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Tandem learning

 

To achieve their goals more quickly as a team – this is the declared objective of a Facebook group, “Tandem DeutschIvrit” (German-Hebrew tandem).

 

Ishay Sommer is making a real go of it – the Israeli software developer has been living in Berlin for three years now and he meets ten tandem partners regularly. “It has to be that many if you want to be able to arrange three meetings a week.” For the 34-year-old, this is a minimum requirement for seriously improving his knowledge of German. “In the beginning, I attended a language course but I didn’t find that very effective. I actually learnt the German I can now speak at these tandem meetings in cafés and parks.” And his German is good. Small wonder, because in order to structure the sessions he even brings books with him, books that he and his partners plow through together and that help him out by going beyond idle chitchat. “However, the chemistry still always needs to be right, too.”

 

Talktalktalktalktalk. Language teachers’ favorite maxim. In the past, it was a lot of work to find motivated native speakers to practice – hopes were of a response to notes pinned on college message boards. Today all that German and Hebrew learners need to do is to post on Facebook-Gruppe “Tandem Deutsch-Hebräisch”. It was set up in July 2013 as a joint project between the Israeli Embassy in Berlin and the Goethe Institute in Israel and now has more than 3,700 members. The advantage: Before interested parties meet up for the first time for coffee or to chat by Skype, they can scrutinize their partners’ profiles – and, according to how they feel, decide whether to make contact via a comment or by sending a private message. Alongside searches for tandem partners tips are shared about German-Israeli events – or even something like a Nena music video for practicing participle forms.

 

Sometimes, the language tandems get on so well that they form real friendships – Ishay Sommer even lived with one partner until she moved to Israel along with the knowledge of Hebrew she had practiced with him. However, he did cancel one meeting. “At some point, you start talking about politics. In that particular case I really did have a problem with my partner’s attitude.” Sometimes, the interest appears to go beyond studying from the very outset. Nowadays, Sommer checks out people’s motivation the first time they meet. “I know a number of couples who have formed a close bond through tandem learning.” This was the case with one 34-year-old, Nadav Yakonovitch, who wants to start on his doctorate in Psychology in Berlin. Suddenly, the meetings with his tandem partner started becoming longer and longer and turning into whole days spent together.

 

Photojournalism student Sara Klatt even started bringing a small bit of Israel to Hanover via the tandem group. Her grandfather is an Israeli and her father lived in a kibbutz in the 1960s. Yet the 24-year-old arrived at the group by a very roundabout path:  “I always buy myself coffee in Israel and was trying to get hold of some in Hanover.” An acquaintance suggested Facebook to me. I went on and searched using keywords such as “Israel” and “Hanover”, and finally came across the “Tandem Deutsch-Hebräisch” Facebook group. It was there that Sara happened upon Talia Benabu’s Facebook post. The young artist moved to Germany for love but still has her problems with the cold North. “Straightaway, I invited her to visit me,” explains Sara. Nowadays, studying together takes a backseat for the two of them – they have so much to tell each other that they often resort to English. And whenever she visits, Benabu’s mother now brings coffee with her for her daughter’s friend in Hanover.

 

www.facebook.com/groups/TandemDeutschIvrit

Agnes Fazekas

Partner

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

This is the archived content of official bilateral website that was founded by the German and Israeli government on the occasion of the Jubilee Year 2015. This website contains the articles of the bilateral website, but will be static and will not be maintained. It serves as documentation of the multi-faceted cooperation between Germany and Israel We hope you enjoy exploring 50 years of German-Israeli relations!

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