The Slow Season

I haven’t posted much lately. I don’t have much of an excuse other than a generally boring time at the moment. I’ve noticed most of the other FS blogs I read haven’t been posting much lately either. Perhaps it is just the shifting season and the process of settling into the quiet winter.

Russian training is continuing well. In about two weeks I have my first progress test. For those of you familiar with the State Department language ranking system, I’m hoping to score a 1+ in this test. It is only a speaking test so I don’t have to worry about reading for it.

For those of you unfamiliar with State’s ranking of language ability, I’ll give you the brief version in laymen’s terms.

You receive two scores. One for speaking and one for reading. The scale goes from zero to 5. Therefore, you end up with a score that looks something like 3/3. You can also score a “+” if you aren’t quite up to the next level up, but are better than the lower. Hence, I’m hoping for a 1+ because I’m sure I can’t get a 2 on this first test, but I think I’m a little better than a 1.

So what do these numbers mean? I’ll try to explain using American Idol as the subject being discussed.

0 - You can’t say anything.

0+ - You can rattle off some words, but no real sentences: bad, stop, sing, help, death, no, music, television

1 - You can say some real basic sentences: I don’t like American Idol. Please stop. Where is the toilet? Who likes this?

2 - Basic proficiency: I wish Fox had cancelled this show. It is too bad it is so cheap to make. Why don’t these people have any self-respect? What did Paula Abdul do with all of her money?

3 - General professional proficiency: American Idol is just the modern version of watching gladiators slaughter themselves in the Colisseum of ancient Rome. It’s unfortunate the contestants don’t have actual weapons to defend themselves with.

4 - Advanced professional proficiency: When Dr. King stood on his metaphorical mountaintop and saw humanity on a level of equality, I don’t think he was alluding to standard humiliation for all.

5 - Native fluency: You don’t ever have to worry about reaching this level.

Hopefully, this helps. For my job, I’m expected to get to a 2/2 level which for Russian is supposed to take about 23 weeks of full-time instruction. I’m receiving almost 30 weeks of instruction and hope to get to a 3/3 which is supposed to take 44 weeks. It will be extremely difficult to get to a 3/3, but I’m going to give it a shot. Why? Because there is a big bonus involved.