German Classes or Saturday school for a 12-year-old

How exciting that your son is interested in German. Luckily, our local Bay Area German-speaking community is very robust. Many options and resources exist to support your child's interests. One idea is to join one of the local German Facebook groups to hear of events and gatherings that may offer him opportunities to meet and speak with other German speakers.

The German School of the East Bay (https://gseb-school.org/) offers weekly Saturday classes for those interested in learning German. You could also check out the Goethe Institute in San Francisco (https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/m/spr.html) to see what in-person or online courses they offer. Another idea may be to try to find a private tutor in the East Bay to save your family a trip over the bridge.

Our family has been a part of the East Bay German International School (EBGIS), however we do not recommend it. This past 2023/2024 school year was a make or break year for the school and, sadly, we witnessed it go further downhill in the hands of new leadership. We experienced a new low in terms of lack of transparency, accountability, kindness, compassion, and professionalism. The Achilles heel of the school is poor leadership. The power structure of the school is top-down with no checks and balances. Power and decision-making are consolidated in the hands of only a couple of people. The bar just keeps being lowered - often without notice - and the leadership seem to make up the rules as they go. There is a general lack of respect for parents and our sincere concerns have been consistently disregarded. We have felt fear for even raising concerns after seeing how other parents have been treated by leadership. I would advise you not to be wooed by what the school may claim to offer you and your child. Your child fits the profile of a student who EBGIS would wish to appeal to for the rebranded East Bay International High School. We have found that there is a huge disconnect between what the leadership promise and what is delivered. The standards are far inferior to what we were told we were signing up for. The school is sometimes so short-staffed that parents have been asked to step into teaching roles. Good teachers don't stick around and move on to greener pastures. We lost multiple teachers mid-year. Staff turnover is staggering. The school is unrecognizable from just a few years ago. It is not what we would have expected from a German International school abroad nor any local private school, for that matter. Obviously, we wished we would have avoided it altogether.

Instead, I suggest you choosing a more enriching route for your family. For example, you could look into hosting a German-speaking exchange student either short-term or long-term. Therein your child can have an experience that would offer him a lot of opportunity to engage with the German language and jumpstart his listening and speaking skills. And, when he is a bit older, your child may want to be an exchange student himself in Germany.

There are so many ways to be creative when learning a language. I hope your family can have a positive and fun experience whilst avoiding the pitfalls and negative experiences that our family has unfortunately faced.

Best wishes to you & your child on their language-learning journey.