Deutsch evening class?

[Bramish]

I have decided that this year I simply must bring my German up to the level it should already be at after almost 2 years here. Financial, health and work-enforced constraints have so far stopped me (along with a smidgen of laziness on my part) attending a course, but I am tired of being an ignorant foreigner and not being able to take part in friends' German conversations.

My vocab is ok, and my capacity for learning and remembering nouns (but not articles) is good, and I understand a good portion of what people say to me, but can't really reply - or maybe I could, but I know my grasp of grammar and sentence structure is so bad, and I'm afraid of sounding like an idiot. Most of the time, whenever I do attempt to speak in German, I'm met with blank looks and so revert to explaining that my German isn't very good and then speaking in English. It won't do.

I figure I can spare one morning or evening a week to attend a language course. Any recommendations?

[Sunshine]

apart from possible new input, did you check the learning german threads in our FAQ?

[flinx1241]

I have decided that this year I simply must bring my German up to the level it should already be at after almost 2 years here. Financial, health and work-enforced constraints have so far stopped me (along with a smidgen of laziness on my part) attending a course, but I am tired of being an ignorant foreigner and not being able to take part in friends' German conversations.

My vocab is ok, and my capacity for learning and remembering nouns (but not articles) is good, and I understand a good portion of what people say to me, but can't really reply - or maybe I could, but I know my grasp of grammar and sentence structure is so bad, and I'm afraid of sounding like an idiot. Most of the time, whenever I do attempt to speak in German, I'm met with blank looks and so revert to explaining that my German isn't very good and then speaking in English. It won't do.

I figure I can spare one morning or evening a week to attend a language course. Any recommendations?

Hey there, Bramish.
You're in a very similar place to me, it sounds. I'm actually, finally, taking my first actual classes here after a long period of occasional self-teaching. So far, I'm pretty happy with the classes we chose - http://www.deutschinstitut.at/german_course_january.htm - though they might not work for you, as they are two nights a week. Several different skill levels available. In many ways I'm more advanced than the others in my class, but it's been hitting just the right spots for me, helping me fill in grammatical gaps...