8 Months Recap.
Back on Saturdays just like before, here's why I stopped posting about my growth here for the past 8 months. Last September I started learning German, completely on my own. No courses, no language schools, no online tutoring. Just me and grammar books and YouTube videos explaining them.
At first I was skeptical that I'm going to achieve this huge goal, but as things took off and I started understanding German content on the Internet, I felt that there may be some hope.

The Final goal was to reach the intermediate level or according to The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), the goal was to pass an acknowledged B1 exam such as Goethe's. And yesterday, the news came, the good news if I may. An email from the institute with the opening line: "Herzlichen Glückwunsch! Sie haben die Prüfung Goethe-Zertifikat B1 erfolgreich abgelegt." which directly translates to "Congratulations! You have successfully passed the Goethe-Zertifikat B1 examination.". Off course I was happy because I passed the test, but there was more to it. See dear reader, passing the exam on my own increased my self confidence by at least ten times. Because the Image in mind started to get clear that if I planned something well and poured my effort into it as well, good things will happen.

I Took the TOEFL last year completely on my own and got a solid 87 out of 120. I Took Goethe B1 Exam this year and nailed a 91 in writing, an 85 in speaking, an 80 in reading and finally a 63 in listening. Now the the last one was a shock to me especially seeing the huge margin between it and the other marks. Moreover, one of the things that helped me getting better at German were the audio-books and the German music I listened to, so how come I score the least on the thing I did the most? Personally I believe it was the stress of the exam.

I was so fearful of the dialects (especially the Swiss one) and I have to admit it. No matter the reason, there's one clear thing to me now. I have to practice more, I have to give more time and effort consistently to improve on this awesome skill I acquired. And I'll do that side to side with the journey I'm starting next month. I will start learning JS as it's the last element in my skill chain as a web-developer that I haven't collected yet. Next Saturday, I'm going to speak about the resources I used to learn German and the incredible series of "MENSCHEN". Until then, friends!