Bryan Ieamsang, an Instructor of Excellence in French at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, recently earned an international diploma recognizing his fluency in the French language.
Ieamsang received the DALF C2 credential, the highest credential available for nonnative speakers of French. DALF stands for Diplome approfondi de langue française. The diploma is issued by the French Ministry of Education and “certifies the skills acquired in French as a foreign language” for the recipient. It is internationally recognized and valid for life.
Recipients of the DALF C2 are considered expert users with mastery of the language, Ieamsang said. According to the Council of Europe, DALF C2 recipients display precision, appropriateness and fluency of expression when using French. They are capable of using the language for business, academics and other advanced-level purposes.
The exam for the diploma is composed of listening, speaking, reading and writing sections and lasts five hours, Ieamsang said.
“The exam not only measures your command of the language but also general cultural knowledge and writing formats,” he said. “In France, there are very specific formats for writing that are strictly adhered to. These are, for example, a newspaper article from a journalist, a tribune in a newspaper from a guest writer, a letter to the mayor or a blog post on a bulletin board.”
Ieamsang prepared for the exam by taking a course prior to his testing.
“Because I haven’t been a student in a classroom in quite some time, I enrolled in a preparatory course offered by an instructor in France to get me up to speed. His homework was challenging but invaluable,” Ieamsang said.