Hi everybody, I'm 20 yrs old, living in the west of Germany

[Stefanie]

...I found this website a long time ago and only took a note of the URL as it wasn't that interesting for me that time - but now things have changed and here I am!

I'm 20 yrs old, living in the west of Germany and at the moment studying for the CAE exam I wanna take in next June if everything works out well for me.
For that purpose I attend a prep course at an adult education centre - plus talk to my "boyfriend-to-be" (or whatever ) every evening - he lives in south England and is a native speaker - and I read lots of English books (as I am addicted to books anyway not really a big "motivation problem" for me to do and keep doing it)

Apart from that I study computer science with a major on computer engineering, but don't be afraid, I'm definitely none of that freaks!

[Andreana]

Hello Stefanie. Nice to meet you. It's good to have a computer and technology savvy woman on board and one that has a native speaking English boyfriend. How often to you see each other? I think you will have no problems passing the CAE exam because your English is pretty good. And you read many books in English? Who is your favourite author?
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A smile will open doors

[Stefanie]

Hi Andreana,

nice to meet you too!
Well, my "boyfriend" - or more "boyfriend-to-be" - and me see each other in 10 days for the very first time, phew, you can't imagine how excited I am! I got to know him over the internet but not over one of those dating sites, it first was a usual penpal-thing and none of us didn't have any intentions - but then somehow we both realized that we feel more for each other.
I don't go that far that I'd say "it's love" - but I tend to say that it's something close to it which can develop into that direction.
I know, sounds stupid and strange and crazy and whatever else - that's what I always thought as well about "internet love" before that man stepped into my life.
And if it really works out then I think I'll see him about once a month - unfortunately he has a job where he has to work on most Saturdays so we can't see each other regulary on weekends - but somehow it'll work I hope, it's only about 1:20h by plane and not too expensive.

Phew, enough about it (I should visit a love board for that kinda stories )

Thanks for your compliment about my English - I hope you're right cause I really have many doubts about passing this exam - but perhaps I'm always too pessimistic. (I only had six years of English at school and it's said here that you should have learnt English at least for eight or nine years at school to manage passing CAE).

According to the books - I read nearly everything, at the moment "A widow for one year" by John Irving.
The only kind of books I don't like are thrillers or fantasy books - and those kitschy love stories!
My favourite books are those with at least a touch of realism or even complete true stories like the trilogy by Dave Pelzer ("A child called it" is the first and most famous one).
But I also like books like those by Marian Keyes, Mike Gayle, Bill Bryson, Nick Hornby, Keith Lowe and Tony Hawks ("Though Irland with a fridge" is probably the most well-known), Jostein Gaarder.......... And since it's easy to buy English books over the internet (or in bigger bookshops - where I live is a small town so I never had this possibility before) I prefer reading the original English book instead of the German translation (which are sometimes terrible or annoying - not only because of several mistakes but as well because of a yucky use of the language).

What about you? Do you like reading books? And if so, what are your favourite ones?

[napoleon_hill_fan]

Hello Stefanie, Andreana and all the other forum members! Stefanie, you have written up such an interesting introduction that I have decided to answer yours instead of creating a separate one. My name is Roberto, I'm from Madrid and I'm a big Napoleon Hilll fan (as can easily be seen in my profile). I've registered in this forum because I want to talk about life and learn new things and of course I also want to improve my English. I hope to meet you often here. Have a good Sunday!
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All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.

[Stefanie]

Hi Roberto, nice to meet you! I must admit, I've never heard about Napoleon Hill before - but after I'd read your post I looked it up on google and now have a slight idea about his life and books.

[tortoise]

Hi Miss Stefanie,

What languages are speak in Germany? I talked to 3 German tourists when they visited my hometown and they spoke English very well. So, I think you speak both English and German in your country.

[Stefanie]

Hi "tortoise",

no, only German is the "official language" in Germany - with various dialects of course (though everybody (OK, nearly everybody) is able to speak "pure" German (referring to the accent, not really to the dialect as there are different words for the same thing - like in every language I think).

English here is taught in all secondary schools - and since one or two years it has also been taughtin primary schools, depends on in what region of Germany you live.

Apart from that English is the most needed language in business (second is French), so many people use it in their jobs - it's an absolute "must-have" for many positions.

It's not that everybody here speaks perfect or good English (especially the people from the former DDR/"East Germany" didn't learn English but Russian at schools) and many who never need the language forget most of it of course - but most Germans who were born in former "West Germany" after about 1950 have at least a basic knowledge of English. (I must admit that I don't really know since when English has been taught at all schools).

Travellers obviously usually have a better standard of English - as soon as they go further away then Austria or Switzerland, English (apart from in many regions in Spain or nothern Italy) is THE language they have to communicate in.

[tortoise]

Hi Miss Stefanie,
Thank you for telling me too many things about your country.
Well, when I saw 2 Germany visitors drinking sugar-cane juice, I asked why they drank too much. They said that there was no sugar-cane in Germany. Is it right? Can you tell me about this?

Thanks.

[Stefanie]

It's right what they said, there are no sugar canes here - you can perhaps buy the juice in delicatessen but I'm not sure about this.
We ususally don't use cane sugar but beer sugar here as it is cheaper to import into the EU (because of high customs duty).

[juano]

[juano]

hallo... i need information abot the toefl test..

thanks

juano
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juano

[Torsten]

Hello Juano,

Welcome to english-test.net, what exactly do you want to know about the TOEFL?
Regards
Torsten
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