<p>Current sophomore. This question has probably been asked like 100 times before, but as the title states, I hate french, this is my second year of it in high school. I heard colleges like seeing at least 3 years of a foreign language. How badly would not taking a 3rd year of french hurt me at a place such as cornell or johns hopkins?</p>
<p>bumpmpmpmp</p>
<p>Please answer, lol, scheduling classes ends tomorrow</p>
<p>Don’t take my word for it, but it would hurt you; that’s not to say you won’t necessarily get it. Competitive colleges, say the top fifteen, really want at least three or four years of a foreign language.</p>
<p>I know you hate french, but you really should get the three years of foreign language under your belt. You will kick yourself later if don’t.</p>
<p>No offense, but I’m quietly laughing at what you’ve written. You remind me… of me. In freshman year. I wanted Spanish but got French instead. The first two years I took the language, I hated it - my combination of teachers was quite mediocre freshman and sophomore years. Now I’m a senior and I’m taking French 4 (unofficial AP yet not AP level since I happen to be here during a ginny-pig year) - so my fourth year of French. I love the language now. It’s really changed me. You might not have the same personality as I did when I first “met” the language - pretty quiet little boy - but I think it’ll change you for the better. That’s what happened to me. Taking French the last four years was immensely useful, even if I didn’t think it would be at the beginning.</p>
<p>I would strongly encourage you to push on. Don’t think about how it’s influencing you right at this very moment, think of how it’ll work into your future as an individual.</p>
<p>Just my two cents. :)</p>
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Foreign languages aren’t for everyone. Still, out of curiosity, how much do you study per week outside of class? Do you use any spaced-repetition systems to learn vocabulary?</p>
<p>The majority of my Ap French class doesn’t like French myself included but we take it cause it looks good for college and I recommend at least 3 years although in our school you only need two years of a foreign language to graduate.</p>
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<p>hmm, our teacher doesn’t assign ‘vocab’ lol, she’s not the greatest teacher. and I never study for french. No need to for the class. Not rigorous at all.</p>
<p>What are spaced-repetition systems? I just right down the english definition next to he french word over and over again until it’s in my head.</p>
<p>I hate French with a passion, but I’m still taking four years of it. (finished my third) If you don’t take four years, you’re limiting the more competitive schools you can get into. Not saying all schools require four years, but many do.</p>
<p>spaced-repetition systems are based on the idea of a forgetting curve; if I tell you a french word you might have a high probability of forgetting it in 10 seconds, but if I ask you when 7 seconds are up you might have a 90% chance of remembering, and because its been refreshed the memory becomes stronger. The stronger memory might expire in a minute, but If I ask you before that minute is up and you get it right then you’ll remember even longer; the cycle continues. With computers its easy to automate the reminders, and there are free programs like Anki based on this idea. </p>
<p>See the article at [Forgetting</a> curve - Wikipedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve]Forgetting”>Forgetting curve - Wikipedia) and a more in-depth (and interesting) article at [Want</a> to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn?](<a href=“Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm | WIRED”>Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm | WIRED) </p>
<p>Foreign languages is an obvious application, but people use this to remember all kinds of things in school – biology, history, you name it.</p>
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Since this is an advice forum, I guess I’ll give some. Nobody can tell what the future will bring, and perhaps you’ll be able to walk away from french after this and never give it another thought the rest of your life. </p>
<p>However you should be aware that most colleges, including Cornell, have a foreign language requirement to graduate. I don’t know about Cornell, but at some colleges you can place out of the foreign language requirement by a good score on the AP test. That’s one potential reason to take it farther.</p>
<p>Another is that even if you decide to take it from scratch in college, which they’ll let you do, the classes will be easier the more you already know. College language classes are fast-paced and demand a lot of time. To the extent you can learn more at your leisure while in HS, the easier time you’ll have of it in college. </p>
<p>Lastly, learning french or any other language takes time and practice. Sounds like you’ll do fine in this class without extra work, but that isn’t really the way to learn it. See [url=<a href=“http://www4.ncsu.edu/~dfstephe/secrets.html]secrets[/url”>http://www4.ncsu.edu/~dfstephe/secrets.html]secrets[/url</a>] for an example of a way to approach it.</p>