If you had asked me before 2016 which language I would like to learn besides my mother tongue, I would probably have answered Japanese because I admire Japanese culture and love anime. Just to name a few, One Piece, Dragon Ball or Hunter x Hunter. But life turns us in unexpected directions for which we have not planned 😲.
In my third year of university, I received an exchange scholarship to study in Germany for 6 months. And thus, the journey began… the endless journey of learning German. I remember at that time when I started learning, I read somewhere the quote ‘Life is too short to learn German’. With some years of experience learning German, I can tell you that quote is so true 😂. By the way, that quote in German is “Das Leben ist zu kurz, um Deutsch zu lernen”.
I attended an intensive A1 course before going to Germany for the exchange semester because I thought if I visit a country, I should at least know some basics of the language. At that time, I could say some basic sentences in German such as greetings and introducing myself. After the exchange semester, I returned to Vietnam to complete my bachelor’s degree. However, I had already made up my mind to pursue a master’s degree in Germany, and therefore, my journey of learning German continued ▶.
To save some money on course fees at the language center, I studied A2 by myself and registered for B1 at the language center. Please don’t ask me how I passed the entry test and became eligible for the B1 course. I didn’t even know how I passed the test because I had a really big gap in my A2 knowledge, especially in past tense. Even until now, I often bypass past tense by using past perfect 😂.
After completing the B1 course and before returning to Germany to study for my Master’s, I decided to take the B1 Goethe exam. I wanted to register for all four skills (Reading, Listening, Writing, and Speaking), but at that time, all the Speaking exam slots were fully booked. Therefore, I only had three skills to go 💪.
The passing score for the exam is 60 out of 100. For Reading and Listening, I got 77 and 83 respectively. Not excellent, but still not too bad. However, I failed the Writing section. This was the first time I had failed an exam in my entire life. And guess how much I scored? 59 points!! Just one more point and I could have passed 😅.
I was really upset, but I was determined to take ‘revenge’. During my master’s studies, I continued learning German and took the remaining modules – Writing and Speaking. I scored 93/100 for Speaking. And guess how much I scored for Writing? 💯 points – the maximum score. I had literally taken my revenge 😎.
But the journey didn’t end there; I kept learning and obtained the Telc Deutsch B2 certification in July 2023. And remember the quote at the beginning? Yes, that’s it. Until now, I am still learning German 😁.