I have struggled with learning German for a long time. In the lessons at Queer Gesprochen, I finally made progress. With Mercedes, I did not have to waste valuable time and energy explaining my pronouns and then dealing with hostility or doing mental gymnastics to around queerness and gender. I could simply focus on the lessons, which where tailored to my individual needs. Mercedes is a kind teacher and a very good explainer. 5 STARS!!!

I have taken both individual courses and conversation courses from Mercedes and I have enjoyed the well-structured classes with interesting content and high respect for students' wishes, needs and level. I find it very important that LGBT+ people have an opportunity to take classes where they can learn German in a safe and respectful environment, including gender sensitive language and neopronouns and other LGBT+ specific topics that would not be covered in a conventional language course.

I chose to study with you because my wife and I were looking for a German instructor who we knew would be sensitive to our identities and would help us learn German from a queer perspective. When learning a new language I didn't also want to be worried about what someone might think about my identities, so having access to an explicitly queer-centered German language course was very important to me.

I decided to learn from you because as a non binary person I found it very exhausting to learn from a classroom that did not acknowledge my existence. Obviously not all classes are about pronouns, but to have a teacher that is aware of the evolution of how that is working in the German language is amazing. Also afterwards I also found that Mercedes was very supportive of my ability to learn while being a person who has chronic illness. All in all I just feel very comfortable to feel like learning, but also having fun and exchanging knowledge with Mercedes.

Ich wollte in einem entspannten, sicheren Umfeld lernen. Mir hat es sehr gefallen, dass die Kurse von Mercedes kulturelle und politische Themen beinhalteten, die für mich als queere Person relevant und interessant waren. Ich denke, dass das Lernen von Sprachen dadurch viel interessanter und relevanter für das tägliche Leben wird. Ich würde ihre Kurse auf jeden Fall jedem empfehlen, auch nicht-queeren Menschen.

Finding you and taking the lessons was a matter of timing. Staying, however, has been because I have enjoyed the lessons. Both group and private. Content never disappoints and always end up feeling like lesson time was time well spent. Thank you a lot!