C2 exam? I´ll show you a language exam

Last Thursday I was telling my French teacher, Marie, the exciting news that I get another year in Andalucía (still freaking out by the way). Marie, who also came to Mlaga as an auxiliar as well, though of French, has ended up staying. She speaks a very impressive Spanish, enough so that I was questioning whether she was really a native French speaker during our first class. Her accent is impeccable. I was telling her that now that I have another year, I can really get down to studying French. I'd like to get an intermediate level, B1 in the European language level system, so that the year after next I could have the option of teaching in France. Because the only thing that's cooler than being bilingual is being trilingual. Marie had just found out that she passed the C2 language exam in Spanish, very impressive, since that indicates that there is no language barrier. I dream of passing the C2.

"But be careful, they really try to trip you up in the exam," she said. "They for example will put a question in the double negative, so it really doesn't test your understanding of the language, it's hard."

"It's a test to figure out if you know how to take the test," I said, looking longingly at the little pieces of cake she put out on the table.

Sidenote: Some French stereotypes are true, for example Marie always has delicious little cakes or truffles out. Also if any listening exercise we do deals with breakfast, I can almost always guess coffee and croissant and be correct.


"It is. When I got to the test room, the woman wouldn't answer any of my questions about the test," she continued. "I tried to ask something and she just looked at me. She asked if I had prepared for the exam and I said I hadn't, I just didn't have time, you know? She was shocked. 'How do you not prepare for the exam?'" she mimicked, shooting her eyebrows up in mock surprise. "I just didn't, I had classes. You don't have time to look at the questions before the listening section, either."

She got an 88 percent or something. A really really good score. 

Sidenote: Passing the C2 exam without studying for that test is like acing your final exam hungover without bothering to look if it's an essay test or multiple choice. That is knowing your stuff.

Fast forward, Friday night was Joseca, Claire, Chinese food, couch, and Carnavales de Cádiz on Canalsur, among other things that don't being with the letter C.

Carnavales de Cádiz.

Carnavales de Cádiz is a famous carnival celebration right here in Andalucía. Never having gone, I made the rookie mistake of thinking it was just costumes, alcohol, and some Jesus, but I was sadly misinformed. Flipping on Canalsur, we tuned into the finals of the Carnival music group contest, held each year in the Gran Teatro Falla, in Cádiz.

Nothing like American idol. Blows So You Think You Can Dance out of the water. Way better than Britain's Got Talent.

Competing groups create intricate costumes and sets, they write songs whose lyrics are searing social commentary, satire, and really funny all at the same time. The music is perfect. The skits are SNL-in-it's-glory-days funny. The groups are either Comparsas, Chirigotas, Cuartetos, or Coros (really giving the C key a workout today). The groups range in size from big coros to medium-sized comparsas and chirigotas, to 4-person cuartetos. A lot of the lyrics glorify Andalucía and Cádiz in particular.

The songs of the Comparsas tend to focus more on social commentary and satire. For example this year there was an awesome song criticizing unemployment, another criticizing ETA violence, and another saying that they wish the world could be as diverse as the playground at recess. Chirigotas tend to be less serious, making fun of horrible programs on TV like Salvame Deluxe or Shakira's musical atrocity Waka Waka. Coros are very large groups. Cuartetos have a short theater part in addition to songs. All of them in the finals were breathtaking.

Here is the Comparsa winner for this year, "Juana la Loca." This song is about a gay couple and the church, questioning the church's concept of love.

Here's the chirigota winner, a group called "Ricas y Maduras" which can be translated either normally or in a perverted way.

It was really cool to watch the groups and their incredible performances. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, not because of the awesomeness of the performances, but because I was struggling to understand things.

After a year and a half or so in Spain, I consider myself to speak Spanish pretty well. I studied like crazy when I first got here, I had TV and roommates and friends and boyfriend and movies and books and newspapers and work and shopping and everything in Spanish, I did everything I could so that by the time a few months had gone by I didn't end each day mentally exhausted from translating all the time. Now that I have even more time, I was thinking about taking the C2 exam to really prove to myself that I learned everything I could here. But now after talking with Marie, I wonder if the exam really is worth it. Why do I need it?

If I am going to test my Spanish, I want to tune into, or be at (!), Carnavales next year and laugh when everyone else does at the jokes in the chirigotas. I want the hair on my arm stand on end when I listen to the lyrics of the comparsas. I want to listen to the commentary from the crowd. I want to understand the references the cuartetos make. I want to make snarky remarks to those in my immediate listening area. I want to be in awe at how insanely creative and true their songs are.
   
That is being bilingual.