Well, it turns out I am indeed a B2, or at least, the level of the course isn't necessarily beyond my capabilities in German. I'm about to begin my third (and last) week of the course, and so here I think I'll just list some of my reflections on the course and its pros and cons.
My course is a B,2,1 course at the DeutschAkademie at Wittenbergplatz. The other students are international as well, though for most of them, learning German isn't a hobby, but rather a necessity. There is a Bulgarian engineer who has moved here to live with his German girlfriend but cannot find work without having a better level of German (generally one would have to finish the B2, 1-2 courses in order to be qualified to work for a German company, from what I can tell). He speaks English fluently after having lived for a long time in England and South Africa. There are also four Chinese students, all of whom are either working or living here and need to pass the test at the end of the subsequent course in order to work or study here. Then, there are two Filipino sisters who seem to have picked up some German in Switzerland, but now want to learn German German (yes, they are so different that most Germans can't actually understand Swiss Germans...). Finally, there is a Mexican man who has just moved here with his German wife and another American girl who wants to do her MA here. I'm really the oddball out—when asked why I wanted to learn German, my only response was: "I like learning languages, and German is different from the other ones I know, so it's more of a challenge."
My strengths and weaknesses in the course: I'm very good with grammar, especially when I have time to think about it (so reading and writing aren't too difficult); I'm not very good with vocabulary (I have only been learning this language since last September, so I haven't had time to learn tons of less common words); my accent seems to be okay compared to the other students in the class (it's not recognizably American like the other American girl, and I seem to be able to speak somewhat fluidly now in a standard conversation about a not-too-philosophical or complicated topic); my comprehension is just okay—it's improved a lot since I've been here, but I still get frustrated and give up if I listen to a sentence that has more than two words I don't know.
Now for the actual course. Being a graduate student in French, I have to teach French myself and had to take a course in second language acquisition pedagogy. So, I can't really help but be a bit critical of the way others teach languages:
•The textbook is very well-organized. Each chapter introduces vocabulary very organically and has a Wortschatz or word list at the end of the book where you can write down meanings of words included in each theme/chapter. The activities are all multiple parts and each one builds on the previous one. It also does a very good job of alternating between the four main linguistic competencies: listening, writing, reading, and speaking.
•The textbook is also kind of oriented towards people who have immigrated here and are looking for jobs. We spent several days on writing résumés in German and about specific vocabulary for job interviews/employment contracts/etc. The first chapter was about homesickness and immigration and we're currently discussing poverty, and varying roles of men and women. In the end, while I'd probably prefer reading literary texts, fairy tales, or other narratives in order to acquire the vocabulary, I can understand and appreciate the thematic outline of the book and how it is more useful for their average student.
•The course is conducted entirely in German, which is very good. But we use very few authentic documents. Everything is in the textbook and the professor seems totally dependent on it. I find that kind of a shame, considering we are in Germany and there are actual people using actual résumés every day. Ostensibly we all know at least one German person. Why are our assignments always redundant grammar exercises rather than going out into the streets, finding an advertisement we can understand, and explaining the product and the advertising method to the class? Or writing our own cover letters for a real job application we find and then critiquing each other? Or being prepped about a movie that is in theaters and then going to see it without any subtitles? There are so many possibilities to incorporate the city and German culture into the class without using the textbook, but we never do.
•I also feel that we spend a lot of time on the homework in class. It would be more productive if the teacher were to give us the homework answers via email and then we could address specific questions in the first ten minutes of class or so. We have three hours a day and spend about the first half hour going down the line reading out our answers. I feel that that time could be much better spent.
•The levels of the students are quite varied. While I know that intermediate language courses are often like that, I do feel they might have been better with their placement tests for one or two students whose inability to understand at all moments is hindering the other students' progress in the course.
•Finally, our teacher is very nice, but isn't able to be here for the final week of the course. In order to avoid getting a substitute, this past week we had four hours of class on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and we are also having an additional morning class every Friday (even though the course is supposed to be just Monday-Thursday). While I don't mind the extra hours or classes, I do think the four hour sessions were really strenuous in terms of our cognitive thresholds. It was quite clear after the three hour mark that people were tired and not as engaged, but the type of work we were doing didn't change to reflect that. It's always very important as a language teacher to gauge how your students feel and when their brains just can't take the language any more. At that point, we could switch to a vocabulary game rather than strict grammar rule definition, or open conversations.
All in all, I'm happy I spent the 205 euros on the course. It is at the very least 3 hours of speaking German in a controlled setting and I am learning new vocabulary. The question will be: how will I keep it up in France?
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