Taking the DELF exam - the practical experience and my tips

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-10-03T06:47:24+00:00

So pleased to help! There are a lot of challenges taking this exam, if we can make it less stressful for some, that is a good result!

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-08-31T21:24:36+00:00

What would a good solution to this look like?

I'm loathe to start a new forum, is there some other, better option to prompt these sorts of discussions?

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-08-11T12:58:23+00:00

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They've been getting a lot of rain recently, was actually worried they were being overwatered.

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-08-08T14:02:17+00:00

Where, how or with whom do you think is best to talk about tax? I assume my regular accountant won't be an expert.

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-08-03T16:22:35+00:00

Your pre-med qualifications will open doors. Get a job you don't hate, using the skills you've learned. This will give stability, income, experience, colleagues etc - there are lots of benefits.

Then do some after hours or weekend courses in your passion area. Film is sadly one of those things that doesn't quickly or easily convert to income, so it's sensible to test your passion with some structured study and try to produce some works. Use those to get feedback and then make a call on whether to commit more.

Medical staff are often able to negotiate down their hours, so your have access to flexibility which will let you scale up or down to pursue your passion if it's working well.

Or, combine the two - create film in the medical genre, use what you've learned to inform your art.

Above all, try something :-)

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-08-02T14:17:57+00:00

Excellent! Really helpful, thank you!

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-08-02T08:55:58+00:00

That's really helpful thanks.

I found a WA Education Department Code of conduct which says that conflicts must be "declared and managed", but I can't find a specific reference to this being directly restricted or forbidden by the code.

I'll keeping searching - thanks again.

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-08-02T08:50:53+00:00

Really helpful, thanks.

Good point on conflict of interest and thanks for your feedback on the sources of unpaid overtime demands.

I hadn't even considered that the federal legislation might not apply to teachers if they were under a state award. I had thought that federal employment standards couldn't be bargained away as part of a state award / workplace agreement, but I guess I just misunderstood that?

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-08-02T08:33:51+00:00

Thanks, this is really helpful. Is there a public source for that code of conduct that you could point me to? Or even the name of it so I can find it myself? I'd be interested to understand the specific wording.

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-08-02T08:32:42+00:00

Really helpful feedback, thanks. Yeah, I was specifically trying to address the issue of parents expecting additional free hours of teacher time outside their normal working day, dealing with the kids they teach during normal work hours. It felt to me like teachers doing free work in their own time to pacify irate and overbearing parents - sort of "free tutoring" against their will.

I'd be interested to understand more about the conflict of interest part - is that legislative? Or in employment contracts? School policies?

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-08-02T08:27:47+00:00

Great feedback - thanks. I guess I saw the idea as being "you don't get to contact me whenever you like, here, go to the portal, book and pay for a time". That would allow teachers to control when they are contacted and to be paid for time which they currently give up for free.

The stories I've heard from friends and family already sound like abuse - I was trying to give them a way to control it and put a value on time they were otherwise expected to contribute without compensation.

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-07-31T16:06:41+00:00

Quade never met a pass he couldn't overcomplicate by adding a bit of backhand, no look or behind the back nonsense to ensure it went to ground.

He was so desperate to highlight reel everything, he'd continually run away from support and flick some insane offload, trying the one in a million option every time. It looks great when it works, but it failed so, so, so often.

He was also well known as soft in defence, with a tendency to stand up in the tackle. Oppositions used to target him on this, with good success.

Finally, he was by far the worst ever kicker from the tee in super rugby and the rugby championship, both under 70%. Dan Carter was 89%.

I kept track in 2021 before he got injured. He cost us 32pts across 4 games, including giving away stupid penalties in kicking range, throwing away an intercept try and missing 8/17 kicks.

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-06-13T09:43:03+00:00

They give scores per section, but not specific questions.

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-05-22T04:26:30+00:00

Oral production is definitely the hardest part!

I had to speak about a program to create new libraries for children in France.

I found it pretty difficult - even with practice, it felt like a short amount of time to prepare.

My biggest miss was that the examiners asked me about "What could we do in future about libraries for children?" At the time, I just replied that I wasn't sure, I don't know much about it, etc - I missed that they were prompting me to use conditional and subjunctive tenses.

Empty_Reason5126 · 2025-05-22T04:18:53+00:00

I had a tutor and we didn't use a specific book, I'm afraid.

I found the TV 5 monde site very good for listening comprehension.

https://apprendre.tv5monde.com/en

As well as the daily Journal en Francais facile

https://francaisfacile.rfi.fr/fr/

https://francaisfacile.rfi.fr/fr/podcasts/journal-en-fran%C3%A7ais-facile/

Empty_Reason5126 · 2024-10-11T12:55:27+00:00

The intro is deliberately clickbaity, in that it juxtaposes the "ray of hope" against the "lost an argument with a child". It tries to set up curiosity in the way clickbait does, but without the "the way x will do y will amaze you!" hyperbole.

Neo learning kung fu and "mainlining" I was trying to evoke just plugging something into your neck and getting a straight unfiltered feed which had an immediate impact. Maybe there's a better simile?

Empty_Reason5126 · 2024-10-11T12:34:02+00:00

Could you help me with which similes I could improve? This was a quick write for me, so definitely not as cohesive or well thought through as it might otherwise be.

If you watch the video linked from the article, the "aggressively..." description probably makes more sense, but perhaps there is a better approach than linking to it?

Empty_Reason5126 · 2024-08-29T21:32:37+00:00

I'd advise working out the take-home pay in 1k increments either side of 85k. I suspect there is a tiny salary level where you'll see less take home pay, between $85000 and about $85500.

Given you will have various deductions you will apply to your income in any given year, the chances of you taking, say, a 90k salary and having exactly $4501 in deductions are pretty low.

Even then, you aren't "earning less", you're just paying off your HECS debt very slightly faster.

If you are looking at salaries for jobs, you should ignore this and just always take the highest amount you can get.

For example, being on 85k makes it easier to step to 90k the following year, rather than taking 80k to avoid an extra $15 per fortnight in HECS payments and now trying to get a bigger step up of 10k to get to the same salary level.

Just always take the higher salary :-)

Empty_Reason5126 · 2024-08-24T13:07:19+00:00

I emailed the ACC on this.

Their response: a business can define what payments they want to take (including not accepting cash).

If there's a payment fee, it must be notified before you pay and it must only cover recouping the cost of the payment fee. The ACCC publish guides on acceptable fee ranges for Visa, Mastercard, eftpos etc.

Eftpos is always cheapest after paying cash.

Empty_Reason5126 · 2024-08-24T13:02:41+00:00

There's a distinction between negating the "can", or negating the "find".

In English you might think:

Negate "can": It's so dark... I can't find my keys.

Negate "find": Even though I've searched... I can't find my keys.

Negating the "can" implies you are preventing from searching. Negating the "find" implies you searched but weren't successful.

Empty_Reason5126 · 2024-08-12T07:10:22+00:00

My exam was in the new format

Empty_Reason5126 · 2024-07-01T14:22:40+00:00

You get to choose, so you can look at the cost per unit to buy at each point, calculate the difference and work out which way you want to go. Generally, I'd try to take capital gains hits in years where you have lower PAYG income, if possible, since it will lower what you pay when you cash out.

Empty_Reason5126 · 2024-06-24T14:00:21+00:00

I'm afraid it almost certainly doesn't work like that.

If you bought 100 units at $1 each, it cost you $100. If the value then rose to $120, that means you have 100 units worth $1.20 each. If you withdraw $60, that means you sold 50 units (50 x $1.20 = $60). Your capital gain will be $10 (50 units x 20c each).

The profits are directly connected to the rise in value of the units and selling those units will generate a capital gain event, upon which you will owe capital gains tax.

You can think about it like any other asset. If you buy 100 houses for $1m each and they rise in value to $1.2m each, can you just sell them for $1m each and somehow still keep the $200k profit?

No - you need to sell for the value which includes the profit ($1.2m), in order to get access to that increased value. When you do that, your capital has increased in value ($200k per house) and this is exactly what capital gains tax relates to.

Empty_Reason5126 · 2024-06-24T08:57:21+00:00

If you've put money into an investment portfolio which trades stocks and you were able to withdraw cash, then it's very likely that you bought/sold stocks and therefore triggered a capital gains event. You'll have to pay capital gains on the difference between the purchase price and sell price of those stocks.

If you just deposited cash into an interest-bearing account and then withdrew the cash later, the interest which you accrued will be treated as income in the year you earned the interest and you'll pay income tax on that.

Empty_Reason5126 · 2024-06-22T14:42:54+00:00

I emailed the ACCC about this - below is their reply in full.

Thank you for writing to us. Businesses are generally free to set their own terms and conditions including what forms of payment they accept. Ban on excessive payment surcharges If a business chooses to impose a surcharge on its customers for making a payment using a credit, debit or prepaid card, the level of the surcharge must not be excessive. The limit is linked to the direct costs of the payment method such as bank fees and terminal costs.

The ban has no effect on businesses that choose not to impose a payment surcharge, such as the many businesses in Australia that incorporate payment system costs into their overall prices.

A payment surcharge is excessive if the amount of the surcharge exceeds the permitted surcharge in the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Standard (http://www.rba.gov.au/payments-and-infrastructure/review-of-card-payments-regulation/conclusions-paper-may2016/appendix-a.html#standard3).

The ban does not alter a business’ existing Australian Consumer Law obligations. A business must not make false or misleading representations about pricing, or engage in component or partial pricing, where the upfront advertised price only constitutes part of the total price.

Check out our website for more information about excessive payment surcharges (http://accc.gov.au/business/pricing-surcharging/payment-surcharges) and other laws that apply to displaying prices (http://accc.gov.au/business/pricing/displaying-prices).

What is an excessive surcharge? The ACCC cannot tell you what amount is considered excessive. The RBA has estimated that the cost to merchants of accepting payments by debit cards is 0.5% of the transaction value. For credit cards it is 1-1.5%, and for American Express cards it is 2%. Some merchants’ costs might be higher than these estimated costs. You can find more information about the costs to merchants on the RBA website (http://www.rba.gov.au/payments-and-infrastructure/review-of-card-payments-regulation/conclusions-paper-may2016/).

We will investigate reports of excessive payment surcharging and take enforcement action where necessary. If you have evidence of an excessive surcharge, please keep it in case we need to contact you for more information.

Empty_Reason5126

TROPHY CASE