Orals

Garret

I said crap(not even merde) in my french yesterday, ah well

Rockerette

i had french today, went well


gaeilge, an deardaoin seo chugainn ceapaim.

Funkstard

Had French today....should have done way better than I did considering the amount of work I put in. Ended up making all sorts of mistakes......had to ask her to translate words into French 4 times! I had some very good bits and overall the conversation flowed well, she kept me in there for 15 minutes, but......ah i just king of fecked it up

abercrombie

i had french today too! flew through the exam! was asked about my views on what jaques chirac did when he walked out of that conference thingy...it was great!!! easiest A1 i could get :D

sariane

well done abercrombie its good to hear you did so well! what did u say for your views on that? I'm really hoping for a good mark in french but im not really sure of what to say for my views on all the recent topics, bird flu and the stuff happening in france etc! and i have a feeling their going to ask me that :rolleyes: Mines on monday so hope i do well!

Shrimp

I got mine tomorrow! I'm pretty confident, but as long as I dont get asked something really strange.

i was happy with mine! got a D3 at Christmas in the oral but would be looking for C1-B2 from yesterday.

Our examiner was really nice and encouraging, she seemed really interested in Music and we talked about my band, writing music, going to gigs and listening to music for at least half of it.

So much less frightening than i expected!

abercrombie

sariane wrote:

well done abercrombie its good to hear you did so well! what did u say for your views on that? I'm really hoping for a good mark in french but im not really sure of what to say for my views on all the recent topics, bird flu and the stuff happening in france etc! and i have a feeling their going to ask me that :rolleyes: Mines on monday so hope i do well!

well i said that i had to agree with him because i think that it's important to encourage and have pride in your mother tongue...then i brought it around to me and what it meant to me being a Francophone..then i brought it onto irish and how i feel that we should honour our national language..blah blah blah!

i was also asked, why did i choose french for the leaving! To put it simply, i said "imagine if you were a 17 year old student doing the Leaving in Russia..would you choose Chinese or English as a subject??" The examiner just laughed and said "well put miss lingistic, well put!"

Azureus

i have irish tomoro/thursday and im feeling confident enough, but im petrified for french!! i vaguely know my document and nothing else!
my french teachers awful but i aslo havent put much effort into my oral work, i havent a clue what kind of stuff i should prepare (bit late now i know but better late than never).. any suggestions on how to get me through it with a relatively decent mark?

Faerie

I had my Irish oral today....I'm so depressed and I feel exhausted after it. He asked me every abstract topic under the sun - problems in your area, problems in the world, pressure on young people, should Irish be compulsory, is Irish necessary or useful today, should English be compulsory, what's my solution to drugs, alcohol and poverty, what can the government do about them and I think there were actually more...
He also asked me loads of weird questions like what do my parents do (isn't that politically incorrect?), describe the last film you saw, describe your favourite tv programme and what happens if you get in trouble and what would the principal say to you if you are in trouble.
I totally blanked with describing my favourite tv programme, I said Lost and then couldn't remember the Irish for plane (duh!) and Island. That was the real low point, it's was ok except for that.
The worst thing is he wasn't asking anyone all the abstract topics before me. He just mentioned drugs to the person before me and everyone else got asked to describe their house and school and stuff.
At least now it's over, and I know to be less nervous for french. I was literally shaking inside there!

abercrombie

Faerie wrote:

I had my Irish oral today....I'm so depressed and I feel exhausted after it. He asked me every abstract topic under the sun - problems in your area, problems in the world, pressure on young people, should Irish be compulsory, is Irish necessary or useful today, should English be compulsory, what's my solution to drugs, alcohol and poverty, what can the government do about them and I think there were actually more...
He also asked me loads of weird questions like what do my parents do (isn't that politically incorrect?), describe the last film you saw, describe your favourite tv programme and what happens if you get in trouble and what would the principal say to you if you are in trouble.
I totally blanked with describing my favourite tv programme, I said Lost and then couldn't remember the Irish for plane (duh!) and Island. That was the real low point, it's was ok except for that.
The worst thing is he wasn't asking anyone all the abstract topics before me. He just mentioned drugs to the person before me and everyone else got asked to describe their house and school and stuff.
At least now it's over, and I know to be less nervous for french. I was literally shaking inside there!

maybe he thought you could handle it! Examiners are meant to push you to see how much they can get out of you!

willowmegs

everyone, i had my irish oral this morning. it went very well!! im delighted! didnt get any horrible questions!! :-D

Faerie

Faerie wrote:

I had my Irish oral today....I'm so depressed and I feel exhausted after it. He asked me every abstract topic under the sun - problems in your area, problems in the world, pressure on young people, should Irish be compulsory, is Irish necessary or useful today, should English be compulsory, what's my solution to drugs, alcohol and poverty, what can the government do about them and I think there were actually more...
He also asked me loads of weird questions like what do my parents do (isn't that politically incorrect?), describe the last film you saw, describe your favourite tv programme and what happens if you get in trouble and what would the principal say to you if you are in trouble.
I totally blanked with describing my favourite tv programme, I said Lost and then couldn't remember the Irish for plane (duh!) and Island. That was the real low point, it's was ok except for that.
The worst thing is he wasn't asking anyone all the abstract topics before me. He just mentioned drugs to the person before me and everyone else got asked to describe their house and school and stuff.
At least now it's over, and I know to be less nervous for french. I was literally shaking inside there!

that's a really good sign.
they ask those questions to make sure you deserve a high mark.
they wouldn't dream of asking someone those questions if they couldn't handle them

Wicklowteacher

I am a teacher and an examiner: you will only be asked abstract questions if:
a) you mention a topic that reasonably suggests to the examiner you would like to be asked about it. For example, you say you like history in school. You are asked why. You say because you are fascinated by politics. then, reasonably, the examiner may ask you a current political question.
b) you have a good grasp of the language examined, but have given so many monosyllabic or short answers that the examiner is searching for something to ask you towards the end of the interview.
concentrate on being able to talk about what interests you, and the examiner will, for the most part, allow you to be interviewed on the basis of that.

AmyD

I had a my french Oral yesterday and I have to say as nervous as I was the examiner was lovely and he really made u feel at ease. We didn't get asked any hard questions. He started with describing my family, went on to my area and then about school. His hardest question was Do I think school rules are important and why. None of the girls in my school got particularly hard questions and we have a really high standard. I think the worst was Describe, in your opinion what makes a good school/boyfriend/friend/sister etc. One girl is from Romania and he did ask her about Romanian politics but she had also lived in france for 7years and is fluent so she was fine. Irish next week!yay! anyone get asked anything particularly hard this week?

Funkstard

Funkstard wrote:

Had French today....should have done way better than I did considering the amount of work I put in. Ended up making all sorts of mistakes......had to ask her to translate words into French 4 times! I had some very good bits and overall the conversation flowed well, she kept me in there for 15 minutes, but......ah i just king of fecked it up

With all that, the examiner said my name as one of the people who she was really impressed by. Must've been too hard on myself!

Abercrombie, I take it you're fluent in French? Did you live there or something?

One guy in my year got full marks in his oral.....the examiner said it was the best oral she could remember having in 12 years of doing them. This is also the guy whose essay he wrote in 5th year was given to the-then 6th years to learn off for the Leaving! He's some linguistic freak, and a qualified piano teacher on the side. Some people....

exiot

I had French today and the examiner was great, we were talking about my plans for the summer and I said how I was interested in going to see Radiohead, and she let out a shriek forgetting the tickets were on today, so I spoke about Radiohead for a bit. Everything was easy, thought it would be alot worse.

Next week is irish, but Im more or less fluent..

d4gurl

I was more confident about my german! I love german!its so much easier than irish!crapola ppl! I wnt to do wel in irish non the less im really scared after hearing about all d weird questions! ill just say ni suim agam i gcursaí blah!