On a more serious note today, the deadline to enroll for the December session of the Cambridge exams is fast approaching. But how important are these exams? I think they're very important for a number of reasons.
Europe is a continent divided by language and culture. English, at least for the moment, seems to be the "inter-language" of the diverse European people. It is one thing to say you can speak a language and quite another to be able to "prove" it, as it were, with a diploma or qualification. Someone without the qualification may even be a better speaker than someone with it...but, as we say in English, the proof is in the pudding.
All of that seems almost too obvious to even bother saying, but it's true and I like to start with the most obvious arguments.
There are other more fundamental reasons to take the exams, however. For one thing, the exams establish a goal for you to achieve. Especially once you reach the "intermediate plateau." Once you reach the intermediate level you can communicate relatively effectively on a wide of topics. You may not feel the need to stretch yourself to reach upper-intermediate or advanced levels. The exams provide an excellent impetus for you to stretch yourself.
That brings me to another good reason to do the exams. More than proving yourself to others, they give you the opportunity to prove yourself TO yourself!
Finally, I feel, from my years of experience in training students to take these exams, that when you prepare for them, your learning reaches deeper more lasting levels. Of course, if you stop using English, you will become rusty. But, if you prepare for the exams, I'm convinced that after a few hours of speaking or after a couple conversation classes, it will come to you faster and clearer than even before. This might actually be a good topic for some applied linguistics research!
Can you say..."post doc?" :)
