Language Level Assessment: My Experience

 Alas! Another post. Welcome back language learner.

Today I'd love to share with you about my experience doing a guided language level assessment with Azren from Azrenthelanguagenerd.com. He was very generous to offer time out of his day to help me identify my levels in 4 languages: Spanish, French, Italian and Mandarin. I learned a lot.

To begin, when I signed up for this assessment, I had no idea what kind of structure it would have. I just knew that I appreciated someone taking their time out of their busy schedule to do this with me FOR FREE. So nice. (By the way, this was offered on Instagram. I'm not special. Azren offers lots of free classes and things, so if you don't follow him, I would start! He also offers paid classes, so check those out too.)

But anyway, when I signed up, I was immediately nervous. Why? Why so nervous? Was I afraid that my levels would be lower than I expected? Was I afraid that I would be ousted to the language learning community as a fraud? Was I afraid that I've overestimated myself and my abilities and that my language learning methods actually do nothing? Probably YES to all of those. I felt serious impostor syndrome vibes creeping in.

I told myself I'd review my languages before the assessment to be ready in case he threw some complicated stuff my way. (I didn't do this by the way. I reviewed my Chinese textbook one hour before the meeting and watched one episode of Prince of Tennis. Imagine the emojis here.)

Ok, so I already knew when I started the Zoom meeting that I was a lazy language learner and there was a chance my levels were not as high as I expected.

So what were the outcomes?

Well, the assessment was based on the CEFR guidelines. I had to answer questions based on my abilities in each language to figure out my levels. I think this turns out better when you do this with another person, because if you do it on your own, you may just go to the level you think you are and agree with what it says, rather than answering honestly to the statements before knowing which level they correspond to. Azren could then provide specific exercises or examples to confirm or deny my ability in that area.

I ended up around where I expected. Spanish and French about B2 with strengths and weaknesses in different areas. (This is also considering if I had time to review/use French more often). Italian was B1, and Mandarin was A2+. I also haven't used Mandarin really in a few months so I had low expectations for myself.

I didn't test myself on ASL, Swahili or Portuguese, because they are either A1 or I don't use them enough to know what my level is. I'd love to get back to ASL soon though.

What I learned:

1. I need to spend more time in situations with native speakers. I watch a lot of tv with the Language TV Club with native speakers in it, but then I don't go and participate in the show, although I'm sure the actors would love that.

2. Sometimes you need someone to bring you back to reality. I'm a very optimistic person, and I think that I am capable of many things if I put my mind to it, but I think it's helpful to be kept in check.

3. Knowing your levels can be helpful. I don't believe that knowing your levels is super important, but I think it helps motivate you to learn more when you realize how much more you could be doing with that language. I also think it's helpful for real-life situations, for example, if you want to apply to a job using that language.

4. I should probably do actual learning activities more often. Remember that Advanced Spanish Grammar book I was using? Still haven't finished that final review chapter. It's just the review! But at this point, I'm going to just have to do the whole book over again because it's been so long. 

5. Once you get to B2 level, the learning activities to keep improving are a lot harder. It really takes mental effort I think. There are many resources out there to help you get to C1, but the path is more vague. It differs for each person depending on your skills and interests. This part can become very tedious, boring and taxing, unless you get creative.

6. I've always thought that by having natural experiences with the language, my level would naturally go up over time. But I am thinking now that I may need more focused activities for these languages. Or, perhaps, I just need WAY more time with them.

I'm left with this question. Do I continue learning new languages like Swahili? Or should I go back and really try to improve the ones I already speak? Let me know what you think I should do in the comments below.

Thanks for reading about my experience! Have you had a similar experience? What activities best helped get you to C1? Do you think I should continue to C1 or just be happy with B2?