Like a kid in a candy store

Everyone has something, be it shoe shopping, alcohol, cigarettes, cookies, chocolate, Harry Potter books, whatever, that represents the ultimate test of temptation.

My weakness is apparently language classes.

I don't have so much time during the work week and it's a little tough for me to find an interesting VHS (cheap courses subsidized by the government) German class in my immediate area due to demographics. Most of the learning German speakers around here are involved in government-mandated integration courses for new immigrants (highly structured, intensely organized courses to promote integration into German society) or have more daytime available and take 'foreign mother's courses' which occur during childrens' school hours.

Strike 1: As I have only evening hours available, and I don't want to drive more than 15 minutes from home/work for this little adventure. The drive to Polish class is 30 minute each way and I find it too much when the course is only 1.5 hours.
Strike 2: My arrival in Germany pre-dated the government mandated courses, so I'd need to prove a need and find one with free seats. As I won't be a lifer in Germany, I'm not so much their target audience. I can converse easily at the B1 level, which is their targeted end for people in the course, so that's a wash anyway.
Strike 3: I don't really have a need for advanced German, such as having a goal to study at a German university, the purpose of some of the higher courses in the area beyond the tiny town of B.

Since I was on such a roll after my recent German course, as I was glancing through the VHS book for the Tiny town of B, I gave it a second thought when I noticed they are offering a weekly class to prepare for the Goethe Institut's B1 general Zertificat Deutsch exam. (Tiny town of B's highest German course offering!)

Goethe offers this general exam as well as a business centric one, both at the B1 level. I don't really need the Goethe Business B1 certification since I'm already working here, as it's a certification some people get to show they can function at a basic level in an office environment. Also, Goethe has a good number of levels from barely above beginner to basically native, and they're a tad expensive (both in money and time) so I keep holding off until I reach the maximum level which I think I can pass before I leave Germany.

Anyway, I decided to check out the next town over's VHS, the one covering the region where the office sits. (Yes, my work commute is 7 minute and I'm already into another VHS' territory.) This one is a larger region, but still much smaller than neighboring K or D'dorf. I found a very interesting class, Phonetics. So for 45 minutes a week to focus on proper pronunciation and intonation. Since I didn't start learning German until the ancient age of 30, I feel this area could definitely be improved upon.

This VHS requires a German test (short coversation and written fill in the word endings) before registering for anything beyond absolute beginner. So I trundle over to their main office to chat with the 'German for foreigners course gatekeeper' (an easy-going lady, whom I hope learns a LOT of money for the amount of bad German spoken by foreigners, to whom she must listen closely to ensure proper placement). We chat about the Phonetics course (for which you do not actually need to take the test she explains, it's literally pronunciation/accent--even if you do not know the meaning of the words you are speaking, the course focuses on how you read/say things.)

She has a gleam in her eye--perhaps something more? Your pronunciation isn't so bad--it's a good course that you can improve, but with only 45 minutes a week, that's almost a holiday. I have my litany of excuses ready--not enough time to devote to their 'real' courses (twice per week at 3.5 hours a shot or 4x week at 3 hours), I don't think I'd survive that time investment let alone the homework/study time, no availability for anything but evenings, and on and on.

--So what's your end purpose with the German language? (she asks)
My basic purpose is to some day take either the B1 or C1 Goethe Business exam, whichever one matches my German level upon leaving the country someday. Since I 'lose' 40+ hours per week in the office, I'd prefer not to spend my few free hours studying for something that has no long term use for me. As I work in an office environment and have an interest in business reading, it's the logical lazy choice, this area.

--Maybe you could just take part of the test, you could skip the first beginner pages, just start here in the middle where I think you are, then see how far you can do it. Just 20 minutes. Then stop when you don't know the answers, it's ok.
Feeling like I'm making a pact with the devil I take it. I bumble through filling in the blanks, verb endings, adjective endings, conjunctions.

She goes through and marks it. Some days, I'm absolutely amazed at what I have learned here without really trying. Things that get programmed in through hearing them everyday, but not realizing why exactly it is why it is. It's such the opposite of my school-learned Spanish, where it was a logical progression of building the grammar.

--You know, you could take something in the Mittelstufe level.
Well, what do you have at location O? O is their small satellite site, only 7 minutes from my office.
--Hmm. So you have Pronunciation on Tuesdays....here! There is Business German at O. Twelve weeks at 2 hrs/15 minutes, with the end goal that you could take the B1 Business exam, if you so desire.

(Defeated) Sign me up. German twice per week, Pronunciation on one day, Business another day, from next week until the week I leave for the US for the December holidays (mid-December) Like a recovering alcoholic who doesn't go into a bar or take a sip of anything dangerous, I never should have gone into the VHS building or taken the test, as my self-control is non-existant when cheap language courses enter the picture. Thankfully I managed to leave without signing up for anything else. Danish, Japanese, Polish, all of them are severely tempting, perhaps most of all Friday night intense Russian...