40 replies to this topic

[jondom]

I did higher french last year and i thot it was quite hard! The film "etre et avoir" is the best it is sooo sweet i would recommend it to any one!

Oh yeah! I forgot about that. It's a nice film.

Yeah, watching 'etre et avoir' over and over again was basically my study regime for French. I am so lucky that I decided to read over my essay on sport the night before...

[jondom]

On the way to school on the day of the exam I was surrounded by wee second years asking "Why the fook did ye pick French big man?"
Naturally my reply remained the same as always: "Because I want to be a Frenchman when I grow up"

[vikki1987]

There seems to be something against French for some reason as we have discussed. Good one tho.

[Nicola]

French is awesome, and I also generally find it very, very easy. Which is always nice as it takes the pressure off a bit. Doing Advanced next year, and hope to do it at uni too.
I was rather unimpressed at the sport essay though!

[dfx]

Ferme la bouche.

Thats all I speak. But it normally sounds like gibberish with an occasional hint of oui non and alot of je ne.

Yeah...

[Chünz]

Well I HATED French in primary school - probably cos I had an awful teacher. That's why I dropped it for Spanish.

Still, I have to say that I preferred French over German though.

[bred]

À la place du coeur is on tonight at 10 PM on BBC4.

[st-and Paul]

French is a great subject to study, but is very challenging at uni. I am in first year at St Andrews studying it with Computing and the course needs a lot of work. The way you actually learn the language is nothing like the way it is done at school.

I do a science language course which involves no literature but it is still very demanding because you have to know English grammar terms like the back of your hand! In the spoken components classes are taken completely in French and you work on texts in French at home and do all the dictionary work and stuff and then any time you go in the tutor may give you a graded presentation to do to the rest of the class on the text (depends how they feel, it's purely down to chance). If you do the work it's fine, but you look like a right muppet if you dont (and fail the presentation too).

Although it's hard work its also great fun and I have improved sooo much in the past semester from doing it. Other thing is that you dont get a dictionary in the exams either,
which is a pain cos there are translations for me in the exam tomorrow :-(
You will have a great time if you choose to do it at Uni, ppl with higher will b fine :-)

[princess]

I love French! I am seriously considering taking it at uni now as I've found the Higher course really enjoyable. Any other facts/tips about studying French at uni would be great.

[djh1878]

I love French! I am seriously considering taking it at uni now as I've found the Higher course really enjoyable. Any other facts/tips about studying French at uni would be great.

I will be doing it at uni, can't wait!

I want to go to Canada on my year abroad, as I've been to France quite a few times already.

[Amo]

J'aime beaucoup le francais. C'est mon metier préféré! Je vais aller a Paris le mois prochaine. J'ai hùte de visiter la France.

L'année derniere, j'ai visité le Canada. C'était une expérience inoubliable, mais, j'avais du mal à comprendre leur accent de Francais. C'est different de la Francais en France.

Lol, I will stop now. I think french is great. It is probably my favourite subject at the moment. I love being able to understand another language. I am thinking of taking Advanced French next year but I dont think our school allows us to take both Advanced French and Advanced Chemistry. The only problem with French is learning all the verbs! Otherwise, its good fun!

[bred]

Voulez-vous étudier le Français à l'université aprÚs l'année prochaine?

[Amo]

Peut-ĂȘtre- je n'ai pas encore decidĂ©. Mais, je voudrais ĂȘtre un medecin/dentiste.

[xmelx]

French is alright, bit confusing for me though!
got my higher prelim in a week or so though...hmmm...
Might do another language next year, not sure though, depends how I feel French went!

[st-and Paul]

In general French at uni is nothin like school. The responsibility is put on you to learn the vocabulary from the language materials you study. As I said before i study the Science course but the Arts French (M.A. (hons)) at St Andrews invovles a lot of work. You have 4/5 hours a week of classes but only one of these is spent on language. Language work typically involves French to English translation of a text with this being done in preparation for a tutorial with the native tutor. Translation of English articles to french is also practised (which is v. hard!!) the marking is harsh and small mistakes can lose you a lot of marks. The translation in Higher is nothin compared to this. Also involves literature (read in French, not in translation) and later on culture/history of France, i have been told that this is quite interesting and is probably the best part of the Arts French course. Also grammar is difficult with delights such as Past Historic/Pluperfect tenses and the scourge that is the a subjunctive mood are studied. These are then topped off with linguistics where you learn what the general structure of language is. Dont know what this is like, some say its interesting, others arent so complementary. If you guys do take French further, be prepared to work, but also be prepared to have a lot of fun while doing it. The native speakers are almost always very friendly and genuinely care about the students they teach, they will force you to think in French rather than thinking in English and then translate to French. Also you get the oppurtunity to take a year abroad in France (which is really fantastic
Hope this helps ppl tht are really interested to know what its like if u keep studying french.

[*sofax*]

French is alright pretty boring and the verbs suck!! I am never in a million years going to be able to do the writing in the exam!! oh well I don't need it for anything so it's all good, when we do speaking and writing tests in class we all have to learn everything we are goin to say or write off by heart which is pants I thought the aim of the course was to be able to do that without learning things parrot fashion!!

[st-and Paul]

French is alright pretty boring and the verbs suck!! I am never in a million years going to be able to do the writing in the exam!! oh well I don't need it for anything so it's all good, when we do speaking and writing tests in class we all have to learn everything we are goin to say or write off by heart which is pants I thought the aim of the course was to be able to do that without learning things parrot fashion!!

yep, thats true, you should be made to do speaking and writing ad lib, its what happens at uni, so doing the higher doesnt really prepare you for it at all. its far more fun that way :-)

[princess]

Planning to do Advanced Higher next year! Sounds really good!

[st-and Paul]

Good luck! Advanced Higher is meant to be harder than first year uni, according to my old teacher!

[princess]

I've heard that the Advanced Higher course has a lot of Modern Studies type issues, but in French obviously. I love Modern Studies as well so the course sounds really good!