„Wenn ich Morgen Nachmittag Zeit habe, helfe ich dir.“

If I have time, if I want to go, if you don’t mind.

Conditional clauses – that was today’s topic. Our teacher explained us the grammar rule of the if clauses and how to use them, how to best understand them and find associations with English in order to better understand the logic.

It is quite easy, so after about 20 min explanation we immediately started to do some phrases, exercises and then spent around an hour speaking and conversating and imagining hypothetical scenarios, where we would use some if clauses. It was a very intense yet funny lesson.

After class I went to Turkenschanzpark, which I believe to be one of the most beautiful parks in Vienna. Lucky enough, while walking through some Christmas markets I was able to see a spectacular sunset while listening to a German podcast on Spotify about tips, grammar rules and how to improve your German, it is called “Coffee Break German”. I totally recommend it to boost your skills.

See you tomorrow!

Ruben

„Ich hätte gerne einen Kaffee und ein Croissant, und ich hätte gerne ein Schinkensandwich!“

Ordering food, one of the most important parts when it comes to learn a language. Indeed, it is said that if you can order food and can ask for directions, you will survive in every city that you will be living in, and that is so true!

Ordering food it is not particularly difficult but what one has to bear in mind is the genre of the food that you are ordering. Indeed it can either be eine, einen or ein, so one has to pay attention to that.

During today’s class we also pretended to be at the restaurant and ordering food, we played in couples where one was the customer and the other one was, obviously, the waiter. The funniest is that the customer always had to ask something a bit specific, maybe without spices, or with soy milch, or if there are any allergens, so that the conversation was a little bit more dynamic. I honestly found it very useful and practical.

After class I went home to have lunch then around the afternoon, I went to the Rathaus Christmas markets, it was so lavish! I loved it.

See you tomorrow!

Ruben

Today’s class was based on vocabulary, new words that we have learned and prepositions.

Even after few weeks of learning prepositions it’s still quite easy to get it wrong so that is the reason why we are still training on that and doing some exercises about how to best use prepositions. Indeed, one of the main games that we played was to locate objects into the rooms using all the prepositions that we have been learning so far, and also another game that was really funny was “Ich kann etwas sehen, was du nicht sehen kannst” that means „I can see something that you can’t see“, so everybody had to guess what was the object that the person was letting us trying to guess – the time really flew by!

About 10 minutes before the class ended, we decided to go for a little walk all together to see the Christmas markets, which here in Vienna are just spectacular! I am so excited about this season!

See you tomorrow!
Ruben

As you have probably guessed, that was today’s topic: Jobs, job postings, looking for a job, how to present yourself, which websites to use to find the perfect position and much more.

Austria is a very wealthy country that offers thousands of positions every day but it is not always easy to get in – mainly for the language. Indeed, one must have at least a B1 level to be considered a good candidate. That is what we are working for – to be competitive, acknowledged and be able to speak and understand enough to be independent.

Today we did plenty of exercises, translations and vocabulary. It was a very tough class, but we enjoyed having so much to do.

I had a lovely coffee pause. Outside it was quite gloomy and windy and during those few minutes I just relaxed, sipped my cappuccino, and looked outside at the beautiful buildings surrounding us.

Just as I got home, I had lunch, watched a series, and then reorganized all of my notes. I am realizing how important is to take good notes!

I wish you all a great start in the week!

Ruben

Don’t forget to set your alarm! Otherwise, you might get late… very late…! And that unfortunately happened to me today! Thank gosh our teacher M. is always so nice and welcoming that did not complain about my delay…

In any case, when I arrived today, we decided to change a little bit the situation. Since everybody was kinda sleepy, we started doing some conversation, talking about our past few days, what did we do, if we have already been to some Christmas markets and how is study going. A good hour went by conversating and at the end everybody was very happy.

After our little pause we then made some few more exercises about prepositions, allowances and some kind of riddle. I have to say that it was a very engaging nurturing yet easy going class today.

Now I just got home, about to go out for lunch to Plachutta, that if you guys don’t know it you have to go!! It’s a place to die for, it’s actually one of the most famous Viennese restaurant, very classic, chic and delicious. There are some but I would recommend the one next to StaddPark and do not forget to „einen Tisch reservieren“!

Have a nice day!

Ruben

And then hang, leave, put, lay, place and so on.

Very practical ways of indicating and telling someone where to put objects. That was today’s focus, using yesterday’s topic of the use of past verbs, we started doing exercises and talking to our classmates asking one to the other can you please put that pen over there, or can you place the book next to the bottle and so on. It was a very funny and dynamic activity, especially because we had to be very fast in remembering the names of the objects, their genre and the preposition, after 30 min we were all burnt, lol!.

After that we kept studying some irregular verbs and then almost 3 full pages of exercise! Today it really flew by! Now I am back home, today I am not doing anything specific because tomorrow I have a job interview, in English, not yet in German. I have to prepare for it, wish me luck and see you tomorrow!

Liebe Grüße,

Ruben

Whichever language you have studied in your life or whichever language you speak, you had to go through irregular verbs. And we all know the struggle.

Especially, finding a logic behind them, unfortunately, it is pretty much impossible. It is all about studying them.

That was today’s topic: We went through a list of irregular verbs and we started learning how they are declined, their pronunciation, how to use them and few exercises. I have to admit that a part from the initial struggle, after few exercises we all understood the way on how to use them. If you want to talk about the series you saw, the food you ate yesterday, or how you came across a new shop, you will need to use the German irregular verbs.

Irregular verbs are also called ’strong‘ verbs. They are those verbs that will have different conjugations than regular verbs. They also have some unexpected changes, which can really set you off. Unfortunately, there is no standard way to know exactly when and how these verbs will change. So we just have to study them is learn them by heart.

Our teacher then, gave us few exercises to do for the very next day. So I am going to go back home today to study and practise.

Right now, I am in Schönbrunn Palace a beautiful and huge park where there is an imperial palace that used to be the summer house of the Habsburg rulers. Just as I get home I will do tomorrow’s homework and hopefully, I will be able to remember all the entire list!

Liebe Grüße,

Ruben 🙂

„Entschuldigung, wie komme ich zum Hauptbahnhof?“ … „Ganz einfach, Sie gehen ganz runter dann nach rechts.“

For the A1.1: „Excuse me, how can I go to the grand central station?“ ..“Easy, all the way down then to the right then“….. yes might sound a bit tricky but is not too bad.

That was the focus of today’s lesson: Directions, places and how to reach attractions.

As we know Vienna is a huge city, and even if quite easily walkable and understandable, it takes a little bit of time and attention in order to don’t get lost. But if so, keep your spirit up, now you are able to ask anyone anywhere you need to go! With a little bit of study, good pronunciation and good luck, from any corner of Vienna we should be able to move around…or at least reach Stephanplatz, Hauptbahnhof or Mariahilfer Straße.

With a map at hand, we tried to give our classmates the directions in order to reach their desired points and among laughs, the help of Reverso translator and our teacher hope to see us not making mistakes, we all reached our destination, hooray!

After class we all decided to go for a nice walk in MuseumsQuartier, where there are going to be Christmas markets soon (we thought that were today…) we all had a coffee in a bar and chitchatted about life then, while going home I was thinking to myself, what a nice week!

Liebe Grüße!

And more important….how to use the past.

That was today’s lesson, focussing on our past: What did we used to do few month ago, since when we are in Vienna, what did we do yesterday and so on. So „beginnen“, „behalten“, „bekommen“, „einladen“, „kommen“ and „gehen“ were only a few of the verbs that we have used. I am realizing way more and more that conversating about simple actions with people that are at your same level it is a great exercise for your brain and, if that is not the case for your, at least you don’t have to feel shy about any mistakes.

After going through the past, we started talking about prepositions and how to locate objects, that’s a tricky one, especially because you have to conjugate according to the genre, the adjective and if it is akkusative or dative, a part from the initial hustle it was fun.

Now that I am writing I am in StaddPark, which is the City park, and it’s actually easily reachable from the school…I enjoy catching the last warm sunlight while sipping a nice Melange (which is pretty much a stronger cappuccino, but it has a little bit more of a fancy name). Tomorrow it’s our teacher’s birthday so we are going to celebrate!

Have a nice one and Liebe Grüße!

Today we have started our new A2.1 German course here at the Deutsch Akademie and I am very thrilled. 🙂

Even tough the day is quite gloomy and rainy, going back to the course and joining my old and new classmates gave me a completely new energy. Every day it almost feels like going back to high school, when you would meet your friends, share homework and be ready to learn new things together; so fascinating.

As we know, German it’s a tough language, very tough, but thanks to our teacher and a bit of effort, it can be managed and sure enough, learned.

Today we started narrowing down the Perfekt, which is nothing else than the Simple past. We went through some of the main verbs and the famous three columns declinations. Together with that we started talking about verbs with prepositions and how to split them, yeah I know, crazy right? But I have to admit that our teacher was so keen in explaining what’s the logic behind that after 10 minutes we all understood the principle, so satisfying.

After school, even tough cold and drizzly, I decided to walk back home, crossing downtown, it just makes me feel so alive to walk in the beautiful streets, hearing people speaking in a language that is not mine, smelling delicious food and embracing the culture – what a dream.

Looking forward to see what we are going to learn tomorrow, in the meanwhile, have a nice day!

Liebe Grüße!

Hello!

I am Ruben Nocerino! I am  25 years old and come from Milan. I recently graduated with my 2 years master’s in international management and with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Languages :)!

I moved to Vienna in August 2020 to have an experience abroad and to write my thesis, which was linked to nuclear proliferation and, as we know, Vienna has some of the most important International Organizations.

I started studying German in October 2020, when I took a one-month course at the Deutsch Akademie but then, due to many reasons I had to stop. Nevertheless, I have always continued  absorbing German by the surroundings. Two months ago, end of September 2021, I decided to undertake another course to boost my skills and, thank to efforts and dedication, I have been improving a lot ever since.