A few days ago, I posted to complain about my exam center. They closed on their own because of the heatwave, but they didn’t notify me. As a result, I spent an hour on the metro and then walked for another ten minutes in 42-degree heat, only to arrive and discover that they were closed.
Later, I asked them to mail the certificate to me. Mailing was so much more efficient than making an appointment to pick it up: I paid the postage on the 29th and received the certificate on the 6th, exactly one week later. If you’re taking an exam at the Montreuil test center, you should just choose delivery by mail—it really saves a lot of trouble. They only allow in-person collection on Wednesdays and Thursdays. From now on, whenever mailing is an option, I definitely won’t make the trip myself. The French administrative system is notoriously inefficient, and there are simply too many factors beyond anyone’s control.
Still, when I received that single, flimsy certificate, I felt quite emotional. Although I still don’t feel that my French is as natural or fluent as my English—after all, I’ve only been learning it for three years, and French is so much harder than English—having that piece of paper still gave me a sense of satisfaction.
Compared with so many things that are beyond my control, learning has always been a reliable way for me to make progress, because as long as I work hard enough, I can always achieve results through studying. Three months before I took the C1 exam, my French was probably still somewhere between B1 and B2. At the time, after several friends who had taken the exam talked with me, they all said that I should have no problem passing B2 with some preparation, but C1 was still a bit of a long shot.
Hearing that made me a little nervous, but also somewhat unconvinced. That was when the risk-taker version of Wendy came online. In my experience, I’ve often managed to turn the impossible into the possible through my own efforts, so I told myself to give it everything I had and take the gamble—maybe I would pass. So sometimes you really do need to be a little braver and boldly take that step forward.
Now that I’ve finished the French exam, I probably won’t take another exam for a long time. My goals for the second half of this year are to improve my ability to use AI and to enjoy life.