Wayne's interpretations of the international language learning standards (along with our current levels of competency)

You might be wondering, how do you know when you're competent enough in French (oh yeah, and what level are you at now)? Well, actually, there are international standards. Here's a link to more official definitions. I'll give you my interpretation of those definitions. The levels are A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2.

A1 - You know common phrases, can tell people basic facts about yourself and even understand basic questions from others when they speak with an extremely slow southern drawl.

A2 - You can now move out of the fish bowl where you're only good for people looking at you and asking where you're from and where you're going. You can actually go ask for stuff at stores, give directions and can understand people who speak with just a regular ole southern drawl.

B1 - You no longer have to just talk about yourself and the things in front of you. You now can discuss abstract ideas (like why The Andy Griffith Show is still the best show ever, or why you think that even though the past 2 decades have mostly been depressing, next year N.C. State will be good).

B2- Native speakers begin to be less bored with you because they can watch you speak without seeing you painfully search your inner dictionary.

C1 - At this point, you're kicking some butt. You could probably understand more complex dialogue like in this video.

C2 - You've just about gotten native at this point. It says you can understand just about anything read or heard. I'm not sure I'm here in English.

Before we leave, we would like to be around B2, C1. It kinda stinks that now that making a C is a good thing, it'll be hard for me to do. If you're wondering what level we're at now, Hilary is at the upper end of A2 and this clip explains where I'm at.

Yeah, you guessed it. Somewhere in A1.