On Campus (Part I)
On Saturday, I got up early once again to go to university since I had to take the second part of my French as a second language exam: the oral exam.
The written part last week went well, also it was extremely boring and quite long. It started with an 400 words essay. It took me about 20 minutes to write it, but I had to sit around for the whole hour since I wasn’t allowed to leave. Then, we had the listening part and the reading part (both multiple choices questions). I hate multiple choice questions, I find them very ambiguous. Even as a native speaker, I had no idea which answer fitted best a couple of times. Anyway, I’ll get the result… in three months! That’s right. Apparently, correcting French exams is a very long process… maybe they send them to Paris?!
Once thing that annoyed me a lot was that the person supervising the exam (I’m not sure whether she was a TA or a teacher) explained the words in the test in English. I mean, this is a French language exam… if students don’t understand the questions in French, I don’t see the point. Plus, she couldn’t explain certain words in English, but she didn’t know what the French word actually meant! No kidding.
Anyway, my oral exam lasted exactly three minutes. It may have something to do with the fact I wrote in big bold letter “I am French !” in answer to the question “where did you learn French?” in the preliminary questionnaire. The examiner was a nice guy and admitted there was no point in testing me any further. Phew, thanks.
After the exam, I wandered around in the university, taking pictures.
 Hallway |
 Message Board |
 Student Lounge |
 Reading The Paper |
 Studying |
 Dancing |
 Lockers |
 Library |
 No BBQ, We Told You! |
 Lonely Student |
Related articles:
- On Campus (Part II)
- On Campus (Part III)
- French Pastries
- Sights of Paris (Part II)
- Whoui Spik Inglish
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[…] including the very useful French as a second language course I was forced to take (remember, being French is not a proof that I can speak French). It doesn’t seem much like that but I’m working full-time in a very demanding job, and […]
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How many students does U of Ottawa have?
I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that you have to take a French test when you’re a native speaker. Concordia used to have English exit exam, which is also stupid because it is an ENGLISH University. I didn’t see the point of the test, but luckily they suspended this practice before I even bothered to sign up for the test.
Brilliant pictures, like usual.
I chuckled when I read one of your posts where you wrote about how you had to take French language exam just to prove that you speak French
)
.-= the writer´s last blog ..Being back =-.
I guess writing “I’m French” in big bold letters might have helped. Beautiful pictures.
One might actually feel like studying in this place 
.-= Nigel Babu´s last blog ..Pushing 150 kg =-.
Re: your oral exam – you finally encountered someone with some common sense!
.-= Beth´s last blog ..Please and Thank You =-.
Exams give me jitters all the time and yes, coming from France I don’t understand the need to take French exam papers