It’s 54 years since John King did the Leaving Cert for the first time, but the former teacher at Drumshanbo Vocational School (DVS) in Co Leitrim had a very special reason for returning to the exam hall there this June.
Retired for seven years, the 72-year-old suddenly became interested in learning German when his daughter Sarah moved to Berlin about 10 years ago. The arrival 14 months ago of Seán, his “German grandchild”, was an added incentive.
Because while Seán has just one word of German so far – baum, meaning tree – his grandfather reckons that even after achieving a H4 in the higher-level paper on Friday, he will soon struggle to keep up.
“He is starting kindergarten next Monday so I would say while I have a few more words than him now, he will pass me out very quickly,” said the former physics and higher-level maths teacher who was also the career guidance counsellor at DVS.
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“I am delighted with my H4,″ he said, while stressing many others in the class of 2022 in the Drumshanbo post-primary school had achieved “stunning record-breaking results” across a range of subjects.
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He didn’t actually return to the classroom in preparation for the Leaving Cert but says regular conversations with German-born Co Roscommon resident Monika Kaboth was key to his success, while he also swotted up on past Leaving Cert papers. Two years ago he did the ordinary-level German Leaving Cert paper and got a H2 but he felt more was required when Seán was born.
King studied Latin and Greek for his Leaving Cert in 1968 and says it was the family connection in Germany, which first prompted him to consider a more user-friendly language.
He has been practising hard on his frequent visits to Berlin but says while the “older East Germans” are happy to converse with him, many young Germans quickly switch to English when they hear his efforts.
“And I am sure when he is 2½, Seán will be saying, ‘please Grandad, your German is rubbish. Talk in English.’”
Having taught at DVS for 41 years, he found it strange to return there as one of three students, sitting the higher-level German paper in June, especially as each of them was assigned a separate exam hall.
“It was just me and the supervisor,” he said. The most difficult part of the exam experience for him was the oral test, which he said was very much targeted at teenage students. “I got a bit dumb struck at the oral. Of course the whole exam is orientated towards 18-year-olds so I was being asked what was I going to do when I leave school and stuff like that.”
When he left the school, having been forced to retire at 65, he was very aware of the advice to retirees that they should “get out of the house and do something“.
He continued to train local volleyball teams, became a volunteer with Citizen’s Advice and has recently started teaching English to some of the large cohort of Ukrainian people now living in Drumshanbo. He also cycles from his north Roscommon home to Lough Key Forest Park every day.
But now with a higher-level Leaving Cert qualification under his belt he expects he might soon be job sharing with his wife, Hilda. “I think we will be going back regularly to do a bit of babysitting in Berlin.”
