L'apprentissage du français dès que possible
I don’t often talk about work in great detail online, but suffice it to say that I am employed in a Canadian government department where a lack of facility in both official languages is detrimental to career progression.
Now that I've begun working on my French I thought it might be helpful for me to blog about it from time to time starting with some context on my current level of fluency and the evaluation(s) I am looking forward to.
Background:
As a teenager I abandoned French studies at the earliest opportunity, which was after Grade 9. I wasn’t that bad; however, in hindsight I think I was probably frustrated by two things:
Les bonnes notes venaient assez facilement dans beaucoup de sujets, mais pas dans mon étude de la langue française ...nor in gym glass, come to think of it, which I also dropped as soon as I could). I think it was easy to justify this as optimizing my marks for university entrance purposes rather than dodging more difficult classes that weren't strictly required, but I'm sure it was more than a little of the latter.
Je suis dur d’oreille, mais je ne l'ai pas porter des sonotones que beaucoup plus tard My hearing loss wasn't diagnosed until 2006 or so, but I’d long had difficulty understanding even moderately accented English. Quickly spoken French in noisy, large-group settings (hello, high school classrooms!) was just exhausting. Eventually I grew accustomed to that same feeling while trying to interpret speech of all kinds in grad school seminars, restaurants, and elsewhere. At the time, I think I attributed it either to a fundamental dislike of the subject matter (was there something about French that I didn't get?) or a disinclination for language learning in general.
Almost twenty years later (wait, what?!), and with an undergraduate degree, a graduate degree, and a college diploma under my student-loan laden belt it’s high time to pick up where I left off. I’ve finished a number of MOOCs recently, so I know I’m still capable of self-directed learning... but how to do this as quickly and inexpensively as possible?
Objective:
My goal at this stage is to achieve “B/B/B” competency according to the Public Service Commission of Canada’s Second Language Evaluation (SLE) Qualification Standards in Relation to Official Languages. There are three competency categories, with three possible levels in each one:
C (highest)
B
A (lowest)
There’s also “X” (i.e., failing the test and receiving no competency score) and “E” (which means achieving such a strong “C”-level result that your test results never expire).
In general terms, then, I'm aiming for an intermediate lever of written comprehension (reading ability), written expression (writing ability), and oral proficiency (conversation ability).
Starting point:
How good is my French now? With little time to prepare, I had an opportunity to formally take the standardized tests for written comprehension and written expression this week. I managed to score a strong B (just a few points shy of a C!) in written comprehension and a relatively weak A in written expression.
Because I didn’t achieve a B in written expression I can’t progress to the oral expression evaluation.
Next steps:
Now I know what to expect in terms of the testing format, and these results align well with my most optimistic expectations going in considering I have read fair bit of French day-to-day in the workplace over the past five years or so but have only been composing French text on my own for about eight months - and even then, I am relying heavily on reference tools for guidance.
Frankly, I’m glad I that I won’t be taking the oral test yet. Because of my poor hearing I’m sure the first time will be an anxiety-inducing train-wreck regardless, and I know I need time to prepare before I can perform with confidence. Speaking of which, I’ll be taking part in weekly French classes through December complemented by a healthy dose of online self-study... stay tuned for more about that later.