I really do not know what is happening because, usually, there is less language testing in the PSC during the summer… yet, this year, there is not respite. If I had to guess, I would say it is probably due to baby boomers’ massive departure from the work force. Therefore there is an urgent need to replace them! Whatever the reasons are, it is real and I am busier than ever… Many of my trainees were tested these past two months and they all got the  levels they needed to comply with their job position requirements (or even higher). It would be too long to name them individually in this post, therefore I will congratulate them all in one sentence:

Congratulations to everyone!

It has been a rumor for many months but, now, it is official: there will be a new version of the reading comprehension test as soon as July 30… Instead of 65 questions, there will be 60 but the time (90 minutes) will be reduced to 80 minutes… consequently I do not describe this as a bonus! Apparently there will be five more questions at the end (which will not count) and candidates’ answers will be used for statistics purpose!?!

The first question that comes to mind is: will the new test be more or less the same or will it be more difficult. Well… it will be much more difficult. From what I heard (former students who voluntarily participated in the pilot project), it is not a piece of cake!… I agree that the current test may be a bit too easy, and it is precisely for that reason that the PPC made the decision to change it. I am not against designing a new version of the test… but I do not understand why the gap between the former test and the new one is so huge! 

When the written expression test was changed in October 2007,  it passed from 55 rather easy questions to 80 very difficult questions. The rate of failure was very high and the PSC decided to standardize the scores (which was helping people with low raw scores, but punishing the ones with high raw scores)… Finally, in June 2008, the 65 question version of the test was introduced: did it really help people to pass?… It is hard to tell… since they cut in the time as well and kept the same amount of long questions, I would be tempted to say that it did not really make a noticeable difference… and the difficulty level remained the same.

I would not be surprised that, in a few months, the reading comprehension test would go through the same process.  For sure, the difficulty level of the new test is higher… there will no longer be questions in English and, in many cases, candidates will have to fill in the blanks or finish a sentence/paragraph with the correct syntax, grammar and accurate vocabulary… It sounds more like a grammar test than a reading test as a matter of fact.

Right now, I can only anticipate what it will be… I am sure I will know more in a couple of weeks when my trainees will start taking the new reading comprehension test. Then I will be able to talk more about it… I am sure of one thing though, it will be difficult and I doubt we will see many candidates get an E like it has been for several years now. Therefore, in a week from now, all of the three SLE tests will be a pain in the neck!

In the maze of all this testing, Le Club français manages to meet once a month for some activities in French. Last Friday we went to «Le Théâtre de l’Île» in Hull where we had dinner on the patio and attended a play… As usual, we all had a great time though many players were missing due to summer vacation… Judge by yourself:

Happy Alice, Mark and Seema

Mark, La Dame dragon and Corey having a great time

Two big smiles...

Having a great time here!

Great food, excellent play and a friendly environment

And we will do it again soon… with more participants hopefully! In spite of the painful process of preparing for the PSC SLE tests, many of us became real good friends in real life… and it is one of the reasons why I do love my job!… I would not do anything else…

«On ne se lasse pas de changer les institutions, ne pouvant changer les hommes.»

Jean-Lucien Arréat

There was a slow down in the PSC SLE testing though… it is always like this when the financial year ends: it takes a while before the Departments get their new budgets going. Nevertheless, requests for training are still coming in!

Patrice finally got the results for his three tests (after several months) and he got EEC… quite an achievement indeed!

Congratulations Patrice!

Adelaide also got the results of her oral interaction test and she got the B required for her to keep her current position and, even better, she was offered a promotion within her division!

Congratulations Adelaide!

And… Monica, who was totally depressed after her oral test and had nightmares thinking she had only achieved and A, got her results last week and she got her C!…

Congratulations Monica!

Therefore I am happy… it looks like everyone managed to get their required language levels… Yet I have to say that I have them work like slaves sometimes!… Getting prepared for the SLE tests is a long and painful process and I really do admire my trainees. I am not convinced I would be able to suffer as much!

That being said, I had time to browse some tests and I finally decide to have you try and take an exercise on pronunciation… though pronunciation in French is more or less consistent, sometimes there are words that are not pronounced the way they are written (or maybe they are!). I took the test myself and I got 50/50… I am sure you can get a perfect score too!

After some freezing temperatures last week, we are back to above normal tempartures this week… Go figure!

It is such a pleasure to see stuff like this!

If you are not sitting on some patio somewhere, click here to play my game!

Have fun!

Photo credit by Philip Lean, Canberra, Australia

Both March and April are always hectic months for me… I guess it is due to the end of fiscal in the PSC, as well as the beginning of another fiscal year… yet, I do not really see the link between so many people being tested for their second language and fiscal years!… Actually, maybe there is none and it is only coincidental… Who knows?

All I can say is that there are no breaks in the SLE testing… I believe it is because most of the entry level job positions now require a minimum of BBB and more and more of them require CBC… Also, it appears that many Departments cut into their language training budgets, leaving many civil servants in a limbo… they need to be either tested or re-tested, but they are not offered any paid training to prepare… I now work with many of them, which was quite unusual a few months ago… If there is a hiring freeze within the government at this point, there is no testing freeze!

In the news department, Mitch got back to me a couple of weeks ago: he finally got his B in written expression and we are currently working on his upcoming oral test preparation. He had a hard time with grammar because he never really took any formal French courses… on the other hand, he is from Montreal and he is more at ease speaking… therefore it should be easier for him to get his B (and possibly a C) in oral interaction.

Congratulations Mitch!

Chrissie went for her oral interaction test this morning… I am impatient to hear from her… I am convinced she will get her B… Sally, in Vancouver, finally went for her oral interview as well and she got her B!…

Congratulations Sally!

Bonita went for her written expression test yesterday and, unfortunately, she missed her B by only two points. She was really disappointed because she had worked very hard… yet, she was pressured with time and she would have needed a couple of more training sessions… And, from what she said, she got one of the tough versions of the test… but, good news, she is not out of the competition!… Sharon got her B in oral although she did not really believe she could make it… well… she did!

Congratulations Sharon!

Finally, and not the least, Haiyan - who was really nervous during the whole excruciating hiring process (from interviews to tests/exams) – saw the end of it last Friday… and she got her B in oral as well!

Congratulations Haiyan!

Sometimes, I think my job is redundant… of course, there is not much variety when it comes to SLE tests… they have been the same forever… yet, when I see my trainees get their required levels, I am very proud of their achievement and I do forget the repetitive aspect of my work… And, with Le Club français, we can enjoy sporadic outings and forget about the SLE tests for a while…  Those provide people with the opportunity to use their French outside the fake box they have to enter when they are tested… and I am always amazed of how good they are at communicating their messages and thoughts… when often they struggle so much with the tests!

Last Friday, we went to the The Higlanders’ Pub where we celebrated three April Birthdays… We had a great time and it was fun to get out of our lairs after the long winter months…

Celebrating Seema, Mark and Corey's birthdays!

Alice, Seema and Mark shining!

Corey, Mark and La Dame dragon smiling!

Corey (who never stopped smiling that evening), La Dame dragon and Keely

At the end of the evening...

Happy Mark on his 30th Birthday!

“J’avance dans l’hiver à force de printemps”

Charles Joseph de Ligne

In the news department, Boris passed the required levels(CBC)  of the job position he has applied for… he even surpassed them in two tests: ECC!

Congratulations Boris!

The order of the pronouns in French… do you know it or do you sometimes struggle with it?… I found an interesting test on pronouns following an imperative… I took it and I got a perfect mark… can you do it, avoiding the traps?… Give it a try!

My Aussie friend sent me an interesting picture…

Apparently, it is the first time he came across a sign in almost perfect English! Be the judge!…

If you want to play my game, click here!

Have fun!

Photo credit by Philip Lean, Canberra, Australia

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