For the last few months I'd been inflicting a curious experiment on myself. Annoyed at the lack of results in my to-date language learning - tangible results, not just pride and satisfaction - I decided to put myself to the test. It was an actual test in fact. I decided to attempt a CILS exam, which is a standardized test given to foreigners studying Italian. I passed something similar years ago in German (Goethe Institute) and in English (TOEFL), when I needed to prove to the friendly and oh-so-welcoming Canadians that despite a foreign Master's degree, I will be able to benefit from their higher education also.
I've been questioning the validity of such tests ever since - if only because German leaked out of my life almost to nothing despite the piece of paper saying I know 99,7% of it (that makes me wonder what level that was since I got such score...), and English took 2 more years to really seep into it after I got another quite high result in the interestingly speechless TOEFL.
My attempt at CILS level B1 (level which I self-established of course) was done after almost no outside instruction and about 5 months of self-instruction. Aside from the doubtful pleasure and usefulness of a conversation class I mentioned here at some point, I received no instruction of a classroom character. I did benefit from various materials provided by Ewcia, but I have yet to say a word in Italian to that patient woman. Who, by the way, is not insisting and allows me to do things as slowly and as "cagingly" as I please.
Preparing for it was easy enough - I just decided to finally put to use all those countless textbooks, grammar books, language courses on CDs and in MP3 format, and thematic dictionaries that have been weighing down my bookshelves so much over the years that recently I had to move them to the bottom. I have to say that I actually used most of the stuff I accumulated over the years.
Pimsleur Complete Italian course was my main source of audio/speaking exercises. I started at level IIA, went on to IIB, IIIA and finally almost finished IIIB right before the exam. For grammar the best source I found was Italian Grammar Drills by Paola Nanni-Tate. The explanations were most consistent and the abundance of exercises really gave me not just the illusion of, but real confidence this time. Interestingly, I found the Italian Verb Drills by the same author quite useless - the type of exercises there taught me the verbs I wanted to learn but mostly out of context. I was still at a loss trying to use them in a sentence. I also used Practice Makes Perfect: Complete Italian Grammar by professor Marcel Danesi but among other things, I found its treatment of prepositions lacking in many ways. I decided that even a phrasebook isn't stooping too low, so I went with the Lonely Planet Italian phrasebook that gave me a nice smattering of phrases that were quite useful and again gave me the feeling that I was learning something that can actually be used in real life. Michel Thomas Italian audio course played a big part too - especially at the crucial moment when I was making up my mind whether I will ever actually say one word in that language. Michel Thomas gave me the courage.
It will take 3 months before I know if I passed the test. I think I may have - if listening comprehension didn't kill me. Most importantly though, as part of the test, I spoke to a person in Italian! It was my first time. I can imagine less stressful first attempts at speaking but somehow the planets did not align and I didn't manage it before the test.
Now the plan is to take it easy and keep plowing along. It's just that now instead of trying to learn everything at once, if only just a little, I will do it methodically and systematically and with slow delight. I gave myself a few days off but it's time to get back on that horse.
Especially since soon I'm adding German to the mix... At least with German there will be no fear of confusing the two, will there?
