Opportunities/Problems

I've been thinking about getting better at things lately. It's just been on my mind, I suppose. One thing that caught my eye came from Benny the Irish Polyglot, who I strive to emulate. He was talking about his language acquisition and how he switches it up week to week to address the problems he has with his current language (which happens to be Taiwanese).

This made me think about metacognition: the ability to accurately access oneself from an outside perspective and how that can be key in the development of mastery. And I thought of all of the problems I have in the skills that I want to develop.

With German, I'm not perfectly fluent. I know a lot of words but can't use them in context with the fluency that I'd like.

Solution: Do things like the video I did a few days ago. Talk to people. Be mindful of using vocabulary words. Ask native speakers about context. Talk, Talk, Talk.

With Spanish, it's roughly similar but on a smaller scale. I can do everything I need to in simple terms and in isolation but I can't really hold a conversation about the past.

Solution: Tandem Partner. Listen to example sentences. Read my magazine. Talk to myself and talk to other people. Don't take it for granted that I can just plug verbs into formulas I've memorized

With Arabic, I'm still learning but I've gotten bored with just learning vocab and not (yet) being able to say anything.

Solution: Use the words that I can say. Describe my bedroom. Colors and numbers are the things we learn first for a reason. Practice.

With Trumpet, I'm frustrated that I can't play the way it sounds in my head. That's always been the problem. Not entirely sure what to do about that one but right now I'm working on getting back into shape.

Just looking at these "problems" and seeing them as opportunities to get better. Which is what I wanted to do anyways. SO THERE.

German vlog!

Hooboy. Putting my germanspeakingness out into the world

Goals achieved

I have reached the middle of the break. When I started in February, I said that I wanted:

60+ Hours of German
60+ Hours of Spanish
30+ Hours of Arabic
to Work out every other day
to Practice Trumpet every day

So far I have

71 hours of German
44.5 hours of Spanish
20.5 hours of Arabic
worked out every other day
only missed out on 4 days of Trumpet practice

I'm getting there : ]

Next goals will include:

Figuring out schedule for next semester. I'm hoping to have either a Spanish or Arabic class in the evening, Tandem partners and a German class to keep my mornings/afternoons open for work.

Asking about more opportunities to teach

Getting the Trumpet/Organ concert that I'm preparing with an organist up and running

using my newfound prowess to rock tests left and right.

This just in:

So I've been asking questions (MASSIVE ACTION) about what I can do to stay here and make it work. This is the response that I got from the nice and helpful program coordinator of my future department:

The programme is designed according to the “Bologna-Treaty” of the European Union. According to the scheme, one credit point equals 30 hours of work load. On average, 30 credit points are to be made during one semester, which is 900 hours of work load. If you place that on a regular weekly schedule, you almost arrive at regular working hours. It is thus difficult to work on the side, at least if it is more than 8-10 hours per week.

To which I cautiously say:

Challenge Accepted.

March Forth!

This will be my battle cry.

Plan of ATTACK

Okay.

So, i've decided to take this utterly devastating news that I'm not going to be recipient of the DAAD not as an affront to my character (because I KNOW I'm smart and well qualified enough to study in Germany) but as a sign that means I'm going to have to do what I always do and just....win.

That's right.

I'm going to:

talk to my employer to see if I can get a work visa starting August to stay in Germany and apply for grad school next year.

See if it's possible to work and go to school at the same time (In this context. I know it's possible because, duh, I've been doing it since I was 17)

email the CSU/IP coordinators here to see if they have any help for me

Reach out to people I know to see if they have any information.

Look into teaching English in Spain.


MASSIVE ACTION.

The last time this happened I got angry, got determined and now I'm studying in Germany. Guess what? I'm not going to let it get me down. Not ever. Nothing anyone says (even me) can make me stop trying to achieve my goals.

Vlogvlogvlog