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A dead honest language CV...

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montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4617 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 65 of 104
04 November 2013 at 6:04pm | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
maydayayday wrote:
Solfrid Cristin wrote:

Iversen wrote:
Solveig Cristin's freely invented C0


Dear Iversen, I thought you knew my name by now :-)

Since Solveig is the pinnacle of beauty, loyalty, limitless capacity for love and
foregiveness and all other traditional Norwegian virtues I will consider it as a
compliment, though :-)


I thought I knew the name: was going to Google when I get home: Thanks Solfrid Cristin
!


Solveig comes from Per Gynt, and is the blonde blue eyed woman who after he has messed
up completely, fooled around and lied and cheated, saves him from disaster by her never
failing loyalty and love for him. Not much of a modern role model, but I chose to take
it in the best possible way :-)



I (correctly I think) remember you telling us once that "Cristin" should be "Cristina",
but the forum software wouldn't let you have that many characters). But I also thought
I remembered (and now I think, incorrectly so) that you'd said Solfrid was your family
name (surname), but it was reversed "continental style", surname, firstname. However,
Iversen's deliberate :-) mistake caused me to look at your profile, and I see that your
family name is something different entirely, and that I have been incorrectly
addressing you by only one of your first names. My humble apologies, Solfrid Cristina
(but I still think of you has having all the virtues of a Solveig :-) ).

3 persons have voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5123 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 66 of 104
04 November 2013 at 6:28pm | IP Logged 
@Iversen: No need for apologies. Like Solveig my capacity for forgiveness is unlimited :-) I am actually quite
used to being called Solveig in Norway, and answer to that and anything else which starts with Sol. The
grandmother of a friend of mine routinely called me Solgull, and you cannot get mad at anyone who calls you
Sun gold.

@montmorency: Thank you, I am most flattered :-) I generally prefer to use Cristina with non-Scandinavians.
It is easier, since many think that Solfrid like Siegfried is a man's name. I always use Solfrid with
Scandinavians though, since it is an old Norse name meaning " beautiful as the sun", and is also associated
with fryd(joy) and fred (peace). I could have done worse as far as names go:-)


3 persons have voted this message useful



s_allard
Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5219 days ago

2704 posts - 5425 votes 
Speaks: French*, English, Spanish
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 67 of 104
04 November 2013 at 8:01pm | IP Logged 
Iversen wrote:
One good thing about threads like this and about s_allard (just to mention one name!) is
that they make you THINK.

It is clear that the CEFR criteria emphasize the skills based on the assumption that you first learn to speak
about yourself ("Good day noble sir, my name is ...") and then you proceed through familiar everyday babble
about laundry, children and the weather to the pinnacle of language production, which seems to be
academical discussions about lofty scientific and cultural subjects. And this is clearly based on the way
normal language courses are organized, and that's fine with me. After all my first words in a new language
could actually be "Hello, I have reserved a room in your hotel" and "my name is so and so".

But the written and the passive 'genres' are modelled on the same sequence of skills, and there it might not
be justified. For instance in reading my own instinct is to pinpoint the hardest possible texts in a language,
excluding texts about some technical subject which I wouldn't able to understand in my own language - like
gardening, where neither my mother nor me knew that the big thing in her garden which has blocked out
her Astra reception the whole summer long is an "avnbøg" in Danish (Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus L.)) and
not a normal Bøg (Beech, Fagus something). If I can read even the hardest text about subjects I know that I'm
at the level C2. If I can understand a few words and maybe even make a guess about the theme of an article
then I'm at Solfrid Cristin's freely invented C0, and if I can get the gist of the text then I might say this
is A1.

IS this what the CEFR criteria say? Well,
for C1 this is part of the requirements: "Can read quickly enough to cope with an academic course,". And for
A2 the Cerberus at the door will ask you this: "Can understand straightforward information within a known
area, such as on {sic} products and signs and simple textbooks or reports on familiar matters." Eh, products?
Some of the things you can buy in Italy or Singapore can't be bought in Denmark or they may have a totally
different name. Is that simple? On the other hand the Higgs particle is international in the deepest sense of
the notion, and if my preferred topics are things like history and science then I may be able to read
academical texts fluently long before I can read and understand a simple advertisement or an SMS from a
teenager.

So there I may have tweaked the criteria ever so slightly by accepting academical subjects too early in the
process (and leaving out information passsed on primarily through soaps, songs and political speeches), but
looking back on my list I dont think I would change any of my annotations concerning my reading or oral
understanding. The languages are ordered in the order I think they should be ordered, and I haven't blamed
the test vultures for the result.

PS: I just found an
date.pdf#page=28">evaluation sheet for the written tests af the Cambridge Institute (which now include
a free practice test that can be taken using any computer with Firefox). The instructions don't explicitely
specify any specific range of topics ... but in practice you can't avoid finding out about the topic range when
the actual test questions are formulated. The same site also offers a free ultrasimple "which-test-should-I-
take" test. With 25 out of 25 points here
you are told to take something called a "CPR" but honestly, the test is very basic stuff - probably too
basic for any reasonably proficient testee.

With all due respect, I think that this is a misrepresentation of what the CEFR model and testing systems are
all about. The model is not predicated on starting with speaking about oneself and progressing to complex
scientific materials. The model is based on the idea that at any one of six levels there are certain things one
can do with the language. This is the essence of the can-do statements.

Let's look at Spoken Interaction at A1. Here are some of the statements:

1.I can introduce somebody and use basic greeting and leave-taking expressions.
2. I can ask and answer simple questions, initiate and respond to simple statements in areas of immediate
need or on very familiar topics.
3. I can make myself understood in a simple way but I am dependent on my partner being prepared to
repeat more slowly and rephrase what I say and to help me to say what I want.
4. I can make simple purchases where pointing or other gestures can support what I say.
5. I can handle numbers, quantities, cost and time.
6. I can ask people for things and give people things.
7. I can ask people questions about where they live, people they know, things they have, etc. and answer
such questions addressed to me provided they are articulated slowly and clearly.
8. I can indicate time by such phrases as “next week”, “last Friday”, “in November”, “three o clock”.

There is no reference to babbling about children, the weather, the laundry. These are certainly potential
subjects. But those can be subjects at any level. Can you talk about the weather and children at a C2 level?
Of course!

Let's look at Spoken Interaction at the C2 level:

1. I can take part effortlessly in all conversations and discussions with native speakers.

One single statement that says everything : all conversations and all discussions. Do you want to talk about
extreme weather swings due to climate change? Or should India implement a single child policy similar to
that of China? You certainly can.

There is no mention of specific topics. Understandably, @iversen is not interested in talking about certain
topics. And in a test situation, the choice of topics is limited. In most C2 tests, you choose a text to read,
present in summary form and then debate with the jury. The text may not be your cup of tea but that's part
of the perils of test taking. The point is to see how you are able to handle yourself linguistically.

It's the same thing with reading. As we go up the CEFR levels, the difficulty and the complexity of the
material increases.

In all the certification tests you have to pass all the various component tests. The skill level does not have to
be identical but you have to pass them all. You can't be C2 in reading and B1 in speaking and then expect to
get an average grade B2. You either pass the C2 exam or you don't.



Edited by s_allard on 04 November 2013 at 8:03pm

1 person has voted this message useful



cacue23
Triglot
Groupie
Canada
Joined 4088 days ago

89 posts - 122 votes 
Speaks: Shanghainese, Mandarin*, English
Studies: Cantonese

 
 Message 68 of 104
05 November 2013 at 1:35am | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
@Iversen: No need for apologies. Like Solveig my capacity for forgiveness is unlimited :-) I am actually quite
used to being called Solveig in Norway, and answer to that and anything else which starts with Sol. The
grandmother of a friend of mine routinely called me Solgull, and you cannot get mad at anyone who calls you
Sun gold.

@montmorency: Thank you, I am most flattered :-) I generally prefer to use Cristina with non-Scandinavians.
It is easier, since many think that Solfrid like Siegfried is a man's name. I always use Solfrid with
Scandinavians though, since it is an old Norse name meaning " beautiful as the sun", and is also associated
with fryd(joy) and fred (peace). I could have done worse as far as names go:-)



Hey, Solfrid Cristin, I used to think you were a bit serious and knit-picking, since most of your threads were either info threads of challenges or debates on precise definitions of certain terms. It wasn't until I saw this thread did I realize what a humourous person you are, what with the 1/2 a boyfriend and being called Sun gold (which I initially misread as Sun God). I was wondering what would happen if you actually put "1/2 a boyfriend" onto your CV and use it to apply for a job. Gosh, what comical effect.

Edited by cacue23 on 05 November 2013 at 1:44am

1 person has voted this message useful



cacue23
Triglot
Groupie
Canada
Joined 4088 days ago

89 posts - 122 votes 
Speaks: Shanghainese, Mandarin*, English
Studies: Cantonese

 
 Message 69 of 104
05 November 2013 at 3:26am | IP Logged 
I used to boast my language levels as anyone who is ignorant of formal assessment standards would, and then my attitude underwent a complete change when I learned of the standards and start scrutinizing myself. Nowadays I put my language levels humbly at the lowest level of my skills, but there are things that I feel deserve recognition.

Here goes my dead honest language CV:

Mandarin - native, C2 with a slight lack of vocabulary, but that's excluding Classical Chinese in which I have B2-level passive skills and A0 active skills (theoretically there's no line between ancient and modern vocabulary, but some expressions are almost exclusively found in classical texts nowadays), overall C1

Shanghainese - supposedly native, C1 in most cases with a miserable lack of vocabulary specific to the Shanghainese dialect (use it only when talking to my mom), which is why I put it at an overall B2

English - passive skills C1 (again, with a lack of vocabulary - I need to start using Anki), active skills B2 (I'm a shy person around strangers. The only people I actually converse with regularly are my parents, my landlord, and my roommates, who all speak Chinese, so stricly speaking I rarely have the chance to converse in English. My speaking skills are barely above B2, but writing skills are at a solid B2), overall B2

Cantonese - planned to learn it but haven't started, but since my landlord speaks Cantonese natively, I get to practice my listening skills; also with my knowledge of Mandarin I understand almost everything in a Cantonese text (by which I don't just mean texts in traditional Chinese), though with some difficulty. Passive A2, active A0, overall A1

French - reading skills at B1 (can get the gist of things with a lot of English-like words), writing skills at A2 (make plenty of mistakes, and again, lack vocabulary), listening skills at A1, speaking skills at A0, overall A1

Japanese - learned it for half a year during weekend classes in elementary school, can recognize a few alphabets, remember that "ka." signifies a question, know the basic greetings (hello, my name is, sorry, goodbye), can count to ten, overall A0
2 persons have voted this message useful



beano
Diglot
Senior Member
United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4411 days ago

1049 posts - 2152 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian

 
 Message 70 of 104
05 November 2013 at 9:35am | IP Logged 
s_allard wrote:
Let's look at Spoken Interaction at the C2 level:

1. I can take part effortlessly in all conversations and discussions with native speakers.

One single statement that says everything : all conversations and all discussions. Do you want to talk about extreme weather swings due to climate change? Or should India implement a single child policy similar to
that of China? You certainly can.



I could converse about the topics you mentioned without any undue hesitation. But it wouldn't all be phrased in a native-like way. It would be stilted in places. I may not know the all the technical words and have to use a layman's alternative instead.

So I suppose you can coverse at C2 level topic-wise, but with a C1 delivery.

Edited by beano on 05 November 2013 at 9:38am

2 persons have voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5123 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 71 of 104
05 November 2013 at 10:06am | IP Logged 
cacue23 wrote:
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
@Iversen: No need for apologies. Like Solveig my capacity for forgiveness is unlimited :-) I am actually quite
used to being called Solveig in Norway, and answer to that and anything else which starts with Sol. The
grandmother of a friend of mine routinely called me Solgull, and you cannot get mad at anyone who calls you
Sun gold.

@montmorency: Thank you, I am most flattered :-) I generally prefer to use Cristina with non-Scandinavians.
It is easier, since many think that Solfrid like Siegfried is a man's name. I always use Solfrid with
Scandinavians though, since it is an old Norse name meaning " beautiful as the sun", and is also associated
with fryd(joy) and fred (peace). I could have done worse as far as names go:-)



Hey, Solfrid Cristin, I used to think you were a bit serious and knit-picking, since most of your threads were either info threads of challenges or debates on precise definitions of certain terms. It wasn't until I saw this thread did I realize what a humourous person you are, what with the 1/2 a boyfriend and being called Sun gold (which I initially misread as Sun God). I was wondering what would happen if you actually put "1/2 a boyfriend" onto your CV and use it to apply for a job. Gosh, what comical effect.


I can be serious when I need to be, but most of the time I am the most informal person you can imagine. There are three things I never put on my CV, one is the amount of language learning I have had due to my boyfriends, the second one is my certificate from a 10 hour intensive course in belly dancing and the third one is a certificate which claims that I can steer a small sail boat (which I can't) and know the traffic rules out at sea (which I don't).

I'll recomend the "Sun God" to the guys working for me. At the moment they refer to me as "our Great Leader and Sun". I like your version even better :-)
1 person has voted this message useful



montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4617 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 72 of 104
05 November 2013 at 12:39pm | IP Logged 
I suppose I won't be putting my one-day Abba workshop on a CV any time soon, either...

Edited by montmorency on 05 November 2013 at 12:40pm



1 person has voted this message useful



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