Friday, August 01, 2008

My Moment of Brilliance

Woohoo! T. phoned with the language institute in the Kantstraße where she and I wrote our Test DaF exams, which are a gauge of our proficiency in German, and she found out that I aced it! I received 5/5 in every category. As far as the spoken component goes, I don't think I deserved the 5, but otherwise, like Mrs. Bennet, I "quarrel with no compliments." Even on the written component, I stayed well within my vocabulary and the essay-writing skills instilled by two years of university flowed back to my pen; so, though I'm by no means perfect there, I did achieve what the Test DaF requires, which is to be comprehensible though not perhaps impeccable.

As I remarked to Papa and Mama, this is the first successful thing I've done in a long time. The closest thing I can remember at UBC is the 87% on my (as I now find, largely factually incorrect, but still entertaining) Romanticism History essay, and the two "A"s my professor gave me for my English 220 essays. That was in early 2006. Then there was T.'s and my (undeserved) 100% in Spanish 11. Though I am of the general opinion that perfection is boring, this does not mean that I haven't often wished to approach it more nearly in the academic realm.

Anyway, having enjoyed my moment of jubilation, I will admit that there may be a mistake, which would come out when T. and I pick up the certificate later today. Then I'd post a correction, but if there isn't any, it's all true. (c:

P.S.: In the interests of full disclosure, I'll add that I didn't study for the test. I went in expecting to do really well or really badly (tending toward the latter). I'm not proud of this — at all. But I don't feel entirely guilty, because I have read a fair amount of German on my own initiative over the years, from Otfried Preußler through Grimms Märchen to Der arme Spielmann, as well as the Tagesschau website.

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