Who is Laura Bennett?
I have taught German for over 12 years, have bachelor’s & master’s degrees in German, am a Fulbright alumna, and have lived in Germany 3 times.
I work with people of all ages to learn German – from children to students in retirement. The bulk of my teaching has been private tutoring, but I have taught in classrooms at language schools and at the university level as well.
I created germanwithlaura.com to empower you with top-notch and engaging German grammar resources designed to demystify and simplify complex grammar topics. Now you can expand your language skills and have confidence you’re doing it right!
I’m here to equip you with what you need to know about German grammar so you can efficiently and effectively achieve the level of proficiency you’re looking for while enjoying yourself along the way.
➡️ Yes, I want Laura to help me learn German
My pursuit of German started off very simply and then gradually snowballed into a huge component of my life experiences and self-identity.
How did it all begin? With music. 🙂 I grew up in an English-only household and, at age 14, needed help with the lyrics to a German Art Song, “Die Lotusblume”, that I was learning with my voice teacher.
I’m from a small, rural village in the midwestern United States and there was literally just one person in my area who could help me with German — a sweet, spunky old woman in her 80s who had been in Germany as a volunteer after WWII and subsequently locally taught German for decades.
From there, long story short, my family hosted a foreign exchange student from Germany who significantly helped me improve my language skills; I also went to stay with her family for a summer as my first [glorious!] experience in Germany.
One step at a time, my path crossed with other native German-speakers who did wonders to improve my language capabilities. I also enjoyed additional opportunities in Germany, such as working as an au pair in the beautiful Black Forest.
In terms of making my passion for German ‘official’, I ultimately switched my undergrad major to German (Concordia College, Moorhead, MN), was offered a full-ride scholarship to pursue a master’s in German (University of Lincoln-Nebraska), and was even awarded a Fulbright Grant to teach English at an elementary school outside of Dresden.
In the meantime, I had discovered that I not only loved learning German myself, but also teaching it to others. I found I had a knack for simplifying the material so it really clicked with the student and made lessons so much more fun and engaging.
I first started teaching German at age 20 and have never stopped privately tutoring! Over the years, I’ve also taught at a language school, for an adult community education program, for an after-school language program for children, and 101 and 102 level courses at the university level while completing my master’s degree.
At age 24, I even founded and operated my own business, which sported 20 language teachers that provided German, French, Spanish, ASL, and Mandarin after-school programs to 9 elementary schools in Fargo, North Dakota for several semesters.
Although I started off building up more experience teaching children, I eventually definitively determined that I enjoy teaching adult learners even more … largely because I can explicitly teach them grammar, which is my favorite!
My hope is to bring to this site not only my knowledge of German, but my love of it — I want to totally infect you with a passion for this fascinating language and for the people & places you can experience because learning German opens that door for you.
Alles Gute,
Laura
