English for Engineers

Just get off my first English class in Germany. Overall, it sounds interesting, not stressful as German course, but also challenging.

Only as a heads up, I want to try to jot down how I feel and how I would express myself, so no delicate spelling check or going through dictionary. And you are also welcome to correct me. Hopefully, this English thing will go on, but don't be surprised if it doesn't.

Right, back to our topic. It all started when I took the placement test two weeks ago. I did that because for one, unlike German course, English course is for free, secondly I've not taken any English class properly since collage and I want to take TOEFL after I return to tw. (I don't think training for GRE counts.) Okay, then the day at the test, I found out all the instructions before the test are given in German and it hit me suddenly that, if I take German course, my classmates will all be foreigners just like me; if I take English, that's where the Germans are!

Funny story: at the end of the instruction section, the lady who was speaking asked, if there's any questions. One Indian guy raised his hand and asked, "Can you please say the instruction again in English?" Hey, I managed to understand the German. One point for me.:)

Later, I received my placement result. Because people here usually have more than basic understanding of English, they only offer courses starting from level B1. And I got OK3, which is C1. What's funny is, this is exactly the level they valued my German! How's that possible? Or can you imagine how struggling I am in German class?

A1	A2	B1	B2	C1	C2
		MK3-4	MK5-8	OK1-4	OK5-8

This afternoon I started my first English class. We only discussed the course content and did some self-introduction, but instead of telling everyone what your name is or where you are from, we were asked to write down six questions starting with who, where, when, how, what and why. Boring questions are not allowed. Then the teacher, who is young and really funny, with lots of facial expressions, separated us into groups of two and asked us to do interviews.

My partner, Robin, is a guy from France, who is studying Master degree of Biomedical Engineering here. He was talking about how he wants to change his accent. Like how he pronounces some words more like in French way and why that isn't correct. It made me think about my accent too. I know I have the so-called typical Asian accent, but because our language isn't consisted of alphabets, it's harder to figure out what exactly that I usually say wrong and make the accent.

Never mind, that was stray from the point. The content of the course includes fundamental mathematical expressions, reading articles about all kinds of engineering, such as Nanotechnology or Biology, and making constructive criticism and so on. We are also asked to do a 5-10 mins presentation on a technical topic and hand in two essays.

I have to admit, when I saw presentation and essay, I was frightened. You know that are the last two things I like. But you have to face the challenges, right? At least I know I will encounter those things a lot afterwards. What's better when starting right now? With a mean-nice teacher and so many interesting classmates. Okay, she wasn't mean, but she did ask like 5 times "only one month?" when one guys said "eleven month" and forgot to use plural.

Anyway, I took it as a really nice chance to start learning English at a more academic level. Hope it will go on well. By the way, I feel ten times better in this class than I was in German class. I could even answer a question before anyone else knew it. (If you are interested, the question was "what's  the verb to use when you want to say "have a party?" I answered "throw". Okay, that probably only meant that I've watched too many series.)

Why I am saying that is because I really started to think that I might be in a German class of higher level then I should be in. Being in a class that's too difficult might as well undermine the improvement as being in a class that's too easy, because people spoke much faster and answered every time before I could. It somehow struck my self-confidence.

I don't know, what I hope now is just to get in a German course, anything will do.