How to Take a French A2 DELF Test
One of the misconceptions many have before moving to France is that living here will make us “fluent” in the language in a short time: 2–3 years at the very longest. Not only have I come to appreciate that fluency in any language, including your native tongue, comes after 15–20 years, but that fluency in French will take at least that long for me, if not longer. But that doesn’t mean I can’t get around or have conversations with strangers on a variety of topics. It just means I won’t be able to speak at great speed, have cultural landmarks and references readily at my command, and will sometimes lack the ability to speak about a complex idea. But that’s okay: those are not necessary parts of daily life in France.
There Will Be a Test
What I didn’t know before moving here is the high number of English speakers who do not speak French at even a basic level. This takes effort: you have to not take any classes to improve and you have to not speak French on a daily or even weekly basis. Naturally, the French expect you to speak French in their country and so they have two bars set in place to make life more inconvenient for those who choose not to develop basic competency in this language:
- A2 competency required for a 10 year carte de resident
- B1 competency required for citizenship
