French Extension: How much work are you doing/what do you do in class? (2 Viewers)

[jamesishere]

There's no folder for french X (at least i don't think so) so thats why it's here.
Just wondering, to all the French X ppl out there how much work r u doing these hols, I Havent even opened Jean de Florette.
And how r u studying it in class, we're up to chapter 5, we were going through and translating it pg by pg but that took to long so our teacher just read it from the eng translation hahaha.

oh yeh, and what do you think of Jean de Florette. Personally it is SO BORING AND SO DRY.

et, si tu as envies reponds en francais sil-te-plait.

 

[hermand]

non, je ne voudrais pas repondre en francais. c'est trop difficile! haha.

i'm struggling through jean de florette, although i now have the english version to read with it, so i'm reading a paragraph of the french, trying to translate it, and then reading the english version. verrrry time consuming.

we have a french exchange student who was like yeah this should be easy and she was shocked by how hard it was to get through.

i'm the only one who does it in my school, so it's good to have the one on one teaching, but they didn't have it in the timetable last term [not sure about this year] so it was just whenever my teacher and i were both free. didn't work out so well, done only up to the third extract we have to study, and done some monologue stuff. i don't like being the only one in the class, it's a bit intimidating to ask your teacher when you need help for really obvious things.

 

[michellemma]

Sounds like you are up to the same as us - we're onto the fifth extract. Our teacher got hold fo these awesome materials which analyses all the extracts in terms of the themes etc. so if you don't have them you should ask your teacher.

Over the holidays I read JdF in english. It took a while to get into but it wasn't too bad. Have you watched the movie? The sequel is quite good as well - Manon des Sources.

Our teacher also gave us a massive booklet of french articles on the theme of Outsider vs. Social Order which we had to translate (it was a nightmare), and we've done some writing pieces on them.

I really like the course as there are only two of us at my school who do it so it is really nice. Having gone on exchange to France in the holidays I'm just happy to have an outlet for speaking french again.

Have you guys done writing pieces? What were the topics?

 

[chrasy]

We''ve just done... extracts 4 and 5 I think (god, this isn't going very well already, is it? lol) but we're focusing on the environment and stuff at the moment as it's tying in with continuers receptive use.

I'm trying so hard to read the novel but it is SO HARD. There's just so much specialised vocab that it's crazy and I have to look things up all the time.

 

[michellemma]

We''ve just done... extracts 4 and 5 I think (god, this isn't going very well already, is it? lol) but we're focusing on the environment and stuff at the moment as it's tying in with continuers receptive use.

I'm trying so hard to read the novel but it is SO HARD. There's just so much specialised vocab that it's crazy and I have to look things up all the time.

Gosh are you reading the entire novel in french?

 

[Pongphisud]

We are up to extract 6 in Jean de Florette. Our teacher has insisted that we read the novel during the holidays and so I read the English version. The novel is not too bad actually when compared to others we have to read for English. We have 9 students in our Fench X class so it's quite big and all the classes are in the morning at 7.15 am! Can u imagine that! Anyway, our teacher has given us the support material, which analyse each extract very well, for each extract that we have studied. It is so good.

I wish all the French X students a good and successful year in French and good luck in HSC. Bonne Chance!

 

[michellemma]

We finished Extract 7 today in class. It's really good because there are only 2 of us in the class. The support materials are awesome, non?

 

[hermand]

it's such a good subject but i dropped the other day =[[. i thought it would be more beneficial to put more effort into getting a great mark in continuers.

 

[chrasy]

Gosh are you reading the entire novel in french?

Yeah we're suppose to. My teacher thinks that it would be very beneficial, but to be honest, I can't find the time to sit and read, while looking up every few words.

We've just done lots of stuff on the environment topic, so we're... working on reading and responding part B responses and practicing speaking on that topic for now. I think the extracts are on hold for a little bit.

 

[treeface]

im in a one on one class, i read the novel in french last year and i've done 9 extracts but theyre on hold for a bit and ive been doing about one monologue a week this term

oh my god monologues are intimidating, but they definitely beat talking about your family and what you did in the holidays again!

JdeF is kinda interesting once you get into it, and telling people you have to talk about human rights in french sounds pretty impressive lol

so yeah extension is a great subject

 

[michellemma]

im in a one on one class, i read the novel in french last year and i've done 9 extracts but theyre on hold for a bit and ive been doing about one monologue a week this term

oh my god monologues are intimidating, but they definitely beat talking about your family and what you did in the holidays again!

JdeF is kinda interesting once you get into it, and telling people you have to talk about human rights in french sounds pretty impressive lol

so yeah extension is a great subject

Haha that's so true. I love telling people that I write french essays on racism.

 

[corsalui]

Well so far we've done 10 extracts and there are three of us in the class.
We've actually done heaps of issue stuff, we've touched on all of them which is pretty good, compared to german extension where we've only really talked about one of the issues.

Personally i really liked jean de florette. we're stilling reading in french but we've read in english. i really enjoyed it and like talking about it. we're going to be reading manon de source, but only after the trials. and we're also going to be watching the movie later.

 

[kiki_koala]

we've done 8 extracts in class, and i've finished reading the novel in French (thank goood i've got that over with!!!) =)

btw, where did you get these copies in English? =D

 

[1.saviour]

hey all, what bout issues though? i'm screwed for anything to do with prejudice or breaking down vs creating barriers. what even are they? and also the whole power of attachment thing... written exam on issues on thursday... help?

 

[soho]

wow, I've just read through this thread and I've just realised how screwed I am.

I'm going to be honest. I've read about 6 pages of Jean de Florette. i know the general storyline but apart from some of the extracts I have no idea about all the little things in the book. I've had a quick look at the movie, but I'm really really really reluctant to read the book since it's just so damn fat and ugly. Do I really need to know much detail about the book apart from what's in the extracts?

Also, where is everyone picking up these English copies? They sound alright.

 

[la-prisme]

hey, i'm in year 11, and i'm wondering how would you rate the difficulty level of extension french? i've been learning french since year eight, and it's my favourite subject, but i'm still not sure if extension would be too ambitious or not.

 

[treeface]

extension french takes commitment, especially if you havn't been on exchange or come from a french background or anything
its pretty hard now that its a book not a movie, but definitely doable
if youre good at english then thats a bonus, because a lot of the questions are kind of like ones you would do in a basic english test, for example imagining you are a character and writing a diary entry, or talking about the language the author uses to convey a theme
the monologues are going to kill me, i dont know about anyone else, because there is so little time to prepare and i totally freeze
but if youre good at public speaking i guess that would help
but yeah if youre prepared to do a lot of work, and want to really improve your french, then go for it

 

[jenga218]

hey, i'm in year 11, and i'm wondering how would you rate the difficulty level of extension french? i've been learning french since year eight, and it's my favourite subject, but i'm still not sure if extension would be too ambitious or not.

I'm feeling the same - 'cept I already went and signed up for the class. My main reasoning was that I was finding Continuers to be far too easy, so how much harder could extension be? *headdesk*

I do have a lot of background in French - though every teacher I speak to tries to correct my Québecoise accent . The thing that's concerning me about the class is the fact that I'm doing it through distance education - Open High School. So you talk to your teacher on the phone once or twice a week and the rest is on your own.

Good Luck!

 

[mchread]

omg its soooo much work.
During term 4, we only had one lesson a week, so after school on fridays the 7 of us would have to stay back for 2 hours talking about jean de florette. then we had to answer heaps of questions on all the extracts so now we have been through all of them in depth. Then, over these holidays, we have to go through 7 sets of quote sheets (which took forever!) and then write about the significance of like 60 quotes to the plot AND THEN write an essay in french about society and the needs of the marginalised.
Although, i personally think the book is fantastic and the sequel was even better. If there is anyone in year 11 on the fence about doing the subject, i highly recommend the course as it is a really awesome book.

 

[Kittikhun]

omg its soooo much work.
During term 4, we only had one lesson a week, so after school on fridays the 7 of us would have to stay back for 2 hours talking about jean de florette. then we had to answer heaps of questions on all the extracts so now we have been through all of them in depth. Then, over these holidays, we have to go through 7 sets of quote sheets (which took forever!) and then write about the significance of like 60 quotes to the plot AND THEN write an essay in french about society and the needs of the marginalised.
Although, i personally think the book is fantastic and the sequel was even better. If there is anyone in year 11 on the fence about doing the subject, i highly recommend the course as it is a really awesome book.

It's a very tough book to read though with its sophisticated vocabulary. I bought a copy from Abbeys and I'm reading my dictionary more than the book.