Once again, it has been a while since my last post… Well… I have been busy wrapping up training before the Holidays… It should calm down soon though because now people, who are given testing dates, will not go for their tests before mid-January… Therefore they will have plenty of time to get ready…

This past week I got only good news… Annie who was afraid to fail her C got her results last Thursday and she made it «haut-la-main»… I was confident that she would meet the requirements of the job position she had applied for…

Congratulations Annie!

Then Stephanie, who had only one hour with me to practice an oral simulation the day before her test, got the B she needed to maintain her position! Quite an achievement indeed!…

Congratulations Stephanie!

On Monday, Dan’s results came in… he obtained the C he needed to also maintain his position… Actually I would have given him an E because, in my book, this young man is bilingual: he speaks French fluently and he rarely makes mistakes… But hey! Giving exemptions is not something the PSC does on a regular basis… actually, I would think they never do (in Ottawa anyways)!…

Congratulations Dan!

And, finally, Sam in Kingston went back for his written expression exam this morning and he got his C… The language requirements of the position he applied for in the House of Commons are BBC… Right now he has EC… one more test (oral interaction) and he will be all set! Since he is already quite fluent in French, it should not be hard for him to attain his goal… all he needs is to polish his speech…

Congratulations Sam!

This morning, I heard from Luna in Montreal… she will soon have to take her oral interaction test again so that she will be able to get her job back with Service Canada after she will have completed her current contract with Public Works… since she has been working exclusively in French for the past seven months, I do believe she will easily get the B she needs!

Lately many of my students located in Ottawa saw their oral testing dates be cancelled… Is this backlog due to the fact that the PSC overbooked their examiners’ calendar or is it due to a wave a sick leaves?… Given that we are in December, I would opt for the latter… It is certainly tempting, at this time of the year, to take one or two days off for Christmas shopping! Anyways… whatever the reasons are, these systematic cancellations do not help candidates to remain calm…

Take Corey in Montreal for instance… he took both his reading comprehension and written expression tests on October 24… Believe it or not, he still has not heard anything about his results… in the meanwhile, we have been working on his oral interaction exam on a regular basis… Are we doing this for nothing?… Because, if he ever missed one or two levels on the two previous tests, he would never be called in for the oral interaction interview and he would be automatically eliminated from the hiring process… It is kind of discouraging for him: why would he invest so much effort if, at the end, he will not have to take the oral test?

Last week, I told him to write an email to his contact at the CRA in Montreal… of course, he never got a reply… what was I thinking of when I suggested such a foolish idea?… These people never bother to reply to candidates’ emails… one wonders why they do invite candidates to communicate with them if they ever have questions since they probably delete their emails without even having read them!… What is the use of having contacts in the first place?… I cannot imagine any private organizations having such an attitude towards their clients! Only the government can get away with that!…

Yesterday, when we were in the virtual classroom, I looked up at the Public Service Commission website and I found a phone number in Ottawa… I told Corey to try and leave a message, although I was pretty much convinced that no one would dare to return his call… Early this afternoon, he sent me an email saying that a nice lady in Ottawa had just called him… useless to say that I was flabbergasted with such news!!!…

Of course he was not given any explanations, but the woman told him that she would send him his results by mail right away… So… who did not do his/her job?… Someone in the Commission or Corey’s contact at the CRA?… For some unknown reasons, I have the feeling that the error was made in Montreal otherwise his yesterday’s call would have been ignored… I have been around these people long enough to state that they never aknowledge their mistakes: they prefer to hide behind their policies and processes…

If Corey had not decided to ask for answers and complain, he would have fallen into the cracks of the system and later on no one would have been able to track down his SLE results! How many other candidates do have a similar experience? I cannot believe that Corey is the only one!… If the mistake were done in Ottawa, how come no one from the CRA in Montreal did investigate when they realized that they had never received this candidate’s results?… And if his results were lost in Montreal, how come his contact did not call the Commission asking for another copy to be sent?… Sometimes I truly believe that all these people are sleeping on the switch!… Anyways… I give up on that one!… All that really matters right now is that, by Monday at the latest, we should know if he got the levels he needs… and we will know whether he will move on with his oral preparation or quit…

Friday, Le Club français will meet for dinner… unfortunately, I am not expecting a crowd! Many people have other social events to attend in December… I think only Seema, Alice, Mark and possibly Corey (though a bit discouraged, he is really keen in improving his French since he is ready to come to Ottawa to attend our dinner!) will be there… Oh well… we all intend to have fun and forget about the SLE testing… speaking French for the fun of it… without any useless pressure!… 

“Le pourrissement de l’attente, l’ennui”

Maurice Blanchot