Carl Duisberg Centren

In a few short weeks I will be approximately this smug.

     Today was the first day of language school.  The Carl Duisberg Centren (CDC) teaches people from all of the world German for professional purposes.  This summer, at the Cologne location alone, there are over 80 nationalities represented.   Language learning, at least in Europe, has been standardized to recognize 6 levels of proficiency: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2. "A group" represents extremely limited knowledge, for example, knowledge limited to set scenarios (buying a train ticket, ordering food, greeting, etc.).  B group has the ability to formulate unique ideas and respond to situations, but is not fully able to communicate day-to-day on the fly (these are stop and thinkers). C level is professional level, where you can interact and express with fluency, but there is room for improvement on the subtleties of the language. The CBYX group has participants in levels A1 through C1.
     I am in the A1 group- the people with kiene Deutsch.  My class has about 12 students: 6 CBYX, an Argentinian, a Mexican, a Chilean by way of years in Switzerland, a Georgian (the other Georgia), an Italian, and a guy from Kazakhstan.  Everyone in the class is bi-lingual or has advanced relatively far in a second-fourth language (I'm maybe B.2.1 in Spanish?).  I would also guess that every student is between 22 and 27.  In summary, everyone is young, choosing to learn German for career reasons, and not necessarily proficient in English.  For these reasons, the class dynamic is very interesting and the teacher teaches us using 99% German (eek).
     The 3 hours of instruction today were enough to make my brain hurt.  It takes extreme concentration to try and catch the gist of Frau Peters' lecture whilst looking up words and copying down her whiteboard notes.  As needed, students  interrupted to ask for clarification or translation in English.  Interruptions were then answered in Deutsch and then English. Initial shock aside, it was possible to follow the lecture because it followed the same syllabus as my past Spanish classes (introductions --> intro to articles ---> intro to conjugations ---> intro to tenses, etc).
     Conclusion: I'm really looking forward to the next month of learning Deutsch at the CDC!