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German C1 in 14 months | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| valkyr Triglot Groupie Romania Joined 4995 days ago 79 posts - 112 votes  Speaks: Romanian*, EnglishC1, GermanB2 | Message 1 of 39 15 September 2010 at 6:10pm | IP Logged |
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My goal is to pass the Goethe Institute C1 level examination by the end of 2011. This leaves me with about 14 months to properly learn the language.
I must say that I'm not starting from scratch. I've studied German before, and I obtained the B1 level Zertifikat Deutsch. However this was back in 2005. Since then I've forgotten quite a lot of it. I think I may be around A2 currently, but I seem to be remembering stuff quickly now that I've started learning again. I'll try to study by myself, for the most part, although I anticipate the need for at least a preparation course before the exam. Right now I'm in the process of remembering what I've learned years ago and I'm focusing on expanding my limited vocabulary. 14 Months to go Edited by valkyr on 15 September 2010 at 6:11pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Frieza Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5164 days ago 102 posts - 137 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German | Message 2 of 39 15 September 2010 at 6:58pm | IP Logged |
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I'm currently tackling a similar undertaking, only I'm aiming at sitting the B2 exam by early 2012 (from what I've seen in the local Goethe website, exams only take place in February and June each year).
In addition to self-learning, I also intend to take a preparation course before the exam. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 budonoseito Pro Member United States budobeyondtechnRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5616 days ago 261 posts - 344 votes Studies: French, Japanese Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 39 15 September 2010 at 7:10pm | IP Logged |
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You should read about Benny's journey to sit for C2 in 3 months. Start here
http://www.fluentin3months.com/german-mission/ He does this full time; but, tips from him and on this site should help a lot. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| valkyr Triglot Groupie Romania Joined 4995 days ago 79 posts - 112 votes Speaks: Romanian*, EnglishC1, GermanB2 | Message 4 of 39 15 September 2010 at 11:40pm | IP Logged |
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@Frieza
You'll do well I'm sure. I listened to some sample recordings of Goethe's C1 exam and I'm under the impression that it's easier than the Cambridge tests. There were no regional accents and they didn't speak very fast at all. From what I remember, the CAE recordings had a much more colloquial style, they spoke quite fast, and also used regional (mainly Irish) accents. You may want to check this for yourself before deciding which level you wish to achieve. @budonoseito I can't load the page. I'll check it out later. I think 3 months is impossible without prior knowledge of the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| loveroflanguage Groupie United States Joined 5177 days ago 57 posts - 83 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 5 of 39 16 September 2010 at 5:17am | IP Logged |
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LOL, everyone says that about Benny but guess what? He did it? He has learned many languages in three months--which is the point of his blog. When you get a chance, check it out; its really great information and pretty funny, too! Good luck on your German. I want to learn really bad but I also want to do Arabic and now, the Arabic is winning! I tried to do them both at one time but found it too challenging. I guess, as a beginner, I took on too much. Question? How did you master the sounds? There are a couple that are really challenging to pronounce. Is there a program you used or was it because you learned in school before?
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4995 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 6 of 39 16 September 2010 at 5:38am | IP Logged |
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I did a search online and got a descript of the C1 certificate (for those curious).
* easily understand relatively long radio talks and radio programmes, * understand a wide range of written texts, including longer, more complex factual texts, commentaries and reports, * express yourself clearly and logically in essays on complex issues, choosing the right kind of expression to appeal to the reader, * verbally express yourself spontaneously and fluently, state your own opinions, formulate your thoughts and views precisely and make detailed contributions of your own. It also goes on to say it exempts you from language tests at many Universities. Pretty cool. No Goethe Institut in Tucson where I currently live - I used to attend the Boston one. Good luck =). You've got me wondering if there's a Spanish certification available. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| valkyr Triglot Groupie Romania Joined 4995 days ago 79 posts - 112 votes Speaks: Romanian*, EnglishC1, GermanB2 | Message 7 of 39 16 September 2010 at 6:40am | IP Logged |
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@loveroflanguage
Actually, he didn't do it. He failed listening comprehension by a wide margin and almost failed the reading part too. And he had taken German classes in school ... so there you have it ... My ego is now gratified ;) With regard to your question about phonetics I'm not sure if I'm the best person to ask. I'm a native Romanian speaker so our difficulties are bound to vary. What you may find hard to pronounce I may find easy and vice versa. What helped me was listening to Pimsleur's CDs. They slow the speech down to a crawl and repeat words numerous times so you can clearly hear every sound. Oh, and don't bother learning 2 languages at once. Not even Benny can do that ;) @kraemder You should look at Diplomas de Español como Lengua Extranjera (DELE), issued by the Instituto Cervantes. I think it's only available for C2 if you want an advanced level, but that's close enough :) Thank you for your good wishes! Edited by valkyr on 16 September 2010 at 11:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| valkyr Triglot Groupie Romania Joined 4995 days ago 79 posts - 112 votes Speaks: Romanian*, EnglishC1, GermanB2 | Message 8 of 39 17 September 2010 at 2:13pm | IP Logged |
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Elapsed time: 2 weeks
Vocabulary: +453 words I started to keep track of all the words I learn. I'm curious how many of them are necessary to pass a C1 exam. This is only a subset of the words I recognize, I guess I'm in the 6 to 800 range. However, as I expand my vocabulary this difference will become increasingly insignificant. I'm using a program named Anki to practice. Up until now my method consisted of using spreadsheets containing a maximum of 32, 64, 128, 256 etc words. New words would go in the first sheet, those that I learned well were promoted to the second once the first was filled up, then the third and so on. If at any point I forgot a word, I would move it back to a previous sheet. This way, words that I remember well are repeated rarely (they move further away from the first sheet) and words that I have difficulties memorizing are clustered at the beginning. Anki does this in a much more refined manner: when starting out with a set of new words, they are presented to you in random order. Depending on how well you remember them, Anki schedules a review at some point in the future and adjusts the interval each time you review the word. This saves me tons of time and makes it quite fun to practice vocabulary. I can't recommend it highly enough. Edited by valkyr on 25 September 2010 at 9:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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