Time to hit the books again.

 

Whipping out a French-inspired design Christopher Vine notebook and my Waterman fountain pen, filled with French J Herbin ink, to put me in the zone. Not pretentious at all.

So I've been playing with the idea of sitting for the DELF A1 exam (Diplôme d'études en langue française, i.e. Diploma in French Studies) since our class was told about it earlier this year. The DELF and the DALF are internationally recognised official diplomas awarded by the French Ministry of Education to certify the competency of candidates from outside France in the French language. As well as looking nice on the resumé, some French Universities also recognise the certification for the French language requirements for entry (not that I'm planning to study in France any time soon). For me, this exam is just to assess myself to see where I'm at.

 

There's 6 levels in total, each of which assesses all of reading, writing, listening and speaking skills: DELF A1 and A2 (Basic), DELF B1 and B2 (Independent), and DALF C1 and C2 (Proficient). According to my French teacher, attainment of the B1 diploma already allows you to enrol at some French unis, although I think B2 is the standard requirement. I have actually sat for the Japanese equivalent of the test, the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test), which has a similar structure, but only assesses reading, writing and listening. It has Levels 1-4, 4 being the lowest, where level 2 proficiency means that you're good enough to be a teacher in the language. In fact, one of the Japanese teachers at my highschool actually failed her level 2 test. I sat for the level 3 at the end of grade 12 and passed it. I'm glad I decided to do it, because apart from the annual Christmas letter I write to my penpal's family, I don't utilise my Japanese language skills at all, so it's all but ebbing away with time. At least there is now a document in my certificate folder as proof of the peak of my learning in the language.

 

Before I knew it, the Sunday just gone by was the last day for registration for the November DELF exams, the last chance to do it for 2012, and there I was, the day before, still mulling over whether or not to do the A1, since the exam is in two weeks' time, and I haven't actually been studying. One of my French classmates actually decided to stop enrolling in our weekly group classes at the end of last semester, opting instead to have private lessons, in order to focus on passing this level. I asked my teacher for her opinion on the matter, but was not expecting her to tell me not to do it..."because I should be sitting for at least the A2 level or the B1." She reckons our class is already at the B1 level, but I don't know, because we're still at an A2 sublevel this term. I had all of 5 minutes to decide which level to register for, so I ended up choosing the happy medium of A2. Thinking about it now, and looking at my l'escargot studying rate (I only got through the preamble at the start of the first section in the DELF A2 prep book today), I think I've been thrown in the deep end.

 



Mocha: Yahava Romeo No. 5 coffee + Green and Black's Milk chocolate + Henry Langdon Cocoa powder

I think more coffee will be in order for the next two weeks. This feels like SWOTVAC all over again.