German coaching & courses · for expats

You already know
more German
than you think.

I help expats in Austria, Germany and Switzerland stop rehearsing sentences in their heads — and start actually speaking. In real life. This week.

Three ways to learn with me →
5,000+ lessons A1 → C1 Online · worldwide
Does this sound like you?

Three flavours of stuck.

Most of my students arrive with one of these. None of them is a grammar problem. All of them are solvable — but not by learning more rules.

"I'll start speaking when my German is better." You've been saying this for two years. Your German is fine. You're still waiting.
— The Waiting-Room Loop
Your colleagues switch to German at lunch. You smile, nod, laugh half a second late. You understood. You just didn't join in.
— The Smile-and-Nod
You need to call the doctor. You could do this in German — you know you could. You dial anyway and ask, in English, if they speak English.
— The English Bailout
Three ways to learn with me

Pick the one that fits where you are.

Whether you want a regular conversation class, a proper structured course, or one-to-one coaching to break through a plateau — there's a way in. Not sure which? Start with whatever feels least scary.

— Integration Coaching

Get unstuck. Start speaking.

One-to-one coaching for expats who already have enough German on paper but freeze in real life. Debrief → roleplay → real-world challenge. Built around your actual week.

  • 60-min one-to-one session, weekly
  • Real-life speaking challenge between sessions
  • Shared doc + optional voice-note check-ins
  • Best for stuck A2 → C1 students
60 min session €75 → 10× 60 min pack €690 →
Most popular
— Structured Course

Step by step, A1 → C2.

A proper course covering Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking and Grammar — at your pace, with a course book, virtual blackboard and homework if you want it. Exam-prep friendly.

  • Full course book & virtual blackboard
  • All four skills, balanced
  • Beginners and advanced both welcome
  • Goethe / ÖSD prep on request
60 min session €60 → 10× 60 min pack €500 →
— Conversation

Conversation Practice.

Relaxed, focused conversation classes. You speak as much as possible; I give you the words and gentle corrections to keep you going. Perfect for regular weekly practice.

  • One or two topics per session
  • Shared Google Doc with vocab + corrections
  • From small talk to big feelings
  • Great for A2 → B2 students
60 min session €50 → 10× 60 min pack €450 →
Not sure which fits? Send me a quick message — we'll figure it out together in two emails or less.
Leaning toward coaching?

A loop, not a lesson.

Coaching is the most distinctive of the three ways I teach — and the hardest to describe in a bullet list. So here's what a session actually looks like, in three parts. Repeatable, built around your real life, and designed to get you into conversations between our meetings, not just during them. Decided on the course or conversation practice instead? Booking is just as simple — jump back to the offers.

01

Debrief

We start with what actually happened this week. The conversation you avoided. The phone call you panicked on. The sentence you nailed. No abstract exercises — your real life is the curriculum.

"Tell me about that moment at the doctor's on Thursday."
≈ 20 min
02

Role-play

We recreate the moment you struggled with. I play the colleague, the neighbour, the pharmacist. You try again — with corrections, alternatives, the phrase you wish you'd had.

"Ok — rewind. You walk in. Guten Tag, ich hätte gern…"
≈ 20 min
03

Next challenge

We co-design one slightly-scary thing for the coming week. Small. Specific. Uncomfortable by ≈ 10%. You go do it. Then we meet and debrief it. That's the loop.

"This week: call the Hausarzt to book an appointment yourself."
≈ 10 min
Book coaching →

A quick hello — who I am and how I teach.

Who's teaching

Hi, I'm Gerald. I've spent years on both sides of the integration problem.

I'm an Austrian who spent the last eight years building a life in Peru — in Spanish, far from anything familiar. I know what it's like to function in a language that isn't your own: to feel sharp and capable in your head, then clumsy and half a beat behind out loud. That gap is exactly what I help you close.

This summer I moved back to Austria — re-integrating into my own country after nearly a decade away. So the integration question isn't theoretical for me; I'm living a version of it right now. In our sessions I work less like a grammar teacher and more like a confidence coach who happens to speak your target language. Mit Akzent und mit Herz.

Born
Austria. Native Austrian German, deep intuition for how it actually sounds on the street (not in a textbook).
8 yrs
Peru. I built an entire life in a second language and a new culture. I know the integration challenge from the inside.
Career
Native Instruments — international, multilingual product team, so I also understand the tech world many of my students work in.
5,000+
online lessons taught. A1 beginners through C1 exam prep. If you're stuck, I've probably seen your version of stuck before.
2026
Back to Austria. Re-integrating into my own country after years away — living a version of the integration question right now.
The podcast

Listen before you book.

Real conversations, in imperfect German, with expats navigating life in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Think of it as a long, warm introduction to how I teach — before you ever message me.

A note on the podcast

Interview guests are hard to find (turns out people don't love being recorded sounding imperfect — fair enough). So the show now mixes real interviews, anonymised student stories, and solo episodes where I think out loud about integration.

Open in Spotify ↗ Or get the free Challenge app →
Free · web app · ongoing

Not ready to book anything? Start here.

The Integration Challenge is a free app that gives you one tiny speaking task a day. Order something out loud. Text your neighbour. Make a phone call you've been avoiding. No grammar drills — just a daily nudge to use the German you already have. A good way to get a feel for how I teach before picking a course, coaching or conversation practice.

Try the free Integration Challenge app →
Free forever · no account required · built for Austria/DE/CH
Integration Challenge app — today's challenge: ask for a recommendation