German Course Update

December 10, 2008 1 Comment

Last Friday was the last day of our German course and I am relieved because I think I won’t have to see my A-hole German teacher again. Last Monday was our exam. It’s not a compulsory exam but if you want to have a certificate showing that you did and you passed the course’s requirements, you should take it. I initially planned that after the B1 course, I will take exam for A2 (previous level) because I have a better chances of passing that one if I am already done with B1. So it’s like my certificate will be one level behind the course I just completed. I am a chicken, I know but so what?

But because there were some changes around lately, I am prompted to take the highest certificate I can get. My husband begged and cajoled me to take the exam. He told me like 10000000000000 times that I can surely pass it without a problem. I didn’t believe him but because I thought…this might be my last German course in Shanghai and I probably can’t study German further, I should have this certificate now.

There were 17 (some are from other language schools) examinees and only 8 passed it. I, along with the other examinees, waited for the results until like 8:00 pm last Monday. It was a long wait! Anyway, I am glad that I am one of those 8 examinees who made it and that I got the second highest score. The certificates will come in about three weeks but I don’t have to wait 3 weeks to have a goodnight sleep—I already know the results.

Filed Under: Daily Life Tagged With: , , , , ,

My Foreign Language Blog

October 23, 2008 Leave a Comment

I started a German blog at Blogxi two days ago. Reason for this is because I want to make a compilation of all of my writings (from home works and paper works in class) in German. My articles are of course nothing close to fascinating because I just started to learn German 2 months ago. My husband told me that my writings are still rough and jumpy but good enough for my level.

I don’t know how far I can go with my German but I am please that I can now somehow express myself in that language. In the beginning, I really hated it but now, I want to be better. I find writing in German cool but of course speaking is a different a different story. I write better because I have the time to think but when it comes to speaking the language…well, I still need a lot of work on that so wish me luck.

Filed Under: Daily Life, Internet and Blogging Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Enjoying Knowledge

August 21, 2008 Leave a Comment

It’s been a month since I have started attending my German language course and I think that those four straight weeks of going to school for 5 hours each day has paid off. I can feel the huge development whenever I try to read texts in German and whenever I watch something in German. Now that my knowledge in the German language has surpassed that of a beginner’s, I think learning a foreign language is not so bad. I remember how negative I was towards learning German. I’ve always seen it as an obligation but now that I can speak and understand it, I am actually enjoying it. Of course the constraint of having to go to school every day still sucks and I don’t think that will change but I am really glad that I agreed to learn German and I am glad that I’ve got a husband who is very supportive and who does not lose his patience even during the time when I was so uncooperative.

Tomorrow, we’ll have our midterm exams and I don’t have huge worries about it. I am confident that I can and I will do well on it so tonight, instead of going over my notes, I will blog and after that I will read a book—a romance novel written in German.

Filed Under: Hobbies and Interests, Usual Rants Tagged With: , ,

Back to School

August 4, 2008 21 Comments

I am now a full time student.

Yep, I enrolled in a German language course a few weeks ago I already attended a full week of classes. So far, I am enjoying it. My instructors are not native German speakers but that does not bother me because they are good enough to teach German. Once, I brought my recorder to class and recorded a few minutes of our class discussion. I let my husband, who is a native German speaker, listen to it and he said that the teacher seems pretty good. She (the teacher) has her Chinese accent when speaking German but she is 100% understandable. Other than that, she can also explain grammar well.

I am the only non-Chinese in class. Normally, after explaining the grammar points in Chinese, my teachers explain it to me in English. This makes me feel a little bit special. Classes are 4 to 5 hours daily from Monday to Friday and it should last for 10 weeks or so.

I hope that after this course, I can carry on day to day conversations in German with ease.

Filed Under: Usual Rants Tagged With: , , ,

Feeling Dumb

March 31, 2008 7 Comments

I just got back from my German class and right now, I just feel that I had enough of it. I don’t now maybe I am not that smart. I mean really, German is a very difficult language to learn. There’s just no way to go around it. I have to memorize all! Like the table below:

german-copy.jpg

I mean common! In English there’s the word “the” for everything.

Filed Under: Daily Life, Usual Rants Tagged With: , ,

Moving Soon

March 31, 2008 5 Comments

I have like a month and a half left to pack all our things and ship them to Europe. I hate it! Not Europe but moving in general. I hate the stress that accompanies it. I hate leaving a place (I meant our flat, not this country) and people I know and became friends with. I hate starting from a scratch somewhere where we don’t know anybody. Fine, Austria is a small country and Marcus’ parent’s place can’t be that far but still, we will be in a new neighbourhood with new people talking new language (for me at least). Sure, I can already catch some sentences when I am watching movies in German but I have a difficulty understanding Austrians. You see one funny thing about Austrians is the fact that even if they are able to speak high German, they refuse to and I don’t know why. If I asked my husband to talk to me in high German, he says something like “Alright, but only to you.”

I hope that it’s not that difficult to get them to talk in English.

Filed Under: Home and Family, Usual Rants Tagged With: , ,

Pressure, Pressure, Pressure!

March 4, 2008 Leave a Comment

Tomorrow morning will be spent on doing those lengthy assignments given to me by my teacher in German and the afternoon would be of course our German class.

Although my classes are scheduled only three times a week, my teacher knows how to beat me for the rest of the weeks with her lessons. She makes me work so hard and I am paying her to do this to me! The world is really upside down!

I think that the progress of my German is slow because no matter how hard I try, I just can’t fit all that information in my head in such a short period of time. I’ve got until May! I should be able to converse in German by then. I should be able to read German newspapers and understand them. I should be able to learn and understand all sorts of street signs. I should be able to speak good German to get a good job. That’s a lot pressure considering that I should learn how to drive too (but first I have to learn German otherwise I wont be able to understand my driving instructor).

Sigh*

I hope we can stay a little bit longer here.

Filed Under: Home and Family, Marriage and Relationship, Work and Business Tagged With: , , , ,

A Letter to my Bestfriend (in German)

March 3, 2008 Leave a Comment

I have finally translated “A Letter to my Bestfriend” in German. I have worked hard on it and I am proud that I was able to make such letter in German with just little help. Although it is further simplified (because I really can’t no matter how hard I try to translate it) I think I still was able to successfully send the message across. So, here it is.

Liebe Mailene,

Hallo! Wie geht es dir? Ich hoffe du bist gesund und alles ist OK bei dir.

Da wir uns seid drei Jahren nicht gesehen haben, möchte ich dir folgendes schreiben.

Weißt du dass ich verheiratet bin? Wirklich! Bei 26 Jahre alt, bin ich eine Ehefrau von einen wundervollen Mann. Die Geschichte geht so.

In November 2005 bin ich hier in China gekommen um Englisch zu unterrichten. Dann im August 2006 habe ich einen sehr interessanten Mann hier kennen gelernt. Sein Name ist Marcus. Er kommt aus Österreich und er ist ein Automobilingenieur. Er ist eine sehr nette und sympathische Person. Außerdem, er ist sehr hübsch. Ich habe mich in ihn sofort verliebt und ich bin glücklich dass er sich mich auch verliebt hat.

Und so haben wir uns in Februar 2007 in Malaysia verlobt. Es war romantisch und ich möchte dir alles erklären aber es ist sehr schwierig für mich es auf Deutsch zu schreiben.

Übrigens fährt die Geschichte fort.

Im Oktober 2007 haben wir in Österreich geheiratet. Unsere Hochzeit war sehr einfach aber noch romantisch. Tut mir Leid, aber ich kann nicht sie auf Deutsch erklären. Aber ich kann dir Fotos zeigen.

Ich glaube dass dieses mein „happy ending“ ist.

Weißt du ich vermisse mit dir sprechen. Ich hoffe dass du auch glücklich bist und dass wir uns treffen können.

Bitter schreibt mir auch.

Deine Freundin,
Vienna

Filed Under: Friends and Strangers Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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