In the Classroom

It's easy to forget, with all the traveling that I've been doing, that I actually came here to study. Monday through Thursday (no classes on Friday!) for the past few months you would have found me sitting in a classroom in the foreign student building at the Aix-Marseille University campus just south of Aix city-center.

Unfortunately, we have now gotten Finals. In fact, we're in the middle of two weeks of testing. Last week I had two finals, next week I have one more and my language test.

The language test is made up of two parts - on Monday I'll sit for a three hour exam which will include listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and writing comprehension. On Thursday I'll be given a topic at random, ten minutes to prepare a presentation, and then 10 minutes to present on the topic to a professor of the school in order to show that I can actually speak French (though the jury is still out on this).

French grading is very different than American grading. For starters, they grade on a scale of 1-20 rather than 1-100. Fortunately, any grade over a 14 is typically considered an 'A' in the US. This is good news, because it's incredibly rare to receive anything higher than a 12-14 out of 20.

The reasoning for this is simple; it's a language course meant to challenge you. If you're getting near perfect scores, that means you're not being challenged and you should have been placed in a higher level to begin with.

Really, we're all just striving to be 'average,' which would never be tolerated in the US.

When I took my language placement test back in the first week in September, I placed into a higher level based on my grammar and my writing skills. However, since I hadn't spoken French in 2 years and rarely ever with a native French speaker, my speaking skills were rusty, so I got bumped down to where I am now. As a result, in some areas I feel confident and in others (hello upcoming presentation on an unknown topic) I'm feeling a little apprehensive.

Either way, I'm confident I'll pass (knock on wood) and by this time next week I'll be packing up to leave, then making a pit stop in Dublin, and finally heading home to Pennsylvania.

Before any of that, though, I'm taking a break from studying to head to Lyon tomorrow to see the annual light show that started last night. If you aren't familiar with it, watch the video below and prepare be amazed.