My job is sometimes tough!… Especially when my trainees go through a roller coaster of emotions… When I manage to comfort a couple, it is the others’ turn…

For instance, Krystal is going through a highly positive period… she now realizes how much progress she made and, of course, she feels empowered: if she keeps controlling her nerves, I am pretty sure she will be able to get a C (instead of the required B) in both written expression and reading comprehension. As for Pam, she was much calmer this week… she sleeps better and she also knows that she made tremendous progress in the course of the past two months.

On the other hand, Greg did not do very well this week… he had kind of distantiated himself from French for the past weeks and he had not really studied… unfortunately it showed when he did perform rather poorly last Monday. It gave him the push he needed though!… He realized he had to be consistent and he could no longer afford to take long breaks…

Melody did not have much time to devote to her French lately and, when I saw her on Tuesday evening, the minute she saw she was not answering correctly, she got frustrated… therefore, she could not concentrate any longer and it did not help her. She reminded me of Krystal: she would do the exact same thing and then she would get discouraged… Hopefully she will feel better next week so that we will be able to tackle the test samples with a positive stance… she will be tested on September the 1st, consequently she cannot afford wasting time on convincing herself that she will fail!… A positive attitude is a must in order to achieve…

I also started preparing Candice for both her reading comprehension and written expression tests… The first time, she was not very good… yet yesterday she had improved drastically!… She told me she had studied hard between her two sessions with me and it certainly showed! She is looking for a B but, since she is a product of French immersion schools, I would not be surprised if she were able to get an exemption…

So far, the situation is manageable… a pep talk and a bit of extra effort will lift my trainees’ spirit… Getting ready for the SLE tests is made of ups and downs and I know how to deal with this situation… 

What really broke my heart though was to tell Edna the truth… She applied for two job positions: one requires BBB and the other one, CBC… of course she is targeting the one with higher language requirements… When she contacted me, two weeks ago, she had just stopped attending a language school. After a couple of times, she felt that she was not getting anywhere… The “teacher” would park her there, on her own, and leave the classroom while she would do written exercises… or he would chat about simple daily stuff such as what she had done that morning or what furniture and equipement could be found in her office.

Edna is not a civil servant yet… therefore she has to pay for her training… she does not have the luxury of attending such a school on a full time basis for an entire year… When someone is on a budget and has only between 10 and 20 hours to invest in financially, one would think that the trainer would focus on preparing them for the three SLE tests…

Anyways that bad experience is now behind her… she had chosen that school (if not the worst in Ottawa, certainly not far!) based upon the fact they had clients in the Department she applied for a job position… Well, it is not because the name of a school is on the standing offer of several Departments that it means it actually has any contracts with them!

That being said, when we rehearsed for her oral interaction test on Thursday, she realized how difficult it would be to attain a C… I had no other choices than letting her know that she would never get a C… Right now she is a level A and I cannot bring her up to a C in such a short period of time… She thought she could make it somehow because, at the language school, they had told her that she was very good and it would be a piece of cake for her to pass… consequently it had given her a false feeling of security and confidence… being told the truth was kind of hard to swallow… yet, now, she knows what she is capable of and she will work hard to attain the B… I really do hate when I have to tell someone the truth… It is the dirty aspect of my job! But… I consider that I owe my trainees the truth… and who knows? Maybe Edna will get a higher level after all… sometimes they are up to such challenge and they improve drastically… but, realistically, we are now targeting a B…

I was interrupted while writing this post: Mark skyped me to let me know that he had gotten the job position in Ottawa!… Great news! And I feel that I contributed a bit to his success… well… a very small bit!!!…

Félicitations Mark!

“Celui qui dit la vérité est toujours insupportable”

Roger Fournier