Finally some Italian Progress again! This might be a record. I did 2 hours and 43 minutes this evening. I did Unit 6 of Progetto coursebook and Unit 5 of Progetto workbook. And I see all the time, how this relearning is really good for my Italian. I need to perfect the basics, no more approximative chaos! (but yes, one type of a "mistake" is really annoying and not my fault: when the software doesn't accept the female variant of the sentence, even when both options are totally correct).
Usually, I am really bored in food themed coursebook units. Yeah, might seem weird, as I love to eat. But the chapters are usually really boring and useless in a strange way. Not here. And there was this beautiful exercise: "
Abbinate il nome della pasta al piatto giusto"!!!
Caromarlyse wrote:How do you feel about doing a B2 course when you've passed the B2 exam (twice!)? This is a genuine question - absolutely no criticism implied here at all! I've just had the experience myself of teachers wanting me to repeat stuff I've told them I've already done. I've put it down to having no proof - but you have a piece of paper. I'm just curious to hear your thoughts about how you felt about this decision, and how it's playing out for you in practice.
A good question. Especially as I really hated being forced to restart French several times as a kid. I think it is all about the circumstances.
1.I am not doing the whole B2 level, just majority of it. And I passed my Goethe, but definitely not with flying colours. It had never been the goal anyways. The goal was to get out of a desperate career impasse, get the exam and minimum level required by the Swiss authorities in order to improve my job hunting chances, and then improve later. (Frankly speaking, the difference between barely B2 and strong B2 doesn't matter anyways, as I found out later, most hospitals want C1. I even saw one demand C2, I guess it was just a cover for "we don't want any foreigners here" attitude). So, I never had any illusions about my German B2ishness. I am barely B2. In order to progress, I need to amass more experience, to really be comfortable with the language, to consolidate everything.
2.I had been learning rather fast. Not much time for consolidation or even for learning everything properly. I had focused on the most important things, I definitely hadn't mastered it all. And between the exams and the start of this "class", I neither progressed, nor reviewed. I simply had no time, with a new job and everything. So objectively, I need this review. I was actually surprised I tested so high in spite of the rust. And my first tutoring session confirmed it, I was definitely at the right B2.1 level. It is different to redo something, because you objectively need it, and to redo it just because the education system is idiotic.
3.The nature of this "class" makes it very easy to accept this "ego hit". In case of French, I was often forced to waste time in a class of people a few cefr levels under me, or to "progress" far too slowly, and so on. That was a torture. Here, I am my own master. In the self-study part, I am totally free to do some things faster, some at the normal pace. And yes, it is obvious I am redoing B2, the supposed 5 hours of work took me like 2 and half hours.
4.The speaking lessons are at the right level, and I definitely hadn't had opportunity to talk about most things in German yet. I spoke about the exam topics during my two exams.
And I spoke a bit with the job finding agency. So, these lessons (which are also self study checks) are good for me. And there are no crowds of people wasting my time and damaging my learning. Individual or a tiny group lessons are good. Well, haven't tried the tiny group yet, but I will have to eventually.
5.And in the speaking lessons (I have yet to submit my writing for corrections), we don't really waste time on exercises I have already done. Any "exercises" are just an opportunity to check whether I learnt stuff right, an opportunity to talk about it, and so on.
Really, I wouldn't be willing to retake a level in any normal language school, nor with any random tutor. I am highly unlikely to ever sign up for any normal language class again anyways. But this setting is very good. But mostly replaceable in a much cheaper way though (but with more motivation needed).