Studieskolen - The Placement Test

I decided to go ahead and go in for my Studieskolen placement test today, instead of waiting until Thursday.  I know myself, and I know that if I give myself too much time to think about things like this, I'll just over-think it and get overly nervous.

So, I showed up about 20 minutes before the test, and was the second person there.  I understand that they can only test a handful of people at a time, so I was glad to get there early.  There were maybe 8 of us there for the test today.

As I entered the testing room, I was handing a sheet of paper by the proctor and was asked... something... in Danish.  I had to come right out and say "I'm sorry, my Danish is really minimal."

Luckily, the guy was really nice about it.  It seemed he was just asking a few questions to get an initial feeling for how everyone's Danish was.  And mine... was minimal.  Which seemed to be okay.

The sheet of paper asked for basic information (name, CPR number, address, etc.), and then asked that we write a paragraph about ourselves, including why we were in Denmark, what we had been doing before, and what are our hobbies and interests.

I managed to write a total of 3 lines.  More than I expected to be able to come up with, but extremely pathetic compared to everyone else, who filled up the front of the page, and then turned the page over to continue their autobiographies.

As for the interview part, I had expected to go in and be asked questions about grammar.  I'd been told that they generally ask you to identify parts of a sentence (subject, object, etc.).  That didn't happen at all.  He asked me a few simple questions in Danish, some of which I understood and could give one-word responses to, and some of which I didn't understand at all.  In the end, he said I would be best in module 1.1, which is exactly where I'd hoped to be placed.  He also suggested that I go to the daytime classes (which are 4 days a week, for a few hours each day), which is also exactly what I'd hoped to do.

Next step, they send my information to the government to ensure that the government will pay for the course.  I asked if there was any reason they might not pay, and the proctor said that they only say no if you've already taken the allotted number of Danish courses provided by the government.  Not the case for me, so...

I think I'm probably in.  I find out for sure in a few weeks.

Two Weeks and Counting

We leave for Denmark two weeks from today.

We've decided on our shipping company, and have been slowly selling off the furniture and other household items that we won't be able to keep.  Electronics, especially, what with the plug/voltage difference.  We have decided to keep out printer/scanner/copier, though.  Mostly because the display is in Danish and we don't know how to change it.  Not much of a market for that here.

I've decided that, as soon as I have my CPR number (like our Social Security number), I will enroll in "full-time" Danish classes.  From what I understand, this means I'd be taking class 4 days a week, for maybe 3-4 hours per day.  My husband predicts that I should surpass him with my Danish within 6 months.  And considering he's fairly conversational in Danish, and has a job in Denmark, that sounds just fine by me.

This will also get me out of the house and meeting people pretty quickly.  However, I believe the Summer vacation is going to stall the start of my classes for a few months.  I'll have to find some other way to get out of the house during the day, as our furniture and whatnot won't arrive for about 6 weeks.

Not much fun sitting around an apartment with almost nothing in it.