AroAro's log (languages, books, certificates)

[AroAro]

German – I did the two sample tests from “Klett Mit Erfolg zum Goethe C1. Ubungsbuch” and my scores are 22/30 and 23/30 for reading, 24/30 and 29/30 for listening. It’s not catastrophic but not that good either, I’d like to score consistently at least 25/30 to get that feeling of safety. I knew that taking a C1 exam was never going to be a walk in the park but the difference between B2 and C1 is real and I can definitely see it. In reading, I lose many points in the exercise where you have to insert missing phrases, and in listening part the excerpts are overfilled with details, especially the last part (listening to a lecture). I don’t have much trouble following this podcast for example but in the exam it’s as if a 25 minute episode were condensed into 4 minutes excerpt so there are a lot of details for my brain to process while reading the possible answers and trying not to get “tricked” by false ones at the same time. So I need to face the reality and accept the fact that it will probably be the toughest of all the exams I’ve taken so far. However, I truly enjoy learning German so I’ll just let myself enjoy the time I will spend on improving the language.

Dutch – I finished lesson 7 in “Dutch step by step”, still 4 to go

Clozemaster/Memrise
#Czech from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 1025, mastered 708 out of 8474 sentences
#Memrise Dutch Course – learned 261 words
#Memrise Corso di Portoghese (Portogallo) – learned 122 words

Reading – I finished “Problema celor trei corpuri” and will read two books in French – Jean-Christophe Rufin’s “Immortelle randonée” and Delphine de Vigan’s “Un soir de décembre”.

[lichtrausch]

Reading – I finished “Problema celor trei corpuri”

Are you going to read the rest of the series in Romanian too? The second book is excellent: the vexed preparations for the arrival of the invading alien fleet, and then how it all actually unfolds... one of the most memorable sequence of events I've ever read.

[AroAro]

Reading – I finished “Problema celor trei corpuri”

Are you going to read the rest of the series in Romanian too? The second book is excellent: the vexed preparations for the arrival of the invading alien fleet, and then how it all actually unfolds... one of the most memorable sequence of events I've ever read.

Yes, I will read the rest of the series as well (I bought the whole trilogy in paper format), probably some time in summer. The second part sounds very intriguing!

[DaveAgain]

Reading – I finished “Problema celor trei corpuri”

Are you going to read the rest of the series in Romanian too? The second book is excellent: the vexed preparations for the arrival of the invading alien fleet, and then how it all actually unfolds... one of the most memorable sequence of events I've ever read.

Yes, I will read the rest of the series as well (I bought the whole trilogy in paper format), probably some time in summer. The second part sounds very intriguing!

ARD have a German radio adaptation.

[AroAro]

ARD have a German radio adaptation.

Thank you, that sounds amazing!

German – I forgot to mention in my last update what I was going to do in the next 10 days. So, I went through the second part of “200 Fragen zu Nomen-Verb-Verbindungen” by Sascha Schmidt and then, I did 3 sample tests from “Goethe-Zertifikat C1. Prufungstraining” (Cornelsen). For reading, my scores are: 26/30, 20/30 and 26/30, and for listening: 23/30, 22/30 and 27/30. These scores are still not wholly satisfactory, but the good news is that I didn’t make a single mistake while inserting missing phrases – which means though that I lost all the points in other parts that shouldn’t be so challenging I guess the only thing I can do now is to continue reading in German and listening in German as much as possible. I will work with the third and last part of “200 Fragen zu Nomen-Verb-Verbindungen” and practice my listening skills with “Training Hörverstehen UNI? SICHER! 2 (B2-C1-C2)”.

Yesterday, I had my first lesson with a tutor (it was rather a “consultation”, we talked about my goals and how we can achieve them together). The tutor has quite a lot of experience preparing people for Goethe exams, she has passed a C2 herself and she participated in trainings organized by Goethe Institut so she knows how these exams are rated. She also says that the new C1 exam is like 20% harder than the previous version – it’s very science leaning so some people may find its nature rather challenging. I thought that only my sample tests were all about climate change, artificial intelligence, brain functions and sustainability but real life papers this year are just about the same topics. We’ll continue to meet once a week and we’ll practice together speaking and writing parts, that means a lot of work to do on my side.

I’ve been reading “Der Spiegel. Wissen” – I’m at the page 79/130.

And here’s my Romanian C1 certificate – hoping to get the same for German one day… By the way, I'm still waiting for my CELI4 certificate and I took that exam 5 months ago.

Rom1111.png

Rom22.png

Dutch – I almost finished the last lesson from “Dutch step by step”, my next coursebook is also aimed at Polish speakers and its title translates as “Dutch doesn’t bite”. This publisher has published similar courses for around 30-40 languages but the quality can differ from one language to another. The courses for Italian or Romanian are really bad but the ones for Dutch, Czech or Lithuanian seem to be ok. The CEFR level is A2.

Clozemaster/Memrise
#Czech from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 1070, mastered 754 out of 8474 sentences
#Memrise Dutch Course – learned 289 words
#Memrise Corso di Portoghese (Portogallo) – learned 149 words

Reading – I finished reading the two books in French (nothing memorable but I’m glad I continue clearing my book pile). My next book is going to be Elena Ferrante’s “Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta”.

[AroAro]

German – I finished the third part of “200 Fragen zu Nomen-Verb-Verbindungen” and I really think it’s an amazing resource, I wrote down may of these collocations and will review them systematically till the day of the exam. I was supposed to practice my listening skills with “Training Hörverstehen UNI? SICHER! 2 (B2-C1-C2)” but finally gave up on it. I still think it would be great to improve my listening skills with this book but the exam is in two months’ time and I haven’t even started preparing for the writing part, so I should rather do something about it. I did however 4 sample tests from “Mit Erfolg zum Goethe-Zertifikat C1. Klett” and my score for reading is anywhere between 22 and 27 points but it’s more consistent for listening - between 24 and 26 points.

I had my first conversation practice with the tutor and it went quite well, I managed to answer her questions and I even used some of those “Nomen-Verb-Verbindungen” but I still lack this flow when speaking that I have when I speak French or even Italian. We did the speaking part from the first sample test from “Werkstatt C1” and my pronunciation is good and I correctly decline nouns and adjectives but I get lost when I want to say long phrases with separable verbs. She said that in the next two months we’ll improve my speaking skills but it should be totally fine on the exam day. At the same time, she said that yes, passing a C1 exam is very nice but using the language in real life or even during a job interview is something different that needs working on as well – couldn’t agree more, but we’ll focus purely on exam scenarios.

“Der Spiegel. Wissen” – I’m at the page 110/130.

I also stumbled upon this reddit thread about the new C1 exam.

Dutch – going through “Dutch doesn’t bite”

Clozemaster/Memrise
#Czech from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 1115, mastered 799 out of 8474 sentences
#Memrise Dutch Course – learned 323 words
#Memrise Corso di Portoghese (Portogallo) – learned 168 words

Reading – I finished reading “Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta” and I didn’t like it as much as the previous books in the series. All those political discussions were borderline cringe (was the communist movement really so popular in Western Europe? For someone like me who was born in a communist country, it seems shocking and naïve at the same time). The friendship between the two main characters has become farfetched at this point, it’s hard to believe they still keep in touch when in fact they don’t really like each other that much? Don’t know, I hope the last part of the series will be better. The book finished with a cliffhanger though so I admit I’m curious to see what will happen next.

Last week, I mentioned that I was still waiting for the Italian certificate and here it is! The exam center sent me it a few days ago and I honestly have no idea why it took them so long because the CELI certificates are now in pdf format only. I miss the Perugia University’s seal on the paper certificate that you could feel under your fingers, on the other hand one can print as many copies as necessary for work or education purposes – though I’m yet to show any of my certificates to anyone

CELI4nov.png

[AroAro]

German – I had my second session with the tutor and my speaking was worse than the first time, maybe I just had a bad day. We practiced the speaking part of the exam and one is expected to use fancier words that on a B2 exam, so saying “ich möchte über etw. spechen” is apparently out of the question. I need to memorise such collocations for my next session.

I finished reading “Der Spiegel. Wissen” and started reading a usual edition of “Der Spiegel”, I’m at the page 18/122.

Dutch – almost finished “Dutch doesn’t bite”, next – another short bookcourse for Polish speakers “Say anything you want in Dutch”

Clozemaster/Memrise
#Czech from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 1165, mastered 849 out of 8474 sentences
#Memrise Dutch Course – learned 358 words
#Memrise Corso di Portoghese (Portogallo) – learned 193 words

Reading – I’ve been reading Alice Munro’s “The Progress of Love” – the print is so small (and the pages are yellowish) that I have to squint my eyes to see properly.

Happy Eurovision week!

[AroAro]

German – I had two more lessons with my tutor. I think the first part of the speaking exam (5 minutes monolgue) should be fine but I really need to get better at the discussion part that follows – I’m bad at asking questions so a lot of practice is still ahead of me.

“Der Spiegel” – page 32/122.

Dutch – just started working with “Say anything you want in Dutch” so not much to report at this point I guess

Clozemaster/Memrise
#Czech from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 1210, mastered 895 out of 8474 sentences
#Memrise Dutch Course – learned 387 words
#Memrise Corso di Portoghese (Portogallo) – learned 216 words

Reading – I finished reading “The Progress of Love” – quite ok even though the last two novellas were rather bad (btw, Alice Munro passed away two days ago). I decided to read something in German as part of my preparation for C1 exam – I’m now at the page 164 of “Die Arena”, German translation of Stephen King’s “Under The Dome”. I read one of his books many years ago but I remember it was really exciting, and I thought it would be nice to read something like that in German. I’m not that much interested in German literature and I don’t have time to check and discover German or Austrian authors in search of a gripping book, so I bet reading a Stephen King in German translation is the best option.

Watching Eurovision (two semi-finals and the final) kept me away from studying and for the first time since I came back to ESC a few years ago I wonder if it was really worth watching it. Among oversexualized acts and tacky nudity, booing, disqualification of the Netherlands (the song was abysmal anyway) and votes reveal that lacked any suspense (with Switzerland being basically the only country getting 12 points from the national juries, it became quickly obvious they’d win no matter what the result of the public vote would be), Eurovision lost a litte bit of its spark this year. Nevertheless, it’s nice to hear different languages during the show and am happy there are countries that opt to sing in languages other than English (but not Poland of course, lol).

Ok, there was one entry that took me off-guard – Ireland, it was like watching a shortfilm. Camera work, aspect ratio, editing, framing, lighting and acting were brilliant, though I’m still not a fan of the song itself nor of the satanistic elements. But as a cinephile, I appreciate the effort behind the performance. She finished 6th in the jury vote, 6th in the public vote and 6th overall – coincidence? I think not

[jeff_lindqvist]

She finished 6th in the jury vote, 6th in the public vote and 6th overall – coincidence? I think not

Well spotted! I didn't notice that.

[AroAro]

German – still practicing my speaking skills with the tutor – well, sometimes I feel confident it’s going to be ok but at times I’m appalled at my speaking skills, or the lack thereof! The writing part on the other hand should be fine, I get my writing checked and there are not that many corrections.

“Der Spiegel” – page 46/122.

Dutch – I’m halfway through “Say anything you want in Dutch” – the book is quite short but challenging to be honest, although it’s still A1-A2 level. There are many new words I have to learn and for me it’s a proof that reaching A2 level requires a lot of work, even though it’s “only” A2.

Clozemaster/Memrise
#Czech from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 1255, mastered 939 out of 8474 sentences
#Memrise Dutch Course – learned 421 words
#Memrise Corso di Portoghese (Portogallo) – learned 236 words

Reading – page 494/1280 of “Die Arena”. In the beginning, my reading speed was so disappointingly slow but at this point I can read quicker and I hope I will have finished the whole book before the exam (probably 22.06)