Deutsche für den Beruf

So, remember a while back I was whining about being unemployed and feeling uncomfortable with my German language skills and all that rot? I also mentioned a few days later that it was time for me to take charge of my life and kick my ass into gear.

So today, about a month later (hey, I wanted to get in gear, but not 5th!), I signed up for a class entitled "Deutsch für den Beruf" (German for the Profession) at the Volkshochschule (Community College).

Supposedly I will be introduced to German office and business communications, write simple business letters (and emails too I hope!) and practice my telephone skills among other things. If necessary, specific grammatical structures will be repeated and at the end I have the option to take a test and get the "Deutsch am Arbeitsplatz" (German in the Workplace) certificate. (Woo Hoo! Isn't that special?)

The class meets twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday) from 10:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. from March 2 (tomorrow) until July 6.

Honestly, I was quite amazed that I was able to get into the class. I had been thinking about this whole "German for the Workplace" idea for a few days and I thought that I would have to take some private lessons or something. But yesterday, A. suggested that I check out the VHS. When I did, I found out that registration had begun two weeks ago and that classes started March 2 (tomorrow)!

Given my previous experiences with different German institutions, I figured I was screwed... but since I didn't have anything else to do today, I thought I would hike downtown and at least inquire about the whole thing. I managed to get downtown by 11 a.m. (of course registration ended at 1 p.m.) and figured I would have plenty of time. Silly me!

First, I had to go to the Foreign Language Office, which of course was packed. Everybody and their dog who wants to take plain old German lessons was there. And of course they had to take a placement test. So I ended up having to wait for an hour and a half (with no chairs in the waiting area!) to see a lady who told me that the class I wanted to take had place (YEAH! ...somebody up there was smiling on me). She then proceeded to take no more than 20 seconds to fill out a little registration card for me and then sent me to the cash register, where I had to wait another 20 minutes.

Luckily, I managed to get everything done by 12:55 p.m. I couldn't believe it! I had five minutes to spare. So tomorrow, I get to start my new class.

I then topped off my afternoon by doing a little shopping (I have really been into buying funky socks lately... today's purchase was 3 pairs of lavender socks -- 1 pair has a penguin, the other two have snowflakes on them --) and then eating at Pizza Hut, as I was in the mood for a little slice of home. :)

All in all, it was a good day.