merde!

[arethinn]

I've been wondering whether I should bother learning some French and trying to gain points for second official Canadian language spoken (my first official language being English, of course) on the Canadian immigration assessment. The maximum number of points I could earn would be 8 (2 points each in 4 categories), but that would indicate real facility with the language and I doubt I could achieve that without having at least a year of college-level French behind me, possibly more. If I were to take a single quarter, it would probably be quite optimistic to hope for 4 points (1 point each in the 4 categories), but I suppose it's possible; more realistic might be that I could get 1 or 2 points. Since my current point total is right at the pass mark of 67, I am kind of paranoid about it, since if the government should decide to raise the pass mark for any reason, I instantly become ineligible and my whole application process up to this point would be forfeit (although they would have to give me my CAD$975 Right of Permanent Residence Fee back, and that's worth more US dollars now than when I paid for it in the first place, ha ha).

However, I am not sure if the cost-benefit analysis points to this actually being a good idea:

1. Cost to enroll in class at De Anza: $118.50 ($17/unit, basic fees, lab fee)
2. Cost of textbook and audio materials: unknown, but let's call it $100
3. Cost of the official language ability test I have to take to actually be able to earn the points: $295

So do I really want to pay $513.50 for a possibility of getting some points? ($128.38 per point if I got 4! If only I could just send CIC the money and buy them...) Now that I've written it down, I really don't think so. If I could be sure of getting the full 8, I would probably go for it. Damn it, I knew I should have started French classes as soon as I sent in the application. By now I would be quite proficient and could probably be pretty sure of getting a good number of points. At the time I thought "well, I wouldn't have enough time before this goes through to learn very much French anyway." And now look at where I am. Feh! (Granted, I would have also spent probably close to $1000 just for the instruction and materials in that time, so when you add in the exam cost as well, it's actually $160.78 per point. You can't win for losing! But they would all be in a lump, so the cost per point is more worth it in a practical sense for 8 points than it is for 1-2.)

Comments

[glitterychaos.livejournal.com]

If only I still had my french books! Yes, I know, silly me, I took beginning french. It isn`t so hard to learn to read it, on your own, with the right books and such. But I`ve no idea if they`d be looking for fluency, or conversational ability. If for fluency, I doubt even I would pass, but conversational french is easier to learn. SJCC offers special conversational language classes that quickly teach you to speak the language well enough to get by, donno if De Anza does but it might be worth looking in to. Depending on where in Canada you are going to, the investment to learn to speak it may well be worth it even aside from the points. From where I come from, its bilingual in name only and someone who doesn`t know french would be completely lost and unable to function. Even in actually bilingual areas, if you plan to make your permanent residence there, knowing french is useful. :)

If you do take a french class and need help, let me know, I`m currently brushing up on my own french skills myself.

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

But I`ve no idea if they`d be looking for fluency, or conversational ability.

I am not sure what you mean by this. Conversational ability is part of the test (the four sections are speaking, listening, writing, and reading). Someone who was truly fluent should be able to get high scores in all four areas.

If by "conversational" you meant a level of proficiency, i.e., "enough to function, but might be ungrammatical or not well-formed", well, I'm not sure what their criteria for the top scores would be. The test is administered by an independent agency and the purpose is to judge one's overall proficiency in French, so I would assume they are "looking for" fluency and that being only "conversational" would get you lower scores.

Depending on where in Canada you are going to, the investment to learn to speak it may well be worth it even aside from the points.

Well, no one seems to speak French in the area of Ontario I am heading to (and future plan is to move out west, where Chinese or Japanese or something would surely be more useful than French), and I don't have any plans to go to Quebec ever (I have an acquantaince there and I know secondhand what you mean about needing French there). But that said, if I wind up in universities or libraries, being able to speak French might be heavily favoured if not required for a given work position.

[tiggrrl.livejournal.com]

If you really can buy the points just as cheaply, I'd say hold on to the money. If it's cheaper to pay to potentially get them, I might do it just to have the backup in case the points requirement gets raised.

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

Don't I wish! I was kidding when I said "I wish I could just buy the points". They don't have any such system. I guess it implied the problem was the money and not that, well, the idea is nonsense, heheh.