Albert-Ludwigs-Universtät Freiburg

I had studied a lot of German before I went to Freiburg, but I am a perseverant person and from the beginning I wanted to improve my language skills. The problem is that Freiburg has too many foreign students and if you want to achieve a very good knowledge, German can only be learned if you are in contact with native speakers, not with foreign students. The summer before the college course began I went to Goethe Institut and after that I joined a group of German students. If you get on well with some Germans, you can improve your skills very quickly. As well, there are many bars which are often visited by local citizens.

As a very touristy town, the Freiburgers tend to be a bit hasty in speaking english, even if their standard is not as good as your german. Once people realise however, that you are here for a while, they are very helpful, and either slow down their speech, or simply rephrase the sentence, instead of taking you for a tourist.

Biergarten half way up the schlossberg was amazing, and also the view from the tower on top. The Stusie (STUdentenSIEdlung) is the best place to meet other students from the university, and it's not so far from Feldberg, where you can go snowboarding in the winter (or hiking if you are that way inclined)

Once I had studied German in Brazil, it was not a problem to communicate in every day life in and outside the university. I had some problems with the English language instruction at the beginning because my English was kind of rusty, but after the first semester I could manage all situations with ease.