My husband got his score on his oral exam today. He got a 3. No one else in the entire language program, in any of the languages, even Spanish, got a 3. He was the only one to score so high.
He is embarrassed that I am posting this, but I am tickled pink. Now let's just hope he can do as well on the written exam in two weeks.
And tomorrow he jumps out of an airplane. What a life he leads!
Posted by Sarah at January 23, 2008 07:52 PM | TrackBackHoly Moly! That is impressive! Will he qualify for FLP pay? I hope so.
Posted by: R1 at January 23, 2008 10:33 PMThe result sure came in quickly. Congratulations again!
Was that a 3 on the DLI scale?
http://www.dlielc.org/testing/opi_examinees.html
"Level '3' speakers can converse in formal and informal situations, resolve problem situations, deal with unfamiliar topics, provide explanations, describe in detail, offer supported opinions, and hypothesize. Speakers at this level use complex sentence structures with frequency and facility, and their broad vocabulary includes many abstract nouns. Their pronunciation and communication errors almost never interfere with a native speaker's understanding and listening comfort."
Going from zero to that in a short time is no easy task, particularly in a non-European language requiring more time to learn:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~wbaxter/howhard.html
I'm impressed.
Hope he gets to use this new skill!
Posted by: Amritas at January 24, 2008 01:45 AMIn case anyone is interested, here's a more detailed description of the DLI OPI scale going from 0 to 5:
http://www.dlielc.org/testing/opi_levels.html
4 looks like native-speaker level, and 5 is for nonnatives who can beat most natives at their own game.
According to Baxter's site, a Farsi learner requires 50% more time than a Spanish learner to reach level 2. I would guess that the gap doesn't narrow much at the higher levels, since higher-level Persian has more Arabic which is still alien to an English speaker, whereas higher-level European vocabulary becomes more recognizable since it's largely shared with English.
And the gap is also cultural. Understanding a non-European culture is harder than understanding a Western one. But I'm still impressed by second-language English speakers from Europe who have somehow learned seemingly every nuance of American culture - who can watch FAMILY GUY or SOUTH PARK and get most of the references.
Posted by: Amritas at January 24, 2008 02:03 AM*clap clap clap*
Posted by: airforcewife at January 24, 2008 06:58 AMWOW
Posted by: awtm at January 24, 2008 08:27 AMCONGRATS! :D
He is going to destroy the rest of the test. Awesome! :D
Posted by: deltasierra at January 24, 2008 01:56 PMHoly cow! Congratulations to him! I'm glad Amritas put the entire explanation up - that's mind blowing.
Posted by: Teresa at January 24, 2008 10:03 PM