German for Ausbildung, Study and Family Reunification in Germany
If your plan is an Ausbildung, a degree or joining your family in Germany, the German certificate is not a formality at the end. It is usually the gate you have to pass before anything else moves: before the visa appointment, before the contract, before the flight. At Studyfreunde in Airport West, Accra, you prepare for exactly the level your plan requires, in a group of never more than four learners, taught by Vanessa, a native German speaker with a teaching qualification and a Master of Education.
Which level do you actually need?
Different plans need different certificates. Preparing for the wrong one costs months.
- Family reunification (Familiennachzug): A1
- Most Ausbildung programmes: B1
- Regulated professions such as nursing: B2
- University study: B2 to C1, depending on the programme
Check the requirement in your own admission letter or visa information before you start, because programmes differ and rules change. If you are unsure, bring the letter to your first lesson and we will read it together. We prepare you for the Goethe-Zertifikat at the level your plan requires, from A1 up to C2.
How the preparation works
Every lesson lasts sixty minutes, and German is spoken in it from the first minutes. That is not a style choice: an exam at any level tests whether you can use the language under mild pressure, and the only way to get used to that is to do it every week.
In-person groups never grow beyond four learners. With four people in the room, everyone speaks in every lesson, everyone gets corrected, and nobody waits twenty minutes for a turn. Books, worksheets and marked homework are included, and the feedback on your homework decides what we do next.
Lessons take place in person at our centre in Airport West, or online on request if you are not in Accra. Teaching hours are Tuesday to Friday from 12pm to 5pm and Saturday from 10am to 2pm, and lessons outside those hours are possible by agreement, which matters if you are working full time.
Where you start
You take a lesson rather than a test. The first lesson is free, and by the end of that hour we usually know which group fits you. For an adult working towards a Goethe exam with a fixed deadline we add a short written check as well, because there it is worth knowing precisely how far you still are from A1, B1 or B2.
There are no terms and no fixed start dates, so you do not wait for a new course to begin. Until a group is full, a course can also start one to one.
How long does each level take?
This is the question everyone asks first, and it deserves a real answer rather than a comfortable one. The honest answer depends on two things a general statement cannot know: where you are starting from and how often you can come. Somebody who already holds A2 is in a completely different position from somebody opening a German book for the first time. So instead of one number, here is the calculation itself.
Work out your own timeline
How long will it take you?
The honest answer depends on where you start, where you need to get to and how often you come. Choose the three below and you get the figures we actually work with, not a sales number. They include the time at home, because lessons alone are never the whole investment.
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lessons of 60 minutes in class
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at this frequency
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hours a week in total, lessons plus practice at home
The lesson figures are the guideline hours published by the Goethe-Institut, converted from their 45-minute teaching unit into our 60-minute lessons, for a small group of no more than four. Those are hours in class only. The Goethe figures assume you also work on German between lessons, so we show that time separately, calculated at about half an hour of practice for every lesson hour. That is the amount that keeps you inside the range shown rather than above it. All of this is a planning guide, not a promise: after the first few weeks of teaching you we can tell you where you actually sit.
Three things the calculator cannot show, and you should know them
More lessons a week means fewer lessons in total. The hours are not a fixed price you can pay in any rhythm you like. A learner who comes once a week spends part of every lesson recovering what faded since the last one. A learner who comes three times a week loses far less in between. So for Study Start the true figure sits at the upper end of the range shown or beyond it, and for Study Plus at the lower end. If you have a deadline, frequency is the single most effective thing you can change.
The lesson hours are not the whole investment. The figures the Goethe-Institut publishes count time in class only, and they already assume that you work on German in between. That is why the calculator shows the time at home as a separate number. We reckon with about half an hour of practice for every lesson hour, which is why two lessons a week comes out at roughly three hours a week in total rather than two.
Practice is also what decides where you land inside the range. The spans above are wide because they cover very different learners. Someone who reviews regularly sits at the lower end. Someone who only appears for the lesson sits at the upper end or beyond it, because time that should go into new material goes into repeating old material instead. Talent moves this far less than habit does.
Speaking a level and passing the exam for it are two different things. Holding a simple conversation at A1 comes sooner than the calculator suggests. The Goethe-Zertifikat A1 additionally asks for listening under exam conditions, reading, a written part and a structured speaking part, and that is what these hours are measured against. We tell you honestly where you stand before you book an exam date.
These figures describe adult learners. Children move differently: they need more hours per level, but they hold pronunciation better and lose the language more slowly, so we do not put level timings on the children’s pages.
What it costs
Study Start is one lesson a week at GHS 1,200 a month, Study Pro two lessons at GHS 2,200, and Study Plus three lessons at GHS 3,200. Materials and marked homework are included, there is no registration fee, and membership can be cancelled monthly. A 10% family discount applies from the second family member and 15% from the third. The full overview is on the pricing and enrolment page.
Questions people ask before they start
Start with a free lesson
The simplest next step is a free trial lesson. Write to us on WhatsApp at +233 25 693 3270 or to info@studyfreunde.com and tell us what your plan is, what German you already have and when you are free. An overview of all our courses is on the German classes page, and the wider adult programme on the German for adults page.