So my last talk with all of you. I was thinking of sharing a bit about myself and my experience here so far.

I came to Germany just 6 months back to join my husband who has been here for 8 years now. I was working for an international call Center in Lahore Pakistan where I was the “Head of Training Department”.

Pakistan is an amazing yet very misunderstood country. A lot of people ask me if life in Pakistan was different from what it is here and I always tell them that I had a similar if not better life style there. I had a successful career, a loving family, independence, fun, and lots of friends.

Before coming to Munich, I had already been to 4 continents.
However, 2 things that I was trying to achieve for a long time only finally happened after I came to Germany.

1. Losing weight
2. Learning a new language

I am enrolled in B1.1 and am planning to do one more course before starting serious job hunt.

Best of luck to you all and may be one day when I get rich and famous, you’ll be able to see my interview on TV and will recall the days when I was just your blog friend.

Jaweriya

Last two days of the course and then I am starting B1.1.

So far it has been a smooth journey in which I have learned a lot.

Some of my friends have decided to take a break but, after carefully considering my circumstances and also the job market situation, I have decided to not take a break in between my courses and finish till B1.2 without any break.

In German market, mostly, people switch their jobs or leave for better opportunities at the end of each calendar year. This process of switching jobs begins in September mostly.

Which means I should be done with my German courses by then. You never know when the opportunity comes ;)

New Book! New Course! New beginning.

Jaweriya

Last two days of the course and then I am starting B1.1.
So far it has been a smooth journey in which I have learned a lot.

Some of my friends have decided to take a break but, after carefully considering my circumstances and also the job market situation, I have decided to not take a break in between my courses and finish till B1.2 without any break.

In German market, mostly, people switch their jobs or leave for better opportunities at the end of each calendar year. This process of switching jobs begins in September mostly.
Which means I should be done with my German courses by then. You never know when the opportunity comes ;)

New Book! New Course! New beginning.

Jaweriya

Just last couple of days before the course ends. Our teacher has gone through all the grammar that we learned in A2.2 with us once again and, it was extremely helpful. It’s completely normal for a human being to forget things if constant revisions are not done and if constant contact isn’t maintained.

So I will tell you what happened with me while revisions. I can now speak enough German to convey my message properly and can spend a day around Germans without feeling a need of speaking English. However, when we were learning to use the actual article of the noun instead of the full noun again and again in a sentence, I got super confused as to why in Dative or Accusative sentence, we were still using Nominative articles, and that is when, my teacher made me remind something from the past. So deep in my past, I had a German language rule learned and forgotten, that a Subject is always nominative and the first thought that came in my mind was, what a Shame!

Anyways, my teacher was quite ok with it and told me to keep repeating everything I have learned so these basics get stuck in my mind and that I have the foundation of German language so strong that once I know the verb; I should have no problem constructing a sentence.

Jaweriya

This german proverb is the crux of learning german and speaking it like a pro. It literally means that there are no “born“ experts (the closest proverb to this one in English is, Practise makes a man perfect).

A2.2 level is just one step less from B1. B1 level is what you need to get a job and your employer expects you to have good German language skills if, on your CV, you are claiming to have attended classes till B1. So take A2.2 very serious.

So, you need to put in a lot of effort, and you have to know commonly used verbs, and nouns (with articles). Last but not the least, you’d need to make friends with no common language other than German so you are forced to communicate in German.

I have a class fellow who speaks only her mother tongue and no English or Urdu whatsoever (not even little bit of English) and when we go out together to buy lunch, we speak more German on those 15 mins than the whole day.

So Practise! Practise! Practise!

Afterall teachers can’t open your head to put things inside (although trust me teachers here would try doing this if it’s in their power).

Check me and friends practising grammar.

Jaweriya

Did I mention that the Stachus station, where one has to get off for DeutschAkademie, gets trains from pretty much all parts of Munich.

I come from the 7th ring of Munich and I get the train from 2 mins away from my house and it takes me straight to Stachus. When I have a class before my German class (did I also mention that I teach English?) then no matter where I am, I can take the train coming from there and it’ll take me to Stachus. How cool is that? And so convenient !

And if you stay attentive, you learn so much just by announcements and people talking to each other.

For instance, I learned the difference between Aus/Um/Ab Steigen and also that “fällt aus” means cancelled.
I learned that “Busbahnof” means bus station and “Richtung” means direction.
I know they may not sound like fancy words but they are your everyday words.

BTW the use of Aus vs Um vs Ab is similar for so many things.

Jaweriya

It was the first day of the last week of our super intensive A2.2 course and I am starting B1 in almost 1 week. I can’t wait to put it on my CV because I know it’ll increase my chances of finding work (something I have been desperately waiting for).

A2.2 has been tough as well as rewarding. We have learned lots of grammar and have also learned lots of basic conversational words and some really cool proverbs.

“Na Ja!”, “Ja und wie”, and “keine Ahnung” are some new words that I really like because of the diverse nature of these words.

Oh and something for my friends who know this english proverb “Over my dead body“, well in German you can also use the same expression by saying “Nur über meine Leiche“. I specially asked my teacher for this during a conversation exercise when I wanted to tell my friend (who was trying to convince me to not go to poetry slam and instead go for a dance) that we’ll go dancing only over my dead body because “ain’t nobody got energy for dancing“ (sweet brown style).

Jaweriya

Till now, I was thinking that German articles were difficult to get your hands on but I was so wrong!If there is anything difficult in this world it’s German prepositions.

That’s because People can understand you fairly well even if you mess up the articles but incorrect use of the prepositions can mess up the whole context and meaning of your statement.

Anyways, I have a help here because my teacher is super patient with all her students and I have dedicated last weekend on just learning prepositions.

Look at the books me and my friend own (just two girls) to learn Deutsch J

After all the most widely spoken language of Europe deserves this much attention and respect.

Jaweriya

Did you know that German and English are sister languages!!
Yes ! They are ! How amazing.

German and English share almost 60% of their vocabulary which makes is somewhat easier for English speaking students to learn German (because they can relate). However, I must warn you that there are some sneaky words that are in both languages but they have totally different meanings.

One such word is Gift. Gift in English is a present that we give to our friends and loved ones and in German, it means Poison (not exactly anything you would want your loved ones to have).

Another sneaky word is “Lust“ which we know in English has a somewhat negative meaning for a sexual attraction for someone while in German, it means a very innocent desire to do something.

Well there are many more so watch out!

Jaweriya

Understanding German grammar rules is not at all an issue as one lecture is enough to cover one topic and it’s usually very straight forward and it always makes sense but, to use every rule that one learns, one needs to know the actual article of the noun.
To know how the Lokal and temporal preposition will change, you need this information. To change bestimmter articles to personal Pronomens, you need this information. To make a simple Akkusativ sentence, you need this information. You need to learn german with Artikels. This is important!
Well don’t stress out too much, it’s tough but not impossible and with a little concentration, interest, and practise, you’ll be a pro at it.
Course outline itself and the book we use it also designed to ensure that Artikels are part of the learning.
See my friend here solving her grammar exercise like a PRO!

Jaweriya