Wednesday 21 July 2010

Is your language good enough?

French Proficiency Test

Having not spoken French in a few years now , I thought I'd give this test a try. How much French grammar, vocabulary and reading comprehension do you know?
See if you can beat my personal score of 75% (113 points out of 150)!!
To get started, click on the link above.

One of the potential professions that I was interested in learning more about during my student years was becoming an interpreter.... I did well in French & Linguistics but, sadly not so well in the interpreting module at university.    There are basically two types of interpreting; consecutive and simultaneous and it was the latter that I found extremely challenging.    (Generally you sit in a booth and convert the language as it is spoken to you).

Are there many fluent speakers of French (learnt as a 2nd or 3rd language) out there?    I admit I had achieved near native fluency when I lived in France, but it takes constant practice and total immersion in the country in order to continuously maintain the fluency, in my opinion..    Long after I left France in 1996, I was able to hold quite an interesting conversation with a Senegalese woman whilst on a trip to French-speaking West Africa...


My tips for foreign language learning:

Ultimately, the BEST way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in the culture and country whose language you are interested in learning. 

Another tip is you could get lessons from a native speaker who knows their stuff. However, a tip that I have found helpful is when learning the language, study units (new vocab or grammar) for ...say 20 minute blocks at a time. In other words, frequently and often. This way of studying is more effective and makes language learning a whole lot easier. It helps if you do some study daily, make it a routine so it becomes part of your everyday life.

Listen to radio or music, read newspapers in the foreign language....
Or, find yourself a French penpal!   Above all, practise, practise, and practise!

2 comments:

  1. Comment je peut faire la même teste que tu as fait? Où je trouve ca?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cliquez sur le lien ci-dessus FRENCH PROFICIENCY TEST (http://www.transparent.com/learn-french/proficiency-test.html)

    Bonne chance!!!

    ReplyDelete

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