There seems to be a rule of thumb about evening classes: the less useful a course the greater the interest. That would explain why the evening class in plastic design is full and why there are only 13 people waiting for the start of the flirting class. Thirteen pairs of eyes look expectantly at the door with each new arrival. Everyone in the classroom is male and all look as if they are praying silently for at least one woman to arrive before the course organiser does. After five eternal minutes, the organiser arrives and shuts the door before anyone can make a run for it. The first evening of The Art of Flirting is off to an awkward start. Berlin is suffering a singles epidemic. Out of some three million Berliners, over one million are single. The 13 lonely hearts in the Friedrichshain community college classroom are looking for an edge in the singles dating game. For a nominal fee, psychotherapist Michael Munsterjohann is happy to try and help. He has been running his course The Art of Flirting in the city for five years, teaching lonely Berliners how to find a partner and doing his bit to curb Germany's falling birth rate.The way he tells it, flirting is a skill that can be mastered with help and practice. There are two golden rules, he says: don't put anyone under pressure and don't sell yourself as something you're not. "I try and show the course participants how to relax and have an easy manner. The people who do this course are not ugly people but many are very uptight, something I can teach them to unlearn," says Munsterjohann.

He greets the new class by telling them that every day presents hundreds of flirting opportunities, from the stop for bread rolls at the local bakery to the trip to the laundromat. Everyone's day is filled with meaningful looks and he will help them act on these looks, he says. Munsterjohann doesn't think it's a problem that all the course partipants are men, presumably mostly looking for women. "On the contrary, having to put themselves into the position of women is a useful exercise because it helps them understand flirting from a woman's perspective," he says. Neither does he think it a problem that even though he is the flirting course leader, imparting tips on how to snag a partner, he himself is single.

Once this information emerges, all the men in the room are sympathetic to Munsterjohann's situation, not that he seems to want sympathy. "Everyone in Germany who is in any way extreme goes to live in Berlin and here we meet each other. It's no wonder that we don't suit each other," says Stefan Schuster, a 34-year-old tax consultant who moved to Berlin a year ago and who looks anything but extreme. "I have no problems giving women looks, but I need help to get beyond that," he says. Dan Irwin from Buffalo, New York has lived in Germany for almost three years. "I'm doing the course to get over my fear of being turned down by women and to get a handle on German women. . .they're formidable creatures," he says before returning to the exercise of writing down the meanings behind his partner's gazes. Neither men feel embarrassed about taking a course in flirting. Stefan is an evening-class veteran and does three other classes in the week while Dan compares it to another form of therapy he has taken. "It's just like when I went to Alcoholics Anonymous. I could hardly walk through the door the first time, but once I was in there I knew that everyone was in the same position and I could relax," he says as the first class draws to a close. Gloria Steinem once declared: "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle". Berlin's largest singles party, "Fish Seeks Bicycle", turns that philosophy on its head and is where the men have decided to go packhunting at the weekend. Meanwhile, course leader Michael Munsterjohann is happy with the evening's class. "People sometimes expect me to have a recipe for finding a partner, but I offer support not first aid."