12 days of Holiday Blogging

Today is 12.12.12, which is pretty cool for folks who like patterns. Which I do. It's also the day I get on an airplane for Oslo, Norway for a week of language immersion. It's also 12 days before Christmas Eve! In recognition of all these nifty number-related things, I'm going to do a short post or a photo every day until Christmas. The 12 days of holiday blogging. Some of what I post will likely be på norsk (in Norwegian) since that will be focus in the coming week, but translations will be provided.

So to kick off the Christmas spirit, here are a few pictures from a visit to the National Botanic Gardens.

Troll under the bridge

Train set

Model Library of Congress

The Capital

http://servicecentered.blogspot.com/

gift-giving and card-sending for slackers

File this post in the random {unpaid} promotion of stuff that makes my life easier.

I admit it, I'm a terrible Christmas shopper. In almost all other aspects of my life I'm on top of things, but gift shopping is usually left until the last minute when the malls are empty of quality and free shipping is a distant memory. I love giving gifts, but I think I take it too personally, and end up never finding that "perfect" present that absolutely captures the relationship between myself and the gift recipient. But thanks to the wonders of the internet, my gift-giving impairment is getting a lot help these days.

For the ladies in my life I want to give gifts that provide luxury without being over the top, and I think I finally found the right thing. Thanks to my obsessive blog reading, I learned about a now very popular sample subscription service and joined up about a year and a half ago. Each month I get a little box of fun in the mail with all sorts of things I would never buy myself: shiny lip gloss, fancy lotions, bold perfumes, etc. etc. It's also the perfect thing for a foreign service nomad, since nothing is more fun when you are far from home than getting a package in the mail (even if it is from yourself). I loved it so very very much that I bought my sister a membership for her birthday and am now trying to figure out who else "needs" a membership.

And despite my lack of gifting skills, I've always loved sending postcards. Of course, most people think of sending postcards when they are relaxing over a latte in far-flung foreign cafes, but I think postcards should be everyday fun, and thanks to a fun iphone app, they can be. Postagram takes all your fancy insta'ed, hipster'ed iphotos and lets you send a real, live postcard to anyone whose address is in your phone (or that you have memorized).  There's also a version for cards, so holiday cards may be a making a comeback and recently launched an app that lets you send whole gift packages of stuff to your friends.

Sadly, the postcards and other iphone sent cards and gifts lack the authenticity of the foreign stamp and postmark from Chamonix, Moscow, or Siem Reap that make travel gloating oh so fun.

http://servicecentered.blogspot.com/

level of proficiency

Today was my 2nd interim progress evaluation for my Norwegian class. Technically we are supposed to be evaluated closer to the end of December, but since we'll be in Oslo starting Wednesday (!), we had our evals this week.

Before going into how I faired, a little clarity on what it means to learn a language through the State Department Foreign Service Institute (FSI). Each Foreign Service position is designated by whether it requires the host country language or not, and if so, at what level the officer needs to be at in order to do the job. For Norwegian and for almost all European languages, this is a 3 in speaking and a 3 in reading, or 3/3 in FSI slang. Now, you can argue the utility of learning a language for a country in which 99.9% of the population speaks near-perfect English, but I think not being able to understand the news or be able to function at a basic level in your hosts' language would be terrible. (Så er jeg glad og heldig å kunne lære norsk.)

Below is a handy chart that State Dept uses to classify what a 3/3 means.

Proficiency Code	Speaking Definitions	Reading Definitions
0 - No Practical Proficiency	No practical speaking proficiency.	No practical reading proficiency.
1 - Elementary Proficiency	Able to satisfy routine travel needs and minimum courtesy requirements	Able to read some personal and place names, street signs, office and shop designations, numbers and isolated words and phrases
2 - Limited Working Proficiency	Able to satisfy routine social demands and limited work requirements	Able to read simple prose, in a form equivalent to typescript or printing, on subjects within a familiar context
3 - Minimum Professional Proficiency	Able to speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, and professional topics	Able to read standard newspaper items addressed to the general reader, routine correspondence, reports, and technical materials in the individual's special field.
4 - Full Professional Proficiency	Able to use the language fluently and accurately on all levels pertinent to professional needs.	Able to read all styles and forms of the language pertinent to professional needs.
5 - Native or Bilingual Proficiency	Equivalent to that of an educated native speaker.	Equivalent to that of an educated native.

So after just 3 months of training I am happy to report that I am roughly in the 2-2+ range for speaking and 2+ for reading. All those routine social demands that need satisfying? I've got it handled. Simple prose need reading? Not a problem. The excellent news is that I'm right where I need to be in order to reach the 3/3 by the end of February, and a week in Oslo should really help with my fluency.

Also, to put the difficulty of gaining fluency in any language in perspective, I've been told the 5/5 is rarely achievable even for native speakers. I heard somewhere that less than 10% of English speakers (included us fancy pants diplomats) could get a 5/5. So there's that. My goal after 2 years in Norway would be a 3+/4, which would up my odds of a future post in Scandinavia. Yes, before my first tour I'm already plotting my return :-).

Other exciting progress this week included receiving my travel orders and finalizing my airline reservations, including a reserved spot for Ruby to travel with me on the plane. I can't believe how quick time is going by, and as excited as I am about Oslo, I'm already starting to get that sad feeling in my stomach at the thought of leaving my life that I love so much here.  

Harpers Ferry

Sunset, a church, and a moon. 

In the spirit of crossing things off my DC-area to-do list, a few weeks ago I finally made it over to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. It is a quaint little town that has been mostly preserved as a museum through the National Park Service and offers a peek into civil war life. It's also a spectacularly beautiful place to visit on a crisp fall day. Sorry for sharing late, but the pictures speak for themselves!

http://servicecentered.blogspot.com/