Attended 12 weeks of German instruction here and I am pleased overall with my experience. First off, the staff is amazing! I experienced 3 different instructors and they all were extremely knowledgeable, helpful, and really fun to learn from. If you generally want to learn they will do anything to help you! I even had one teacher who gave me assignments outside of class to help me catch up my first week. They each made my experience at the really positive and due to them, I would highly recommend the academy!
Also, the Receptionists were all super - they speak a variety of languages to assist students and always keep their cool in a stressful crowd of students needing help everyday.
The Academy itself was huge. I learned at 3 different locations- 2 on Bismarch and one near the Hauptbahnhof. The rooms are pretty bland but spotless.
The Students come from all over the world and range in age and experience. You can easily make friends. Although, there are some students who continually miss class and hold up the lecture due to missing key information, most students are really wanting to learn and get together to practice outside of school.
As I said my overall experience was great but there were a few reasons why I did not rate the academy higher.
1) Expense- the tuition was much higher than other language schools in the area and on top of it I was required to purchase 5 books during 12 weeks. I searched for housing outside the dorms and found the dorms to be quite outrageously priced! There are plenty of housing options in Heidelberg so do your homework before thinking about a dorm.
2) Room changes - over the course of 12 weeks I learned at 3 different locations. 2 at Bismarch and 1 near the train station. On Fridays you would find out where your class will be and every Monday you go to a new room or a whole new location across town.
3) Christmas Classes - During X mas the school shuts down on Dec 24-25 and if those days fall during the week the tuition is your gift to the school. It comes to about $20 per day so you loose $40 that week and the next week the school is closed Jan 1 so another $20. I spoke with the office about options and my options were lose my $60 for those 3 days or take a break and stay home then continue my classes after the holidays to not lose money. However, I was starting Uni so I was forced to gift my $60.
4) Starting Weekly- In theory starting any Monday sounds good but in reality no so much in my opinion. I came into class midway through the text book and spent the first week completely lost. Then the class continues and I had to try to build on my knowledge without the basics.
I would recommend F+U Academy to others - except the housing - especially if you have outside financial support. read more
