Just a quick report on today's Stammtisch at my work. Well, it's kind of a Stammtisch. There's definitely a Tisch involved!
Today we were three - the native German speaker (an Austrian), me, and a native English speaker who's married to an Austrian (why are all my German contacts here Austrian? No idea!) and who lived in Austria for a year. The latter's level is somewhat similar to my own, probably, but definitely better. He has a somewhat larger vocabulary, he's more at ease with German, and understands a little more (or so it seems to me - this is all just my subjective assessment).
This time we sat at a table of 4 and started speaking German from the start, which reduced the chance of any interruptions in English. And thankfully that's exactly what happened. It was a pleasant conversation, and I really appreciated again the patience and helpfulness of people who give up their lunchtime to put up with my bad German.
Unfortunately, that last statement isn't an exaggeration. I felt halting, and heard myself making plenty of grammatical mistakes, and struggling for words at times. Not surprising considering that, although I haven't been counting exactly, I haven't spent that much time really speaking German. My comprehension was pretty good, though there were passages of speech that I couldn't get into the flow of. Perhaps partially because there was a 3rd person there who wasn't a native speaker, I think I also felt more awkward than usual.
I also read Deutsche Welle's description of B2 level. I have to say, I am definitely somewhere between B1 and B2 still, and probably not close enough to B2 by far to successfully pass the Goethe-Zertifikat-B2 exam in about 1 month's time. Suffice to say, I'm feeling a mixture of fear and depression.
The only thing I've done since yesterday is listen to "Entenvolk" from yesterday. Before I hit the road going home today I'll try to make sure I read through the parallel text that I made (see the above post) so that listening to it is more useful. I have to admit that I'm not super interested in the topic. I really should have made sure I would find it interesting and appropriate before I bothered to translate it! Today I made a bit of a search for some more interesting articles, so I'll find one soon to start a new translation :-)
Should I proceed with my mid-July plan and try to find a way to push harder to reach there? Or should I reassess and replan? I've come a LONG way since I started this process, and having B2 as a goal has been very helpful to me, forcing me to focus much more than I otherwise would have, and to find German-speakers to chat to. Now it's getting down to the last days, and to pass the actual exam I will need a more concerted and focused effort. I'm not going to spend $180 on an exam without being fairly certain of passing it!
Any readers out there already done the Goethe-Zertifikat-B2 or higher? How did you feel 1 month out? How had you prepared?
Any and all suggestions gratefully received :-)
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