My personal experiences in learning German

I know that usually some success stories will encourage us; when we hear that others have learnt a language successfully, it will usually inspire us to try to learn that language successfully as well. "If he/she can do it, so can I".

My personal story: I learnt German when I was in Secondary School, that is, from 12- 16 years old. My mother picked the subject for me and I had little choice. I did the "O" level German examination and got A1 for it, that is the top score. I had to study pretty hard for it and that was over 4 years.

Then after that major examination, I didn't study German for the next 2 years when I went to Junior College.

I didn't study German after leaving Junior College either, when I went to the Army to serve my country for 2.5 years. Without studying German for almost 5 years, one would probably forget everything right? Not really.

I went on to do a one year course in German and passed my Testdaf on the first try.

I'll try to post my credentials up on this blog one day, but since I am unable to do so at the moment, here's my examination results email.

Lieber Shawn,

wir können Ihnen jetzt die Resultate der TestDaF-Prüfung mitteilen: Leseverstehen: 5
Hörverstehen: 4
schriftlicher Ausdruck: 4
mündlicher Ausdruck: 5

Die Zeugnisse werden am 29.5. verschickt, d.h. dass Sie Ihr Zeugnis ab Mitte Juni bei uns abholen können. Bitte kontaktieren Sie vorher Jelene Wong: 6735 4555.

Mit besten Grüßen
Andrea Schäfer
Goethe-Institut Singapore
Leiterin der Sprachabteilung /Head of Language Department
163 Penang Road #05-01
Winsland House II
Singapore 238463
Tel. 6735 4555
Fax. 6735 4666
www.goethe.de/singapur

I will tell you all the tips and tricks to making your learning fast, efficient and enjoyable. Stick with me here on my blog :)