Live Skype Private Lessons to best prepare you for your Sproochentest exam
If you've lived in Luxembourg for at least 5 years, you'll have to take the language exam, called Sproochentest (and likely fulfil a few other conditions) to acquire Luxembourgish citizenship.
We have also had confirmation from the Ministry of Justice that you don't need to wait until your 5 years of residency are up before taking the Sproochentest. You can take the Sproochentest anytime, and once your residency requirements have been met, you can apply for nationality with the Sproochentest passed already.
The language exam to receive Luxembourgish nationality requires the A2 level in speaking and the B1 level in listening comprehension.
The Sproochentest is composed of two parts:
an oral exam consisting of
small talk about topics of the A2 level, such as introducing yourself or others, describing your heritage/culture, talking about your hobbies/work, talking about the weather,…; and
describing a picture.
a listening exam that makes you listen to three stories in Luxembourgish to which you then have to fill out a multiple choice questionnaire.
There is no written component in the exam.
All our courses are laid out in such a way so as to maximize your time in order to pass the nationality exam if that is your aim: A1 Basics, A1 Conversation, TWAL A1, A2.1 Conversation, A2.2 Conversation and TWAL A2. Most people are ready to take the exam after that, if not, we supplement with additional classes. Some people can be ready to pass the exam with fewer classes, some people need more. About halfway through each class, we send out the teacher’s feedback and recommendation for the next class. We rely on the teacher’s feedback in order to suggest the next step as the teacher has spent weeks with you and knows your strengths, weaknesses and how best to progress in the future. Email us at any point and we can put together an individual plan for success based on your teacher’s assessment of your skills.
The exam itself is organized by INL only, however, you can take your language lessons to learn Luxembourgish and prepare for the exam at any language school of your choice.
How long does it take to be able to pass the language exam for nationality?
Although we have seen a few exceptions of people who went from zero to passing the exam within three months, this is, not realistic for most average human beings :)
In my experience, 6 months to two years is a reasonable time frame to expect in order to be able to pass the nationality exam. I've seen shorter than that, and I've seen longer than that, but that seems to be the average of time that passes between the start of studies and the passing of the exam. Doing it in 6 months is possible but requires work, discipline and practice. We basically can go as fast as you can prepare your lessons. The best way to find out how fast you can go is just to get started.
We keep a close eye on the progress of all our students and always get teacher feedback before suggesting the next step. If you're doing well, we can schedule private courses that take place several times a week or you can take group courses but stagger several of them to have more lessons per week (it's important to get in touch before you do so though so we can double check with your teacher and make sure this is a good idea and not counterproductive).
If you want to achieve your goal of fluency and/or passing the Sproochentest exam without stressing, give yourself at least a year before you try the exam. After all, you are learning how to speak a new language. If you've ever learned a foreign language in your school days, try to remember how fluent you were after 6 months. And it's true, now you are an adult with a better sense of work ethics, still, you also probably have a life, a job and/or a family who all compete for your attention as you're trying to learn Luxembourgish. If you can, give yourself at least a year or just be aware of the amount of work required to do it in less time.
Details of our private lessons in order to prepare the Sproochentest
About 2-3 months before your Sproochentest, we offer a set of 10 private lessons to practise the specific tasks of the exam. You need to have reached at least an A2 level already in order to take these lessons.
We have an excellent track record of successfully preparing roughly 100 people for the nationality exam per year. We frequently get feedback as to the topics and images that come up and build this back into our lessons so that we keep improving our offer.
Here is the concept that we usually do in preparation for the citizenship language exam:
Around 30 minutes of Skype once a week, to speak casually about a recent news topic, make small talk, describe a picture or do a role play, in order to review A2/B1 topics and to cover material that tends to come up during the exam.
Each lesson is somewhat divided in two to reflect the two activities you will be asked to perform in the oral exam: the small talk section where the examiner will ask you questions on a topic and you answer, and the image description section where you describe what you see on a given picture (you will also learn effective strategies to ace these image descriptions).
As you go through the lesson, the teacher will correct your mistakes and take notes that will be shared at the end of the lesson.
If deemed useful, your teacher will give you some homework in the form of discussion topics to prepare or short paragraphs to write.
The purpose of these 10 Sproochentest preparation lessons is to review the most common Sproochentest topics (small talk discussions and images) that tend to come up during the exam so that they are fresh in your mind before the exam.
As part of the criteria for participation in these lessons, you must already have achieved an A2 level in speaking. If that is not the case, we will test your level and suggest the appropriate course to join first.
The cost is 380€ in total for 10 lessons (to be used within 3 months) including all the prep work and notes/homework correction after each lesson. We require the full payment upfront. Cancellations are accepted only immediately after the first lesson, at which point we will transfer 330€ back to you.
You can arrange the exact dates and times with your teacher.
Our courses qualify for a refund of up to 750€ from the Ministry of Justice in Luxembourg when you pass your Sproochentest, or have accumulated 24 hours of lessons for nationality if you’ve lived in Luxembourg for +20 years.
Here is what Gheorghe, who passed the Sproochentest on his first attempt in July 2018, had to say about these lessons:
"Besides the A1/A2 courses which set the foundations, I would say the test preparation was a tremendous help. When you go to the exam there's really no (bad) surprises. It's topics you would have already discussed a couple of times at that point and at least one picture will be similar to one from the prep course."
Here is what Yuehao, who took the Sproochentest in September 2019, said about her lessons:
“Thank you both very much for your emails and your teaching. The topics my teacher prepared and practised with me are very useful and they have covered all the topics I had today: Sport, Vakanz/Rees. The pictures are also similar to what we have practised. The courses you have been giving are really helpful. Perhaps in the future, I will subscribe further to some of your courses to improve my speaking fluency.”
Please fill in the form below if you’re interested in organizing a set of 10 private lessons in order to best prepare you for your Sproochentest. If you have taken previous Luxembourgish courses before, please tell me where and at which level.