Studio l'italiano!

I'm learning Italian! After seven years of studying German at secondary school, which culminated in an A-level grade B, I've decided to try my hand at learning another modern foreign language. I chose Italian for a pretty superficial reason: so that I could attempt to read interviews with Sebalter in his mother tongue. Still, as time goes on I'm starting to really enjoy developing my skills. It's a nice change to be learning at my own pace and for my own personal interest, rather than for a qualification. The main resource I'm using is Duolingo, a free web/app platform which generates simple listening, reading, writing and speaking activities within discrete lessons, helping the user to gradually acquire knowledge of the target language. The focus is on learning through experience rather than explanation, although the comments section is useful for finding out the theory behind each sentence. Strength bars indicate the skills that need to be improved, and it's always possible to strengthen skills, which is particularly useful when I don't feel like learning a completely new topic. I also have a 3 in 1 book, the Collins Easy Learning Complete Italian, which has grammar, verb and vocabulary sections. So far it's been useful to clarify grammar points introduced on Duolingo, and I might use it to write notes and flashcards. I've been learning for almost two months now and according to Duolingo I've acquired 30 skills and learned 862 words. My next challenge is the perfect tense... oh, and I'm starting uni in a couple of days! Alla prossima!

Prüfung und Pesto

Almost two weeks ago I sat my German A2 speaking exam. During the night I dreamt that I completely messed up, as documented in this tweet, but as morning rolled around, I became unusually calm. We were able to meet our examiner at the start of the day, and it was reassuring to find that she was just as jolly as we'd been told. After this brief introduction, Chris, Nilloy, Daisy and I left, while Rosie began her fifteen minutes of preparation. The remaining four of us returned to the Study Area, where we nervously carried out last minute revision and I correctly guessed that the word for sadness is "Traurigkeit". Over the course of the next two hours, Rosie returned, and Daisy, latecomer Lily and Chris all completed their exams. Finally, it was my turn. When I arrived, I was somewhat thankful to find that Chris was still in the examination room. Upon leaving he seemed content, which was encouraging. Before I could begin my exam, the examiner had a quick break, but she soon returned, and allowed me to choose my card. After this, the invigilator ushered me into the planning room. The time went by rather quickly, but I did manage to plan all three questions, so it was already going better than the dream. Thankfully, the topic was interesting and I had a lot to say about it. I recalled my Exposé faultlessly, then I only needed clarification on one of the questions during the discussion. Afterwards I couldn't stop smiling, and psychology breezed by in the afternoon. Later on Daisy drove Chris, Emily, Georgina and I to meet Rosie for a celebratory meal. Earlier, the examiner recommended that I have a big meal to commemorate the effort I put into the exam, so at the restaurant I chose the Rigatoni al Pesto, which almost put me off pesto for life, then later I shared a lemon meringue dessert with Chris. Coming home we realised just how great a driver Daisy is; her concentration never faltered despite the noise coming from her passengers, Chris in particular. It seems really odd that I'll never do another German speaking exam, but it's also a relief. Now I just have the three hour written exam to complete, as well as six exams from my other subjects... not too much!

Prüfungen machen mir Spaß!

My summer exams got off to a pleasant start today with the German Listening, Reading and Writing paper, and this post is the only place I've written "Spaß" today! Some of the questions were difficult, but I persevered and answered them all. The essay topic I chose seemed to be the most popular among my classmates and I found it fairly easy to write about, but I really don't know what grade to expect, as many of my answers seemed to be only half right. My next exam isn't for eight days; in that time I intend to revise (naturally) and complete my post about the incredible Big Reunion concert I attended on Saturday!

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

"Früher habe ich meine Deutsch sprechende Prüfung gemacht."

That should translate to "earlier I did my German speaking exam", as that is what happened at 9:15 am today. I won't go say anything about it's content because some students won't have done it yet, but I was very happy with the cards I had and actually didn't feel too nervous!

Sixth Form so far

It's been nearly a month since I joined sixth form, and I'm actually really enjoying it! Recently we've been completing September Assessments to gauge whether we should stay on our courses or not, and so far I know I've passed psychology and German, I hope I've done all right in biology, and I still have the chemistry test to do. Also, I've already taken opportunities to enrich my studies, including applying for a university programme to support my A-level studies, and expressing interest in the World Challenge 2014.

A quick catch up!

Hey! Since I had to log into blogger again, I felt it was about time for another blog post. It's lucky I still remember my password! Anyway, here's a few notable events that have occurred since 19th November:

• At Chris's film night (on the 19th) we watched the film "Dead Silence", which I was really happy about because it stars Donnie Wahlberg and was created by the same people who came up with the Saw franchise. The film didn't disappoint, and I purchased the DVD for £3 yesterday, without being asked for ID!
• My first ever internet purchase, "Meet Joe Mac" by Joey McIntyre arrived on Jonathan Knight's birthday (29th November), which is also the 333rd day of the year!
• I also had my sixth form interview on that day; I will be studying chemistry, biology, German and psychology (provisionally) next year, and get to research intense celebrity fandom and stalking. Sounds interesting...
• On December 2nd I broke my school bag, a trusty sidekick of a year and a quarter. By Monday evening I had another bag: the same design but in a different colour!
• The 5th to 9th December was mock week, meaning I didn't tweet much and revised a bit. Most of the exams went okay, but I'm glad it's over!
• Yesterday, in addition to the DVD, I bought 7 CDs by The Feeling, Backstreet Boys, Muse, Mika and Take That.
• It's a week and a day until my birthday! I'm going to see "New Year's Eve" with friends to celebrate.

See ya soon!