~ Dr. Gail Finney
I was introduced to the Gerlind Institute in June 2020 by viewing and discussing the film Evet, ich will. The following December I began regularly attending both the film evenings and the oral history talks offered by the Institute. In 2021 I was appointed to the Board of the Institute and have since attended three Board meetings. I started participating in the monthly Klönschnack gatherings in January 2022. All this activity has taken place over Zoom, with the exception of a party at Karen Wolff’s house in Berkeley in August 2022. It was very gratifying to meet in person so many of the people that I had been interacting with only virtually. 

The offerings of the Gerlind Institute have added considerably to my life. Before I retired in December 2020, my entire career was devoted to German literature and culture: I received an A.B. degree from Princeton in German and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in comparative literature with a primary specialization in German, and I taught German and comparative literature for forty years at Harvard and UC Davis. I have lived in Germany for more than four years, during seven sojourns. Not surprisingly, discovering an institute devoted to the German language, culture, and history was a revelation for me. I began working on American film around 2000 and published a couple of articles in this area, but my interaction with German film was limited to my teaching. It has been eye-opening to explore a rich range of German films at the Gerlind film evenings, where the level of discussion is strikingly high. I come away from those discussions informed and invigorated. The oral history series is comparably stimulating, offering personal testimonies by speakers whose experience with Germany has profoundly marked them and who, in turn, leave their listeners educated and enriched. On a lighter note, I have also enjoyed and appreciated the Klönschnack meetings, since my opportunities to speak German in retirement are rare. 

In short, my life would be distinctly impoverished without the Gerlind Institute. Its dedicated, hard-working staff, Dr. Marion Gerlind and JB, deserve emphatic recognition, and the Institute merits far greater support than it has received.

~ Hari Kumar
The challenge was pretty straight forwards; learn conversational German so that my Swiss wife and I could have our own secret language in mixed company. I had a brief stab at online courses and found out quickly that these were aimed at the generic tourist who wants to say ‘Guten Tag’ and ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ when she visits Germany!

Then I met Frau Dr. Gerlind and within a week I knew more about learning German than any online course was going to teach me. Marion (I can call her that, now we are friends!) took a very structured and disciplined approach to what is a very difficult language to learn. Within six months of weekly classes, I was able to hold pidgin German conversations. A year later, I can hold my own with the plumber in describing what the problem was. In Switzerland NOT in Berkeley! That is progress. All credit goes to Marion.

If you need to learn German, you need Marion. Period.

~ Dr. Charles Moser

Hi Marion,

I’ve been wanting to tell you how much I enjoyed your class and to wish you well during this trying time. Your email has prompted me to write. When I signed up for the class, I was expecting a somewhat didactic reading and a dry deconstruction and discussion approach to this literature. But I signed on because I knew that Brecht — and more importantly, Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya — were contemporaries of my father, who had bittersweet memories of his life in Germany. I think my father was less interested in Brecht because of the Communist connection. I regret tuning some of that out when I was young and now wish to learn more since both of my parents are long gone.

In fact, I found the class most interesting. It was great fun and quite stimulating, with the participation of an enjoyable and involved group of students. This was due to your excellent leadership and teaching skills, which brought out the juiciest and most relevant Brechtian material, instead of the traditional “Is this really part of Marxist theory?” stuff that I had expected (and hoped to keep at a minimum). Your innovative consideration of his work, as well as the influence and important literary collaboration of women in his life, is really important and made the course even more interesting.

~ Rebecca and Cyrus Farivar
Marion is a friendly and effective teacher. We signed up for classes with her when we decided to move to Germany for work, but neither of us spoke any German. From the beginning, Marion ran almost the entire class in German, even though we were starting from square one, but it never felt overwhelming thanks to her positive and encouraging attitude. The classes were well organized and fun, and we learned so much in the process. Now that we are in Germany, we are amazed by how we are already able to communicate simple ideas and sentences, and all that after only two months of classes! Her enthusiasm for the language is infectious! Danke schön, Marion!

Rebecca and Cyrus Farivar. Rebecca is an English Teacher and Poet, and Cyrus is a Freelance Technology Journalist.

~ Nathan Herschel Levine
I found Marion online, since I wanted to study German before starting my graduate studies, and have taken both private and small-group classes with her for the past year and a half. Marion has been an excellent teacher, always thoughtful and patient, and expects a high standard from her students. She has given me great preparation and confidence to travel to Berlin for an intensive German course at the Humboldt Universität, which I am about to undertake. She is also a very friendly person, and fun to talk to! I highly recommend the Gerlind Institute to anyone who wants to improve (or begin) their German.

Thank you so much, Marion!

~ Penny Dedel
I’ve taken several German classes in groups and decided that I wanted the attention and focus of private instruction. I was delighted to find Marion and the Gerlind Institute. Marion is a very talented, inspiring, and patient teacher. She is genuinely interested in her students’ lives and cares deeply about helping them improve their German skills. She is great at figuring out how you in particular learn, and she’s also good at pushing you that extra bit. I thoroughly enjoyed the two years I spent learning with Marion.

~ Thea Farhadian
Marion was a fantastic teacher of German and our sessions were really enjoyable. I am an intermediate speaker of German and wanted to get more familiar with some basic phrases and professional vocabulary for my work. Prior to my trip to Berlin, we met once a week for six weeks. The lessons helped me immensely. Phrases and words that we studied were reinforced with the audio-recording I made, and in everyday situations while traveling. I felt more confident speaking in German and this was ever so meaningful.

Marion is truly an excellent, patient, and engaged teacher. She is well prepared for lessons and discusses the goals with students in the first session. Her teaching style is very directional, and also collaborative, and flexible. I recommend Marion highly!

~ Nell Shaw Cohen
Marion is a responsive, knowledgeable, and confidence-building teacher, as well as a kind person. She gives full attention, full patience, and an open mind

Marion makes a point to be well-prepared with outside materials and lesson plans, but she's also flexible with her curriculum. It is genuinely important to her to teach toward a student's personal German-learning goals, and she listened and adjusted her teaching to meet my interests, questions, and needs, and she encouraged me through every step of my learning.

I have found that there are advantages to learning from a native German, and was able to ask her many questions about the idiomatic usage of different words or phrases.

Additionally, as a college student, I could not have studied with Marion if not for her sliding-scale prices. She shows a real commitment to working with students from a variety of backgrounds.

~ Noeline Arul
Marion was a tremendous help to me in writing and editing my application materials in German for the International Parliamentary Scholarships program (which included an essay, my resume, and paragraph answers to several questions). She was very helpful not just with the translation of my materials and the proofreading of spelling and grammar, but also in terms of editing my materials so that my application conveyed how much I wanted to participate in the program and was tailored to the program's goals. Although I was not selected for an interview for the program, in retrospect, I am glad I completed the application because I learned a lot from Marion and it was a good experience to have—it made me realize how much I am still interested in the German language, culture, and the country, and has rekindled my desire to continue with my German studies. It meant a lot that Marion was willing to help out someone who she'd only met once before, at a previous conversation group meeting; she truly exemplifies the role and ideals of a teacher.

~ Paulo-Juarez Pereira
Bevor ich Marion fand, war ich verzweifelt, und ich wusste nicht, was ich tun sollte. Ich hatte einen Deutschkurs belegt, der es mir erlaubte, die Prüfungen zu machen, ohne die Klassen zu besuchen. Nachdem ich das Textbuch bekam, wusste ich sofort, dass ich das Material nicht allein bewältigen konnte. Nachdem ich mehrere Wochen mit den Stoff kämpfte, gab ich auf und suchte nach einem deutschen Tutoren. Ich fand viele, aber etwas an Marions Beschreibung war sehr zugänglich und qualifiziert. Sie war eine deutsche Muttersprachlerin, sie zeigte Enthusiasmus, und sie war flexibel mit verschiedenen Niveaus. Meine Intuition war richtig. Es gab Tage, an denen ich völlig überwältigt war, aber ich kam trotzdem zu meinen Privatklassen, und Marion führte mich durch diese schwierigen Zeiten bis zu dem Punkt, an dem ich den Kurs erfolgreich absolvierte. Sie hat mich inspiriert, weiter zu machen, sogar in Momenten, in denen ich scheinbar keine Energie mehr hatte. Ich empfehle sie als eine ausgezeichnete Lehrerin.

~ Anne M. Klint, Artist
I cannot speak highly enough of Marion Gerlind and her language training! I am the recipient of this year of a highly competitive Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship to study abroad in Leipzig, Germany. Basic language competency is naturally required to study in many foreign countries, but having learned German in high school and a bit in college (too many years ago to mention!), I thought I would be able to pass my preliminary language exam.

Boy was I mistaken! In a panic, with my scholarship hanging in the balance, I had the good fortune to find Marion Gerlind. Not only was she able to accommodate my frantic schedule, but also in a handful of sessions she helped unlock my latent German skills and thoroughly prepared me to successfully retake my language exam. I refuse to consider my fate had we not met! Vielen Dank Frau Gerlind—für deine grossartige Hilfe und Freundinschaft!

~ Lu Stevenson
I have been a German language student of Marion Gerlind’s for the past 10 years (the first three years meeting regularly with her for private and semi-private lessons, and since then meeting with her for assistance on translation projects and in group classes.)

I have the highest esteem for Marion as an instructor. She is truly gifted—with a natural talent for teaching, which she has developed and enhanced through her interaction with her many private students as well as her university-level teaching and studies. The one hundred percent full attention she gives to everything she does she gives to her teaching as well, and it is evidenced in my learning of German as well as the results I have seen in other of her students.

When I began studying German with Marion I was an almost complete beginner. I have never learned another foreign language so quickly, easily, and naturally. Marion is able somehow (seemingly magically) to impart knowledge, support, and confidence to her students which translates into enlivening and enjoyable yet solid core language learning that is intellectually stimulating and challenging. Her lessons are always thoughtfully prepared: they usually (at least in my case) included “everyday” conversation as we shared about the week's “practical” situational German (for example exercises in asking or giving directions, or booking a hotel room); and literature or other reading with a discussion of form and content. I always leave an instruction hour with Marion feeling more stimulated, enlivened, and informed than before.

Marion's aliveness, effectiveness, ethics and joy in teaching are a gift and great luck to anyone who studies with her.

~ Ti-Fred Torres
Marion has been a great help to me in learning German over the last two years. She had a multitude of training techniques and was very adept at picking the ones that would improve my comprehension the fastest. She could clearly explain German grammar, which is notoriously difficult, in a manner I could follow. She could clarify not only the rules of grammar but often the sense behind the rules. Other tutors I had tried couldn't provide this level of insight.

At the same time, she kept the learning process fun by using casual conversation and role-playing in German. She was patient when I needed help, but also knew when to challenge me to find the right words myself. Over time, I found our lessons a very comfortable place to speak and listen to German, which is exactly the type of environment I needed to improve.

Finally, Marion made a real effort to reveal the culture and cultural perspectives of Germany. I believe that, in her view, an essential part of learning a language is learning the cultural perspectives of the language speakers. These are the things a textbook cannot teach and prove very valuable when learning a language.

~ Ramie Gold, PhD student, UC Berkeley
Working with Marion for the past several months has been very rewarding. As a requirement of the Ph.D. program I'm in, I had to pass a German translation exam, and this is what Marion and I worked on together.

Over the past semester, my translation abilities improved remarkably, due in large measure to Marion's ability as a patient, effective German tutor. She tailored our lessons to those that would best suit my needs and encouraged me with consistent reinforcement and helpful strategies. Cannot praise Marion enough. Her teaching abilities are matched only by her own character, which is honest, considerate, professional, and kind.

Last September, before I began taking lessons with her, I did not stand a chance at passing this translation exam but I'm pleased to say, that after a semester of working weekly with Marion, I successfully passed this challenging exam last month.

~ Laura Carpenter
Marion is an exceptional teacher. She makes learning German fun! She was always positive and encouraging. I looked forward to and enjoyed each class. Marion possesses the gift of teaching and gave me confidence in my abilities, even when I struggled. It was refreshing to learn with Marion. My only regret is that our time was so short. I hope to be able to study with her again in the future.

~ Scott W. Miller, RN, MS, Ph.D. (abd)
I am privileged and honored to provide this recommendation for Dr. Marion Gerlind. Dr. Gerlind has served as my private German tutor for over two years. I find her teaching methodologies age and culturally-appropriate, engaging and refreshing. Dr. Gerlind draws from her wealth of experience as a language teacher, native German speaker, and oral historian incorporating cultural aspects of German literature, folk traditions, and history to enhance instruction and language acquisition. Her mannerisms are gentle, attentive, and engaging. Teaching plans are mutually negotiated with attainable set goals to ensure the student progresses at a satisfactory pace.

I have progressed with Dr. Gerlind from the point of a non-speaker to achieving the ability and inner confidence to tour Germany alone, speak with local residents in German, utilize basic German reading skills, and be comfortable in group social settings. Dr. Gerlind has assisted me to build a bridge to my German roots and enriched my life.

~ Madeline Kingsley, UC Berkeley UNIX computer, retired
I have studied with Marion for the past 3 years in order to resuscitate my high school and some college German (from some 40 years ago) for the purpose of genealogy. Marion has been marvelously supportive and adaptable to my chosen learning methods, which included a free conversation on every topic imaginable, writing letters and deciphering old ones written in the old German script, and scant outside preparation on my part. Through our once-a-week sessions, Marion has brought me from a “hopeless with languages” person truly afraid to volunteer any words “auf Deutsch“ (in German) to a confident conversational participant always eager to speak up at Klönschnack, the monthly German language group founded by Marion. This last summer, I was able to engage with Germans who spoke no English and navigate my way through the Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv in Stade, Germany.

Though it is apparent Marion has formidable talents, her approach is the opposite of intimidating. She takes careful notes during each session and guides the conversation back to familiar topics to repeat vocabulary. She alternates between letting words flow freely, mistakes included and going over finer points of grammar and syntax in a clear, concise manner. She is amazingly patient. Marion is truly the reason I have persevered to conquer an area of learning that is difficult and frustrating for me. I recommend her to anyone.