I'm really not sure how much sense you're going to get out of me over the course of the next two weeks. I've really begun to obsess about my test on 16 March.
In the Commission's rather quaint parlance it's known as the test de passage, which makes it sound a bit like a Bar mitzvah or some other coming-of-age ceremony, but the reality is rather more brutal.
You have a test, where you get to interpret four short speeches. If you fail to interpret them to a sufficiently high standard, you fail the test. If you fail the test, you lose the right to work for the Commission as a freelance interpreter. (Also rather quaintly referred to as a changement de statut).
You can try again, but you have to wait a while, normally at least six months.
So I think you can probably imagine that most people would have a fair amount of nervous energy coursing through their veins at a time like this. When faced with this sort of all-or-nothing challenge, there's the temptation to spend every waking moment working. That French news programme or Dutch newspaper might contain just the word which could otherwise trip you up - can you afford not to read it?
But clearly therein lies the road to madness. The right thing to do is to find a compromise between channelling your nervous energy into work on the one hand and keeping your mental health on the other.
Or at least, that's the theory. Anyway, I'd better go... Y'a que la vérité qui compte is just about to start on TF1, and it's very good for colloquial French expressions...
Posted by Eurodan at March 1, 2004 9:41 PMI'm sure your social life combines relaxation with stretching your linguistic abilities. I don't imagine you spend evenings out with a bunch of ex-pats at an English bar? But perhaps it's your English that you're worried about? ;-)
Best of luck for the 16th, though as with every previous such hurdle, you probably won't need it.
Posted by: Shyboy at March 1, 2004 9:59 PMOh, and when you pass, do we all get invites to your "passage" party?
Posted by: Shyboy at March 1, 2004 10:00 PM