A Conversation for Surviving Foreign Language Oral Examinations
Beware of personality clashes!
Maolmuire Started conversation Sep 8, 2004
Very good entry, brought back a lot of memories of 'oral exam dread'. Eugh. There is one other aspect of the oral exam which was missed, but thankfully does not seem to crop up very often: personality clashes.
A friend of mine who was fluent in the language being tested (he had spoken it from birth, well ok, maybe a *little* after that, but it was the primary language used at home) had a personality clash with the examiner. Those of us waiting outside anxiously for our turn could actually hear the heated debate which occurred between the two. None of us could follow it. He failed.
So remember, you are *not* there to debate the examiner, steer the coversation towards what you have prepared. For instance, if asked about President Bush and how good or bad you think he is, say 'he is from Texas, I would like to go to Texas on my holidays, last year I went to Greece on my holidays' etc. And yes, you should definitely have prepared just as in the entry.
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Beware of personality clashes!
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