Meet Maja H.: Expert in Child-Friendly Online German Lessons

Introduction to Maja H.: Maja is a translator and interpreter for German, early childhood educator, math professor, and mother. She has been teaching German for almost 15 years and works with both children and adults, online and in-person. Maja is passionate about teaching and sees it as a great honor and responsibility because it allows her to become a small part of her students’ lives. With her positive and optimistic attitude, she firmly believes that no problem is too big to be solved.

Preview of the Interview: In our exclusive interview, Maja shares her effective strategies for engaging young learners in long-term online language learning and discusses common challenges that children and teenagers face. She also reveals her favorite methods to make learning German interesting and a funny experience from her teaching.

Interview:

1. Advantages of Online Lessons:

• Question: Maja, in your opinion, what are the biggest advantages of online lessons for young learners, especially for expat families?
• Maja’s Answer: “When young learners have the opportunity to learn at home, in their familiar environment, it is a great advantage for them because they are very relaxed from the start, and the lesson can begin optimally right away. Learning, especially for children, is strongly influenced by emotions. When they feel comfortable and safe, they learn the language much more effectively because they are relaxed from the start. Particularly since children from expat families often undergo significant changes, online lessons are optimal for them.”

2. Funny or Unforgettable Experience:

• Question: What funny or unforgettable experience have you had in one of your online German courses with children?
• Maja’s Answer: “Once, we had the topic of pets in an online group course. After discussing the topic with visual aids, a girl suddenly stood up, ran away, and came back with her rabbit. Naturally, everyone then brought their pets, making the lesson much more interesting as we could observe and describe real animals.”

3. Special Methods and Tools:

• Question: What special methods or tools do you use in your online lessons to make learning German easier for children?
• Maja’s Answer: “In online lessons for children, it is very important that the lessons are interesting and varied because their concentration wanes faster. Therefore, I use an interesting mix of materials, from online games and visual aids to fun tasks and activities that always include movement.”

4. Challenges and Solutions:

• Question: What common challenges do young expat children face when learning German, and how do you help them overcome these?
• Maja’s Answer: “Children learn much more naturally than adults, making the challenges of learning more complex. They often need a role model to tell them what to say in certain everyday situations. However, learning with a bit of support progresses very quickly for expat children because they use the language in everyday life. You just need to maintain motivation, use child-friendly methods, and boost their confidence, and challenges like ‘der-die-das’ become easy to overcome.”

5. Favorite Resources and Age Recommendation:

• Question: What are your top 3 A) textbooks for children, B) websites, and C) apps for learning German? At what age do you recommend online lessons for children?
• Maja’s Answer: “A) For younger children who are not yet proficient readers, I find textbooks unnecessary as you can prepare very good materials yourself. For older children, I like to use textbooks like ‘Der grüne Max’ or ‘Logisch!’. B) I always recommend parents find something their child likes – music, a cartoon, a series, an interesting book, etc., because it is very important to have as much contact with the foreign language as possible. C) However, I am not a fan of too much screen time for children, so I always recommend expat children spend more time with their new friends and practice the language that way rather than using apps.”

Online lessons are useful for children as young as 5 years old, but at this age, it is very important that parents find a teacher who has a lot of experience with early foreign language education. Are you looking for an experienced, good online German teacher for your child? Request a free trial lesson with our kids experts and provide us with as much information as possible so we can make the trial lesson as interesting as possible for your child.