Speaking of being a good citizen (and also of being skeptical), I think I will soon quit the “green/beige bins” daily worshiping although I was willing to participate in the Ottawa Green Program!… Last weekend I lost patience and I wrote to the City of Ottawa… and, believe it or not, I was given a case number! My initial complaint was about the brown paper bags that do not fit properly into the beige bin… to quote my significant other, it takes four hands to keep the bag open and, then, we should probably borrow one of our neighbours’ kid to give us a hand in order to throw kitchen waste in the bag!… Man! What a time consuming and useless ritual!!!…

I guess our concerns were taken seriously since we got replies from two people… one suggested to use old newspapers (who reads papers in 2010?) as lining in the bottom of our designer beige bin and, then throw everything in the green bin… well, I am sorry but I will not spend one single minute trying to wash those bins that would become filthy in no time! Or… even better, we could use a cardboard box instead of the beige bin!… Wait a minute, I do not want a box filled with kitchen waste standing in the middle of my kitchen!… Bottom line, I think this program is defeating its purpose and, unless the City sits down with the companies designing the brown paper bags so that their products fit the beige bin, I will do what I did for years: I will use a kitchen garbage can and plastic bags! And… I will sell the beige bin on E-bay!!!… Des preneurs?…

I train people in a state-of-the-art virtual classroom and there is nothing one cannot do with high technology… and some gurus want to take me back to the Dark Age with green programs that, obviously, were not studied from a logistical point of view?… No thank you!… I cannot wait for the day my butcher will wrap my ground meat in some old newspapers!… This non sense circle would be then complete!…

When looking at this, I can see analogies with the whole SLE testing within the PSC… Both intent and purpose are great yet the process is absurd!… I will skip my opinion on the tests themselves since, by now, my readers know where I stand. For the past several weeks, I have been contacted by many civil servants who systematically failed at one or two of the language tests after months of either full-time or part-time FSL training through the regular channel… i.e. through the numerous boot camps contracting with the PSC across the country. Disappointed and fed-up, they were looking for some efficient training that will allow them to get the levels they need to meet their jobs language requirements as quickly as possible.

I heard a couple of horrific stories… for instance, take Shannon… she has been enrolled in a full-time training program for the past ten months. Useless to say that I am working on de-programming her so that she will be able to get her C when she will be tested orally again next week… Of course, she lost confidence in her skills: she now has to undo everything she was told to do for the past ten months!… It is even more discouraging since she sees her regular teacher during the day and me at night or on weekends. As a trainer, if I had students failing at the tests, I would seriously reconsider my approach and correct what is wrong… but it appears that teachers (who have no background in either pedagogy or andragogy) in private language schools are stubborn and will not budge, stating that there are no other ways…  Shannon, for months, wanted to use past tenses when summarizing the tapes in Part 2 of the oral interaction test because she thought it sounded weird to do it in a present context (by the way, she was right!)… her teacher refused to let her do it saying that Part 1 and Part 2 of the exam were assessing A and B levels!… First of all, no one is tested for an A because it is no longer in the equation for imperative bilingual positions. Anyone who have to get a C must demonstrate their skills right from the beginning of the interview!… According to this teacher, using “baby talk” (yet with the «sacro-saints mots liens») during the first half of the test and, then, moving to some elaborate ways of speaking for the second half will guarantee a C?… In your dreams!!!…

Of course people like Shannon, Deborah, Raymond, Morris and several others ask more questions concerning my method and approach… And I do not blame them! It is normal that they have trust issues given what they went/go through without positive results. On the other hand, it does not take them long to realize that this time they will be better equipped in order to achieve their required levels.

What I really do not understand is, why the PSC has not yet investigated those language schools programs, their methods and their teachers’ credentials… Billions of dollars have been/are/will be invested in second language training… Such inertia is beyond common sense… and, in the meantime, thousands of people are paying the price for something they do not have control on… Yet I see more and more  of them taking their destiny into their own hands and invest time and money so that they will be able to return to their jobs as soon as possible! I would not be surprised that, with younger generations now working within the PSC, drastic change could occur sooner than expected… Only because these people do not have the patience of the baby boomers and they are not as obedient either!

But, in spite of all this, there are success stories… Danny achieved ECB (and he only needed BBB) a couple of weeks ago…

Congratulations Danny!

Chrissie got a comfortable B in both reading comprehension and written expression… she is now working on preparing for her oral interaction test…

Congratulations Chrissie!

Sharon got an E in reading comprehension and her required B in written expression… we will start preparing her for the oral when she will return from her ten day trip in Europe…

Congratulations Sharon!

“Un beau désordre vaut mieux qu’une inerte ordonnance”

Eugène Savitzkaïa

But, when I get great news, I have to share it with my readers… Morris, who was probably the most nervous student I ever had, went for his oral interaction test last Wednesday… he was convinced he would not get his B at his second attempt… I knew he could get it because only his stress was playing against him! Friday he wrote me saying that he had obtained his B!… What a happy camper!

Congratulations Morris!

Since I do not have much time to write tonight, instead of writing a substantial post, I found a test for you to give a try… There are two sentences and you must choose the one that you think is correct or… you may decide that both are equal… I got 50/50 only because I thought the incorrect sentences were a bit too obvious. Maybe you will disagree with me… let me know!

Two Gold Medals in two days for Canada: Alexandre Bilodeau in freestyle skiing and Maëlle Ricker in snowboarding cross event!…

GO CANADA, GO!!!

When not watching the Vancouver 2010 games, click here to play my game!

Have fun!

Photo credit: http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/canada-day.shtml

Yet, in this absurd process, great news keep coming in… for instance Stefan, who had been in the SLE testing process for more than five months, finally got the results of his oral interaction test last Friday. He got his B!… he is now relieved although he will have to wait probably a long time before he knows whether he got the position he applied for or not…

Congratulations Stefan!

Aaaah… the hiring process in the Public Service of Canada!… I really do not know if I could sustain such pressure myself… probably not, merely because I have no patience for red tape administration and I have zero tolerance when it comes to stupidity. I know I would be the worse civil servant ever!… Indeed, either I would quit the job after five minutes or they would fire me after my first day!… But I know my limitations and I would never apply for any government job positions!… I do believe it takes lots of nerves to work there… and, in many ways, I do admire those who can do it and adapt…

What frustrates me the most is probably the inconsistency of the hiring process… Of course, the numerous written exams, the long fake interviews and the SLE testing basically stay the same… as well as the order they have to be taken. Yet it does not mean that change does not occur between the beginning of a competition and its ending… and some modifications are major and quite unfair…

Take Krystal’s case for instance… she had applied for two distinct full time job positions within the same Department here, in Ottawa, more than a year ago… She went through the whole hiring process without losing faith, although she shed some tears once in a while… She was a real trooper!

In December, she was told that she would receive a letter of offer soon… with that information in her sleeve, she came to Ottawa to look for an apartment… she found one, but she lost it because the promised letter never came in… she was quite disappointed and angry… two weeks ago she told me she had given up and she was convinced that she had fallen into the cracks of the system. Well, I knew she had not… because it is part of this endless painful process… no one actually cares about the candidates who are kept in the dark regarding their fate… they have a process to abide by and they will never show initiative (sometimes I do wonder if they actually can think on their own!)… consequently they do not return desperate calls from candidates or reply to their emails…

I was right!… Last week she was contacted by a manager… one would think that Krystal jumped to the roof with joy, right?… Well, not quite… she was indeed angrier than ever!… What was a permanent full time job when she applied turned into a one year contract job!… Now, the question is: will she take the risk to quit her current job in Toronto to move to Ottawa, not knowing if her contract will be renewed?… But, for now, there is no rush since she has not heard from that individual yet…

As for Corey… this one is certainly invincible when it comes to harass these people!… At the beginning of December, he had started asking questions about why he had not received his reading comprehension and written expression tests results after more than six weeks… of course, his contact in the Department he applied never dared to answer…  Being an excellent Google researcher, he found a website where he was able to chat with a real human being about his concerns… after the Holidays, he resumed his conversation with this individual… in the meantime he had contacted the PPC directly and they had sent him his results… Like Krystal, he thought he had fallen into the cracks of the system since he had met the language requirements, but had not been invited to take the oral interaction test.  To make a story short, it appeared that no one had been informed of their results and he was asked how he had received his!… His answer was simple: “Because I did ask personally the PPC to send them to me!”… Kind of hilarious…

Two weeks ago, he finally got an email… he forwarded it to me and, both being too excited, we did not take the time to read it… assuming it was his invitation to take the oral interaction test on January 29, we booked several sessions for his final sprint… then I did read the email and I realized he had been called for a job interview! Duh!… Okay, it was not what he was expecting but, at least, he knew he had not been forgotten in the maze of this absurd hiring process…

At the end of the interview, he was told that this permanent full time position had been turned into a six or nine month contract (depending on their budget) but that he would be called back in 2011 since he would have seniority!… For a while, he was tempted to withdraw from the competition since the position is far from being his dream job… yet, as an immigrant who came to Canada on his own will two years ago and who is only a permanent resident at this time, he knows he has to start somewhere… also, he wants to take the oral interaction interview so that they will have his language profile and he will be able to apply for more interesting and challenging positions in other Departments.

Of course, he thought this interview was stupid… he spent 13 years with the UN, going to third world countries in state of emergency, managing the aid budgets, taking care of logistic and leading teams of hundreds of workers. Therefore simulating a phone conversation so that they could assess his enunciation skills was kind of pitiful… without talking about their petty questions… But, he went through this interview gracefully…

To conclude, as I said before, I could never go through such a ridiculous process myself… And I truly admire individuals such as Krystal, Corey and many others I met in the course of my practice… I think it takes lots of courage… and je lève mon chapeau devant autant de détermination…

Maybe we all need to have a good laugh so that we can put things into perspective… a reader sent me a link to a video of Gory Bateson singing “Telle est la question”… I listened to it and I thought it was really funny! His pronunciation in French is so excruciating!… If you are in need of laughing instead of crying, watch this video here…

“Heureux les amoureux sur les montagnes russes”

Jacques Prévert

And now, I have more and more requests for preparing people to their oral interaction test in English. Therefore, the trainer/coach who was working for me occasionally is now busier than ever taking on the students who need help with their English.

In the news department, three of my students took their oral interaction tests early last week. Two of them got their results: Mia and Tamara…

Mia, who was almost in tears the day before her exam due to her anxiety and fear of failing her C, wrote me an email early Friday morning… she got an E… What an achievement!

Congratulations Mia!

As for Tamara (who was also very nervous the day before her test), she obtained the B she needs to comply with the requirements of her job position… Now she wants to move on with her training so that soon she can target a C!

Congratulations Tamara!

Since I have little time to write a post, I decided to give you my first quizz of 2010… Of course, I chose my favourite topic: les anglicismes!… In this test, you will have to find the sentence in which the word is used incorrectly (with its meaning in English). I gave it a try myself and I got 50/50… yet I had to ponder upon a couple of them before making my final choice… Let me know how it went for you!

Weather is weird… it’s March in January here… very mild temperature and rain…

I always whine about bad French… but bad English also exists!

While trying to figure that one out, click here to play my game…

Have fun!…

Photo credit by Philip Lean, Canberra, Australia

When I got back from my trip, I had very good news!… Though unexpected, Sam had been called in for his oral interaction interview just a few days before Christmas and he thought that he would not get his C since he felt that he needed more preparation time… Well, he got an E and he was thrilled!

Congratulations Sam!

And Kelly, who had missed her appointment in late September, finally went for her oral interaction test in Victoria and she also got an E… Back in the summer of 2009, her examiner had given her a mere B… At the time, I could not believe it since, in my book, this young woman was bilingual!… I believe that people who take this exam without knowing what it is really about perform poorly because of the nature of the questions… In Kelly’s case, all it took was a few hours of good preparation to polish her speech and adopt useful strategies…

Congratulations Kelly!

Of course, such great news certainly lifted my spirits in order to tackle 2010 with optimism…  In spite of the numerous flaws in the SLE testing process, my students manage to meet the language requirements of government’s job positions…

Except for Corey, who still has not been invited to take the oral interaction test, there are no pending cases… Next week will be hectic for me with three people to train and comfort until they take their tests on January 18, 19 and 20… I am expecting to be quite stressed!…  Also, new requests came in while I was away… I would not be surprised if there were a flood of testing until the end of March 2010… It will be the end of fiscal year in the PSC and, from experience, all departments try to exhaust their budgets and finish their projects before April.

This month should also bring back at least three of my former trainees who need to get higher levels so that they will meet the language requirements of their new positions… But, almost three weeks away from work gave me the opportunity to refill my energy tank and I am now ready to face the music… Now I only have to get rid of that head cold and accept that I am back under our harsh Canadian climate!…

All I need is to picture this in my head until Spring comes back…

Happy 2010 to everyone!…