This post is a bit complex. But I know people coming to work in Munich are usually highly educated and will not have a big problem with the math presented here.
I will try to answer the question: is a private course more expensive of a group course in a language school?
A language school in Munich offers 1 intensive course of German lasting 1 month for 265€.
WOW! That’s a fantastic price, one might think. Especially compared with the cost of a private teacher of German, in my case I ask 35€ per 45 min. There is really no comparison, one might think.
One moment, let’s have a closer look. Let’s read better the details of the offer, here you go:
- there are 3 hours of lesson per day, makes 180 minutes.
- a course has max 10 students.
- the lessons are from Monday to Thursday, that makes 16 days per course.
180 minutes per 10 students means you have only 18 minutes available for you.
What’s the cost per minute?
cost per minute = 265/(16*18) = 92 ct/min
My fees are:
-
35€ every 45 minutes or,
-
31.5€ per 45 minutes if you take a 20 hours course.
Per minutes makes:
-
35/45 = 77 ct/min
-
31.5/45 = 70 ct/min
Surprise surprise, a course in a school costs 92 cents per minute while a course with a private teacher costs only 77 cents per minute.
The cost per minute of a “cheap” school is higher than the cost per minute of an “expensive” private German teacher.
Of course, the calculation required some simplifications. For example, I assumed that of the daily 180 minutes you can talk only 18 minutes on average and this is the time you actively learn. But for the sake of comparison, I needed a starting point.
Finally, I demonstrated that the time with a private teacher is used much more efficiently, I quantified this efficiency and showed that the cost of a private course is for sure comparable, if not better, to the cost of a language school.
If I was able to convince you about the superiority of a private German course visit my info page German course in Munich.