Erasmus+ success story: now you can learn Estonian in Germany

Sometimes one training course can lead to something much bigger. That’s what happened when Iris Merkle, Head of the Foreign Language Department at Volkshochschule Unteres Remstal in Germany, joined an Erasmus+ teacher training at Multilingua in Tallinn in 2023.

The course “How to integrate coaching into teaching” offered fresh ideas and a good reason to visit Estonia – a region Iris had long wanted to explore. The week inspired new thoughts about language teaching and opened the door to future cooperation.

A year later, Iris returned to Tallinn for job shadowing at Multilingua. Meeting teachers, students and staff gave her a clearer picture of the school’s everyday work and sparked the idea of creating new connections.

By 2025, this exchange had grown into a collaboration between Multilingua and Volkshochschule Unteres Remstal, making it possible for German learners to study Estonian online with a teacher based in Tallinn.

What began as one Erasmus+ experience has turned into an ongoing partnership – a small bridge between Estonia and Germany built through language and curiosity.

 

Interview with Iris from Volkshochschule Unteres Remstal

How did you first hear about Multilingua, and what inspired you to take part in the Erasmus+ training in Tallinn in 2023?
I have participated in several teacher training courses on an Erasmus+ grant over the last years, mainly in the UK. I have always been interested in learning more about methodology in language teaching – not only for my own teaching practice but also in order to share what I have learned with our language teachers (I am responsible for the language department at the Volkshochschule Unteres Remstal). I enjoy getting into contact with teachers from different European countries and different backgrounds and learning more about language teaching in their countries.
In 2023 I was looking for an interesting teacher training course and found Multilingua’s on the EPALE platform. The topic “How to integrate coaching into teaching” immediately appealed to me. And since I have always been fascinated by the Baltic countries, a part of Europe I knew very little about and wanted to get to know some day, this was a wonderful chance.

What was the most eye-opening experience during your job-shadowing week in 2024?
In the teacher training course in 2023, I learned about an interesting new approach to language teaching. I also got to know some people from Multilingua. However, I hadn’t talked to many people from the school and nobody from outside the school. I wanted to know more about Multilingua but also about Estonia.
The job-shadowing was a wonderful opportunity to get to know the staff, the teachers and some of the students at Multilingua. But what I enjoyed most were the discussions with different people at the school and outside and what I learned from them about Estonia today and in the past. I realised how our different historical experiences determine our current national policies and also our view of Europe and the EU.
Very special experiences were an evening at the opera in Tallinn and a one-day trip to Tartu.

How did these Erasmus+ experiences influence your work or mindset once you returned to Germany?
I felt I had established a relationship with Estonia. I started to read Estonian literature (in English) and talked a lot about my Tallinn experience.
At work, I informed my colleagues about the job-shadowing week and they also became interested and went to Tallinn for a week of English language training at Multilingua last summer.

Many people see Erasmus+ as a short-term mobility. From your perspective, what makes its impact long-lasting?
Erasmus+ is a way of getting into contact with people from other European countries and learning more about each other. It opens up new perspectives and is a chance to establish new contacts and new cooperations.

How did the idea of starting an Estonian language course at your Volkshochschule come about?
I had decided for the coming term to plan a number of online-courses “live from”. I thought it would be interesting to learn with a teacher based in the country of the language. I set up courses for English, French, Italian and Greek and also wanted to add Estonian.

What makes Estonian and this collaboration with Multilingua special for you and your learners?
Estonian is a language which is hardly ever taught in Germany in adult education. It was therefore really special to have the chance to offer a course. And from the start a number of other Volkshochschulen published the course in their programmes as part of a cooperation. So the course found its participants very quickly.

Looking ahead, how do you see our partnership developing in the future?
I hope that our course will continue in the next semester. I would also like to regularly offer new beginners’ courses in Estonian.
Also, our team would be happy to receive people from Multilingua for a job-shadowing. I think it would be very interesting to discuss our work practices and the role our schools play in the field of integrating people by teaching them the national language.

I am very happy I had the chance to come to Tallinn twice and would like to thank everyone for their friendliness, openness and time they shared with me.

 

The Estonian course is taught by Ruta Bergman, an experienced language teacher from Multilingua Language Center in Tallinn. Ruta describes the group with warmth.

“There are four participants of different ages in the course. They joined simply out of curiosity, as they knew nothing about Estonian before. One of the learners has even visited Estonia twice and really enjoyed it here.
So far, we have met three times, and the students can already introduce themselves and ask basic questions such as What is your name? Where are you from? Where do you live? They are motivated and genuinely eager to learn the language.” concludes Ruta.

 

Iris’s timeline with Multilingua

• 2023 – participated in Erasmus+ training at Multilingua in Tallinn: “How to integrate coaching into teaching”
• 2024 – spent one week at Multilingua as a job-shadowing participant, observing teachers, classes and organisational practices
  
• 2025 – initiated collaboration between Volkshochschule and Multilingua