Knows a thing or two about studienkolleg
And how do I come to enjoy and learn German more quickly?
Finally, a question to which I may have a suitable answer as I went through the process, myself.
German is a beautiful language. I had my reasons to start learning the language. I wanted to do my Bachelor's in Germany and I was fresh out of 12th standard. I started leaning German in the beginning of May'15. I had no prior knowledge of the language. How I wish I had German instead of French in school! So when I started, I was skeptical if I could pass the exam which was on 25th June'15. Not a lot of time. And keep in mind, it was directly the B1 exam. Not A1 or A2, because I had a very limited time frame and I required B1 for my Studienkolleg course. I had less than 2 months. Nevertheless, I went on with it. Day after day, a little bit of German. Things which we get easily are really not worth it. What requires hard work, actually gives the real joy of having earned something. I was being tutored in a group class for 2 hours, 5 days a week all this while. Then, the exam date came. I went for it. And a few days later the result came out. Their are 4 modules of B1 - Lesen, Schreiben, Sprechen and Hören. I cleared only Schreiben and Sprechen. It was a a major drawback as I missed out on one entire semester i.e. Winter Semester 2015. I had no idea what to do now. It was all very traumatizing. Somehow, I put myself together and searched online for more exam dates in different cities. I found two and they were very close so I couldn't know the result of any one before knowing that I would be required to give the other one as well. So I registered for both for Lesen and Hören. I had about a month and a half. Learning from my past mistakes, I didn't waste much time. I studied everyday, making it a point to learn something useful everyday. Vocabulary is everything. Every single word means a lot in getting where you want to be. It's not difficult but it is not a cake walk either. Work a little everyday. When the two exams came, I went for both. And I cleared Lesen in the first one and Hören in the second. After so much patience, I finally had what I wanted, the complete B1 Certificate by the end of August.
Moral of the story is, you can do whatever you want. Everything takes its good time to happen. People believe clearing the B1 exam starting from scratch is very difficult and that it takes one whole year. I did it in 3 months. This is what I achieved after working my a** off and investing a lot of money with time constraints.
And it doesn't matter if you do it from goethe or a private tutor. What matters is, if you're up for it. And the most enjoyable way of learning the language is working in a group. You learn from not only your teacher but also your fellow students. Then the activities and stuff your teacher makes you do, goes a long way in helping you acquire that knowledge.
German is a very enjoyable and fruitful language. It doesn't require all day, even 1 hour with full concentration every day is enough.
And I highly suggest you go for a group tuition, be it Goethe or anywhere else.
P.S. Till this date nothing makes me happier than my B1 Certificate, not even my university acceptances.
Edit - Read as much as you can everyday. Try to understand the logic, the sentence structuring, the very basis of that sentence. And a very wise person once told me not to translate from German to your language but to start thinking in German itself.
