Week 6: Fertig.

Ich kann nicht glauben, dass wir schon fertig sind. Diese letzte 6 Wochen sind zu schnell vorbeigegangen; ich fühle, dass ich gerade hier in Deutschland angefangen habe! Stuttgart ist jetzt ziemlich heimisch- ich fühle, dass ich es ziemlich gut kenne, aber jetzt müssen wir verlassen. Schade...

Also, was habe ich hier gemacht? 

Six or so weeks ago I wrote in my first post that I was really hoping to improve the "four aspects" of language: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. I was aiming also to really strengthen/reinforce some of the things we learned last year, learn new things, and then actually implement them in real situations. Overall, I think I can leave the program feeling pretty satisfied that I achieved a lot of the aims that I was hoping to.

We covered a significant amount of material in class: things I knew already (which was really good as a revision tool), as well as things I didn't. By "things" I fundamentally mean grammar or word structures, for example we went over the Past and Present Perfect tenses (which I am already familiar with), but then we covered things like the Passive voice (which I hadn't learned prior to the course). I have also learned so much new vocabulary, and I think that has been one of the best aspects of the program: the fact we were immersed in the language and that we could pick things up so much more naturally (and easily, for that matter). 

I believe my reading, writing, and listening skills have improved by a significant extent. Listening in particular has been both incredibly difficult but rewarding. To simply be forced to listen to the language for most of the time during our stay has been so enriching. At first I found the notion of the teachers only speaking to us in German rather frightening, however I was surprised at how much I was able to understand- even if it was not every single word. I was even more surprised at how natural German became to listen to (and indeed speak) over the 6 weeks. It is now starting to feel less and less like a completely "foreign" or "unknown" language, and that is a great and highly rewarding feeling. 

In my first post I wrote that speaking was my biggest hurdle. I feel I have improved, but I also feel like I am only just starting to really get used to speaking in large sentences. My confidence in speaking German has certainly grown, especially as I have practiced in class, spoken with my host family, and learned new things to actually speak. BUT, it would be soooo nice if I could stay longer, because as I say, I feel I have only just warmed up! I think the "speaking" aspect is also quite hard to judge because there are "good days"- where you feel like you can hold a half-decent conversation with someone, and then there are sometimes those "bad days"- where you doubt your ability and just can't seem to speak the words properly! But overall, I have to say, I feel quite satisfied.


What have I learned that I did not expect to learn? That's not exactly an easy question, as I have learned so much and am not certain whether I was "expecting" to learn what I did learn. I suppose, though, one of the biggest things I learned (which I did not expect to learn) was a bit more about myself; This program has opened me up to so many things, and in the process of all of these experiences and learning all of these new things I have learned a little bit about ME. 


...So, that's it. I wish there would be another post next week, detailing stuff about what we've learned in class or what we've been doing around Stuttgart, however it's time now to head back home and really use everything we've learned whilst we've been over here. It'll be strange walking to class in temperatures above -5 Celsius....