As you can see today, the first test was actually resisting all the goodies above. We all brought little chocolates and sweets and I made the cake which everyone added fruit to which made it very nice. It is also one of my classmates birthday tomorrow and as we found out that in German tradition, it is not good luck to celebrate the birthday before the actual date, we kinda made it a celebration of the end of the course too.

With such a lovely atmosphere and all the food to look forward to, we actually all readily agreed to complete our tests before we ate the food. We did the longest first which was the first 4 lessons together that enabled us to really review almost all we had learned. It had the format of the official tests you get at Goethe Institute (Formal Examination Institute). This is with reading, listening, writing and speaking parts. We all did really well too with only a few things wrong but obviously food is a great motivation. There was such a nice feeling between us, so when our teacher sneaked in another quiz for us to do together, it really boosted our confidence when doing the Lektion 6 test – on Dative, city features and dates. I did okay on that too and when we did the speaking practice, I personally was much more confident and happy to do it. I actually think I can maybe share what I said today which was basically introducing myself by saying my name, how old I am, where I come from and what languages I can speak – I’m not promising anything but I’m in the mode of “JUST DO IT” now, so here goes.

Ich heisse Grace. Ich bin 28 Jahre alt. Ich komme aus England, Grossbritannien. Ich wohne in München. Ich spreche Englisch und ein bisschen Deutsch.

Phew!!

So having completed this part of A1, it really was mixed feelings today. Sad, because we had all had a really nice time together and had really supported each other in our learning and not everyone was continuing but happy because we all felt we had really achieved a lot and so it was quite a positive end.

So I now move to the next level, with enthusiasm and confidence – “Gung-ho” even as they say in England. Yet my husband shared a common word – “Aufpassen!!” [Take care] as I start the next course. He referred me to a famous author – Mark Twain who actually wrote an essay on his opinion of the German language. Just Google this if you’re interested further but to be honest, it is nice to know that others have struggled too but I’m happy to say that I am feeling very hopeful right now and truly believe nothing is impossible especially if you can “Get by with a little help, from my friends”.

Good luck in the future to all in my classmates who don’t continue now. I wish you all the best and very glad I got to meet you all. Thanks for all your support in the lessons.

A final Tschuss & Gute Nacht.