Language translation exam!

[Counterpointer]

Hi all..... one stressed out grad student here

I'm finishing up my master's degree at Temple University.

 

I need to pass a translation exam in either German or French in order to graduate.

I took 1 year of German, which first semester was in Austria.

I was pretty confident that I would pass the language translation exam in German, but now I highly doubt it.

I took it couple days ago, and it was so hard. They allowed me to use the dictionary, so I did have time to look up every word I don't know, and it still didn't make sense.

Some of it, was so "Germanic" that even though I knew what it meant, it was so weird to translate to English.

I looked up all the words in the dictionary and I still think I failed. That's quite messed up.

Now I know the format and the difficulty, I'll have a better chance at it next time, though.

 

Anybody have experience in BOTH German and French?

Although I'm a better German speaker than French, I think academic, written German is so confusing, that maybe it's better for me to take this in French.

Is academic writing in French easier than German?

 

I get one more semester to try.. I get 2 more tries in German and 2 more tries in French.. I need to pass either French or German. Out of 4 more tries, hopefully I will pass one.

[dr. t]

The thing that tends to trip up people who have studied spoken German is the extended adjective construction. I know the people who create the language exams at my school deliberately chose passages with many EACs to trip up people who are used to speaking and not reading.

 

I find academic French easier than German, but I have something like a total of 15 years experience learning various romance languages.

[Counterpointer]

The thing that tends to trip up people who have studied spoken German is the extended adjective construction. I know the people who create the language exams at my school deliberately chose passages with many EACs to trip up people who are used to speaking and not reading.

 

I find academic French easier than German, but I have something like a total of 15 years experience learning various romance languages.

 

Yup... I had sentences with like 5~6 commas, 50 words in total. I'll try French next. This is plain evil.. my thesis is actually on Italy, but they only accept French and German exams. Not that I know any Italian.

 

My adviser says that I have one of the most creative thesis projects ever in my department, but if I don't graduate because of this language exam, that would be very, very sad. But I'm not too worried at the moment yet.. I think I'll pass with 4 more tries. 

[tspier2]

Can you satisfy it by any other means? My program also permits students to take an upper-level course in the language to fulfill the requirement.

[Counterpointer]

Can you satisfy it by any other means? My program also permits students to take an upper-level course in the language to fulfill the requirement.

Technically, yes, if I take one more year of German. but that is out of question right now, because that would take maybe 10k in tuition, not funded by anything. I'd rather not graduate than pay 10k at the moment. I'm currently applying for another Master's degree program in education (no language req. there), so even if I don't graduate from the current degree program, I'll go onto my next degree program and after that I'll have a BA+MA+Teaching licence.

[music]

Counterpointer, I'm also a musician and in this kind of situation of having minimal financial resources and the need to learn a skill, I would look into a skill-swop. Find a student who wants to learn your instrument, and speaks German/French to a high level. Maybe an undergrad senior or college student majoring in one of those languages, or someone in the local community who wants instrumental tuition and is a native speaker. If you committed to 1 hour each per week during term, that a lot of one-to-one hours during which you could focus on the reading exam exclusively. What about other students in your position, can you set up a study group together?

 

Also, get hold of more past papers. You wouldn't usually go into an exam without having practiced for it, right? You don't want to waste more attempts just getting to grips with the format and figuring out likely difficulties, so do that in your own time.

[Karajan]

As some other people have suggested, try doing lots of past exams (and time yourself when you do them) so you can try to get as fast as possible at this skill.  Best case scenario is that you have time left over at the end of the exam and can check over your translation.  Quiz yourself on vocab so you don't have to look up as many words and try reading an article -- even a news article -- everyday for practice. 

[Counterpointer]

Thanks for the replies.. the problem is not because I had to look up so many words. Time is not issue in this exam--I would be able to look up every single word and still have time left. I have no problem reading an everyday news article in German, though I have to look up a few words. I think that I'm not used to music vocabularies. It's easy to say "practice" it, but these were words that I don't even know after looking up in the dictionary. Anyhow, I got more practice done on JSTOR, I like their German and French article search. Some articles have both English+Ger/Fre to check my translation is correct.

 

After spending quite some time on JSTOR, I'm pretty sure that my French reading comprehension is much, much better than German, even though my German is better in speaking. I grew up taking French in K-12, as I'm Canadian, but that was a long time ago, and I thought I forgot everything. I assumed that my German was better than my French.. Maybe I was wrong. Opting for French exam next... Feeling good about it.

[Karajan]

Thanks for the replies.. the problem is not because I had to look up so many words. Time is not issue in this exam--I would be able to look up every single word and still have time left. I have no problem reading an everyday news article in German, though I have to look up a few words. I think that I'm not used to music vocabularies. It's easy to say "practice" it, but these were words that I don't even know after looking up in the dictionary. Anyhow, I got more practice done on JSTOR, I like their German and French article search. Some articles have both English+Ger/Fre to check my translation is correct.

 

After spending quite some time on JSTOR, I'm pretty sure that my French reading comprehension is much, much better than German, even though my German is better in speaking. I grew up taking French in K-12, as I'm Canadian, but that was a long time ago, and I thought I forgot everything. I assumed that my German was better than my French.. Maybe I was wrong. Opting for French exam next... Feeling good about it.

 

Cool. You should give the French exam a try!