Let’s say it’s been six months…

It’s been about six months as of February 20th since I started taking studying German semi-seriously. Unfortunately I don’t have an “official” start date for myself, but mid-September feels about right.

I took a couple of practice tests last week (Feb. 20th) to see if I’ve actually learned anything since then. I hope to take similar tests in another six months and see improvement. According to the Goethe Institute, I’m doing slightly better than guessing when confronted with German now, and then they kindly suggest I can handle “many” day-to-day situations. I think this would strongly depend on what kind of day I’d be having.

I had particular trouble with a “fill in the missing word” section of their little practice test, where I didn’t know what words to use in large part because I didn’t understand most of the surrounding text. I really didn’t know what it was going on about at all. Also, neither of these two (free and relatively quick) tests I took have a speaking component – and if you’re ever looking at taking an official test for an official certificate, you have to be able to speak yourself, as well as read, write and comprehend speech. Naturally, speaking is the most difficult thing to practice when you’re self-directing your studies. Sometimes I try talking in German to myself.

I still can’t pronounce “tschÜss” in a way that regularly satisfies Babbel’s voice-recognition software. (Nor can I get my keyboard to produce umlauted letters in lower case.)

The second test I took, the Deutsche Welle practice test. went better – I also actually took it first, so perhaps I was getting a bit tired by the end of the Goethe Institute’s test.

I do find that energetic versus tired is important, and that I can get tired quickly while practicing vocabulary through Anki flashcards and taking Babbel lessons. For example, last Friday, I was trying to go through the flashcards later in the day, and I finished the session barely scraping by with the 70% accuracy that I’ve been told is what you want to see. Then I (somewhat unintentionally) took several days off of any attempt at formal studying. First thing in the morning, returning to Anki after that rest and before burdening my brain with any other problems for the day – I was flying through at 82% accuracy.

I am not going to stress over the predictions that after the roughly 75 hours or so I’ve been studying German, I might-should be close to having “A1” level German. Which I feel I clearly don’t have yet.
That estimate of required study time is the low end, it’s for those learning under someone else’s formal guidance and, I tell myself, for the typical language learner at a school, who is likely younger than I am. And let’s face it, younger brains learn faster, and studying by yourself is less efficient. The Goethe Institute itself allows it’s reasonable to spend up to twice that time learning before you reach A1.

So perhaps by next September I’ll feel like I’m there.

In other news, I have recently finished editing a fun short story set in a jungle with a character I decided to give a German name.

I’m not sure how his name is pronounced, but I’m just the writer, why would I have all the answers?