It was finally March 28th. I
would not say I got all nervous about it, yet this is, after all, a test. I
certainly would not want to be late, so I set my alarm clock to 6:40. And,
believe it or not, it took me 44 minutes to finish my routine, (just) including morning no. 1 (you know, pee), face washing, teeth brushing, breakfast making and
consuming (five-minute instant noodle), sweater and coat donning, shoes
changing, and making sure I have everything necessary in my bag (trying hard to list everything, so that it
seems that I am actually not that slow a person. lol).
It was another hour later when I finally
got to the language assessment centre on Grosvenor (and yeah, I was going to a language assessment centre for my LINC class.
Didn’t mention that before? Oh well…).
I reported to the staff, and was told to sit somewhere to wait. About 5 minutes
later, my language assessor (assessor, I
just learned this word today, I thought I should call her teacher or coach lol),
a beautiful woman, called me and led me to an office. Before we started (I
actually thought we HAD already started), we small-talked a little, about
stuffs like the heavy rain last night. And to my surprise, she could pronounce
my Vietnamese name after only 2 demonstrations from me.
During our listening and speaking tests, on
a topic about comparison between Toronto and my home city, I learned that she
had been to Ho Chi Minh City! I was saying pedestrians are more comfortable
(for lack of a better word, limited vocabulary…) in Toronto, then she said she
totally understands, because when she was in HCMC, she would spend a long time
standing there, not daring to cross the street. After the listening and
speaking tests, she led me to a larger room where other test-takers were
finishing their writing and reading tests. And there I started panicking,
because the third task of the writing asked me to discuss a topic, and
discussing is never my thing. I ended up not finishing the third one due to
time limit. The last test was reading. The tasks got more and more difficult as
I progressed, passages containing many words that I did not know (and honestly
I came across and learned some of them before, just could not remember them).
When time was up, I left the last (29th) question uncircled, over which
I spent three or so minutes poring. (The last two tests have a thirty-minute
limit each. The test ended at 9:55)
Then I went outside sitting on the same
bench where I sat when registered. About 20 minutes later, we got back to her
office (and I later figured out that during my writing and reading tests, she
was actually going to meet a new test-taker for their listening and speaking.
So busy). In there, she showed me my result. I got 6s in listening and writing,
a 7 in speaking and an 8 in reading (According to a piece of informative paper
provided by the centre, the benchmark system has 12 benchmarks (benchmark, meaning level, learned it
before, but again, I forgot it), and the assessment measures our ability of
using English within the first 8 benchmarks. Probably because the last four are
for advanced English speakers). Then she gave me some addresses of school near
my postal code and explained what their courses were about.
Now when I think back, there was this one
thing I usually do not like doing and never do it before somebody starts it. Shaking
hands (yeah, I know it is socially essential, but I just…meh). BUT, when we were done, I automatically
stretched out my right hand, so naturally that I did not even notice it until
now, when I am typing. I guess there are indeed some situations where you
really appreciate somebody that you will do things you normally would not (like
SHAKING HANDS, lol).
Before I left, I asked her a question that
had nothing to do with the event. An expression I heard when opening bank
accounts and said it for the first time to somebody (to her). It was if am I good to go is an appropriate way to
ask. Am
I good to go? It basically means is
everything done? I can go home now? And she said something that really
encourages me. She said I had used it correctly. It was informal but it was
good, because that meant I am rather good at speaking English (Not boasting but a big smile on that : ))
I left the centre at about 10:43.
If ever asked advice on this, I would say just like any tests, relax. I think it will be really stressing to speak in a non-native language in tests. But seriously, all you can do is to relax, and talk just like when you do with your friends. Your friends will not make fun of or laugh at you. Well, even though sometimes they do, they will correct you after that. Do not worry about making mistakes. I sometimes make mistakes when speaking in Cantonese, my first language. Everybody makes mistakes. And through them, you learn. There is no reason to get all nervous (well, a little bit is all right) about it. Just do your best.
And I actually made a video about this (basically for practicing English~) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELGg-EVdtYw
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