Sorry I haven’t updated in a while. It’s been kind of a busy week.
I got the results back from my placement test. I ended up in the level 5 course (the highest level). The actual course started last Tuesday. Unlike the intensive course I took in September, this one will be all semester long. I have it every Tuesday and Thursday. From what I’ve seen so far and what is listed on the syllabus, I have to say that I’m somewhat disappointed by it. Despite it being the highest level, it’s still way too easy for me. The only benefit I see is that I will be getting about 5 credit hours for it.
I also signed up for the rest of my courses. Within those courses are a couple of other German courses that are meant for actual Germans, so hopefully those will be challenging enough for me. The other courses I’m taking are a course about stereotypes in America of Germany between 1933-1945 and some sort of English course that I signed up for because it looked interesting. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but the system here in Germany is quite a bit different than the American system. Each course is called a module. Within each module, you have the lecture, a seminar, a tutorial and a practice session (like a lab). Each module can vary what it has. For example, some only have a lecture; some only have a lecture and a seminar; some only have a seminar; some only have a practice; some have everything. Each one of these pieces are a 2 hour session per week which means if you have a module with everything, that module is going to be 8 hours per week. Unfortunately, you have to take everything most of the time to get credit for the course.
The rest of my courses start on Monday. I can’t say I’m really looking forward to it, but at the same time I am because it will finally be something to do. Plus I will be able to practice German more and hopefully meet some more Germans. We’ll see how it goes.
