I would like to think that I am at an advanced level of Spanish, but I'm not. I just took two different online tests to assess my level of Spanish knowledge. On one of the tests (www.donquijote.org/spanishlanguage/test/) of the five levels (newbie, beginner, intermediate I, intermediate II, and advanced), I finished at the intermediate II level (I missed one too many questions to be at the advanced level). On the other test (www.geocities.com/athens/thebes/6177/spantest/spantest_intro.htm) of the four levels (beginner, beginner-intermediate, intermediate-advanced, and advanced), I ended up just shy of the advanced level (88% of a needed 90%).
Even though the two exams were very different in construction and in topic selection, I saw a reoccurring pattern: My vocabulary is fine (the two exams weren't particularly vocabulary oriented, or I would be wanting in all but a few areas of conversation) and my overall grammar (verb conjugations, use of subjunctive, general syntax, direct and indirect pronouns, etc.) is good, but I don't know the advanced idioms ("modismos") very well and I'm a little fuzzy on some of the finer points of grammar.
In my conversations with Rodrigo, my tutor, I make plenty of mistakes--including a lot of mistakes that I wouldn't make on a written exam or in written prose.
So what does this mean? It means that I need to keep studying. I'm going to continue studying Spanish during our mission and hopefully take a Spanish class or two at BYU when I get home.
Even though the two exams were very different in construction and in topic selection, I saw a reoccurring pattern: My vocabulary is fine (the two exams weren't particularly vocabulary oriented, or I would be wanting in all but a few areas of conversation) and my overall grammar (verb conjugations, use of subjunctive, general syntax, direct and indirect pronouns, etc.) is good, but I don't know the advanced idioms ("modismos") very well and I'm a little fuzzy on some of the finer points of grammar.
In my conversations with Rodrigo, my tutor, I make plenty of mistakes--including a lot of mistakes that I wouldn't make on a written exam or in written prose.
So what does this mean? It means that I need to keep studying. I'm going to continue studying Spanish during our mission and hopefully take a Spanish class or two at BYU when I get home.
1 comment:
Sounds like you're pretty advanced to me. Just think, you've got a 45 year head start on mom, so you can't feel too bad about it!
Post a Comment