This might be the most surprising post in all of my logs so far. I signed up for a language class. It's damn expensive. I am surprised.
The German test at the beginning sorted me as some sort of B2.1.3 (really, there are so many sublevels), which is rather precise, except for my currently terrible speaking. But it reassured me, considering my fear of having lost everything I had learnt already.
What convinced me:-I really dislike learning German in some ways, I could do with much more extra motivation. With this amount of money, I want to succeed,and then move on, maintain, profit as much as possible.
-Classes with 1-5 people, usually 1 or 2. Always at the same level. One of my main class complaints solved, this is the second time I see small groups offered and not "small groups" with a crowd of 12 people. Oh, and it is not online, which is a huge plus. I am sort of fed up with videochats. Zoom is one of the riders of the apolalypse.
-72 or 75 or something sublevels from 0 to B2. (I am somehwere around 57, I think). Which really leads to people at a very similar level being sorted togehter. Another of the common problems solved.
-A school with a system based on independent learning of the material and then a class with a teacher. Finally!!!! This should be the part of much cheaper courses too. This school has their own digital platform for it, no clue whether there is a textbook and workbook, but I will be presented with the platform next week. Really, this could be easily implemented in cheaper courses too, just with the easily available textbooks. You only get to the class after finishing the homework, which (from what I was told) takes motly 4-6 hours. And the class is really focused 100% on practice, at least it was described to me that way.
-Flexibility. That's part of the huge price tag. With my work schedule, I cannot sign up for any regular thing. With 50 hour (officially, really more like 60 or more) hour work weeks and every week different, I'd easily miss 90% of any regular class. With this school, I can sign up for the next class every week based on the current schedule. Missed weeks can be recuperated (so, no problem with travelling, illness, etc).
-They seem to really have a system designed to get people to solid B2 in 72 or 79 or what was the number weeks. That's what people are paying tons of money for.
-And if I get to the end of their curriculum for B2 faster than what I am signing up for, the resting money can be converted to the individual C1 classes.
What makes me worried:-The price. It is huge. It is a swiss price. We're talking about the price of my rent back in Belgium. I am doing this, because I think German on my CV can pay me back, and because I am sort of in an impasse with this language, I need to force myself to not forget it but instead get to C1 (nope, B2 is not enough for my career needs.)
-Not sure how much focus on writing there will be, I will need to ask and really make sure high quality feedback to writing will be part of the routine.
-I was very surprised by their surprise by my demand about the Swiss German. I need the Swiss German to understand my patients and surely some future colleagues. Swiss German is hard to get enough input for (which is one of the reasons that made me even consider this in the first place), German German has Star Trek
. Swiss German is the language spoken in the country I am living in. So, why did I hear "hmm, I'll ask which teachers are comfortable with Swiss German, it is a rather unusual demand" ?!
-It is a lot of money. You could get resources for 0-B2 for the price of one month or much less.
-C1 level is differently structured. That is good, as it is individual, but also bad, as I have no clue whether they are good at teaching C1. They don't have C2 on their curriculum.
-The price. It is soooo much! I am a bit of a spoiled girl, with my salary, this will go from the "to put aside for worse times" part of the budget. Yes, I could put aside for something like a house instead. But: 1.I will move several more times during the residency, so such investments are not that near. 2.German can actually get me more income. I definitely wouldn't pay this for Italian, Spanish, or any other language (also, those languages are much easier on my own, thanks to my love for them. Not the case of German).
-Of course I'll need to continue self study. There is no Medical German part, that's still up to me. And I probably caught PM's bug with overlearning stuff from various resources and I find it very useful.
One more point:I plan to convince my fiancé to join and get their French course. The price:a wedding gift
But we are planning a future together, a future a big part of which should be built in the francophone world. He is not doing well enough on his own, when it comes to language learning (not his fault, many people aren't). Regular structure combining independent learning (and he is definitely not a passive classgoer by nature either) and regular teacher meeting, with speaking and corrections, that could really help. And the plan of less than 80 weeks till B2, that is a very solid project.
And with me learning German, he can't say "yeah, but you are just enjoying languages"