11 October, 2006

Deutsch- und Integrationskurse

German seems to be going pretty well. Mistakes aside, I'm starting to notice that it's easier to communicate with people and get my point across without blanking out or bumbling too much. I've been working with a coursebook on days I feel inspired and have racked up a lot of time watching sappy made-for-tv movies with my dictionary on my lap.

I'd like to be functionally fluent by Christmas. Don't know how realistic this is, but am pretty determined, so we'll see. Have signed myself up for a month-long intensive language class which is offered by the government (at the Volkshochschule) to help foreigners integrate better into German society.

Went down yesterday for a placement test and they've put me in level 6!!! (out of 9!) I almost laughed out loud! I wanted to pull the woman aside and confess that I'd had a kid in my kitchen THAT VERY AFTERNOON who only seemed to understand about half of what I said! Granted I was tired and distracted, but still!

So classes start October 24th. If it turns out to be too difficult I can always scale back to level 5. But I like a good challenge, so it might be good to shake me out of my comfort zone.

In addition it seems like a good activity to keep me off of the streets and might be a good way to meet other (damn) foreigners who are in the same boat...

4 comments:

christina said...

Wow, level 6 is great. I think that's where I started too way back in 1988 but I'd already had some German at high school and university. I'm sure you'll get along just fine. German TV (however crappy) is your friend - I learned so much by just listening and soaking it all up.

I met tons of really nice damn foreigners in my classes at the VHS. Sadly many of them left Germany again or we just lost touch over the years, but I did make one lovely English friend and we're still thick as thieves.

The great thing about those integrations courses is that they're so cheap now. Those of us who came here years ago had to shell out big bucks to learn German.

Betsy said...

Hi Christina! You're right, I'm amazed at how cheap these classes are-- 1 month, 5 mornings a week for EUR155! Unbelievable!

The crappier the TV the better, right now, to tell you the truth. I watched an absolutely abominable romance flick the other day. The storyline was TERRIBLE but that made it pretty easy to follow along and turned out to be pretty helpful language-wise! :-)

Now I'll know exactly what to say if my nefarious mother-in-law ever tries to secretly buy the mansion I inherited from my mother, who was sleeping with her husband in secret... ;-)

Carol said...

My then-15-year-olds learned a LOT from German Sesame Street -- and they loved the excuse to watch it again!

Carol

Anonymous said...

Just a cotton-pickin' minute there Miss Bee! I thought I was the one getting your mother's mansion! ;-)
"Seneca"