Passed German B2 Test within 1 Year. And then?

Wendy Chang 張雅鈞✈️
3 min readMar 10, 2022
Photo by Steven Lasry on Unsplash

In my last article, I mentioned I passed Goethe-Institut German B1 test last March, while having a 12-hour full-time job. Within less than 1 year, I passed B2 last month. Wouldn't it been for my failure in the reading part, I would have got the certificate last November.

Just to share more details, originally I could take the test in September, six months after I passed B1. But due to the pandemic, the exam was postponed to November. I failed in the reading part and I re-took the reading test in February. That's why I got my certificate later than my peers.

Having achieving my goals, now I can take a rest. But I felt a sense of loss in my heart. Why?

What German B2 Test Means

Passing a language proficiency exam doesn't equal to fluency.

It just means you can use the language “as the way exams want to you do”. You can understand the texts and the dialogues. You know how to write an email and a short essay that “meets the assessment standards”.

It doesn't necessarily mean you can have a fluent conversation with German people (at least I can't) It doesn't necessarily mean you can understand German news or TV series without subtitles.

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Wendy Chang 張雅鈞✈️

左手寫媒體寫公關,右手點戲點電影,翻譯遊走語言間,紅白拖要不停走。Writer, translator, and polyglot. PR and communication professional. Twitter: @wendychang1114