Tag Archives: Canada

French update: Standard conjugation, the hypothese, and pronoun replacement (#2017-009)

PolyWogg.ca
March 13 2017

Mostly a summary of rules to remember around the various conjugations in present, hypothesis forms, some useful vocabulary to remember for nuances, and replacement pronouns.

GENERAL FRENCH REVIEW
B. Standard conjugationsAvoir
J’ai
Tu as
Il/elle/on a
Nous avons
Vous avez
Ils/elles ont
être
Je suis
Tu es
Il / elle / on est
Nous sommes
Vous êtes
Ils / elles sont
Parler
Je parle
Tu parles
Il/elle/on parle
Nous parlons
Vous parlez
Ils/elles parlent
C. Verb tensesWith the “si” (hypothesis), there are three choices:
Si je suis…(present) –j”accepterai… (future)
Si j’étais…(imparfait) –j’accepterais…(conditional)
Si j’avais été…(plus que parfait) –j”aurais accepté…(conditional passé)
Only really the second one is needed for the exam.
D. Common verbsDemander qqch, mais poser une question
E. Useful vocabularyDéposer — to drop something or someone off somewhere (Je dépose mon enfant a l’ecole);
Porter — to wear something, to carry something somewhere, or to support something;
Apporter — to take something with you;
Amener — to bring someone;
Ramener — to bring someone back;
Tableau blanc, tableau d’affichage — white board, notice board
Bureau/espace à aires ouvertes — open air office
Cubicle — cubique? cubicule? poste de travail modulaire?
F. Specialized vocabularyAboutir — successful result to a negotiation (usually conjugated in the past with avoir) — Les négociations ont abouti;
Des formules de travail de rechange — alternative work arrangements;
G.
… Read the rest

French update: Using DuoLingo (#2017-007)

PolyWogg.ca
March 12 2017

Just over two years ago, perhaps closer to three, I started using DuoLingo as a way just to keep my mind occupied with French. I have no grand illusions that an app like this will make me “fluent”, and I feel the same way about even the more intensive programs like Rosetta Stone. I think they are good, but the only real way to learn a language is to use it in your daily life. Telling stories that are relevant to you, figuring out how to say something the way YOU would, not the way Jean-Pierre would if he was renting a car in Paris.

I was quite surprised with the program. I thought it would be completely along the lines of a refresher, and then I hit something that was a bit of a tiny awakening in an area that I thought was both easy and settled. The present tense. I mentioned in the last post (French update – Screwing up the conditional (#2017-006)) a bit about the present tense seeming to me to be a bit “too active”.

For example, I mentioned that the phrase in french, in the present, for eating is “je mange”. Officially translated, that is “I eat” in English.… Read the rest

French update: Screwing up the conditional (#2017-006)

PolyWogg.ca
March 12 2017

Back in the day, when I started my french training, I struggled with the five main verb tenses as many new students do. While the present tense is always considered the easiest, I confess that I always found it a bit abrupt. For example, “je mange” which translates simply as “I eat”. It isn’t the normal “voice” we would use in English, at least not most of the time. We CAN use it, in context, such as where someone might be talking about avoiding unhealthy snacks, and they might say, “If I get hungry during the day, I eat an apple instead.”  However, in general, we would more likely say, “I’ll eat an apple”, or, out of that context, simply “I am eating an apple” to describe it in the present. A slightly more passive voice which describes the action rather than takes the action.

With passé composé vs. imparfait, I struggled not necessarily with the rules but with the actual usage – I tend to speak in a passive voice in English, and in my view, that requires the imparfait for the past. I am “describing” what happened in the past, and the imparfait always seems more natural to me, even when a situation clearly calls for passé composé.… Read the rest

French update: Understanding the two exams (#2017-005)

PolyWogg.ca
March 9 2017

Okay, so I know WHAT the tests look like and what I have to practice. I spent a lot of time tonight that seemed almost wasted, although mostly it was identifying certain phrases that I need to simply memorize the structure of, and to recognize them when they show up in the test.

EXAM PREPARATIONS
K. Written Exam, Part 1The first part is a “fill in the blank” option … there is a gap in a phrase where I have 4 choices of a word to place in the sentence. Other times it is a long phrase. The farther I go in the test, the harder the practice questions become. I don’t know if that happens in the actual test. While there are no “tricks”, there are certain small elements to watch for such as concordance of verbs, verb tenses, prepositions, vocabulary, or sometimes, “faux amis” (false friends where a word in English is used, as an anglicism, rather than the real french word).
L. Written Exam, Part 2The second part is “identify the error”, if there is one. There is a paragraph with three sub-phrases highlighted. I have to choose which one of them has an error in it, or if none do, to choose “aucune” error.
… Read the rest

French update: Training for my exams (#2017-003)

PolyWogg.ca
March 7 2017

I was finally able to get the one-on-one french training started last week (some long delays due to administrative inertia followed by a few weeks of figuring it out with the new approach to delivery followed by a mixup that delayed me two more weeks), and the first week went about as I expected. I’m pretty rusty, my pronunciation is off (too anglo-sounding for some of the words), and I’m not using enough “mots liens” (linking words) to give myself a good structure. I have confirmed however that my three strengths remain — large vocabulary (with good retention), good flow (“mon debit”) and willingness to speak / elaborate. Lots of people trying for their “C” levels in government have blocks to their progression — some speak in stutter-steps i.e. start and stop, start and stop, start and stop as they search for words and structure; some have limited vocabulary specific to a work area, for example, and have trouble going beyond to talk about stories from their past; or some have both of the first two and combine it with a general inability or unwillingness to elaborate to say anything other than short answers.

I have never had a problem to speak in English, nor to elaborate, and as a result, those aren’t my blockages.… Read the rest

French update: Structure for my written review (#2017-002)

PolyWogg.ca
January 12 2017

I’ve been working on my structure for my review of French to support my next written test. Lots to review, but since a lot of it will be all over the place, with multiple tools, I need a structure to figure out what exactly I’m “reviewing”. It will also be the basis for future oral review too, so I’m trying keep some of those things in mind too.

Here are the categories I’m anticipating using for my note-taking:

  1. Standard conjugations — Avoir and Être of course, plus about five or six other common ones;
  2. Verb tenses — standard ones plus “linking” phrases for the past that require certain forms…I frequently have trouble with passé compose vs. imparfait, partly as I use a passive voice in English (including this sentence!), and as a result, often I would be using imparfait for a description. But the instructors kept telling me it had to be PC instead, yet the real problem was not verb tense but my tendency towards a passive voice in any language which requires imparfait to sound right to me…a simple solution? there are certain common phrases that when you use them to introduce a description, the rest of it HAS to be imparfait, so when I started using them in conversation, i.e.
… Read the rest

French update: The new plan (#2017-001)

PolyWogg.ca
January 9 2017

For my last update, I finished with “I’m going to blog my way through my re-certification process, from low-level beginner back to moderately fluent. Wish me luck…”. Fast-forward 8 months, and not much changed. I pushed for training, and ran into massive administrative inertia as to what I was supposed to do for training. They’ve been working to update the policy, and in the meantime, my training request went nowhere.

I was initially assessed back in August or September and they recommended 52 weeks of training, 6 hours per week of self-study and 3 hours of practice. Not exactly the speed I was looking for. Plus I was supposed to be a priority. Try again, different process, okay, now they say 3 weeks full-time one on one initially, just need the paperwork. Five weeks later, I was still waiting for the paperwork, and when we pushed yet again, they said, “Oh, right, well we don’t do it that way any more, now it has to be a 12 week course.” Pushed again, and they said, “okay, 12 weeks, starting the end of January”, take it or leave it. Four times the cost in salary, plus not what their own assessors told me I needed.… Read the rest

Articles I Like: Thoughts on the publishing industry in Canada

PolyWogg.ca
December 16 2016

Back in September, Carla Douglas published an article on the website “Publishing Perspectives” interviewing Merilyn Simonds on the state of publishing in Canada (A Leader in Canadian Writing Takes Stock of Self-Publishing). When I saw the title, I thought, “Cool, must read that.” Then I saw Simonds’ former job as chair of The Writers Union of Canada and thought, “Oh. Maybe not.”

I am not a giant fan of TWUC or their approaches to some issues. Like the Author’s Guild in the U.S., many of the members are sheep who think the publishing world is still flat and haven’t noticed that Amazon’s disruption was in giving authors the opportunity to bypass traditional publishing and go direct to readers, often with not only greater ease of access but also greater revenues. This of course is the 3rd sign of the Apocalypse for the Author’s Guild who surprisingly support the position of agents and publishers on issues almost 1:1. Considering those three groups have some issues that divide them pretty substantially for self-interest, the alignment is often puzzling at best or frustrating in the mild or infuriating in the worst.

So I almost didn’t read the article. Kind of a “yep, read that, got the narrow view t-shirt, thanks”.… Read the rest

My experiences learning French: Part 6 – Slow descent into uselessness

PolyWogg.ca
April 11 2016

When I left off my last update, I fast-forwarded through seven years of non-use of my french at work. Non-use is a bit of an exaggeration, I use it occasionally, but I certainly don’t “work” in French. More like active listening in meetings. It’s even worse over the last 10 years as I’m working in planning. Almost all planning in government is done in English. I had a francophone director previously, and even he said he didn’t know any of the french terms for the various documents. Phrases like the Program Activity Architecture, now the Program Alignment Architecture, are shortened in speaking even in French to “le PAA” even though the french acronym is simply the inverse (AAP). But nobody says the words that spell out PAA or AAP, and even francophones pronounced the acronym as just the letters P-A-A (not pay-ah-ah). Sad, but true. None of the inputs I receive are written in french, none of the drafts coming from other branches are in french. Once they reach a certain degree of “finality”, they are all translated, but francophones face a daunting level of anglo-ization in the planning world.

I still suck at what I call short-term transactional french. Simple interactions, short bursts, with admin staff for example are really challenging for me…I’ve always struggled that my french improves after about 3-5 minutes, but if the interaction lasts only 1 or 2, how do you “improve”?… Read the rest

My experiences learning French: Part 5 – Use it or lose it

PolyWogg.ca
December 15 2015

After all that hard work, all the stress, I didn’t use my french much at work. I really felt uncomfortable displaying my crappy language ability with my professional colleagues, and over time, I got more and more rusty. I was fine for reading, I was fine for listening somewhat in meetings (I can understand enough in context, as long as multiple people aren’t speaking at the same time and I can actually hear what is being said and it isn’t rapid fire speed!). But I rarely spoke it.

Fast forward five years, I was looking at promotions and things. And I needed to renew my oral and written french. Written was simple, a mild review and I got my B again. For my oral, I wanted to go on a refresher course before my test and my boss offered me 2 months of full-time to see if I could get my C (which I would need to move up). I figured C was impossible, not even on the radar, but a few weeks doing my B refresher would be great.

I went to a private school this time, and I was one on one with the teacher. Face to face. Nowhere to hide.… Read the rest

My experiences learning French: Part 4 – My B level test

PolyWogg.ca
December 15 2015

I met my tutor for breakfast, we had a quick conversation in french to get me ready, and off I went.

This was my third attempt. When we all did the first attempt, we went in cocky. We had heard there was an examiner named Jacques, “Jacques le Couteau” was his nickname, and we all wanted Jacques. We were ready, send in the heavyweight. None of us had him and we all failed. For the second test, it was just a blur. For my third test, I just wanted out. I was a bundle of nerves, and I was focused on remembering my structures, rules, stories even. I was ready, but still nervous. I was introduced to the examiner, and he said, “Bonjour, je m’appelle Jacques” and I just about soiled myself.

Jacques? Anyone but Jacques! I was doomed.

We started off a bit rusty, I was reeling with it being Jacques, but I recovered when we moved past the chitchat warmup and into the actual test. I was ready. I had my techniques ready. I knew how to tell a story, and open doors where I could talk about more in that area, while shutting others that I didn’t want to get tangled up in.… Read the rest

Because that’s the job

PolyWogg.ca
November 1 2015

I’d really like to call this post something else, but it’s time I stopped holding back on what some people think is their God-given right to complain about how they think the public servant’s job should be done, and that all public servants will “obviously” agree. What triggered my lack of inhibition? Johanna Read’s incredibly biased and non-factual article in today’s Ottawa Citizen (Read: Trudeau is ready but the public service isn’t).

Let’s break her argument down, because there are very few points I can agree with as a career civil servant.

  1. Public service has been cut too far;
  2. Public service is gagged and under-utilized i.e. “scientists”;
  3. Public service is demoralized by previous government;
  4. Accountability measures created by civil servants pushed decision-making upward;
  5. Core business is fearless policy advice;
  6. Challenges in loyally implementing decisions;
  7. Public service values in treating each other are lower;
  8. No market for advice under previous Prime Minister;
  9. Public service policy is now about power games, cliques, and close-mindedness due to empire-building;
  10. Therefore public service is not ready as capacity has been weakened and need management agenda for culture change, including new values, new attitudes, new behaviours.

Not all scientists are created equal

Let’s start with the second one first — scientists are gagged.… Read the rest

Articles I Like: Muzzling government scientists

PolyWogg.ca
April 2 2013

Most people who know me might think that since I have a pretty strong view about what limitations on freedom of speech look like and don’t look like for government workers, and that I even blog about stuff related to government, I would likely tilt against the current windmill of supposed Government censorship or muzzling of “scientists”, as the argument is aptly captured in the press (Information watchdog to investigate policies that ‘muzzle’ government scientists | CTV News.)

The argument from other windmill-tilters is pretty straight forward:

  1. Science is pure, non-political
  2. Science research by the government is paid for by taxpayers
  3. Taxpayers should have access to science research they paid for
  4. Ergo, government scientists should always be able to talk to the press and all research reports should be readily available.

Well, let’s look at those premises a bit more closely.

Science is pure and non-political? Actually, it is not and never has been. What a scientist chooses to study and what they decide is relevant or significant is as fraught with a personal subjective choice as any field of endeavour. It’s why they teach courses like “researcher bias” for scientists and “policy myopia” for policy wonks. This is totally separate too from the internal politics of any organization, non-governmental or governmental, that researchers think their work is the most important and that they should be fully funded, no reason to budget or conserve resources or fund-raise.… Read the rest

A dark blue suit with Birkenstocks

PolyWogg.ca
March 22 2013

Each year, thousands of people compete for jobs at the Department of Foreign Affairs. But, while many are called, few are chosen (100-ish). Yet yesterday, DFAIT’s ranks swelled by 1800 people, most of whom no doubt greeted the news with a lot less enthusiasm than DFAIT’s normal hirings. With the announcement that CIDA was being “folded” into DFAIT, many are stressed that this sounds a death knell for development, that all principles of development will go out the window, and that CIDA will essentially disappear. Fortunately, the announcements of CIDA’s death may be a bit premature.

Some broader context, timelines up until 1998

Prior to WWII, most “economic development history” consisted of experiences with colonization, not development assistance as we know it. International development in its modern form actually began with Foreign Affairs types. When WWII ended, and reconstruction began in Europe, people thought, “Hey, we just need to do the same thing in developing countries, and it will work.” They neglected to take into account that European reconstruction worked because Europe already had working systems that produced the development in the first place, experience in managing it, and a tax and resource base to sustain it. Not surprisingly, the same methods didn’t work in developing countries and the early 1960s saw those same DFAIT types who had been struggling with a lack of success starting to think there was a need for separate organizational entities to deal with this type of issue.… Read the rest

Articles I Like: E-book lawsuit in Canada

PolyWogg.ca
April 24 2012

Marsha Lederman had an interesting article in the Globe and Mail on April 18th trying to put a Canadian spin on the charges in the U.S. of collusion and price-fixing by the Big Six publishers (Harper Collins, MacMillan, Penguin, Random House, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster) with Apple. Just to be clear, there are TWO lawsuits in the U.S. — a class-action civil suit launched by “consumers” against this group for trying to raise ebook prices above Amazon’s preferred ceiling of $9.99 (targeting all six plus Apple) and a completely separate Department of Justice civil suit that targets everyone in that list except Random House. I’m not including separate state plans in that list.

Here’s an excerpt from Lederman:

A proposed class-action lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court by the Vancouver firm Camp Fiorante Matthews Mogerman alleges that Apple Inc. and a number of publishers engaged in a “conspiracy” to lessen competition and “fix, maintain, increase or control the prices of e-books.” It is the most recent of at least five such suits filed recently in courts in Ontario, Quebec and B.C.

It also alleges that the defendants or their representatives communicated secretly, in person and by phone, to discuss and fix e-book prices, in the lead-up to the introduction of Apple’s iPad, which can function as an eReader, in April of 2010.In

… Read the rest

Priority referrals from PSC: A new pilot project…

PolyWogg.ca
January 23 2012

It’s not that often that you see the Public Services Commission doing something innovative, but a new pilot project that starts today may qualify. And with all things HR-related, the impact may turn out to be either good or bad for employees on a referral list, depending on how the theory translates into practice.

So here’s the quick background you need to know first. When someone is declared surplus for whatever reason (relocation, program was cut, etc.), they can be put on a priority list for future jobs. Then, when any jobs come up in their region that match their skill sets, they’ll get referred to the hiring manager as a highly-possible hire. Unlike a regular applicant though where a hiring manager decides if a candidate meets the essential experience requirements and then invites them into a selection process (i.e. “screens” them in), a priority referral really IS a priority — if they meet the requirements, then the hiring manager MUST hire them. Good for the employee, they get a new job; good for the hiring manager, finding someone qualified really fast. Of course, there are lots of little tricks and tips on how a hiring manager may deem that the person does NOT meet the requirements if they want to screen them out, but in theory, if a priority candidate meets the requirements, screening them “in” basically means offering them the job.… Read the rest

Understanding “surplus” designations for federal public service…

PolyWogg.ca
January 23 2012

So, the federal Public Service is downsizing. Which means they are going to cut staff. And like all large bureaucracies, there are bureaucratic terms to understand what it means if you get “laid off”, so to speak. But wait, you say you have a letter appointing you in the first place to an indeterminate position, presumably “permanent”? Except that isn’t what “indeterminate” means. It means of “undetermined length of time”. Now, they’re telling you the real length of time. So you’re done sometime perhaps soon. Or are you?

How do you get downsized? Well you can be subject to “workforce adjustment” if the government decides to:

  • cut your position due to lack of work (i.e. they cut your job’s functions, often by cutting your program);
  • they’re moving the job somewhere else and you refused to go; or,
  • they’re implementing an alternative delivery initiative (usually contracting it out or automating, but not always).

So, you are workforce-adjusted, and you fall into one of three new status categories:

  1. “Affected” — this means you’ve got a letter that says your services MAY NOT be required…think of this as a “warning shot”. The good news is that it allows you to be put on “priority” lists within a department to allow you to apply for other jobs;
  2. “Surplus” — this means you’ve got a letter that says your services WILL NOT be required…direct hit.
… Read the rest