French II Class

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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<p>Hello,</p>

<p>So, I am in my second year of French in high school this year, in level II. (As I side note, I have also enrolled in Spanish I for this year.) I really love the french language, and want to learn as much as I can. Unfortunately, I attend at small public school, in which french is the least popular of the three languages (Fr, Spanish, Italian). My french II class (the only class) has only 6 students.</p>

<p>While for some, this may seem like a very positive thing, it really is not. Living in a relatively affluent town, I am not worried about budget cuts endangering the french program. I am however, concerned about the quality of my education.</p>

<p>The teacher, while very friendly, rarely speaks a word of french, except when introducing vocabulary. The pace is extremely slow, and the class boring. Two months into a second year french class, the teacher reviewed subject pronouns the other day. Plus, we have only learned about 3 irregular verbs and only how to conjugate -er verbs. Tenses, moods, new vocabulary, etc seem far off in the curriculum. </p>

<p>I am concerned that the pace is far too slow for me to derive any benefit from the class, considering I already know well the content. I spend most classes doing my maths homework for my math class before!</p>

<p>I would really like to leave high school with some degree of proficiency in a foreign language, hopefully french. I feel like the way my french class is moving now, there is no hope of this whatsoever. The french 3/4 class next year moves no quicker. </p>

<p>I have asked the teacher about moving faster, and she explained to me that other students are not ready to move on yet. With some degree of accuracy too, as most students do not study because there is no challenge. </p>

<p>What are my options? How might I grow as a speaker of French? At the rate we're currently moving, there is no hope of gaining a good education in the french language in class. If I study on my own, I lack the resource of an instructor to ask questions. Also, the price of materials with which to learn IS a concern.</p>

<p>What do I do in order to better learn french?</p>

2

<p>…this is exactly why i self-studied french (the classes were way too slow and i’ve learned a lot more doing it my own way). I’ve also enrolled in a college course this semester instead of taking it at my hs. I suggest doing that, if you can.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the advice. How did you enroll in a college course this semester? Like at a community college? What materials do you recommend using for self study?</p>

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<p>I was in pretty much the same situation. For senior year, I’ve enrolled in French at community college. I’m technically enrolled at the actual university, but since I’m taking evening classes, I have to take French at the CC.
My state has a really nice PSEOP program where HS students can take college courses for free. I know a few states have it, so ask around about it, and even if no one at your school is aware, try to do some research. College courses can be really expensive, so it’s nice to not have to pay for them yourself.</p>

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<p>Anyone else? Suggestions?</p>

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<p>I was in a similar situation to yours, but didn’t realize it. My second year of French was HORRIBLE. I think all I learned was airport vocabulary. The first semester we just reviewed French one stuff and that’s it.
With that being said, I didn’t do anything about it or realize how much of a year was wasted until the middle of my French four year, when I decided to do something about it. I started talking to a lot more French Canadian people (French people are too hard to talk to with the time difference) and my French has been improving ever since. In class it showed:
French 1: 98/100
French 2: 98/93 <–stopped caring second semester, pretty much lost interest
French 3: 90/92
French 4: 91/96 <–middle of the year was when I started talking to French people online
French 5: 98
And my french has been great ever since. Half of my iPod is in French, half of the news I read online is in French, the majority of people I talk to online are French Canadian girls my age haha
I’m not sure if you can go the same way I did right now, as you probably don’t (no offense) have as much French knowledge as I did as you’re in your second and I was in my fourth, but I would recommend learning a lot of vocabulary and verbs; get used to conjugating them and being able to think of them on the spot; be able to be readily corrected and willing to be; don’t slack off in class just because everybody else is…</p>

<p>That’s just my advice. And in my eyes I’m fluent now. I can think, write, speak, and read in French without difficulty (listening comprehension is still hard :X) But I went from poorly using/understanding the language (I would understand like, 30% of the words on a news page online) to pretty good usage and understanding; now I can understand about 80-90% of the words.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the advice. How’d you talk to french canadian people?</p>

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<p>sharedtalk.com is a very useful chat tool to talk to people in other languages and practice your skills. i use podcasts, watch some random shows in french, learn random stuff on random websites, use regular paperback/hardback books, and i have a french computer program (immersion french…which i used at first, now i don’t really use it anymore).</p>

<p>at my school we have a program where we can go to the local college (not a community college) and take classes instead of high school classes. I self-studied and tested into second year.</p>

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<p>I’m surprised no one has started speaking french yet.</p>

<p>To the OP: Before you start immersing yourself, get the basics down. Learn most of the irregulars, make sure you can conjugate -er, -ir, and -re verbs easily. Make sure you know all the important tenses (present, imperfect, p.c., imperative, conditional, simple future, SUBJUNCTIVE, and the combined tenses). Then I’d say immerse yourself. I’d be willing to give you some of my study guide documents if you want. After learning the grammar, picking out the vocab is easy if you know the context.</p>

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<p>Tu peux t’inscrire sur Skyrock.com, il y a beaucoup de fran</p>

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<p>Où est-ce qu’on peut chercher ce programme?</p>

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<p>[ShortKeys</a> Home Page](<a href=“http://www.shortkeys.com/]ShortKeys”>http://www.shortkeys.com/)
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