French DLPT

I took the DLPT for Korean back in August; today I took the test for French.

I did pretty well; I got a 2 in listening (limited professional proficiency) and -- check this -- a 3 in reading (general professional proficiency). In my mind that's not bad for someone who hasn't done anything in the past ten years except some self study through the GLOSS website.

Like Korean, French is considered a "Class A" language, but only people in "language specific MOSs" get paid Foreign Language Proficiency Pay for it. For example, cryptologic linguists and Foreign Area Officers are eligible, but not transportation lieutenants. :-(

Oh well. It's satisfying enough to know that there's at least one language in which I can reach a level 3. Moreover, I can pad my OER with the results before applying for the Olmsted Scholars program.

When I take it again, I'll be sure to practice the higher level listening exercises well beforehand. I'm particularly weak in areas like news reports on crimes and natural disasters.

My high school French didn't really emphasize those areas.