I did not write a post in 10 days… and I think it is time to give some signs that I am still around and alive… Actually, a “minor” accident kept me away from my usual daily tasks… I had no other choices, but stop for a while, rest and recover from my injuries… which allowed me to reflect upon my working pace… I realized that I had been working around the clock for the past several years… A month ago, due to some changes in my personal life, I had decided to take some time for myself on weekends… Of course, I cannot always avoid training people on either Saturdays or Sundays yet I do it only when they will be tested on Mondays… otherwise I try as much as possible to rest on the weekend. I truly believe it allows me to be more efficient during the week… and when I had that stupid accident, I became aware that I was exhausted and that led me to pay less attention to my immediate surroundings.

That being said, I will continue helping all those aspiring civil servants to prepare for their SLE tests… I will simply leave some room for relaxation and fun… Otherwise, I think I would not be of much use in a year from now… as for blogging, I do not see the necessity to write a post every three days… Therefore I will not use all my spare time writing a story… I believe that, if I write once a week, I will still be giving information people are looking for and following up with what is happening in my trainees’ SLE testing saga…

In the news department, I was thrilled to hear that Dara got an E in reading comprehension and a C in written expression… I remembered how worried she was regarding the written expression exam: she was convinced she had not obtained the required B of the position she applied for… Now she is the proud owner of a ECB language profile (all she needed was BBB)!…

Congratulations Dara!

The biggest surprise though came from Nelson… of course none of us was expecting him to get his B given he had started learning French from scratch with me part time only in April… We were both amazed that his examiner had led him in the fourth part of the oral interaction test. Well… he did make it somewhat because he received a B, which means he will not have to go on full time training in the Spring of 2010 since he now meets the language requirements of his position: BBB… I do not know if his Department’s managers are aware of the substantial amount of money we saved them in the long run?!?

Congratulations Nelson!

On a less positive note, Mitch missed his required B in writing by a couple of answers… Hopefully he will be able to re-do it later on… because I do know for a fact that he can make it! Born and raised in Montreal, he does understand and speaks French but he never learned it formally in school… consequently his knowledge of grammar is very basic and, in order to succeed at the SLE tests, one needs more than basics… and it is humanly impossible to learn everything at once in such a short period of time… but he is a bright cookie and I know he will eventually make it… I am not giving up on him!

I also heard from Amelia… her employer decided to offer her a promotion (would they be aware that she applied for a  job position within another Department or is it only a coincidence?) which, of course, means that she now needs CBC instead of BBB… she was offered to go in one of those wonderful bootcamps that offer full time training, but she said she wanted to move on with me part time… I already assessed her, but due to my accident, I did not have time to write her assessment report and a formal proposal… I intend to do it before the end of the week…

Today Mia, who lives in Windsor, was taking both her reading comprehension and written expression tests in London… the poor girl had to drive two hours this morning to get there… Friday we will start working on her oral: she needs CCC in order to meet her position language requirements… I also have a couple of students who will have their oral interaction test next week… It looks like the Departments are trying to test as many candidates as they can afford before the end of 2009!… Of course that trend is sending a flood of new requests my way…  So far, I was able to take them all…

Speaking of the devil, I just got an email from Mia: she was given her results right away and she got her C in both reading comprehension and written expression!… Woo hoo!…

Congratulations Mia!

On that note, I will turn off the computer and take a break before my evening shift starts… Although I had been advised by doctors to take a two week leave of absence from work, it is something I cannot do… but I am working wisely this week and it works just fine… I will survive that one!

“Le temps n’est pas une courbe lisse mais une série de cahots, de bonds et de pauses”

Niall Williams