Who is Herr Antrim?
Herr Antrim is a high school German teacher with over 10 years of classroom experience teaching the German language. He has been teaching German 1 and 2 at Edwardsville High School since the 2009-10 school year. He also runs this website and the accompanying YouTube channel “Learn German with Herr Antrim“.
He got married to the love of his life in 2010 with whom he shares three amazing children. Sophia Antrim was born on September 6, 2012, Luke Antrim was born on August 3, 2017 and Adam Antrim was born on June 29, 2021. Herr Antrim has been speaking German to them since their birth in an effort to raise them bilingually. Occasionally his kids are featured in his YouTube videos speaking German.
Why you should Learn German with Herr Antrim
Herr Antrim is not a native German speaker. Some people will tell you that learning from native speakers is best and a lot of the time they are right. But native speakers don’t know what it is like learning their language as a second language. Herr Antrim does. He took 3 years of high school German classes. He majored in German at Eastern Illinois University where he earned his teaching certificate in 2009. In the summer between graduation and beginning his teaching career, he took a grammar-intense course at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.
Learning German from native speakers is great, if all you want to know is how to say this phrase or that phrase. They are also great for pronunciation help. But if you want to know why something is the way it is, a native speaker is the last person you should ask. They won’t understand why you struggle in certain areas. Herr Antrim does, because he learned German just like you are now.
How and Why Herr Antrim Learned German
Herr Antrim was born November 15, 1986 in Effingham, Illinois. He attended a few different elementary schools before his family settled down near Stewardson, Illinois and he attended Stewardson-Strasburg High School. The only foreign language that was offered at the school when he entered high school was German. This was the first spark of learning German.
Herr Antrim’s 1st Trip to Germany
Despite the incredibly small size of the school, they had a very successful German American Partnership Program (GAPP) exchange with a small school in Thuringia, Germany near Eisenach. Herr Antrim was fortunate enough to take part in this exchange in the summer between his junior and senior years. In the fall he hosted a German student from the partner school for three weeks. In June he took his first trip to Germany. There he stayed with his partner’s family. The group of students from Stewardson-Strasburg High School also visited Berlin, Wiesbaden and the Rhine River Valley.
Herr Antrim at EIU
He attended Eastern Illinois University (EIU) in Charleston, Illinois. He started out as a Chemistry major, but after a year of getting C’s in Chemistry while earning A’s in German, which he was taking just for fun, he switched his major to German. After four years, he earned his degree with teacher certification. Upon graduation he received a grant from Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD, German American Exchange Service) to take a summer course at Humboldt University of Berlin.
Herr Antrim’s 1st Teaching Job
Before Herr Antrim even left for his summer course in Berlin, he took a job at Edwardsville High School (EHS) teaching German 1 and 2. Since 2009 he has been a high school German teacher with a passion for teaching as many people German as he can.
Herr Antrim created the YouTube channel “Learn German with Herr Antrim” in 2011. He originally intended the videos on his YouTube channel for his German students in his physical classes at EHS, but after some positive feedback from other German teachers and German learners, he decided to continue making videos. In 2019 he released his first e-book for German learners complete with worksheets, answer keys, audio files, flashcards and more. He continues teaching German to this day.
