Any German or Austrian mners around (or mners who live in Austria or Germany)?

[MsFogi]

DD (age 17) is doing German A-level and is hoping to live and work in Germany or Austria in the future. In the meanwhile, she is desperate to spend Summer in Germany or Austria to really immerse herself in the language (she's not too worried about earning much/any money as long as she really gets to speak German). I know absolutely nothing about Germany and Austria - can anyone suggest anything she could do and, ideally, any pointers on how to make it happen (eg websites). My only idea so far has been that I could contact everyone I know with a German connection to see if they know anyone who would be interested in having a sensible 17 year old in their family for a number of weeks in return for her babysitting/helping with childcare/teaching the children some English.

I should have said, DD has a European passport so working in Germany or Austria or staying for a length of time are not an issue for her.

Have a look on the internet for German host families, it's relatively simple to find one and there are many that offer work experience also!

Workaway?

I spent a couple of summers learning German at a full immersion language school in Vienna run by the university, in my early 20s. There were loads of teens too. It wasn’t cheap though - £1000 or so a month I think but that included halls of residence-type accommodation. This was 20 years ago though - would something like that appeal/be doable?

This was it: German summer school. It looks like it may be cheaper than I remember - this is saying €555 but I’m not sure if that includes accommodation.

It was a really good course and I made loads of friends, it was a blast. There’s no adult supervision though - it’s just like being at uni.

What about being an au pair?

No concrete leads but I suppose you could identify a target region then ask on local Facebook groups.

It sounds like her idea is to help manage kids during school holidays? Keep in mind Germans only get six weeks of it in summer and the exact date varies hugely state by state. There's actually an official rotation for it, starting in June with the earliest state and finishing with the southern states in August/September.

Studying at Uni Konstanz I met lots of people doing the www.humboldt-institut.org/en/german-courses-in/constance/

The experience sounds much as PP has indicated much like a Uni short course.

It's clearly my own prejudice, I would prefer a course in Germany over Austria

Yeah, I’d say you’d develop a better accent learning in Germany. I went to Vienna because we had contacts at the university there and they said it was a good course.

Thanks so much for all the responses! I am really interested to hear about the school holidays - dd's ultimate dream was to go to school in Germany for a week or two so it sounds like this could be a possibility (if I find a region that goes back in August, and a school willing to take her and accommodation!!!).

Does your town have a German "twin"? If so, can you contact the twinning association?

Is there anything here that looks useful? www.goethe.de/ins/de/en/m/jug.html