Goethe Institute 4-week Intensive: B2.2

It was indeed intense!  I finally have time to catch up on the blog a bit, after finishing 4 weeks of near immersion in my German language course:  4 1/4 hours of class per afternoon, and at least 2 hours of homework per day in addition.  Since I was often too tired in the evenings to start on the homework (and twice a week I had choir rehearsals 7-9:30), my mornings of the last month presented a dilemma between exercise or grocery shopping, after seeing how long the homework took (about 8 to 10:30 a.m. if I didn't goof off too much).  So the family had to deal with non-optimal dinners (which were often simply very good bread and cheese) but luckily they all eat reasonably good lunches at school and work.  Oh, and we moved to a new apartment in there too!  (Next blog...)

   It was a good course, and it seems it did help my language abilities -- according to Thomas and some friends we met last night I'm speaking much better -- but it's hard for me to tell, and I'm certainly still not fluent, like I was (unrealistically) hoping.  During this past month, it sometimes felt like I was trying to physically shove vocabulary and grammar through my skull, which has gotten thicker with age...  the vocabulary especially doesn't get in and stick without repeated repeated exposure!

  Here is a photo of most of my class, taken on the second last day.

This was an incredibly international class, representing 5 continents, and I was the only one from North America.   I'll write everyone's names and countries here just for my own memory later.  

From left to right:  me, Vittoria from Italy, Shakira from Uganda, Jose from Spain, Isabella from Brazil, Hans from Sweden, Zainab from Saudi Arabia, Aleksandra from Poland, and our teacher Stefanie Steiner (from Munich).  

Unfortunately a couple people were missing that day:  Simon from Norway and Mohammed from United Arab Emirates.  We also lost a couple people earlier -- Eriko from Japan seemed to flake out and came less and less until she didn't come at all the last week or so, and Pepe from Spain got a job half-way through so he had to stop, but this was why he was in Germany learning German, so good for him!

We all got along very well -- good thing since we spent so much time together!  I learned lots about Saudi Arabia from Zainab, about Brazil from Isabella, about Uganda from Shakira, and about Sweden and Norway from Hans and Simon.  Besides Hans, who is retired, I was the oldest in the class.  Most of them were in their 20s and learning German so they can study here at the university or find a job (as in the two guys from Spain).  Zainab is here with her husband who is studying to be a doctor -- she was married at 17(!) and is a fairly devout Muslim so it was interesting to hear her stories about not being allowed out of the house without her father or brother or husband.  I was impressed, however, that she did come out with us for a drink (coffee for her) on the last evening, since she didn't join us the first time we went out, but I think she called him and "talked him into it"... she's quite the little firecracker.

On the last day, I brought my camera to take some picture of the classroom in which I'd spent 20x4.25 hours.  They're not great, but here they are for the record.  It was too bad that not everyone was there, since some had to leave early for travel.

I will take the next course starting early January, but from now 'til the New Year, I'll practice lots of German (mostly in my very intense December schedule for the Münchner Bach Choir).