What I have at present is only B 1, which is far from what I want to achieve, but the time is only four months at most. What should I do?
However, on second thought, this is not a complicated problem, but a very difficult single problem. As long as I work hard enough and study hard, the exam questions can be bought, and there are basically no other uncontrollable factors. Then, if you do everything well, there will be no regrets, right?
Soon, the German intensive course of Giessen C 1 began, which is actually Monday to Friday morning, from 8: 00/5 to 12:30 in the morning. It is only relative to ordinary courses, but for us who have studied in China, this intensity is not high. Therefore, we should also grasp the time of studying at home.
In addition to classroom exercises and homework, Li Fang also bought a lot of problem sets online, and from the end of 18 to July of 19, we always insisted on speaking only German at home, unless some topics need to be discussed in depth, we will communicate in Chinese. Even though I have been in Germany for nearly three years, it is not easy to communicate in pure German. Then, Li Fang helped me take four C 1 German exams, which were far away from me. I had to go one day in advance, spend the night and start the exam the next day, so I had to book air tickets and accommodation. These prescriptions are all arranged for me. I just need to prepare for the exam. Thank God for giving me such a good wife!
In June, although C 1 was only halfway through the course, I went to Dü sseldorf to take the first exam of C 1. The purpose of the exam is nothing more than to experience it, to see the difficulty, environment, time, examiner and so on.
Public transport in Germany is notoriously expensive. I roughly estimated that the price of the100km high-speed train here is about six times that of China, but the speed is still a little low. So Li Fang booked a Filxbus with relatively high cost performance for me, which is a civilian bus. As long as there is enough time, you will still save a lot of money. If it is an off-site exam, it is best to arrive one day in advance, spend the night, have a good rest, and take the exam in the best condition the next day. When I just took the German A 1, I suffered a loss in this respect. At that time, the exam was held in Nanjing, and the exam was held in the morning. Li Fang and I just want to go by overnight bus, so that we can spend less money for the night. As a result, I was in a bad state during the exam, and it was difficult to concentrate during the class. As a result, I almost failed by a few points. Li Fang also carefully booked me a homestay at Airbnb, which is only a few hundred meters away from the examination room, so that I can walk directly or get to the examination center quickly in the morning.
After arriving in Dusseldorf by bus, I first went to see my residence, then went to the examination place, checked with the staff and determined the meeting place for the next day. I think the more confident I am about the next day's examination room, the less pressure I have outside the exam.
I came to my room with a heavy schoolbag on my back. It is clean and bright here, but unfortunately there is no desk for people to study. I had to open my book, sit on the bed and start doing exercises. In fact, before the first exam, there are still a few questions that have not been practiced. I am always afraid of difficulties when I prepare myself, and I have been putting it off until the day before the exam. Therefore, people still have to push. In this way, the questions that have not been finished for many days are basically outlined in one night. At least, I know I don't have to spend time thinking about the questions the next day. As for the composition, besides practicing in class, Li Fang's sister Cora also took the time to help me revise my composition and repeatedly told me not to express too complicated ideas. The focus of the exam is the structure of the article, and the content is passable. I didn't fully understand it at first, but the more times I took the exam, the more I felt that she was right.
Although there are textbooks, reference books, study notes, classroom exercises and so on. In the bag, you can't finish reading it in one night, but it is more comfortable to use. I also realized that I didn't stay up late, and I went to bed before about ten o'clock, which is early compared with peacetime. After all, one of the purposes of coming a day early is to save your strength.
Maybe it's the biological clock. After sleeping for about 7 hours, I woke up naturally. I probably cleaned up, took a shower, repeated the questions, and then got familiar with the idioms in the oral part. Get ready to go out to the examination room.
Maybe there is something wrong with the understanding of time. I came too early. At about 8 o'clock, I found that I was the first one. It was not until half past eight that other students came to sign in. Then at 9 o'clock, a staff member came to gather everyone and took us to the examination room. The invigilator probably spent another half an hour explaining to us the exam instructions and matters needing attention in filling out the form, and made it clear that both the multiple-choice questions and the following compositions can only be answered with pencils. This surprised me a little. There is nothing wrong with using an answer sheet for multiple-choice questions, so use a pencil, but the composition is also written in a pencil? That's true. Even if they are all language proficiency tests, the types of test questions and the requirements for answering them are not the same, so we still need to pay more attention.
By the way, in the waiting area, I noticed an Asian girl, and I wondered if she was from China (among German Asians, Vietnamese are the most, China people are generally concentrated in cities with universities, while China people can hardly see her in my own city). I asked in the past, and sure enough, I asked questions about the exam. It is the third time that she has come to take the exam, and her oral English has passed, so she only takes the written exam today. This is a very useful information (in fact, official website also has it, but I didn't notice it before). If only one of the original written test and oral test passes, you can take the test before the end of the second year, which is universal. She lives in Dü sseldorf, so unlike me, who carries a heavy schoolbag, people go into battle lightly with pens and erasers. When I said this was my first visit, I wrote down as many points as possible without asking. However, she said that this mentality can get good results.
She's right.
Compared with the second challenge in Mannheim more than two weeks later, this first time was better. Especially for my first oral exam, I didn't play the second part at all, because it will be over by then, so I feel particularly bad. The second time I learned from my experience, I paid special attention to the control of time, and in the trio, I felt that I still had some performance in controlling the field. The second grade is definitely better than the first grade!
However, it feels unreliable at all!
I was surprised to find that my oral English score was 43.5 (out of 48) for the first time, but I only got 20 points for the second time, which means I got 90 points for the first time and 4 1 point for the second time. I was shocked by such a big gap. I obviously felt much better in the second exam, but how could my score be so low? In this regard, a China candidate I met in Mannheim told me so-the oral test score of this institution in Mannheim is very strict! Many students who have taken exams in other institutions have failed four times here. The test center of a language school next door is much looser. Not only the oral part, but also the composition part in the written test, this family is also very strict.
After listening to his description, I couldn't help but gasp. Because, Li Fang gave me the third exam or this one.
You may say, why did you choose this house twice in a row? In fact, at the beginning of registration, the most important consideration is the two factors of time. One is the examination time, and the other is whether the time for correcting grades is within the time range required by THM. Mannheim's family produces the fastest results, which can be produced in two weeks, while Dusseldorf's family needs 5-6 weeks. Therefore, we are quite anxious about the exam, and we have applied for the TELC1exam of this institution twice in a row.
So, here's the problem. When I take the third exam, can I avoid speaking?
Yes, I passed it for the first time, and I can be exempted from the test after it is reasonable. But it happened that I took the exam again before the results came out, and I haven't passed the second oral exam yet. Telc officials say the results are based on the latest one. If that's the case, I'm going to take that super-strict exam for the third time, and there's still a high probability that I will fail. Then, I still have to take the exam for the fourth time. After Li Fang made a phone call with telc, the staff said that the test could be exempted, but for safety reasons, Li Fang sent an email, hoping to get a written reply for confirmation. After all, the two results are very different. However, I didn't receive a reply until the third exam. So, in the third exam, I passed the first level with the mentality of giving it a try, and applied for oral English exemption. After seeing the first grade, the teacher of the test center successfully gave me the exemption qualification. Ah ... this really lightens my burden, thank God! You know, if you want to take an oral exam, it basically takes 6 hours.
Because I don't have to take the oral exam anymore, my attention is on the written exam. With the previous experience, I can probably allocate my time better. What bothers me more is listening and composition, which I can't train for a while. In particular, the third part of the listening question is not a multiple-choice question, but a simple note of what you have heard. Of course, this type of question is to prepare for at least writing down the keywords and key sentences of the lecture content when going to school in the future. It is very necessary, but it also requires high language skills. The difficulty is that it is not a multiple-choice question, and there is no possibility of confusion. Be sure to listen carefully and then use the most accurate phrase to express it. Writing requires writing a short essay of more than 350 words in German within 70 minutes. There are many topics in writing, some of which I have read and can't even fully understand, let alone write. Fortunately, each candidate has two topics, you can choose one to write. I try to choose simple topics and write as much as possible.
Although the examination center in Mannheim is very strict, I think it is the most responsible one in the explanation before the exam. The invigilator not only explained the general examination precautions clearly, but also explained writing in particular. I still remember the writing structure described by the invigilator: a fascinating beginning (about 4 sentences)+positive arguments, arguments and examples (generally two arguments and corresponding examples are given)+negative arguments, arguments and examples (the beginning needs a connecting sentence)+ending (summary statement and personal opinion expression). The teacher also pointed out that personal opinions can only appear at the end, and other parts are just statements.
Generally speaking, if you write according to this routine, you should at least get a passing grade. Because this writing test, the key is not what you wrote, but whether you can use the thinking mode of German education to analyze problems, explain problems and give your own conclusions. So in this case, the structure is more important than the content. You don't need complicated ideas, as long as you can understand the topic and put the article structure and appropriate sentences together, you can meet the minimum requirements.
However, it failed the third time. Nine points short of passing. Although it has been reduced to single digits, I only have one chance left. Not only that, with the approach of August, I will move and start working in the company, which means I won't have much time to review before the fourth exam.
1 In the morning of August, I rode my white folding bike, got on the bus first, and then transferred to the train after 40 minutes, about half an hour. I came to Giessen, the city where my company is located. Fortunately, the company is close to the railway station, and it takes about five minutes by bike. Later, I learned from my colleagues that there is a shorter route, which will take about three minutes. ) I came to the door of the company and saw a young man with long hair ... riding a bike, then came in and asked something, and then parked his bike in the company. I guess this is probably the first day to work like me.
Sure enough, he is one of them. There are five people in the reception hall of the company, including me. One of them is the long-haired guy I met before, one is immature, the other is mature, and the last one is chubby and has a beard. Although we all started working in this company on the same day, only three people participated in the dual-system university, the other two were officially hired project requirements analysts, and one was a member of the project team from Poland.
As soon as 9 o'clock arrived, the head of IT came and took us into the company's internal office. In the small conference room, we simply said hello, then introduced each other and talked about some plans for the next month. These are very common. But there is one detail that makes me feel particularly different from China. Later, when I was at school, I felt the same way-the leader/teacher introduced himself. I thought it might just be this leader. This company is special. However, when I think of the self-introduction of foreign priests in church and university professors in class, I feel very different from China. They will introduce themselves in detail, such as their resumes, where they went to college, where they studied for their master's degree, what their direction was at that time, when they joined the company, and how many years have passed now. From the moment I entered the company, I felt that the leader put you on an equal footing with him.
What surprised me even more was in the back, because almost two hours later, the five of us followed the supervisor and went through all the offices in the company. We met everyone for the first time except our colleagues on vacation ... from front-line employees to the chairman. Moreover, the supervisor has repeatedly introduced us for more than two hours, I don't know how many times, at least twenty or thirty times.
Looking around, most of my colleagues are before the age of 30-50, and they can be regarded as a young and middle-aged enterprise. During this period, the supervisor specially introduced the teahouse, which is equipped with free coffee machine, soda machine, refrigerator, microwave oven, dishwasher and so on. The supervisor said that this is a high-frequency area where many colleagues from different departments meet, which will not only increase mutual understanding, but also often collide with some interesting ideas.
Finally, the supervisor began to arrange our office space and office equipment, and got laptops and necessary stationery. Janis, a professional colleague of mine, has back-to-back seats and a chair is missing. After we informed the supervisor, five minutes later, colleagues from other departments configured chairs for us. Janis said with emotion that his previous company had no formal seats and desks for 1 month, and it was all complete on the first day here.
I really feel the importance and respect of this company for us newcomers.
However, under such a wonderful experience, I am even more worried-if I failed in the German exam last time, can I still stay in this company? Even if I can stay, it's probably just an internship, and there will be no corresponding salary, which will also disappoint the supervisor who gave me the opportunity. After all, this is the first challenge that they witnessed me deal with. For Li Fang and me, this will be even more sad. Although we have tried our best, we still can't reach it, so we can only try again next year. And this will delay our family planning, which is the result we are very unwilling to see.
On the second day of work, I applied to leave half an hour early because we invited two relatives and friends to help us move. Although we have pulled in our car four or five times before this, there are still so many things. After work, Li Fang continued to pack at home until the relatives and friends who helped came. These two names are Christopher, one is my brother-in-law, the husband of Li Fang's sister, and the other is a friend I met in church. They live close together and have some similar interests. When moving in Germany, many people will ask their friends for help, or choose to rent a car to move with their friends, especially young people, who will hardly find a moving company to move. On the one hand, there are a lot of labor costs here, on the other hand, basically everyone has a car, and some families may even have a cart or trailer. Besides, friends come to help and strengthen their relationship. The money originally paid to the moving company can also be used to move banquets and invite friends. This is killing three birds with one stone. Why not?
The car on the left belongs to Christoph's brother-in-law. His family runs a glass workshop and usually relies on it to transport glass and tools. There is a whole shelf of tools in it, as well as all kinds of tools for fixing and protecting things.
The car on the right belongs to Christian friend Christoph, who has his own horse, which is also his and his wife's greatest hobby. This time, it was the trailer he usually used to transport horses to help us move.
In August in Germany, the sunshine will last until around 8 pm. Because the lights in the new house are not complete, it is ideal to finish it before dark. Fortunately, after almost three hours of busy, that is, at 7: 30 in the evening, most of the furniture and daily necessities were finally moved here. I didn't know until I moved, such big things as freezer, refrigerator and washing machine were really difficult to move, especially the new home was on the fourth floor, and there was no elevator. Only two people had to work hard to move it up. After moving, we were all exhausted. Li Fang's sister Jessica Fong Ching ordered pizza and beer for us, which tasted delicious at this time.
Brother-in-law usually does some engineering work and has also studied carpentry with his father. After a brief rest, he helped us assemble the bed, wardrobe and so on. (Because the stairs are not wide enough, several big cabinets can only be removed to move up ...) If I do it myself, it may take another afternoon. In this way, we can sleep comfortably in bed on the first night when we move here.
Then it happened to be the weekend. I packed my things and Li Fang invited friends to help us paint the walls. Although painting the wall is a relatively simple kind of decoration, it is very effective. I want to add here that we really met a very good landlord. The landlord is an old woman who used to run the furniture business. Now she lives alone on the third floor of the house, and we are on the fourth floor. Because she is very old, most things are left to her daughter. After the former tenant left, the daughter-in-law spent a lot of time redecorating the bathroom, repainting the kitchen, master bedroom and living room, and repainting every door. After we signed the contract, I made a small request to the studio, hoping to add a power socket. At that time, they didn't know whether it was feasible or not. Later, they found an electrician to help me configure the electricity in the studio. That's so sweet, thank you very much!
However, time is still 24 hours a day. Apart from going to work, working, getting off work, making necessary purchases and going home, there is not much time left, and I have no strength and energy to review German. This is completely different from the state before the third grade exam-at that time, the German class was not over, and there were at least three hours of German classroom training every day, and I could continue to study after I went home. But when we moved to our new home, the kitchen we ordered would take another six weeks to arrive. The only dining table left is for eating and studying. To tell the truth, it's not easy to make room.
Fortunately, the head of human resources and the head of the department told me that if it is for exam review, I can apply for a 2-3-day holiday and study hard at home. However, because the first two weeks of employment were training, and the two days before the exam were half a day in the morning, I took two afternoons off and went home to review as much as possible. I know, just two days is not enough. And the location of the exam is the farthest in the past few times-Hanover, about 400 kilometers northwest of Germany.
Whatever the outcome, this will be my last chance this year. ...
-To be continued