In the loosest sense of the word.
I found the school (finally). They shuttled about 25 of us into a cafeteria and gave an introduction entirely in French (of which I followed the basic gist, but not really a word of what was spoken). Role call, in which I didn't understand my own name (neither did a third of the class, thankfully). Written placement exam, in which I think I wrote three full sentences and was quite proud of them (Je suis American! Je m'appelle Angela!), and the oral placement exam was a disaster. The poor woman broke down a simple five-word sentence word for word (I think asking either where or why I had studied French before, not sure) before writing A.1.1 on my sheet (which I think means Beginner.beginner.VERY MUCH A BEGINNER) and escorting me back to the cafeteria. Now I'm waiting for other students to finish their oral exams, then we'll be assigned our classes and lessons will begin!
Hard part's over? I doubt it, but it feels like it for now. Au revoir!
haha- all the asian kids in my german courses in germany went to the BEGINNER, BEGINNER class. From what I hear, they had more fun because they were starting from scratch, us in the middle were harder because we knew some stuff, but not much. The advanced kids were stuck because they were suppose to be near fluent and had all these hard assignments and papers, and more talking in class.
ReplyDeleteso be thankful for where you were placed!
i think you are very brave to try out a new place and especially to tackle a new language. don't sweat your placement and just have fun! that's what you're there for anyway right? im excited someone else in the loennig clan has started blogging (everybody in my family does it to keep up with each other)! yay!
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