies. I would absolutely recommend taking an IWLP course as soon as you can, because after just one year, I wish I had more time to continue my studies in German… and I never thought I would be wishing for more time at uni!

The introduction of German TV and film was as a useful resource to practice listening skills, but as a film and TV student, it had a much bigger impact on me and my work as a student. This influence is something I did not think of when choosing to learn German alongside my main studies. As a result of taking my IWLP module, I selected a German documentary (Die Unsichtbaren: Wir wollen leben, 2017) to discuss in my final essay. Now my list of German TV and film is only growing, as I aim to one day be able to watch German speaking film without the aid of subtitles. I really feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to take this IWLP course because it did much more than solely teach me a new language. I am looking forward to travelling to Germany and Austria in a few weeks to be able to put my language skills to the test. Though I am not sure any beginner in German can be expected to use all the variations of the word ‘the’ correctly… 😉

If you are on this page and thinking of taking an IWLP course, do it! And choose German, you’ll have the most fun!