Answers
Sep 28, 2015 - 03:10 AM
I would suspect the difference between Spain/LA is not all that great- use of vosotros, pronunciation, and informal speech is used more in Spain etc. I'm doing the Spanish version, and they said at the start that students doing the course would be understood anywhere in the Spanish-speaking world. It sounds like this reflects your experience in Spain. I expect, similarly to how UK/USA English only differs slightly. However, I must admit, I chose this course because I wanted to learn European Spanish, had this version not been available I would probably not have chose this course. As far as I know, Catalan is not covered on the course.
Sep 28, 2015 - 10:53 AM
Thanks Fluff. It would have been cool to learn some Catalan. Most of the words are pretty intuitive. While walking down the street in Barcelona, I saw signs saying, "Carrer", which mean the same thing as Calle. Now that I'm spending so much time in Spain, I really wish I took the Spain version. There is a European Standards exam that tests your ability to speak a language. It is usually used to determine if you are able to either immigrate to a country, go to work in a country, or study in a country that uses that language. I took the B1 German equivalent exam and passed, probably comparable to the entire set up German 1 - 5. I'm not too sure because I only finished up to German 3 1/2. It would have been nice to take the exam to see where Fluenz matches up to the European standards tests.
Sep 29, 2015 - 03:23 PM
Warriorfan808, I am currently living in Germany and am somewhere in Fluenz 4.
Are you saying that if I finish Fluenz you think I will be at level B1? If that is the case, it would truly be great. I know obviously everyone learns at different speeds and such but I find that I understand much of the German around me and everything within the Fluenz program thus far.
I will have to take the B1 exam in Ulm in June.
I will be taking the test along with many beginners who have no knowledge of German at this time, there goal is also B1 by June with a nine month course starting in October. Since you know German and it's difficulty level, do you think that's a probable outcome? I obviously have a great advantage over them as I already have quite the foundation to build off of, but from no knowledge to B1 in just 9 months seems rather short.
Thanks in advance!
- Mike
Are you saying that if I finish Fluenz you think I will be at level B1? If that is the case, it would truly be great. I know obviously everyone learns at different speeds and such but I find that I understand much of the German around me and everything within the Fluenz program thus far.
I will have to take the B1 exam in Ulm in June.
I will be taking the test along with many beginners who have no knowledge of German at this time, there goal is also B1 by June with a nine month course starting in October. Since you know German and it's difficulty level, do you think that's a probable outcome? I obviously have a great advantage over them as I already have quite the foundation to build off of, but from no knowledge to B1 in just 9 months seems rather short.
Thanks in advance!
- Mike
Oct 05, 2015 - 09:59 AM
Hey Mike. I've been in Germany for a while. It's hard for me to say whether or not Fluenz 1-5 covers all the topics covered up to B1 because I only finished 3 and 1/2 DVDs. I probably should have mentioned that I took the DSH class at one of the German Universities here and it covers B1 material. I also tested into a B2 class at the VHS. I stopped Fluenz because I got bored. I'll probably go back and finish it after I'm done with Spanish 5. I figure, I paid for it, so I might as well. I will say that the first DVDs were very easy to understand and I learned a lot of reasons behind rules. You are lucky that you live in Ulm. I live in Kaiserslautern and there are tons of Americans here. When Germans hear me speak, they automatically switch back to English.
I would also like to say that I speak better German due to Fluenz. You have probably noticed that many cities in Germany have their own dialect. I picked up a lot of weird words around here. For instance, "grundapfel" is potato in Saarland.
I would also like to say that I speak better German due to Fluenz. You have probably noticed that many cities in Germany have their own dialect. I picked up a lot of weird words around here. For instance, "grundapfel" is potato in Saarland.
Oct 05, 2015 - 05:19 PM
Fluenz is not a tool that will prepare you for the exam. I used Fluenz as a very strong foundation, then I had to add much more material and use exam preparation books before taking the exam. It took me about 5 months of preparation before I took the A2 exam. I'm taking the B1 in november, and that's with 6 more months of preparation, and taking spanish conversation classes every week, and 4 trips to south america, listening to spanish radio every day, watching movies and reading the news in spanish all the time. I'm pretty confident I could pass the B2 exam but I'm a step by step person. There is no way I could have passed the A2 exam after the 5 levels of Fluenz, and that's just because the goals of Fluenz and the goals of the exams are completely different. There are plenty of places that prepare for the exam, so I would strongly suggest you use one of those. You'll have a better foundation than anyone else thanks to Fluenz, but you will be short on vocab, won't have much experience with writing stories, and not much experience with fast dialogs either. I think the foundation is the most important and the rest will come with less struggle.
Oct 07, 2015 - 12:59 PM
Warriorfan808, Thanks for the reply! Also I'd like to add that I just found out that the aim of this course isn't B1 in 9 months but rather C1 in 9 months... even for the students with no German knowledge. To me this seems extremely short to reach such a level, but studying it every day and immersing yourself in the language is sure to be quite effective, I'm just concerned that there won't be enough time, at least for the ones who have no foundation yet.
Oct 07, 2015 - 01:49 PM
Mike, if you have a chance, try to take a lower exam before, so that you get an idea of how it works, or at least get mock exams if you can.