Lately, such stories have been piling up… besides the usual nonsense technicalities that are consistent with the SLE testing: long delays in getting results, little information, recurrent mistakes in the written expression tests… I would describe those as business as usual!… Therefore this stuff does not surprise me any longer…

Before I tell you a funny story, I will give you some updates… I heard from Lara in Brussels (who, by the way, did not hear about her results… it has been a week now) on the weekend. She said her oral interaction test over the phone did not go very well (and, of course, she’s expecting bad news)… of course, with oversea calls, the audio is not always crystal clear! She said she could not hear the tapes over the phone… consequently it was difficult for her to summarize and answer questions on those. To make a story short, the audio quality was far from being as good as the one she had experienced with me in my virtual classroom… Hopefully she reported this problem to the assessor over the phone because on her tape, it will not be noticeable: the problem was on her end, not on the examiner’s end!

On Monday, Luna went for her oral test… of course, she reported to me as soon as she got back home… the assessor had led her into the fourth part of the test (which is for level C candidates only… unless the examiner thinks they are really strong and wants to go further, in case they might be able to get a level C)… Well… Luna can manage quite well in getting her message across in French… although I believe she lacks some vocabulary and often struggles with syntax. To summarize, Luna does not know enough to be considered as a potential level C and she is fully aware of this fact. Therefore why would her examiner test her for that level?… Let’s assume for a second that the person who evaluated her abilities in the second language was in a very good mood (Monday morning… sunny day… good weekend…) and thought that Luna was very good in French… she would have concluded on the spot that she was not a level C and Luna would have gotten her results the next morning.

Today is Wednesday… that means someone is listening to Luna’s tape… Christie was led in the fourth part of the test as well and she got her results some four days later: actually someone did listen to her tape because somehow they really believed she could be a level C… in her case, it makes sense. But in Luna’s case, it does not… why? because Luna is not a strong level B… The only conclusion I can draw from this is that there was a mistake on Luna’s form: it was probably written that she was tested for a level C instead of a level B… and if I am mistaking here, well… I will start believing that miracles do happen!!!… Fat chance!!!

The downside of this story is that poor Luna was given false hope… and if she gets a level A, it will be very disappointing for her… and I do believe it is rather crual… but I am not expecting less from the PSC… with them, wrong doings appear to be part of the whole process.

You probably remember me mentioning about Alicia’s results in reading comprehension and written expression: she got E (exemption) in both… it did not take more to stir up her bosses’ enthusiasm!… She was scheduled to pass her oral interaction test Mid-June. Because of her results, they asked for an earlier date (initially they gave her this coming Friday, date that she refused)… she will then be tested on her oral skills next week… so good for building confidence! Of course, she is a boule de nerfs right now… who would not be? What these people do not seem to grasp is that, if it is feasible to score very well on the reading comprehension and written expression exams (mostly due to the multiple choices… luck certainly plays a role!), getting similar results in the oral testing is an utopy… O course, Alicia will pass her level and meet the language requirements of her job position… yet, if her testing date had not been changed, she certainly could have obtained a level C (and perhaps an exemption)…

Alicia is the one who had to wait for more than three weeks to get the results of her written expression and reading comprehension tests… a real saga! This whole story is beyond me!

In her Department, candidates are allowed to take the tests internally… meaning that they do not have to go to the central office located on Slater. On the date she had been scheduled for taking her tests, she sat in an office waiting for the person who was supposed to read her the instructions and  watch her during the exams. After her while, she went to see her boss to make sure she had not been mistaking on the date. After having checked with HR, they were told that the person in charge of watching the tests was away… of course, Alicia’s boss pushed HR to find someone with reading skills who could administer the tests and sit with her while she was taking them. Finally, Alicia was able to write her tests on the scheduled date… a few days later, not having heard about her results yet, Alicia’s boss contacted HR to hear that the person in charge of sending the answer sheets for marking was still away. Good enough!…

After another few days of waiting and the return of the person in charge, both Alicia and her boss were told that this unusual delay was probably due to a backlog of tests to be marked… fasten your seat belts here because you will not believe this one! The marker had retired from the job!!! Does it take a specialized degree to pass answer sheets through a scantron? Apparently, it does!… A couple of weeks ago, I had written in a post that maybe poor Alicia had not received her results because the person who scanned the answer sheets was on maternity leave… of course, I was JOKING!!! It seems I was not far from the truth!… I think that, when I will retire, I will write a sitcom for CBC or CTV… I have enough stories to have this series run for years!!!

“Un État sans les moyens de changer se prive des moyens de se conserver”

Edmund Burke

Québec au clair de lune... So beautiful... on a postcard!

I often hear comments from immigrants (from warmer countries) who are surprised to find out that we dislike winter “But… you’re Canadians, aren’t you supposed to like and embrace winter?”… Such remarks always make me smile… Nope, we were not meant to like winter… we just happened to be born in Canada: actually, none of us is here by choice… Here is a reality check (and those snapshots were taken more than one month ago):

Nice ridge... compliments of the City of Ottawa plows!

Thanks to my snowblowing contractor who always clears the way in a timely fashion!

Yet count on the City plows to come back 10 minutes later!

After several complaints, the City finally gets rid of the snow banks before someone gets killed! Until the next time!...

Now that you have a better idea of what winter is like around here, you understand why Canadians, by mid-January, got the blues! They are fed-up with shoveling their driveways… they have to pay their Christmas bills… they cannot hold on to their 2009 resolutions… they suffer from a lack of light… they are stressed out with driving in bad weather conditions… It is time to book a trip down south, except that this year’s recession is preventing many from escaping… But somehow we all manage to survive! Life goes on… and there are things that do not change, especially civil servants’ second language training and evaluation.

The PSC is still lost in its paperwork… Back in November, Susan had asked for her January 19 oral exam to be postponed… finally in early December, a new date was confirmed: January 5!… Do these people know what the verb postpone means? Post… after, maybe?… Anyways they finally got the message and gave her March 30. Monday January 19, she received an email from HR… the PSC had to cancel her 1:30 pm appointment that very same day and her new date was January 22! Duh!!!… She then kindly reminded them that this appointment had been changed a long time ago. Incredible, but true!…

James got his results… as expected, he did not pass his B, he got an A… actually he was kind of happy because he thought he had performed so poorly that day… he was expecting an X… After having discussed with his manager, it has been decided that he had to move on with his language training… he then has to find a school able to send a teacher to his office (a remote location and since most language school teachers are on foot and using public transit – currently unavailable due to the ongoing bus drivers’ strike – good luck!) so he can have a few weekly part-time sessions… Change might be good for him: perhaps another approach will put his grinder at rest… and someone else will succeed where I failed. Yet for the time being, his training has been put on ice…

Dave finally heard from the PPC regarding his accommodation request (submitted in August 2008)… believe it or not, they wanted him to review his formatting request! Therefore nothing has been done… and in addition, they made another mistake: he never asked for being re-tested on his reading comprehension skills since he already obtained his level in June 2008… yet, in the email he received, they were giving him the specs for this test! Oh la la!!!…

I have not heard from Alice lately… I guess she is well settled in her boot camp’s routine by now… Hopefully she will meet her objective at the end of March : get her C  level…

On the weekend, Susan met with one of her colleagues who joined the same boot camp Alice is attending… They did not talk about her first week experience… all Susan knows it that her friend is overwhelmed. I guess this word says it all…

Seema is in another boot camp located downtown… we both believed it would be better for her sanity! At least, she can go out at recess or lunch time to breathe some fresh air and get a real cup of coffee (not a cup of lukewarm dish water usually served in office building cafeterias)… It was barely 1:00 pm Monday when she sent me her first email… she had met with her morning teacher (French from France) and chatted for four hours (I admit I am a bit skeptical here… my guess is that the teacher did most of the chatting). She wrote she had learned how to say “Thank you very much for having shown me the place” in French… “Merci beaucoup de m’avoir montré la place”… I was horrified! This is literal translation! And I know for a fact that it could not come from Seema herself (who tends to stay as far as possible from anglicized forms)… First of all, place in French refers to space… “Il n’y a plus de place” is used to translate “There is no more room”… When we talk about a location, we use the word endroit… Useless to say that what she wrote scared me a little… what will be next? Besides that, she was eager to meet with her afternoon teacher who apparently does not speak a word of English! Interesting indeed, yet not surprising at all…

That very same evening, she called me at home but I missed her call… early Tuesday morning, she wrote me another email saying that she would keep me posted… then… silence! Would the honeymoon already be over? I do wonder… I guess I will eventually hear from her… but right now, she is probably like Sally: unable to talk about her first week experience because she is overwhelmed…

Voilà… that is it for the updates! Little change indeed… Right now it seems only Susan is truly happy… always so energetic and enthusiastic about her French lessons… Oh! and Frédéric shaved his hair!… What a shock it was for me on Tuesday!… I am not sure I do like his new looks… for a second there, my heartbeat stopped: I had the image of a young guy under’going chemotherapy treatments! I know… it is trendy among young men to go bald… but still… unless winter already took its toll on him and he needed some change (like the rest of us)!

As for me, I have some exciting new projects in the grinder… it certainly keeps me busy…

And last night LOST has returned – season 5 – on TV… but it is now playing on a cable channel… and since I do not watch television, except for the news, I will not suscribe to cable only to watch this series (although I am an addict!)… instead, I will wait for the DVDs to be released next Fall… I truly believe I will survive without it…

“Mon pays, ce n’est pas un pays… c’est l’hiver!”

Gilles Vigneault

Quebec City photo credit by: http://www.worldphotolocations.com

A couple of months ago I joined Facebook after having received an invitation from my 11 year old niece… Over the years, I had been invited numerous times but  always had ignored those requests to sign up. Since I am a real sucker when anything involves my niece and cannot refuse her anything, I did join the wonderful world of FB… and I thought I could monitor who her friends were (being a real mother hen, I was kind of skeptical and truly believed she needed to be supervised… in a subtle way of course!)… It did not take long before her brother asked me to become his friend also… I was less concerned about him: he is going on 18 and, from what I see, Facebook is the new way for high schoolers (and mature adults!) to goof around… back in my days, we were doing it on the school grounds (which I think was much more fun since we were physically together!)… what makes me wonder… what do they do during recess in school now? Good question!…

Anyways, though I am not proud of being a Facebook member, I am… for better or worse! Besides my brother’s kids, I only have six friends… and I really do not intend to add more. I have to admit that I like FB for one thing: now that I am connected with my friends and family who live in Chicago, St.Maarten, Portland, Timmins and Senneterre ; we do not have to send each other pics… we only have to log in our FB account and we can see them all… But, other than that, I personally get no benefits from this social network.

Now that I tried to justify my move (did I convince any of you? )… I want to talk about Facebook French version…

A few days before Christmas, my FB account has been arbitrarily and automatically switched to the brand new French version (I am still searching for how to go back to English… and I think I can do it!)… Why? I only can assume that it was decided upon my name and country… I cannot fool anyone, my surname is really French! I guess that, without the Des, this change would have never occurred… because I would then have been Lyne Roberts… unless my first name would have still been questionable… Lynne or Lynn would have convinced the system I was genuinely anglophone! So… add up Canada to Lyne Des Roberts and you have a perfect match for your account to be translated!!!

I will have to ask my cousin Michelle Des Roberts who lives in Portland, Maine whether her account was turned into French or left alone… you see… Michelle does not speak French and barely understands it! At the beginning of the 20th Century, one of the Des Roberts‘ brothers emigrated to the States… there is now quite a large number of Des Roberts  mainly living in Boston, Portland and New Hampshire… and a few others can be found throughout the United States. If my generation and the ones before can still speak French, Michelle’s generation cannot! Yet, because she is located in the States, perhaps the system did not pick her name the way it did in my case.

Saturday, I logged in my account to have a closer look at Facebook French version… at first glance, it seemed okay!… well… only okay!!! Nothing to brag about, that is for sure! As for the IT terminology itself, it is what is used worldwide… not great, but not incorrect either! It is when I started to read the translated fucntions that I realized how bad it was!

I would not be surprised to hear that it went through Google Free Translator (my favourite!)… when a word (or expression) is not translated literaly, it stays in English!… Therefore you have things like these: envoyer un poke à… (send a poke to)… what, in the name of God, is un poke? Poke in French is une poussée, un coup de coude or un coup du bout du doigt… certainly not un poke!!!… marquer cette photo (tag this photo) and John Doe doit approuver ce marquage… What in the hell?

It is impossible for me to give you an exhaustive list of all the flaws because this post would become a book! Here are a few good ones though:

• Se souvenir de moi (remember me)… Only people se souviennent, not computers!
• Informations (information)… What about renseignements? Les informations, in French,  are the news!
• Plus de publicités (more ads)… Sorry but we cannot count publicité in French… and if we want to, we use annonces instead!
• Notifications (notifications)… This is not a word in French! What about using the word messages? Too simple perhaps…
• Est devenu(e) fan de (became a fan of)… I am now speechless!
• Lycée (high school)… My French version of FB is the Canadian one (so I was notified!)… Last time I checked, we still did not have lycées around here! We only have old plain écoles secondaires!

I will never say this often enough: translation is not the mere process of checking words in an English-French dictionary! There are nuances… cultural differences… different humor… what makes me laugh in English rarely makes me laugh once it is translated in French! And vice-versa… Comical movies in English are not funny at all in their French version!

Translating thoughts and ideas in another language takes lots of imagination… and, if poking someone in English does mean something, it does not in French… therefore, sit down and find something else that will ring a bell for Francophones! Of course, it will cost more $$$… because this type of translators do not bill by the word count!…

One would think that a huge corporation such as Facebook would pay more attention to the translation of its site… was it left to the users? If so, I am not surprised with the results… on the other hand, if professionals handled this task… well… they suck big time!

As for me, I will click on the button English US (hopefully it will work!) so I will return to a language I do understand: Plain English!!!

“I do not avoid confusion… I create it!”

Confucius 

Speaking of my students… Seema and her daughter, Sam, left for India three weeks ago to visit their family and friends. Of course, we stayed in contact… thanks to modern technology! I have to admit I was (and still am… a little…) concerned with Seema’s French… Being a beginner (although she can get her message across!), I thought she would come back with not much left… it happens to people who stay here! Yet I had not banked on Seema’s determination!…

Apparently she had an orientation trip from Montréal to Paris: she tried her very best practicing her conversation en français!… While traveling, people always have some comical anecdotes to tell and… Seema is no exception!

Seema is certainly entirely tuned to learning French!… She has been very enthusiastic from day one and she never got bored or depressed… although the mere idea of leaving work to attend a boot camp in February does not agree with her too well! She tried every single trick to avoid it… but she could not overturn her management decision. Oh well… no one can say that she did not try hard!

At the Pierre Elliot Trudeau airport in Montréal, when she went through the security checkpoint before boarding her plane to Paris, staff was obviously speaking French (it was what her brain was thinking at that moment anyways!) or English with a very thick French accent!

In her handbag, she had two small containers of hand cream… The security lady asked “two liquids?”… Seema who was then totally tuned to a French channel interpreted the question as “tu les quoi?” and turned to Sam for help… “what does she mean by tu les quoi or tu es quoi???”… Of course Sam could not help it and bursted into laughter as the lady was speaking English and asking “two liquids?”!… This travel episode became a joke all the way to India!…

When I read that story, I recognized Seema for sure!… So resolute to converse in French, she had put on her French hat before arriving to Montréal. This is a good example of the differences between a beginner and an advanced speaker… the latter can switch from one language to the other with almost no problems at all! But, for the beginner, this back and forth is streneous effort and, once geared to a language, it is almost impossible to switch quickly enough without losing messages… I certainly give an A+ to Seema for trying so hard though! And… eventually she will be bilingual!…

Sam also made mom really proud by helping some unilingual tourists in Paris: she spoke to the shuttle driver, so she could explain those Anglos where to go… Sam, like any other teenagers, is not keen to help mom with her French on a daily basis. Therefore Seema never really knew how good (or bad!) her daughter’s French was!… What a wonderful discovery it was in Paris!… And, even better, Sam has been speaking to her in French quite a few times in India… and for what purpose? Well… for the same purpose bilingual people use the language that is unknown to people they are with: in order to keep some things secret from them! Another good reason for learning a second language!…

I am now more confident regarding my students’ skills next week… Although they will be a bit rusted, I am not expecting some serious damage. I think Seema tried and used her French occasionally… and both James and Susan commented on one of my last posts telling me not to worry: they were moving on with their routine and doing their homework… I have not heard from Jay: I will see if his break did affect or not his French on Saturday… I do not think I will have to fix any major problems! Thank God! my students are the cream of the crop!

I WISH YOU ALL A WONDERFUL 2009!…

Since today was a summerlike day (very warm, sunny… with no wind), I voted for raking the leaves… When was the last time you raked the leaves wearing your shorts and Tshirt?… For me, it was a première!… And believe it or not, I was bugged by nasty mosquitoes! In November… in Canada!… Anyways I am glad I did it today! You see… I do not tolerate the cold very well and this unusual weather will not last for very long!

Okay… I am not here to tell you about my ups and downs as a house owner! I am here to write about James’ experience. Yesterday I got to his office around 10 o’clock and we spent two hours chatting in French… this kind of warm-up is crucial before the oral test. Since we had planned that I would go with him, we decided to have lunch downtown… It was another beautiful day and, after I parked the car, walking down Elgin was quite enjoyable. James wanted to have a smoked meat sandwich with a beer, therefore we went to Dunn’s… What a surprise when we heard the waitress say they did not serve beer! Have you ever been to a smoked meat joint where there is no beer? Yet… Ottawa being Ottawa, you can expect something like that!

The place was packed and very noisy… certainly not the ideal spot for having a conversation in either French or English! Actually it was no big deal: I only wanted James to enjoy the distraction and feel relaxed… I thought he would have plenty of time to get nervous in the waiting room before his exam! If there were someone who was anxious, it was me and no one else! Before we left Dunn’s, I had to visit the Ladies’ restroom… it was on the second floor and probably in another building! I never had to walk for so long to get to a restaurant’s restrooms… nevertheless I made it and I also managed to make it back… well, not without losing some of my dignity…

Do you not prefer your french fries on a plate?

I do!!!

Kind of good looking... on the plate!

Walking by the bar, I slipped on something… I immediately went flying in the air and crashing on the floor! I was in excruciating pain but, however, I got back on my feet in less than two seconds! It was a matter of pride! Intrigued I looked on the floor to see what had been the cause of my falling! FRENCH FRIES!… A couple of squashed lousy french fries!!!… James wanted to report the incident to the manager… I did refuse because we had something more important to deal with: his oral test! Although I was in pain (and bleeding… I had cut my finger with one of my rings!), we walked to Slater… I think my unfortunate accident was a good distraction though… James was only concerned with my injuries (later on, I discovered more than a dozen of bruises all over my legs, thighs and forearms), consequently he never really got nervous before his interview! We even joked about it: at least I had slipped on French fries, not English fries!

Once settled in the waiting room, James was called in at least 10 minutes before his actual appointment… In a way it was a good thing because he did not have time to get nervous. I was relieved to see that his assessor was a charming young woman… I thought it could not hurt! A few minutes later, I saw a middle age female examiner who appeared to be anything except happy! I am sure it does make a difference in the candidate’s attitude prior to the interview… Personally, I do feel better and I am in a better disposition with someone smiling! After James disappeared through the door, I looked around me… it felt like being in a doctor’s waiting room… yet no one was interacting with anyone… all candidates were kind or wrapped up in their own bulle quite unaware of the surroundings. It would have been very difficult for me to engage in small talk with any of them! Since it was impossible for me to chat, I grabbed a copy of People‘s magazine and tried to focus on “The best and the worst dressed” … I could not tell the difference, all the featured actresses and singers looked mal fagotées to me! At some point a young woman was called in and less than five minutes later she was out… useless to say she was on the verge of bursting into tears!… From that moment, if I had managed to control my anxiety until then, I became really frantic and every time the door would open, I would fear to see James coming out! Thank God, it did not happen! He came out after 40 minutes… good sign! He said it had gone by very quickly… well! I could not say the same for myself… I was looking at the clock on the wall every single minute…  it felt like time was frozen!

Of course we went for a drink right afterwards and we discussed his interview… like everyone else, he could not remember one single question… He said the most difficult part was trying not to be himself: the guy with an analytical mind… he followed my instructions by answering the questions directly without adding anything else… Also he was asked more than 10 questions related to his work in the first part of the test… it seems the number of questions varies from one candidate to another! Apparently he often asked “Pourriez-vous répéter la question s.v.p.? Je veux m’assurer d’avoir bien compris.” , which I think was a good strategy… as anticipated, when the assessor would re-phrase the question, she would use different words… Then he lost the train of his thought and, in a charming way, he said “Je suis désolé mais j’ai oublié ce que je disais…”  For me, it is better than saying anything just for the sake of speaking! A couple of times, he could not find a word in French and he used an English word instead so that he would not start hesitating and then become nervous. While listening to the tapes, he took some notes down and he said he had no trouble at all answering questions on them. Still following my instructions, when he prepared his 2-3 minute presentation, he only wrote a few points and apparently it made his life easier. He was not led into the final part (a long audio tape with lots of opinion questions)… yet he was asked several opinion questions before the interview ended.

James had no particular feelings after his test… he told me it had been a very clinical exercise and he had done what he was expected to do at the best of his knowledge. And, the most important thing is: he did not feel he was tortured… of course, he would not say it was enjoyable but… he appreciated the fact his assessor was a cute pretty young woman! Good for him!…

This morning Seema, Susan, Alice, James and I gathered for a debriefing of James’ experience… I do believe it is important that trainees have some kind of a support group and be able to see different points of view regarding the test. For some reasons, I think it demystifies the whole process… Too many urban legends circulate regarding the oral examination, it is time to remettre les pendules à l’heure…

Hopefully, we will get James’ results before Tuesday (another statutory holiday!), otherwise I am not sure I will survive this one! Is he confident that he passed?… He actually has no clue… no one can predict the outcome… all he knows is that he did his very best and he is quite proud of what he achieved this past year… Last year, at this time, he could not listen to the radio and he could not watch any TV show in French… he could not write memos… he could hardly read anything… And whatever the results will be, he still knows what he is capable of… He certainly got the right attitude…

“Je refuse de m’apitoyer sur mon sort, je ne m’attarde qu’au bon côté des choses.”

Michèle Lemieux

Photo credit by: http://www.freefoto.com