Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Good Things Come in Threes

Jumping right into the news:

Literally, I Got Threes!

First and foremost, what's on all your minds, surely... I passed my French test! Yahoo! In all seriousness, I wasn't confident after walking out of the test that I had attained the desired score. Part of this is because the testing is designed to check the furthest limits of your abilities, which means by definition that you will not understand something at some point. Nothing like having to admit that in a test to make you feel sub-par...

Here's a brief primer on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale, if you're interested:

Language scoring for the Foreign Service is on a scale of one to five, with five being highly educated, PhD level language skills. There are two numbers in a score, the first being your speaking/listening comprehension score, the second being your reading comprehension score. For French, as with many romance languages, the target score for getting off language probation (which I'll explain in a moment) is a 3/3. In other languages, the target score is different; Chinese, for example, is a 2/1.

A 3/3 means, generally, being able to converse with some facility and without a native speaker having to do most of the work to figure out what you're saying. Check out this video for an example of a 3/3 in English. Here is an example of a 2/2, and here an example of a 1/1. These are short videos that give a basic idea of the scale. And hey, here's a 5/5, just to give you an idea.

Not all native English speakers are 5/5, as you may have reasoned.

SO. I'm a 3/3, with "General Professional Proficiency." An Entry Level Officer (ELO in Foreign Service parlance) is one who has not yet gotten tenure. One of the benchmarks for obtaining tenure is to get off of language probation, meaning that you have to reach the target score in a formal test. Generally, ELOs have around five years before they obtain tenure, and a rather high percentage (in the upper 90th percentile, I believe) get tenure at that point.

In any case, I'm on my way to getting tenure! Just four more years and some work experience at post, and I should be good to go!

Family Fun: Three Great Visits

In September, I got to visit with my cousin Kendre and her daughter when they were in DC to visit Kendre's son Andrew. Since they live on the west coast and I'm on the east coast, we don't get to visit too often, so it was a real treat. We brunched in style and got caught up on family news. I discovered that Clara is exploring some artistic talents with joy, and Kendre is working hard to achieve a long-time career dream. I caught them up on my new life in the foreign service. All in all, though as always too short, it was a great visit!


Next, I visited my Miami family. This was a particularly good visit for me, because my
grandmother recently suffered a recent bout of illness. At over 95 years of age, she sure didn't need that kind of challenge. As usual, though, her sheer willpower, stubbornness, and the care of family got her through. It was lovely to hear her thoughts on current events as well as family history. We spent our visit playing Scrabble and bingo, taking meals, enjoying an ice cream social, and just hanging out in her apartment. Also, I stayed with my aunt and cousin, and so I got to catch up with them. Incredibly busy, they were brimming with energy and positivity. I felt really good about the re-connections to this branch of family.

Finally, I spent four days visiting my parents in North Carolina. This was a relaxing and restful trip: we did some shopping, and I got the tour of their estate (veggie garden, fruit trees, and lovely front
and back yards with a variety of plants). We talked lots about Mali and my upcoming adventure, as well as the various hobbies and interests in which they've been taking part. I also picked their brains and asked lots of advice, and we made a pre-emptory Costco visit (complete with a few samples, of course). As a bonus, we were visited by a cousin who is going through the paces of becoming a full-fledged medical doctor, and who I haven't seen in years. We got to hear all about her exhausting life as well as her dedication and serious thoughts about change and challenges in the medical field. So this was a double-whammy visit!

Three Key Points of Info Before Take-Off

I've gotten:

- my packout date (when movers will come to either fly, ship, or store all my of stuff).

- my airline ticket itinerary (hint: I get to stop over in Paris before heading to Bamako).

- all my immunizations (rabies, check; flu, check; meningitis, check).

I am ready to go!

Well, all right, there's still the matter of job training and buying a few (hah!) things for life in Mali, including an appropriate vehicle, and yes, there are myriad chores and details to handle before heading out... but I'm well on my way.


--Z

3 comments:

  1. Hey Zoƫ - you got a 3/3 ... our favorite greeting! and Yup - you are definitely on your way.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love your blog! Do you know if any of your other A-100 classmates have blogs too? I'm mostly finding FSO blogs from 2010 :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pops: 3/3! Yahoo!

    Sunita: Thank you!

    Anonymous: check out http://www.afsa.org/foreign-service-blogs which lists many active blogs!

    ReplyDelete