The false confidence of A1 German

The beginner level of the German language doesn’t sound bad at all, right? With A1 you should be able to manage most situations because you know the basics, right? Right?

Well, yes and no.

I always say that feeling confident about your knowledge is a precondition for feeling like yourself – where you can freely have a conversation and not be weighted by all the things in the German language you don’t know yet.

However, there is a fine line between feeling confident for a reason and feeling confident to only shatter your confidence when you least expect it. That is exactly what happened to one of my students and, actually, that is what triggered him to find a solution for his lack of stability in knowing the language. That is what lead him to my Lightspeed Learning German program in 12 weeks.

He, as a foreigner, came to Germany for work without prior knowledge of the German language and thought that he could simply speak English. When he realized that many people in Germany don’t speak English, like teachers in his kid’s school, he decided to take a course – to learn the basics of the language so he could – manage everyday situations.

After getting the A1 certificate, he felt pretty confident walking in a supermarket and buying some groceries. So he went to the supermarket, got his groceries, and head to the register. He asked the cashier a simple question and that’s when it happened. He asked the question, but he couldn’t understand the answer.

A simple grocery shopping left him in disbelief – there is no way he thought this could happen. At that very moment, he realized that the problem was the A1 certificate. It doesn’t mean anything, because he couldn’t understand the answer to his question.

Luckily, he made a decision – a brave one, a fast one, and, as it turns out, the right one. He wanted the applicable knowledge. He wanted to understand and converse in German, and he didn’t want to wait.

After 12 weeks of Lightspeed Learning German, he indeed learned what he wanted from the beginning – to manage everyday situations. Now he speaks and understands German, practicing every day and continuing to improve, without an excuse.

If you have a similar experience, message me or apply for a free qualification call on my website: www.ivanvotipka.com.