Was supposed to start intensive German lessons this morning. But when I showed up and introduced myself the teacher decided that I didn't belong in this class and has shunted me up to Level 8/9 which is the last level offered.
I suppose I should be flattered, but mainly I'm just disappointed. My German is still far from where I would like it to be and I had really been hoping to follow a series of courses in order to give it a boost. (more, more, MORE!)
Anyway, at least I'll be able to attend this next class-- it should be interesting and every little bit helps!
6 comments:
Maybe your level 8/9 instructor has some suggestions for more advanced German classes or discussion groups. How did it go today? Keep us posted...
MGB
Hi! Yeah, I'll definitely talk to him/her.
It's too bad that these classes don't go any further-- I had been hoping for something that would cover more nuanced conversation. But this is an integration course, probably designed to help students be proficient enough to be able to get along here. So they can talk about the street they live on and the weather and how to get to the post office, but probably can't discuss the latest book they've read or understand most of what they see on television.
And although I realize that I'm picking this up really fast there are still a lot of things I don't know-- but aside from this one course it looks like it will be better to just keep on learning by chatting with the neighbors and watching bad TV with a dictionary in my lap...
What's that movie where the guy learns a country's entire language by watching TV, then heads out on the street and tries to use it? "C'mon down...!!"
Carol
When I was taking courses (this was in the late 80's and early 90's) they went up to level 6 and then you could take the "Mittelstufe" course and do an exam from the Goethe Institut and get your DaF (Deutsch als Fremdsprache) certificate. After that I took the preparation course for the "Das kleine deutsche Sprachdiplom" (also Goethe Institut, I believe) which dealt mainly with advanced grammar, conversation and literature. I'm assuming that if you want more advanced courses you'd probably have to pay full price for them - the integration courses seem to be just helping people to learn enough to get by in daily life. But I think it's worth it to go further and really get into it if you're going to be living here for a while.
That's funny, she was talking about the Mittelstufe test this morning. In theory we'll be ready for that after the next module.
I've got a question for you-- what can you do with the Certificate? Isn't it pretty obvious when you go into an interview whether you're fluent or not?
I don't think you can really do anything with the DaF certificate (which I'm thinking probably is the Mittelstufe) - it just shows that you have good proficiency in the language so when they see it on your resume they know what you're dealing with.
Post a Comment