Doctor Tarnawska Senel is an amazing professor! She really cares about her students and is open to communication and feedback. Despite it being an asynchronous course, she communicated frequently and responded to emails quickly. When I asked about potential improvements to the course, she made them right away. The only problem that I had with this course was the the website used, BlinkLearning was very hard to use and had many bugs, making it difficult to use. Other than that, I really liked the class and the asynchronous format works pretty much as good as it can for a language learning class.

The class was structured into three units per week, each unit consists of watching a mini lecture from the professor and then doing two large chunks of BlinkLearning assignments. On top of that each week you also have a discussion post and have to schedule a time to meet with a partner and record yourselves doing German activities. This class is easy in the sense that as long as you do the work, you should get an A. The exams are even allowed to be taken as many times as you want until you get a grade you are happy with. However it is a LOT of work. You have to actually be committed to learning the language, and understand that it takes a lot of time. The upside is that its asynchronous so despite being a lot of work, its flexible on when you have to do it, which is nice if your trying to fit this class into a specific spot in your schedule.

Overall, I really enjoyed learning German and if you want to learn German this is a great class to do so! I would definitely recommend taking it!

Great prof and person. But the workload was quite a bit.

Very intense class but such a nice person!

The professor is the nicest lady ever. She will help you if you are falling behind no matter what and will clarify anything you need. That being said there is a lot of work. Every week you have to turn in anywhere from 10-12 assignments and they are all not the easiest. Along with assignments, you must meet with a student in the class and complete in-depth and dense worksheets that can take up to 3-4 hours every week. Not the easiest class but she is very helpful in my opinion.

Altho this prof was listed as the teacher, they were nearly the mentor of the PhD student who taught the class: Lena Trüper. My review is of the class she taught.

This class was so much fun. Genuinely the highlight of my week. Even I didn't understand most of what Lena said in class (because it was all German), the small class size really helped us be engaged and try to practice. Attendance was mandatory. I feel like I didn't learn much, I must have because I got an A? Homework was assigned on a website called Blink learning. Blink was a f*ckin pain to figure out at first, but Lena was super lenient and worked with us to figure it out. Homework was about a module a week, but graded on completion. We had one midterm and a final. Exams were released 10 days before they were due, with unlimited tries, but timed. Best score was kept. There were about 80 questions to answer in 30 minutes for the midterm and then 70 questions in 40 minutes for the final. I took both around 10 times before I was satisfied with my grade. Overall, workload was half an hour a day plus mandatory class. Not bad at all.

Plus there's no bigger plot twist then when Lena told us "I think I found a new study tool to help you for your exam" and then Kahoot music starts playing.

I think in general learning the German language isn’t easy. This class has a VERY heavy workload as do the higher levels so be prepared to complete all online assignments ON TIME. I can’t stress this enough but by going to office hours will make the content of this class so much easier. Overall, I did enjoy this class a lot and have no regrets about taking it but I need to emphasize how strenuous it is.

Professor Magda is awesome. She is a more than well-qualified language instructor. I am so glad that my first experience of the German language was with Professor Magda. She really knows how to help students grasp a new language in a short amount of time, in an enjoyable and non-stressful way. Her class is designed to encourage students to speak in German all the time; it can be a little intimidating at first, but you become familiar with the language so much more quickly. Professor Magda is never annoyed or critical when you make mistakes; instead, she always smiles and willingly corrects your mistakes. While she is a charismatic and competent instructor, she is also motherly and caring toward her students. She is always pleasant, diligent, and hard-working. German 1 with Professor Magda was rewarding and worthwhile. I also took German 2 with her and plan to take intermediate German with her as well!