Johannes Hinterberger
A matter of passion
Being a German trainer, as well as a lecturer in German as a foreign language and German as a second language (DaF/DaZ), is one of my greatest passions.
I teach learners from all over the world. What fascinates me most are the misunderstandings that can arise in communication. So I'd guess that this must be exactly one of the reasons why I'm so captivated by the grammar of the German language in particular, and by the possibilities it offers for nuanced expression.
My participants quickly notice that I look at the structures of German grammar in a way that doesn't always match the classic learning materials.
For me, for example, a question that can be answered with yes or no never starts at position 1, but always at the second position. Position 1 is simply missing – it only exists in questions that cannot be answered with yes or no. As someone who also knows a programming language or two, I often see structures "meta-metalinguistically". Much to the dismay of some colleagues. *sorry.
But how did it all begin?
About 13.768 billion years ago, give or take – scientists love to argue about that (and I'll be damned if I get involved!) – the universe is said to have come into being, or to have been created by God. Quite a lot has happened since then, in any case.
Anyway, one day my parents met. First my two siblings were born. Some time later, me. As a baby, I surely bawled a lot. I spent a happy childhood in a so-called market town which – while I was growing up there – was declared a city. There I went to primary school (the so-called Volksschule, followed by a lower secondary school with a music focus), and then to a commercial school. It was immediately clear that I absolutely wanted to become a secretary, because the alternative, electrician, which I had tried out as a summer job during commercial school, just didn't turn me on. But, as fate would have it, things turned out differently.
When I started my first job, I was over the moon. I was completely overpaid for very simple tasks. Back then I worked as "Assistance of the Assistance of the Area Manager West" for "The Yellow Pages" in Salzburg. It got even better when the "Assistance of the Area Manager West" quit and I got her position. A few years later, this job became too boring for me. I could well understand why the "Assistance of the Area Manager West" had left.
A longing for change
I longed for a change. After a spell of wild odd jobs and a truly extreme phase (yes, I often know what you're talking about), I worked for a mail-order company. First in the call center and then in marketing. I had won a company competition that was all about a creative idea, and as a result I was offered the chance to switch departments.
I gladly took that chance. There I discovered my passion for technical structures and for so-called list broking, which is popularly referred to as selling addresses, although that isn't quite accurate. At the company I learned SAS (Statistic Analyzing System) and, along with it, SQL, and in my free time I wanted to know everything about HTML. A few years later I became self-employed with a multimedia agency. There, the right communication was what mattered: marketing communication.
Besides the multimedia agency, which organised pretty much everything from websites and classic advertising all the way to events, I had also opened a small meeting place back then, which filled a gap that my then place of residence in Carinthia really needed (copy shop + internet terminals).
One of my internet projects from that time (see picture; after a short time it had about 1,350 members) had almost 80,000 users shortly before it collapsed – and that at a time when hardly anyone had their own internet connection, or when anything like Facebook even existed. That's also why, at the time, I decided to open another meeting place in a different town.
When a human trafficker gets in the way...
Unfortunately, I had chosen a town back then whose landlord turned out to be a human trafficker and (since convicted) murderer. During that time I lost everything you can possibly lose in terms of (worldly) possessions. The agency, the meeting places, the businesses.
The worst part was that, because I knew about the circumstances, the human trafficker hunted me all across Austria. So I was on the run, and today I can well understand how many German learners feel who are being, or have been, persecuted by aggressors in their home countries.
For two years I could hardly lift a finger or move about in public. My fear of being hunted down was too great.
At first the police did nothing, but at the end of those two years (2010) a criminal investigator contacted me for questioning. I couldn't trust him. I was only willing to meet him under extreme security precautions.
Fortunately, after the conversation with the officer, I had the chance to fight my anxiety. Step by step I began to find my bearings again, or rather to find new ones. Bore-out syndrome was the diagnosis at the time. A condition that is still very dangerous for me even today: the fear of dying of boredom. Any kind of routine could be fatal for me.
A feeling of meaninglessness?
My fight against meaninglessness had evidently begun. At first I spent a lot of time on the sense and nonsense of being here – but also of being gone.
I registered, quite officially, as a freelance artist who contemplates the sense and nonsense of existence. I enrolled at an evening high school for adults to take my mind off things.
Unfortunately, there I came up against structures that acted as though modern media such as the internet didn't exist. Questions, especially follow-up questions about assignments and requirements, were unwelcome. From today's perspective, what I learned there was how I never, ever want to be as a teacher.
The evening high school was designed to take 8 semesters. In the first two semesters I had completed half of all the modules. When I was asked to take it more slowly, it got too boring for me, so within 3 weeks I took the supplementary exams required for a Multi-Media-Art degree that I had absolutely set my heart on. I couldn't stand that either:
It wasn't about art, and it wasn't about multimedia either. It was about advertising (but I had already left the agency behind me; I no longer felt like lying products into people's heads) and about worker bees with academic degrees who, as henchmen of the film, advertising and marketing industries, have to carry out orders, and whose creativity depends on the mood of a superior rather than on the clients. It's certainly an exciting field in principle, but it wasn't for me (any more). So once again I longed for a change of scenery.
A new scenery
When I had said goodbye to the University of Applied Sciences, I came across an advertisement from the Bildungsförderungsinstitut (BFI) in Salzburg, promoting a diploma course.
At first I didn't even notice the part about the diploma course; the only thing that caught my eye was the name of the lecturer. She had been the German lecturer when I took the supplementary exams. I took a closer look at the offer and found out that it was about German as a foreign language and German as a second language.
Reading the programme of the diploma course more closely, I discovered more and more subject areas that fascinated me. After I had signed up, I was able to combine and contribute everything I had learned and experienced so far.
Spoiler: By now, "and team" includes me too. ☺️
German courses on TV, on YouTube, on Facebook and elsewhere...
After completing the diploma course, interesting new opportunities came up.
Gerhard and I designed a B1 course for participants (seasons: B1.1 and B1.2), which was broadcast on television, and I also founded a YouTube channel and a Facebook channel. Every week there are several opportunities to take part in public lessons for free, which are financed out of my own pocket.
Some users are channel members on YouTube and help me pay for the internet costs. Every week, hundreds of texts are corrected and people from all over the world are supported in their learning. By now there is also the option of taking private lessons (for a fee).
Whether media design or teaching, in the meantime there is also interest in looking at my perspective from a scientific context:
In addition, I was awarded the prize "Speechless through Migration" by the City of Salzburg and the University of Teacher Education (PH Stefan Zweig) for a multimedia art project:
Read the original article by Lisa Gold
Here you can watch the film that won the award:
Engaging with the topic of speechlessness showed me how much all of this had affected me personally, too. For me personally it was an incredibly important project, and it received great appreciation as a result.
Gratitude
All of this – and much more – fills me with gratitude, joy and bliss. I would love to give something of it back. From time to time I'd like to expand this "about me" a little more. That's also why I'm very curious to see what the future holds for the participants and me on this platform.
For now, I wish you lots of fun learning, practising and joining in!
Warm regards and all the best,
Johannes - "JoPhi" - Hinterberger
Certified DaF/DaZ trainer & lecturer (German as a foreign/second language)
Areas of expertise:
- e-teaching,
- e-learning,
- online teaching (one-to-one, group, mass)
PS: Private life
Yes, I have one. Anyone who takes part in my lessons will find out a bit about it too. I don't think it's particularly great to simply post everything wholesale on one page, because I love personal contact.