The group is focused on intermediate students or people who are soon getting there. (Please NO absolute beginners.)
More advanced speakers are more than welcome (especially native speakers) but please help us manage the conversation so it doesn't turn into a pro tennis match bouncing between two advanced speakers. This is a team activity. Let's play like the German football team. If you've been talking for a while, please pass the ball to someone who hasn't said anything for a while. And like a good coach, let's try to evaluate how someone's overall skill set it before becoming too teacherly. If someone is having a hard time getting through a sentence, give them feedback on one or two things, not every little detail. We want to foster success and build up the team skills.
The idea of the group is to practice and improve an existing foundation of German.
BEGINNERS: If you are just starting, I recommend you do the full German course at www.duolingo.com TWO or THREE times before joining us. It's free. Or put in the equivalent effort into a programme of your choosing for about an hour a day for six months. Then you are more than welcome to put that foundation into practice with the conversation group.
FEES: I don't want to charge people to take part in meet-ups but I pay to use the Meetup.com website. This month they are increasing the fees for larger groups, such as this one. (I also spend some time organizing and administering the group.) What I ask instead of a set fee is a suggested donation. If you can give a few dollars that would help, maybe a dollar or so per meeting or a bit more less often. This would help offset the fees they charge me.
You can also text me before the meeting at[masked] if you can't find us. Anybody who is interested in joining and respecting the above is more than welcome. Please spread the word!
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BONUS: By the way, if there are any writers in the group, my other meet-up is a writing group and we have a meeting at 1pm at Parvis, right after the German group. Info on the writing group is here: http://www.meetup.com/Shut-up-Write-Montreal-Tais-toi-et-ecris-Montreal/
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