The Berlitz Method
It began with a misunderstanding.
In 1878 Maximilian Berlitz hired a French assistant who spoke no English. Six weeks later he discovered his students had progressed faster than ever. Everything else follows from that.
- 4.8on Google, from 505 reviews
- 11centres across France
- 1878the method, unchanged
- A1 – C2levels, from beginner up
1878
The founding accident.
Maximilian Berlitz taught languages in Providence, in the United States. Overwhelmed, he hired an assistant from France, a man named Joly. When Joly arrived, the problem became apparent: he spoke no English at all.
Berlitz fell ill at the same moment. He had no choice but to hand his classes to an assistant who could not communicate with anyone. He left him a single instruction: point at objects, act out actions, use words inside situations rather than explaining them.
Six weeks later he came back expecting the worst. His students were holding conversations in French, with an ease they had never had. Being unable to translate had not slowed them down. It had forced them to speak.
The five principles
What makes a lesson a Berlitz lesson.
These are not teaching preferences. They define the method, and they are the same in the 550 centres of the worldwide network, where every trainer receives the same training.
You speak as much as possible
The rule is measured: at least half of the lesson time is reserved for you to speak. A lesson in which the trainer talks more than you do is not a Berlitz lesson.
The target language, and only that
No translation. Your trainer rephrases instead, and you learn to do the same, which happens to be precisely the skill a real conversation demands.
Speaking first, and playfully
Learning goes through listening and speaking first, consolidated afterwards by writing. The order matters: you speak before you write, not the other way round.
Grammar through use
Rules are met inside situations rather than recited beforehand. You use a structure, then you understand why it works, which is the order in which children acquire a first language.
Native trainers
Lessons are given by native speakers of the language taught, trained in the method. It is what makes a lesson without translation possible at all.
The objection
But I will not understand anything.
Everyone says it, and almost everyone stops saying it within the first lesson. Your trainer does not talk at you in fluent French and hope: they narrow, repeat, show, draw and check, at the level you are actually at.
What you lose is the comfort of being told the English word. What you gain is the reflex of finding another way to say something when the word you wanted is missing, which is what you will do for the rest of your life in this language.
No claim about speed is made here. The method has been in use since 1878 and it is the one every Berlitz trainer is trained in; how fast you progress depends on you, your starting level and how much of the language surrounds you.
Try it rather than read about it.
The level assessment is itself a conversation, and it is the shortest way to find out whether a lesson without translation suits you.