B2.2

The results of yesterday's placement exam were posted this afternoon: I am at the B2.2 level. Translation: fairly high proficiency.

Most foreign students are in the general B level. A few highly advanced people (who've been living here for a year or two) place in the C level, but that's rather rare. Within B, 1 is the lower level and 2 is the upper level. Then, within B2 there's .0 .1 .2 and .5 - it's kind of a complex system, but that's the French for you.

I'm a little nervous about how high I placed (besides three other girls who placed the same as me, I'm the top of our group from Seattle U), but I'll try it out, and if it's too difficult I can be moved down.

We received the schedule of classes today as well. Each class meets once a week, for an hour and a half or two hours. Language classes are in the morning and culture classes in the afternoon. All of my language classes are assigned: Mondays and Wednesdays 10:40 - 12:30 and Tuesdays and Thursdays 8:30-10:20. We are to attend all (or the better part of) the afternoon culture classes (Contemporary French Lit, History of French Cinema, Francophone Literature and Culture, etc) for the next two weeks. After that, we'll each choose 2, in addition to the classes our program requires us to take: Contemporary French History, Vocabulary, and Paul Milan's class. Total, we'll be taking 5 afternoon culture classes.

This afternoon, we went to contemporary French lit, with M. Even. While it was difficult to understand the text, Albert Camus, right there on the spot, I enjoyed the professor. He is animated and asks for a decent amount of class participation - not what I was expecting from a French professor. I'll probably keep this course and sit the exam at the end of the semester.