I’ve been in Ziurich for 10 years, so now I can apply for swiss passport (I heard once you do, you get a free gold lingot from a Nazi caveau).
Jokes apart, the top complexity here is to pass an exam in German (Swiss German oder Hoch Deutsch, your choice).
This article describes my steps and struggles. Luckily, I have super smart colleagues in Google who helped me. This is my trying to give back :)
1. Back to School!
First thing, you need a certificate from one of the enabled schools:
According to Stadt Zurich official page (in German, of course), All persons applying for naturalization must provide written proof of their German language skills. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages โโ(CEFR) has different levels. For naturalization, all persons must prove German language skills at the following levels:
- oral (speaking and listening): level B1
- written (writing and reading): level A2
The schools that provide what you ask are these:
- Goethe Institute (hardest). No location in Switzerland, it seems (?)
- TELC Ltd - ?
- รSD (Austrian, Second hardest)
- Fide language certificate
- Digital language test
Now:
- Goethe doesn’t have presence in Switzerland and I hear its the hardest. Ciao.
- TELC has a pre-Christ website with still events from 2013-2014 (wow), still I contected them for more info.
- OST says “Internationally recognized German language exams and certificates for children, young learners and adults”, and since it starts with Children I have a feeling I won’t be treated like a complete idiot (how long have you been living in Sweitzerland? What, 10 years? And you still don’t speak German? - followed by a compassion gaze). they do have centers in Frauenfeld (36m from HB) and Niederurnen (50m from HB). Ok, Frauenfeld wins :) Ok, there’s one B1 exam on June 24th - should be good! I wrote to the organizer and will tell you more close to the date about https://www.osd.at/en/take-tests/find-exam-dates/pruefung/?tid=29224ZB1
2. Studying for the B1 exam
Now, I’ve got a lot of tips from colleagues. Some random tips:
- do passive listening. They suggest this website: TBD
- use a card system to learn the words. You can create your own and sync from a repo to your system. Anki is the name: you have an App for Mac, an app for Android, and you can edit your own cards and sync them to your ankiWeb account :) You can download cards, for example the Goethe B1 cards or the Goethe A1, conveniently on github for you to Fork and auto-build/sync/push :P
Anki
After an initial frustration using the tgool, I came to like it. I have the app installed on my Mac, downloaded the A1 and B1 word list (A1 is quite easy and fun, while B2 is like a cat attached to your testicles, as we say in Bologna). Word list is in alpha order, so the first 2 days I’ve learnt all about ab-something (which reminds me of Young Frankenstein ๐ฌ): ab-holen, ab-fall, ab-sendung, ab-norme ๐ง - and so on.
I found out I learn more by looking at the etimology (eg, etimology of holen is the same of to haul - I’ll never forget that!)
3. The B1 exam in Frauenfeld
This went well. I was paired to an asian lady who could barely speak English and German but worked A LOT to prepare.
I kind of improvised all. We were asked to organize together a trip with our family to the Bodensee
and I just applied common sense which the teachers seemed to appreciate, while her German was much better but she was clesarly repeating something she memorized. She didn’t like me improvising, I can tell you!
Anyhow, I got promoted with 70%, close to the minimum to pass.
Overall it was a terrible and a lovely experience at the same time.
4. The Stadt Zurich exam
I’ve heard a lot of rumors which I’m going to write here:
- It’s much easier to get your certificate in Zurich than in small mountain towns where the local shaman vets you and decide if you fit in with the culture (I love fondue, cook Cuchaule and can pronounce Cuchicaschli, and called the police on a noisy neighbour - hello?!?)
5. The aftermath, sorry! .. after German
TBD
