This past week has been a roller coaster of emotions… when my students go through emotional distress or frustration, it reflects on me and I kind of feel the same… only because I do care about them and what they are going through…
Actually, Krystal was the most relaxed one… not that she stopped caring or worrying, but because she realized it was taking too much of her energy… Let go some of the pressure is sometimes a great idea!… I am sure she will go through tough times again soon but, for the time being, she is cool!
Mark, on the other hand, is going through different emotions… although the hiring process is over for him, the waiting game got into him a couple of days ago… he would want to have an answer now!… Unfortunately, with the governement, it is never that simple… they have a long and painful hiring process and they actually have no clue (and they do not care in the first place) of what it does to candidates… Mark thinks that they enjoy torturing people… I told him that they are not that clever: doing something like this with intent would imply strategic thinking and creativity… and I am not sure that they have either one!
And Pam had a very frustrating week… I am kind of trying to undo what she had been taught during her full time language training… Of course, it does not come easily because she has been programmed to speak a certain way and it is tough to change… I know for a fact that pressure is very high right now! I could let it go and let her speak the way she learned to… yet it kills her natural way of speaking and she sounds like a robot! She has been taught to use complicated sentences where there is no need for them… all it does is to obscure the message that she is trying to convey… The purpose of the oral interaction test is to verify whether people can get their message across with clarity or not… it is not an exercise of style!
Usually I work with people who applied for job positions within the federal government or with civil servants who had no previous full time training in either one of the too many language schools swarming Ottawa like mosquitoes in June!… Therefore they have not been contaminated yet… Of course I do prepare them to tackle the oral test based upon the PSC standards and criterias, but I insist on them being and sounding natural just like native French speakers do! For instance, when I am asked to summarize something, I go directly to the point: it is short and clear!… I am not asked to be stylish and use words that are not essential to convey my message… and it is exactly what I want my trainees to do. So far, my method proved to be efficient since 90% of my students passed their levels on the first attempt and even some of them got higher levels!… Language schools cannot show such high rates of success and they could never bring someone from an A to a B or from a B to a C in only a few hours of training because of the method they use…
Languages are tools used by people to communicate… and I do not know anyone who masters a language, «encore moins deux»!… Except for our Canadian journalist Robert G. Scully, and there are times when he sounds pretty odd!… Therefore anyone who is not Scully trying to speak like him will be the laughing stock of the party!… It is impossible to train people so that they will not make mistakes during their oral interview. Even Joyce and Mark, who got an exemption in oral, did make mistakes!… Yet, they were at ease and sounded natural… and their message was always clear… consequently understood by the examiner! Who cares if someone missed one or two subjunctive verbs or misused a couple of prepositions?… The goal is to communicate clearly, not to apply all the rules stated in the Grevisse!…
Alice was a good example of this kind of brainwashing… last year, before she attended a language school full time, she was natural and she was very close to the level C… then she missed her target the first time she went for her oral interaction test… In six weeks, they had managed to change her into an automated speaker: lots of useless «mots-liens», self-consciousness, etc… She finally got her C some five months later… But did she suffer during this process!
Although Pam had a rough week, by Friday, she was back on track… she sounded much more natural, the way she sounds when we are having a normal conversation… and my ultimate goal is to make sure that she will be like this when she will go for her oral interview! Mistakes are no big deal when people’s speech flows… yet they are easily spotted when their speech is robotic and studied…
This week, I thought of Dr Phil’s intervention squad… specialists he send out to grab people by force so that they can be saved from either religious cults, drugs or alcohol… for instance, take all these people who have been indoctrinated by some religious leaders and firmly believe it is okay… usually, after such an intervention, they come back to their common senses… but not without encountering pain during the process…
To some extent, I sometimes do feel like I am de-programming people who have been told that there is only one way to pass the oral interaction exam!… I am sorry but people are unique and they express themselves differently, depending on their personalities… and it is imperative that they remain who they are during their interview!… Why would they speak differently in French?… I would never try to kill spontaneity because it is the most engaging part of communication… And I know that I am right because my trainees do get their levels!… Hopefully, one day, language schools will change their teaching methods but… I would not bank on it! Only because it would require work, effort, creativity and programs that are adaptable to each individual’s strengths and weaknesses… Therefore I think I will be the only intervention trainer in town for quite a long time… of course I cannot save them all, but the idea of saving a couple is comforting and, when I do, it is the most rewarding moment of my professional life…
“L’histoire est une galerie de tableaux où il y a peu d’originaux et beaucoup de copies”
Charles Alexis Clérel de Tocqueville
Ottawa’s Most Wanted: Intervention Squads!!!
This past week has been a roller coaster of emotions… when my students go through emotional distress or frustration, it reflects on me and I kind of feel the same… only because I do care about them and what they are going through…
Actually, Krystal was the most relaxed one… not that she stopped caring or worrying, but because she realized it was taking too much of her energy… Let go some of the pressure is sometimes a great idea!… I am sure she will go through tough times again soon but, for the time being, she is cool!
Mark, on the other hand, is going through different emotions… although the hiring process is over for him, the waiting game got into him a couple of days ago… he would want to have an answer now!… Unfortunately, with the governement, it is never that simple… they have a long and painful hiring process and they actually have no clue (and they do not care in the first place) of what it does to candidates… Mark thinks that they enjoy torturing people… I told him that they are not that clever: doing something like this with intent would imply strategic thinking and creativity… and I am not sure that they have either one!
And Pam had a very frustrating week… I am kind of trying to undo what she had been taught during her full time language training… Of course, it does not come easily because she has been programmed to speak a certain way and it is tough to change… I know for a fact that pressure is very high right now! I could let it go and let her speak the way she learned to… yet it kills her natural way of speaking and she sounds like a robot! She has been taught to use complicated sentences where there is no need for them… all it does is to obscure the message that she is trying to convey… The purpose of the oral interaction test is to verify whether people can get their message across with clarity or not… it is not an exercise of style!
Usually I work with people who applied for job positions within the federal government or with civil servants who had no previous full time training in either one of the too many language schools swarming Ottawa like mosquitoes in June!… Therefore they have not been contaminated yet… Of course I do prepare them to tackle the oral test based upon the PSC standards and criterias, but I insist on them being and sounding natural just like native French speakers do! For instance, when I am asked to summarize something, I go directly to the point: it is short and clear!… I am not asked to be stylish and use words that are not essential to convey my message… and it is exactly what I want my trainees to do. So far, my method proved to be efficient since 90% of my students passed their levels on the first attempt and even some of them got higher levels!… Language schools cannot show such high rates of success and they could never bring someone from an A to a B or from a B to a C in only a few hours of training because of the method they use…
Languages are tools used by people to communicate… and I do not know anyone who masters a language, «encore moins deux»!… Except for our Canadian journalist Robert G. Scully, and there are times when he sounds pretty odd!… Therefore anyone who is not Scully trying to speak like him will be the laughing stock of the party!… It is impossible to train people so that they will not make mistakes during their oral interview. Even Joyce and Mark, who got an exemption in oral, did make mistakes!… Yet, they were at ease and sounded natural… and their message was always clear… consequently understood by the examiner! Who cares if someone missed one or two subjunctive verbs or misused a couple of prepositions?… The goal is to communicate clearly, not to apply all the rules stated in the Grevisse!…
Alice was a good example of this kind of brainwashing… last year, before she attended a language school full time, she was natural and she was very close to the level C… then she missed her target the first time she went for her oral interaction test… In six weeks, they had managed to change her into an automated speaker: lots of useless «mots-liens», self-consciousness, etc… She finally got her C some five months later… But did she suffer during this process!
Although Pam had a rough week, by Friday, she was back on track… she sounded much more natural, the way she sounds when we are having a normal conversation… and my ultimate goal is to make sure that she will be like this when she will go for her oral interview! Mistakes are no big deal when people’s speech flows… yet they are easily spotted when their speech is robotic and studied…
This week, I thought of Dr Phil’s intervention squad… specialists he send out to grab people by force so that they can be saved from either religious cults, drugs or alcohol… for instance, take all these people who have been indoctrinated by some religious leaders and firmly believe it is okay… usually, after such an intervention, they come back to their common senses… but not without encountering pain during the process…
To some extent, I sometimes do feel like I am de-programming people who have been told that there is only one way to pass the oral interaction exam!… I am sorry but people are unique and they express themselves differently, depending on their personalities… and it is imperative that they remain who they are during their interview!… Why would they speak differently in French?… I would never try to kill spontaneity because it is the most engaging part of communication… And I know that I am right because my trainees do get their levels!… Hopefully, one day, language schools will change their teaching methods but… I would not bank on it! Only because it would require work, effort, creativity and programs that are adaptable to each individual’s strengths and weaknesses… Therefore I think I will be the only intervention trainer in town for quite a long time… of course I cannot save them all, but the idea of saving a couple is comforting and, when I do, it is the most rewarding moment of my professional life…
“L’histoire est une galerie de tableaux où il y a peu d’originaux et beaucoup de copies”
Charles Alexis Clérel de Tocqueville