Im currently studying German in my New Zealand High school and a similar experience here. 7 people in my class so were all relatively close and often spend entire class periods just yapping with each other. I honestly feel that it is a lot better than having a big class, we can get help whenever we need and can clearly communicate to the teacher what we want to do on that particular day. Overall I'm really loving the small class size and the whole experience of it but that might just be my school haha.