Orally Satisfied?

md99

Who is happy with how their first oral went... and whose not?

Enemy Of Fate

Hmmmm.......I detect hidden innuendo in this topic.......Huh.Seriously though I had my first (and thankfully last) oral exam today.

It was my german oral today and it actually went really, really well.General questions went great, although I made a slight mistake and then a large mistake.My slight mistake was right when I went in.I said my name and then he asked me my exam number and I said ''Meneir Prufungnumber ist Ein hundert sechsunddreissig, five hundred siebenundsiebzig'', and then there was a big pause when I released what i'd done, but he was a really nice guy (he was actually German.From Stuttgart) and he just kinda waved it on.My other mistake was worse though.He asked me something like ''when is the weather best in Ireland?''.......only problem is I don't hear him say the word ''Wetter'' so I thought he was asking ''wheres the best place in Ireland?'' and after a very long pause I finally managed to say ''........Den Cork?''.Then he corrected me and I told him that the weather was never good and that it was always raining and cold.Then he looked outside (where it was sunny and warm) and said ''Well its not now!!''.****ing weather.But aside from those the general questions went pretty well.

I actually got the best picture story I could have hoped for (although I can't remember its name......Its the one with the foreigners).I was really lucky as it was actually the only picture story I could answer the opinion question on, i.e. Are there foreigners in your school?, Do you have a problem with foreigners? (who the **** would answer yes to this question?!Especially if the examinier is foreign!!).I probably got full marks for explaining what was going on in the pictures, but I did really bad in the question on the picture (he asked me to describe the classroom.What the hell could I say?!/Its a tiny room with a few disks and a blackboard!!!) and what will happen on the next day (which I answered TERRIBLY.I can't even remember what I said but I remember just after saying it I was thinking ''What the **** did I say that for?'').

I got Keine Geld Fur Die Minibar as my roleplay.......which was OK I guess.I didn't learn a complicated version of it, so I probably won't get many extra marks for that, but I covered everything in very basic german which means I'll still get most of the marks.....which is good I guess.

Anyways overall I was quite happy, but I sure am glad I finally got my first (and last) oral exam done!Go me!!

Haven't a Clue

Has anyone actually had a bastard/bitch of an oral examiner? Like, nearly everyone on here's said how nice they've all been.

Mine went ok. Though I ended up talking about Macbeth in French. Knew I shouldn't have said english was mon matiere preféé.

md99

Haven't a Clue wrote:

Mine went ok. Though I ended up talking about Macbeth in French. Knew I shouldn't have said english was mon matiere preféé.

haha, that's happened me a couple times in my mock orals, it's perfect I think... What did you say about it? I usually say that it's dark, engaging, Macduff is my favourite character etc...

Personally I'm fairly happy, it was GRAND like, the examiner was really lovely...

arite now that the predictable part is over with, my problems were, the time went fast (seemed to go a bit too fast, I mean I'd things learned for the oral and only got to say a small amount of em in the time we had... say 30-40%, one or two words I wanted to say I had to THINK of on the spot... which is annoying, I had the French words screaming at me but what about the Irish?? Actually I was desperate to speak French on many occasions during the oral, at least it's just OL Irish...

Haven't a Clue

md99 wrote:

haha, that's happened me a couple times in my mock orals, it's perfect I think... What did you say about it? I usually say that it's dark, engaging, Macduff is my favourite character etc...

Personally I'm fairly happy, it was GRAND like, the examiner was really lovely...

arite now that the predictable part is over with, my problems were, the time went fast (seemed to go a bit too fast, I mean I'd things learned for the oral and only got to say a small amount of em in the time we had... say 30-40%, one or two words I wanted to say I had to THINK of on the spot... which is annoying, I had the French words screaming at me but what about the Irish?? Actually I was desperate to speak French on many occasions during the oral, at least it's just OL Irish...

That I enjoyed it, the plot was assez passionante, and that I really prefer the writing side of English. Seemed to go down alright.

analyse this

It went reasonably well. I didn't get to say all that i wanted to say. The thing that worries me most is that she didn't ask me any difficult questions and I have been told that the examiner will only ask you hard questions if they think you are capable of answering them i.e. if you are of a high quality!!!:( I got 137 in my practice oral so I'm hoping i'll get around that mark. My friend got 145 in the real thing!!! One of the students got a look at the examiner's sheet and he saw the score.

Steve01

Had my oral earlier today and I'm delighted with how it went. The examiner was a nice man though he put me off by asking the same question twice (within 10 minutes). Main topics covered were my family, school, politics, jobs in Ireland, nurses strike and Viriginia shootings. Wasn't expecting some kinda abstract questions but I think I handled them well. Nor was I asked any MC questions though I had the good sense to bring it into the conversation anyway.
Now, time to study for French...

yurmothrintites

My french oral went great!, I understood the questions, kept talking and remembered my document. The examiner was lovely and I think I did well.....hopefully:)

Music tomorrow and friday and Irish next week fingers crossed!!

Mushy

I shall find out tomorrow. Kinda odd that its the last day I'll be speaking the Irish language...not sad at all. Classes all morning will be annoying, I'll be very much distracted, and theres a history test in that:eek:

Rozabeez

My examiner seemed very satisfied with my oral

fillefatale

I done fairly ok... although I answered "oui" to a lot of questions, and i said school began at 10!! she asked me about a typical school day and I completely blanked out.
I was put off a bit because the girl before me came out in tears.

nick23

Ive got my German oral tomorrow. Luckily my examiners meant to be quite nice but i cant help but be nervous eventhough i know i know everything basically back to front

Fobia

Wasn't too happy with it. Got very nervous and ****ed up some bits, completely missed obvious linking opportunities that I had fully prepared (he asked me to describe Galway, I didn't even think to mention the water problem which I had tonnes prepared on). I forgot how to say "It was" when asked what I thought of the last concert I went to, and didn't get (as in, probably did get but didn't realise it was) a conditional question. Hopefully he did ask and I presumed it to be future so still got it right, but I doubt it.

I didn't do too horribly like, I just felt I deserved a much better mark than I've mostly achieved.

KnifeWRENCH

analyse this wrote:

It went reasonably well. I didn't get to say all that i wanted to say. The thing that worries me most is that she didn't ask me any difficult questions and I have been told that the examiner will only ask you hard questions if they think you are capable of answering them i.e. if you are of a high quality!!!:(

i feel the exact same.does "social problems in your area?" count as a "difficult" topic in irish?? that was the only reasonably difficult thing she asked me and i started talking about unemployment....all my other questions were about family,school,tv,music etc. i had loads prepared on politics,the health system,the environment etc. and none of it came up.
she didnt ask me anything in modh cionnallach either.i had to introduce that myself.
i am a bit worried that it was too simplistic for me to get a good result.my friend (who does OL) got asked about advantages/disadvantages of tv and what he thought of the l.c. points system!!!
in my mock oral,i was told i had at least an A2 standard...i really dont know if this was as good.the examiner did tell me at the end that i had "gailge an-mhaith"...but i wonder does she say this to everyone just to reassure them???

justbringit89

Fobia wrote:

Wasn't too happy with it. Got very nervous and ****ed up some bits, completely missed obvious linking opportunities that I had fully prepared (he asked me to describe Galway, I didn't even think to mention the water problem which I had tonnes prepared on). I forgot how to say "It was" when asked what I thought of the last concert I went to, and didn't get (as in, probably did get but didn't realise it was) a conditional question. Hopefully he did ask and I presumed it to be future so still got it right, but I doubt it.

I didn't do too horribly like, I just felt I deserved a much better mark than I've mostly achieved.

you have just decribed how i feel . went nd said i was born in 1989 but forgot the 'cent' bit meaning 100 so said excuse moi .. i mixed up alot of tense nd i was soo well prepared . couldnt get out some words .. nerves got the better of me

JC 2K3

I'm so happy!

I never have to speak French ever again!!!

It wasn't amazing, nor was it terrible, I'd say I secured my B.

nedward

Haven't a Clue wrote:

Has anyone actually had a bastard/bitch of an oral examiner? Like, nearly everyone on here's said how nice they've all been.

My fella was not nice. Had my French ce matin, and he kept me talking for 18 minutes, and he knew it too, he kept glancing at his watch. Grrrr.

Then he started asking me about this Celtic Tiger and immigrants and stuff. AND he didn't take the hint when I said I love going to France *nudge nudge*.
Luathar!

shazzyshaz

only ok. had mine today, got asked very tricky ickle bits but my teacher said this was a good sign!! also got to use the subjunctive so proud bout that! hehe. overall was pretty dissappointed!

Marshy

Orally satisfied but only in the academic context. Waffled on for ages on the document and got to talk about all the areas that I'd prepared. Not many obscure questions.

me2gud4u

our german examiner wasn't very friendly, she never looked at us when we were talking and she stopped one girl half way through the oral when the said girl mentioned alkohol in the kein geld fur die mini bar role play and she goes "i didn't mention anything about alkohol yet", surely the examiner should not have pointed out her mistake during the exam?she also tried to catch us out, and my oral lasted half an hour which i take as a good sign cos i talked all the time but still this worried a lot of ppl who had only been kept fifteen minutes! anyway i personally was delighted with it although others were not.....and make sure u know the words rucksichtlos and nicht geeignet (not suitable) in regards to the nachtliche ruhestorung one, was asked did i think this hotel was suitable for young ppl.

Nehpets

Was the hotel suitable for young people? That's a bitch, I'd get confused - never really thought about it from that angle.

I got zusammen sind wir stark. Got asked basic questions on the pictures and she didn't ask what happens next, unfortunately. She asked why do foreigners come to Ireland and can't remember what else.

DtotheK

i got austauch interview and handys verboten ones. they were ok but handys was my least favourite one ... and i'm not just saying that! i've always hated it! in general i was happyish, kind of hard to know. i have a bad feeling that i pronounced ich as ik... not good(even though some germans in berlin say it) and i had a few pauses where i eeny meany miny moe'd whether to say der,die,den,das etc etc... prob wont count german though!

JBoyle4eva

My French oral yesterday went well. We had a great examiner, she was very polite, clear and she didn't go into anything too vauge, Only problem is I've realised when I was talking about "Aprés la bac" I used the present tense for a bit. Will I get penalised even if I used the majority of correct vocabulary?

Selphie

JBoyle4eva wrote:

Only problem is I've realised when I was talking about "Aprés la bac" I used the present tense for a bit. Will I get penalised even if I used the majority of correct vocabulary?

What did you say? As in, did you talk about the future in present tense or did you talk about stuff that you think now relating to college?

My first one was Irish, I think it went okay. Hope it did anyway. There were only two little mishaps. The first was when I couldn't think of the word for recycling and for a few seconds was going, "Oh, cad é an focail?" and the second was when, just after a long spiel about politics, she asked me what time I get up every morning, and I was just totally dumbstruck... "Er.....er.....er.....em, leathuair tar éis a seacht???"

Murns

I was happy with my Irish oral. The examiner was a really sound youngish guy. There was a bit of awkwardness after i told him my parents didnt want me to move out next year because they know i will be doing bad things at college...:rolleyes:
Other than that it was okay!

Got german tomorrow. Should be grand.

JBoyle4eva

Selphie wrote:

What did you say? As in, did you talk about the future in present tense or did you talk about stuff that you think now relating to college?

I was talking about college in the present tense.

ninebeanrows

J'aurai mon examen oraux en Francaise mercredi matin. Je suis tres nerveux.

Je pense que je ferai tres mauvais.

C'est la vie, mais il sera mon premier examen important pour le Fac.

Well god only knows how many grammar mistakes i made their:D

In short im pooing myself already:o

JC 2K3

le Fac = univerisity
le Bac = an exam they do in France that for some retarded reason a lot of French teachers deem an appropriate translation for "Leaving Cert".

le Leaving Cert ftw.

EDIT: Actually you probably meant to say "le Fac", since you probably were talking about the oral in terms of it being your first important exam for points to get into university, in which case you can disregard what I've written above.

E92

Well I was lucky, I did my Irish oral on friday, agus d'éirigh sé go maith. We had the nicest examiner ever, no matter what Irish you said, she kept on saying 'maith an buachaill', and when I told her that my school was accessible to disabled people she made a big smile and was like oooooh and all excited! There were times when I was about to say the answer in the wrong tense and she just shook her head and then when I said the right tense she put on a big smile and gave the thumbs up! The time flew in there, which I presume is a good thing.

Aard

French: fail.
Japanese: win.

Corruptedmorals

Irish (last Tuesday)- GRAND. Hard questions, but well able for it. Didn't really get to throw in much tenses though. He told me teacher I'm very intelligent..

French (today)- AWFUL. Could not stop thinking in irish, so the whole thing had a good few long pauses and me being all uncomfortable while I tried to find the french to answer the questions. Brutal.

Steve01

French oral today went well-ish. I was a bit put off by the fact that I wasn't asked about my family, school or town. Seems like three fairly fundamental things to address in any oral examination! Also, its so much easier to waffle in Irish than in French! I was led into some hairy questions that I didn't know how to deal with.
Overall though, I'm fairly confident I'm in A territory or at least in the high Bs

ninebeanrows

Steve01 wrote:

French oral today went well-ish. I was a bit put off by the fact that I wasn't asked about my family, school or town. Seems like three fairly fundamental things to address in any oral examination! Also, its so much easier to waffle in Irish than in French! I was led into some hairy questions that I didn't know how to deal with.
Overall though, I'm fairly confident I'm in A territory or at least in the high Bs

No family, No school, No area :eek: :eek: :eek: Dear god your going to give me nightmares!

What did you walk in and they go, what is your opinion on the North Korea Nuclear crisis? haha oh dear jebus

justbringit89

Steve01 wrote:

French oral today went well-ish. I was a bit put off by the fact that I wasn't asked about my family, school or town. Seems like three fairly fundamental things to address in any oral examination! Also, its so much easier to waffle in Irish than in French! I was led into some hairy questions that I didn't know how to deal with.
Overall though, I'm fairly confident I'm in A territory or at least in the high Bs

they cant ask about family unless u bring it up eg.

Examiner : Whos your family
Student : There all dead!!!!!!!!!!!
Examiner:.......................................Ok whats your hobbies???

Steve01

Weathercheck wrote:

No family, No school, No area :eek: :eek: :eek: Dear god your going to give me nightmares!

What did you walk in and they go, what is your opinion on the North Korea Nuclear crisis? haha oh dear jebus

Pretty much, yeah :rolleyes: After I got past talking about myself we got into last summer and my summer job. This went downhill for a while. Here's an english translation:

Examiner: So what did you buy out of the money you earned last summer
Me: Am....... CDs......... and........ food
Examiner: Oh, food! Whats your favourite food?
Me: (****! Can't think of any French words for types of food) Am....... I don't like food. I like coffee.

Luckily things picked up after that.

Alanstrainor

I had my French oral there last week, it was great, it was so much easier than i thought it was going to be. the examiner asked me no hard questions and was really sound. There is so much hype around the oral, imho it's all down to nerves, if you can go in there calm and relaxed you are set to do very well indeed, i know it sounds obvious but seriously it works so well, my mock orals were awful and it was entirely down to nerves, for the real one it was as if the nerves never hit me, i just went in there and had a conversation.

ninebeanrows

Steve01 wrote:

Pretty much, yeah :rolleyes: After I got past talking about myself we got into last summer and my summer job. This went downhill for a while. Here's an english translation:

Examiner: So what did you buy out of the money you earned last summer
Me: Am....... CDs......... and........ food
Examiner: Oh, food! Whats your favourite food?
Me: (****! Can't think of any French words for types of food) Am....... I don't like food. I like coffee.

Luckily things picked up after that.

Well i suppose when they asked you about yourself you could of went into your family and killed 2 minutes... well in my case 2 minutes 8 people!

Then went on to talk about YOUR area where you live and blah blah blah and then you could have killed an overall like 5 minutes:D

JC 2K3

Had Irish today. Twas just a gnáthchomhrá for me. Was kinda nervous and grammar mightn't have been 100% right, but nothing really to worry about.

Haven't a Clue

Irish went worse than I was hoping. Sliocht went pretty good and she said it was "an mhaith". It kinda went downhill from there as I was thrown a bit by her not asking me about my family. Instead, she jumped straight in and asked about my town. It didn't flow half as well as my mocks did and I got a high B there. I'd be lucky if I got a B this time around...

Selphie

Steve01 wrote:

Examiner: So what did you buy out of the money you earned last summer
Me: Am....... CDs......... and........ food
Examiner: Oh, food! Whats your favourite food?
Me: (****! Can't think of any French words for types of food) Am....... I don't like food. I like coffee. .

Hehehehehe, that's excellent!!

cson

Right a minor dilemma before tomorrow morning, i'm just after putting a piece together on An Coras Slainte for the irish oral, now I started it with 'an coras slainte? bhuel dar liom fein ta se ina chac' >> Which translates literally I think as 'the health system? well according to me its in $hit'.....

Now im thinking there's two ways this can go down, 1: He finds it funny and everything is fine or 2: He dislikes it and marks me down severely.

Now anyone have any alternative for that opening line?

Haven't a Clue

Don't use that. It shows a bit of immaturity if anything, which I know you mightn't mean to show, but it could easily come across like that.

Say something like, "bhuel, feicimid go leir an stailc na banaltraí san lae atá inniu ann. Sílim go bhfuil seo sheampla maith ar an riocht (state, though I'm not sure if that's the right word) a bhfuil an coras slainte ar inniu."

Now, there's probably loads of gramatical errors in that. I'm way better speaking Irish than writing it. But if you use something topical like that, the examiner will more or likely think you've got a good grasp of the language.

JC 2K3

Replace "chac" with "phraiseach" ftw.

(tá sé ina phraiseach = it's a disastor)

cson

Go raibh maith agat.

Haven't a Clue

cson wrote:

Go raibh maith agat.

Agat? You only liked one of our contributions?

JC 2K3

Haven't a Clue wrote:

Say something like, "bhuel, feicimid go leir an stailc na banaltraí san lae atá inniu ann. Sílim go bhfuil seo sheampla maith ar an riocht (state, though I'm not sure if that's the right word) a bhfuil an coras slainte ar inniu."

banaltraí? you sexist pig!

In any case, it should be "stailc na mbanaltraí", but "altra" is the unisex word for nurse and "banaltra" is an outdated term at this stage, so "stailc na n-altraí".

How I would write that: "bhuel, feicimid go léir stailc na n-altraí atá ar siúl faoi láthair. Sílim go léiríonn sé seo an stad ina bhfuil an córas sláinte na laethanta seo.

Haven't a Clue

JC 2K3 wrote:

banaltraí? you sexist pig!

In any case, it should be "stailc na mbanaltraí", but "altra" is the unisex word for nurse and "banaltra" is an outdated term at this stage, so "stailc na n-altraí".

How I would write that: "bhuel, feicimid go léir stailc na n-altraí atá ar siúl faoi láthair. Sílim go léiríonn sé seo an stad ina bhfuil an córas sláinte na laethanta seo.

I'd an Irish teacher for my first four years who hated all those politically correct changes. Banaltraí, bangardaí, even pink was regarded as a woman.

JC 2K3

Well, I don't think there's much problem saying "banaltra" when referring to a specific female nurse, but for a nurses' strike inclusive of both genders "altra" is more correct.

I mean, if there were a Garda strike, "Stailc na mbanghardaí" would hardly be an appropriate phrase, unless it was simply the female gardaí on strike

cson

Haven't a Clue wrote:

Agat? You only liked one of our contributions?

Gabh mo leisceail, go raibh maith agaibh

Ach is in ithe na potoige a bhionn an taisteail.

Feel free to correct my woeful gaeilge.

ninebeanrows

It's at 1130, oh dear jebus:eek: deep breathing deep breathing:D

ninebeanrows

Okay so it went pretty bad..

They only asked me simple questions and they asked me how the characters in prisonbreak got into prison =

I also stuttered on many occasions and failed to use the proper tense..

The worst being... Je suis aime Knew it straight away..

Oh well it's only my leaving cert:o

Reckon i got like 50/55 / 100