Studieskolen - Module 1.1, THE TEST

Today was the big test to see if I would move on to module 2 in Danish at Studieskolen.  Here's how the whole thing went down, in as much detail as I can remember:

Since the module 1 test is a spoken test, the teacher gave each of us a 10 minute time slot.  My test was scheduled for 11:50, so I spent the morning doing some last minute studying, and writing down key words for the stories we were supposed to talk about (we were allowed to bring one page of notes containing key words into the test).

I left my place by bike around 11:40 and was home again by 12:05.  The test itself took a total of 8 minutes, and seemed much shorter.  For a big test, it was an awfully small test.

Walking into the test, I was feeling mostly confident, but with that little, irritating voice in my head whispering "Don't choke..."

The teacher had me pick from a few overturned scraps of paper on a desk, on which were written either "A" or "B."  The letters indicated whether we were supposed to tell her about our day-to-day life, or tell her about our families.

I pulled an "A."

I decided it couldn't hurt to start with a bit of humor, so I spoke about how I wake up at 6am, when my husband gets up for work... and then go back to sleep.  Until 9am.  Once that got a laugh, I started feeling like I was going to be okay.  I went on to tell her about how I study Danish, and how I make dinner during the week, but my husband cooks on the weekends.  She seemed amused by that as well.

Next, it was time to talk about the little stories we'd read in our textbook, for which I'd spent the morning writing out key words.  She chose to have me talk about Katrine's family.  So, I spoke a bit about Katrine's half-brother, whose father is an artist in India, and who moved out when he was 16 because he didn't get along with Katrine's father.

These are not the kinds of stories we read when I was learning Spanish in high school.

And I hear the stories get more and more tragic as the classes get more advanced.

Finally, the teacher had some cartoons taken from our workbook, and we had to figure out the dialogue for each picture.  That wasn't all that difficult either, which meant...

SUCCESS!

She then handed me a slip of paper with the details for starting module 2, and we chatted briefly about the class itself.  It was really nice to hear her talk about what a smart, nice, balanced class we were.

I have to say, I completely agree.  I'm not sure I've ever been in a class where everyone seemed to like each other so much and be so genuinely curious to get to know everyone else.  I guess that's just how it is with expats.

On to Module 2 on Monday!