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March 24, 2009
On Passing My French Exam... : Jared as PhD Student in Art History and Museum Studies
So I think it is only right that I set the record straight. I would hate to think that my shocking and surprising passing of the French foreign language exam would somehow be seen as a negative mark towards the department or the university.
To get a PhD in Art History a student is required to have 2 foreign languages. Usually one of these they already have when the come in with an MA - as my MA didn't require one - I started out as 'down by two'.
In Art History most people opt to take French and German. The logic is a sound one - most of the scholarship in Art History was written in French and German so being able to read these languages is essential to research. I buy this argument.
The department allows you to fulfill the language requirement by passing an exam. Traditionally this exam gives a student an essay in another language and a series of questions in English. Armed only with a dictionary and time the student then answers the questions in English thereby demonstrating their competency to understand the other language. A skill which I agree is essential for scholarship.
The scheduling of this exam has always been a nightmare for me - usually it has been short notice or when I have been teaching so I really haven't had a chance to take a crack at it.
Why would I? Well I think it would be useful to take and fail the exam just to get a flavor for what the exam is like. Sort of a 'Know Your Enemy' kind of logic.
While I do have some language experience in both Hebrew and Aramaic (probably stronger in Aramaic) they are not approved languages for Art History. I can't really blame them especially since they have opened up the languages a bit more to include more than just French and German as options.
Most of my friends and even some faculty have suggested that I propose that a computer language should count. As gutsy as I am - I would never had proposed this myself. I did however do some research and in some PhD programs where two languages are required - a computer language can sometimes count as one (as can International Sign Language). Regretfully, none of these programs were Art History and a department that wouldn't accept Aramaic isn't going to accept Pascal. (Plus, who would do the testing?)
I have finished my coursework as a PhD student. And yes, over the years I have cracked a book or two that hasn't been in English. The online translation services like babelfish.yahoo.com as well as my skills with a dictionary have served me to a point. I have been to France on 4 separate occasions - one of them traveling alone for 3 weeks - and a few words popped in here and there. As I prepare for my 5th trip to France I spend a lot of time at French websites - it is about survival.
This doesn't mean I can speak French. But it is like someone who doesn't know how to type - I can 'hunt and peck' French when I need to.
However as I can't actually get my degree without two languages I knew I would have to do something. So I signed up for French 101.
The irony of the situation - which has been a constant source of frustration for me - is that 6 credits of Intro French can be used instead of passing the French Exam. Why is it ironic? Because while two semester of conversational French will help you read it better - the courses are designed to help you speak it. Case Western does not offer a French Readings course designed to help humanities students read French. The other irony is that the policy for French 101 at Case Western is that you don't get credit for it until you pass French 102. Each of these courses is 4 credits so to fulfill the required 6 credits you need to take 8.
Regardless it was my really my only out - so as I said - I signed up for French 101. It is a lot of work. I mean a tremendous amount of work. As it should be - I am sure. But it isn't something you can cram into once a week and my life just wasn't keeping up with it - so I had to drop it.
Shortly after dropping it - I took the French exam. This was my first attempt and I took it so I could say I was doing something (I had just dropped French) and to see what it was like. The article was on Rodin and I felt pretty good about getting through the questions. I mean I felt really good. I thought I had passed it. When I got the results saying I hadn't, I was pretty disappointed.
The next semester they only gave us one weeks notice about the exam and I had a conflict so I was unable to try again. I knew I have to do something about these language requirements - it really is the next hurdle before comps, prospectus, and thesis. This semester I am teaching three academic courses so I just told everyone I was putting it all on hold till the summer and that I would then look into an online course that fell under the department's requirements.
To give the department credit - when I asked about online courses they originally said "no" but finally came back with a firm set of criteria under which it would be possible. Flexible but firm - I can do that.
I was also told that because of the very short notice given for the previous exam that the department would issue their own language exam to better fit what they wanted from us. They would provide an essay and we would translate it. They also gave us three months warning. Which is great for scheduling but as I said I was really too busy to study.
As many of you know - well anyone who gets this far in this posting would know - I was recently given an arts grant by the Maison Française de Cleveland Fund to help support an expedition to France to film "Of Castles and Crepes: A Documentary of French History and Culture". This will be my fifth trip to France and it involves a great deal of preparation which means many French websites as well as phone calls to France. As much as I joke about only being able to say "I don't speak French - do you speak English" and "Fork, please" I am a tad better than that.
So the exam came up again and I scheduled to take it. My logic was two-fold. First, so when someone said how is your PhD coming I could answer "Well I failed the French exam again" and second so I could see how the department language exam was. At the exam they handed us blue books and an article by Professor Landau on Deconstructing and Reconstructing Cindy Sherman. I would argue, having taken critical theory with Dr. Landau, that the article would have been challenging to read in English. Its a tough subject that Dr. Landau knows well, so it would be a hard read. I just went through it step by step. I felt comfortable with what I was translating and I got a nice amount of the way through it. At the end, when we were down to five minutes, I bluffed a few lines, figured it couldn't hurt.
I left the exam as relaxed as I entered it. I had no expectations of passing partially because of my disappointment of failing it the last time. I had done what I needed to do - I took the exam and didn't make a fool out of myself and went off to lunch.
When I received the notice that I passed I was in shock. I waited a few hours for a retraction and when it didn't come I celebrated like you wouldn't believe. But over the past few days I have come to realize that joking about it might make the department look bad and I felt it deserved one last analysis.
It is true that I am not fluent in French. But when equipped with the proper tools I can understand what I need to. This is the skill that the department wants and which I think I have demonstrated.
If I am deluding myself and it was a mistake - then I say this:
"No take backs!"
Next stop! Spanish! (I can count in it!)
Posted by jeb2 at March 24, 2009 10:20 AM
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