To the Yahoo! FSOA Group: I know several people (including me, previously) have asked for information about the language test. Being a “detail” kind of guy, this will be a little lengthy.
A couple of weeks after passing the FSOA, I called to schedule a Spanish test. I figured it would take several weeks to get an appointment, but I was the one with schedule conflicts, so we agreed on a date a couple of weeks out. The available time was 9:00 a.m. Eastern (6:00 a.m. Pacific). I asked if there was something a little later in the morning, but was told they only test at 9:00.
I felt fairly confident with my Spanish. I took Spanish in high school, and 1 year in college. Then I lived for 2 years in Bolivia. After that, I ended up majoring in Spanish Translation and even teaching beginning Spanish as a TA in college. Of course, that was more than 20 years ago! But I’ve tried to keep up with it, including teaching a Management course a couple of times on an exchange at a university in Mexico.
Still, it couldn’t hurt to practice. Somewhere (perhaps on this board) I learned about a website with podcasts called NotesInSpanish.com. I loaded up my iPod, and listened to those as often as I could. I also set up a ½ hour one-on-one class with Marina, from Notes in Spanish.com, which costs 15 euros through PayPal. (She normally schedules 1 hour for 30 euros, but I’m on a tight schedule and budget these days.) We conversed over the Internet using Skype, which is free. This actually worked quite well. (I had practiced using Skype earlier with my daughter at college to test the technology.) Marina and I had a nice conversation. She asked about my work and interests, how I heard about their site, etc. She’ll discuss whatever topic at whatever level you’d like. I’m pleased to say she said my Spanish was excellent, including a good accent, and that she really didn’t have much to correct or suggest. In addition to this, I picked up a book of Spanish fiction on CD at the library, and listened to that on a long trip. I also read Spanish newspapers online – out loud. This is an important technique I used to recommend to my students: not only reading, but reading out loud.
Then it came time for my test. I called and was put on hold for just a minute. There were two interviewers – female native speakers. One served as the main interviewer, while the other did most of the talking. They kept having problems with their speaker phone – getting a good volume, etc. I also could tell that they were rattling papers and bumping the phone a lot, which caused my speech to break up and flustered them. When they asked me if I was using a cell phone, I told them I wasn’t (although I did have a headset for my regular phone so I could gesture if that would help me). I took off my headset and suggested they might be bumping the speakerphone. That settled down and it went more smoothly after that.
The interviewer told me they would have 3 parts to the test and would take “up to” 30 minutes. The first part was a conversation, asking me about my work, where I live, etc. While explaining part of my work, I used the word “subir” for “uploading” software. I heard one of them whisper the word questioningly, and I could almost hear them shrug their shoulders, although I know this is a legitimate computer term. I’m just guessing it was an unfamiliar “techy” term. So I quickly re-explained, using a different word. One of them asked me about a current event, so I started to comment. Then she went off on her own editorial comments, and I just politely chimed in now and then, giving what input I could since I was supposed to be demonstrating my speaking ability.
The second part was supposed to be where they give me a topic and I speak for a few minutes. But the interviewer said they had enough information and didn’t need to do that. I optimistically took that as a good sign. So they moved on to the third part, where I would interview the main speaker about her country, choosing one of five general topics, and then every little while, would explain to the interviewer in English what she was saying. The interviewer pointed out that this was a test of my comprehension, not an exercise in memorizing everything she said, so I should interrupt as needed to provide my interpretation. I took notes of keywords while I asked her several questions and carried on a conversation. The interviewer interrupted me and “suggested” I should translate now. So I gave a fairly good account of what the other person was telling me. Then we continued the conversation, and I interpreted again. Then the interviewer said we had come to the end. (And I thought it was just getting interesting!) The entire test lasted about 20 minutes. We thanked each other, and that was it. Unfortunately, the interviewers had no comments or results.
I felt very good about it. Even without my background and formal education, it would have seemed fairly easy. That is, it was conversational. There were some past tense verbs as part of the conversation, but they didn’t intentionally try to get me to do complex conjugations, such as “subjunctive pluscuamperfecto” (such as “Si yo hubiera estudiado más, habría aprobado.”).
I called Pat the next day to see how I did. Apparently I was wrong about how soon you get your results. She told me it would be at least a week before she got anything from them.
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