So yesterday was our last day in B1(2), in which we completed the speaking part of our test, and watched a movie! This movie was perfectly appropriate, because the movie was based on a French guy who lived in Barcelona for a year, and shared a WG with 6 other students from all over the world. So we watched this movie with German subtitles, but since everybody in my class is from another country, all of us were able to understand the other languages in the movie! I understood the girl from Britain, the French student in our class understood the main character, as he was French; the 2 Spanisch students understood the whole Barcelona world in the film; and etc., and I personally liked the movie. It was interesting, incorporated our German knowledge, as well as involving our Mother Tongues. (The Film is:  L`auberge Espagnole). It was also great to see this movie to understand the HUGE differences in languages, and it definitely highlighted our own struggles with learning German this year! An amusing Film, and a great way to end the course!

Tomorrow we will take our big test! So naturally, today was our Review day in which we have reviewed all of the concepts covered within the past 4 weeks. I must say, the hardest thing about German that I cannot grasp what Dative, Akkustativ, or Nominative is, as I did not have to learn that in English. And so it becomes frustrating that SO much in German depends on these cases, especially if it is “der” “den” oder “dem” for just the masculine case! And it makes me THAT much slower when I speak German, because not only do I have to think about what the word is, what preposiiton goes with the verb, if the verb is akk or dat, and if the noun is der, die or das, but also what case it is! So hopefully I can grasp this soon!

This week is our final week for B1(2) Stufe.This Wednesday we have the option to take a test to prove our German competency bis B2 that is recognized worldwide. I was happy to hear we have an option to take an official test, especially if any of us would like a German job in which the level B1 completed is required. However, with this upcoming test that I am planning on taking, I realize how much I have to review, given that we have truly learned so much the past weeks! With Nebensatz, verbs with prepositions, modalverben mit und ohne zu, passiv, prätentum, konjunktionen, etc, I have a lot to review and become truly comfortable with so I can successfully take the test.Nonetheless, the things I have learned these past few weeks at the DeutschAkademie have helped me with so much. I have succeeded in landing a German job (through a german interview first!) as well as expand my ever growing vocabulary! Today we played another game to incorporate more learned vocabulary, and I have to say these games are the best! I learn the words so much better! And even better that these words are important and can be easily used everyday, like “verschwiegen” “zuverlässig” and “unabhängig”, not words like “screwdriver” that make no use for me (at least not yet!) And I have already impressed some Germans already with my word “verantwortungsbewusst!” Score!

I was so happy to hear that, last night, the German friends I have made here have said that my German is now so good that I am able to convey all of my ideas and thoughts (which is a wonderful thing to hear!!) but needs to become better in the way that I say my thoughts and ideas (which is really difficult, meaning I need a LOT more training and practice!) However, hearing this I was very pleased at how much I have improved since August. It is now just the correct grammar and the correct der, die, oder das to use for my everyday speech that will make the difference. Of course, that will not be easy to do, but with a few more months at the DeutschAkademie, hopefully I can improve in these areas! I have already signed up for the next month, and I was pleased to hear that I have the same teacher as before. Even more, we will incorporate a new book to learn from, which I think will be quite helpful as each book, I believe, has a different way to explain concepts, definitely good for learning languages… I think with more german school, my new german job, and practicing my german everyday continuously, my German will be even better in the upcoming months! And that makes me soooo excited, because my goal is to become one day fluent in German (C1-C2) and I am now enrolled in B2 (1). It does not feel so far away now!

My teacher was very innovative this week, and integrated the learning styles and types to our German theme of this week! So the whole class was able to identify their appropriate learning styles and strategies to essentially better their own German! I already knew that I was a very visual learner, however the test that we took (all in German, of course!) made me realize I am also a very audible learner, meaning that I learn even better when visual AND auditory strategies are incorporated. I thought this was very interesting, and to try it out, I tested this new theory out the past week. I must say, I was very pleased with the results. Every week we receive a new list of words to focus on, and I tried to target my learning styles to understand and memorize these words, and it was very successful! In addition, our teacher also told us to try to use as many words we learned just after class, and after doing this, I have not forgotten ANY of the words I used immediately after, in meaningful context. I thank the DeutshAkademie not only for teaching me German, but for making it easier! I especially thank my teacher for helping all of us students out, as learning a foreign language, especially German (Deutsche Sprache, Schwere Sprache!) is very difficult.

Another mistake being an American…I ALWAYS say so with my german sentences. Zum Beispiel:So diese Wochenende habe ich mit meine Freundin getroffen.This whole sentence is richtig, except for the so-very-english-SO at the beginning! And this week, my teacher definitely put that to a stop! It is funny to hear everybody use this english “so”, but I am the only native English speaker in my class! So the spanish, french, and chinese students use this “so” as well, which I find so lustig! However, since the English “so” is so very wrong, we have learned the famous german translation “damit” instead. Damit wir müssen “damit” benutzen!!And I must say, I am extremely proud of the fact that I have only mistakenly used “so” once after that lesson! Hopefully this huge failure of mine can be fixed once and for all!!

So I have just realized that I have been speaking German with a major flaw for the past few months, and that has been just fixed this past week, thank goodness! In English, it is normal to say “with that” “on that” or “to that” etc. However, in German, man darfst das nicht sagen! In German, instead of saying “…with that,…” one must say, “damit,” not the “mit das” I have been usually saying! So coming from the English language, it is hard because I realize I cannot just literally translate everything. And I must adapt my thinking to the “damit, dazu, daran, darüber, etc.” instead of “mit das, zu das, an das, etc…”! I just cannot believe I have been saying that for so long and have not realized that was not correct! But that is why I have a German teacher and am in classes for the week!!

This week we are learning a variety of topics. First we started off with a wonderful review game in which we refreshed the words we learned last week and incorporated them into our warm up. Then, we practiced making a story using verbs with prepositions. This exercise was very beneficial because, by incorporating verbs into sentences, I was able to remember them a lot better, and used a few even after the course was finished! After this review, we started with future tense I practice, and kompartiv and superlativ sentences, so we can “vergleichen” things. All of the reviews we did on Monday are a start to the full week ahead of us! In just 3 hours, I feel like I have improved my german so incredibly much! I am very happy with my progress! 

Heute hatte ich meine ersten Vorstellungsgespräche, und das war ganz super! My interview went so smoothly, and this past week at the DeutschAkademie prepared me so well, as the theme of last week was “Arbeit und Büro”! So naturally, I learned words like “vorstellungsgesprach,” “vertrag,” “vollzeit-teilzeit” as well as “lebenslauf” und “schulezeugnis”! All of these words were very beneficial for todays interview, as of course these common terms came up during our meeting. I am also quite pleased to say that I understood nearly everything the “Chef” had said to me in German! I feel like I have come a long way since just 2 weeks ago, and I hope I can continue my fast progress! Hopefully my new german job will help me along the way!

So last week, with the subject of Movies and Films being taught in class, we had learned the word: kitschig. This word generally describes overly romantic films, and can be best translated best as cheesy. So you can imagine my surprise to hear two teenager girls talking about a date one of the girls had the previous night, and had used this very word!! It was so amusing to hear this conversation, especially because the girl had thought the man to be “overly romantic” and therefore, kitschig! I was so excited because a) I could understand the whole conversation in German, and b) my vocabulary lessons paid off!! and c) I was able to listen to authentic German girl gossip!