From left standing: Anna from Russia,
Thomas from the US [tkolt@mediaone.net], Paul from England, Dorothee - teacher
From the left sitting: Joachim - guide, Silvina from Argentine, Katarzyna from Polen and Saori from Japan.

After his return to the US Thomas wrote us the following E-mail ...

16 December 2000

Dear Alexandra, dear Joachim,

Please excuse the long delay in writing. Upon our return from Bamberg we encountered some family difficulties needing our full attention which prevented writing earlier.

Thank you for the wonderful memories of TREFF PUNKT and Bamberg. The whole experience was delightful! It is very clear that you are committed to helping people learn German and to making it an enjoyable enriching experience. Having been to TREFF PUNKT I can strongly recommend it to anyone. If one is serious about wanting to learn German yet wants a relaxed atmosphere TREFF PUNKT is certainly the place to go. It sounds like an ad, but now that I’ve been there I can honestly tout its merits.  Please feel free to post all or part of this letter on your web site and I would be happy to respond to questions from people considering attending your school.

I do not know where you get your energy from Alexandra, but it sure is impressive. You went out of your way to make my time in Bamberg a truly multifaceted learning experience and you succeeded way beyond my hopes and expectations. You connect with each of your students and make sure that they are learning and getting what they need to from TREFF PUNKT. The walking tours, visits, suggested places to see, events and personal connections all helped to make it memorable. We very much enjoyed seeing your friend’s restoration project.  Seeing your acquaintance’s genealogy collection was great fun and also a learning experience for me. As a result I was introduced to a semi–professional genealogist whom I’ve engaged to help with our family history project.

Our original plan was for my wife to go on her business trip while I learned German at TREFF PUNKT for a week. After that we had intended to travel more in different areas. Instead I met my wife and brought her back to Bamberg for the rest of the trip. That way I could take some more classes and my wife could also see wonderful old Bamberg.

I took the individual classes and was able to focus on particular areas needing improvement. Individual classes were extremely helpful to me and I'd suggest it to anyone who can speak a little German, but is weaker on grammar fundamentals.

My only regret about the time in Bamberg was that it was too short!

Please keep up the good work at TREFF PUNKT and expect that I will return for more classes at the earliest possible opportunity. Hopefully, you’ll be able to bring your “learn German online” idea to fruition so that I don’t completely loose what you so patiently taught. Again thank you for a great time!

Bis bald,

Tom Kolterjahn

PS. Please note my new email address.