Immersion: The Ups and the Downs

Juste-que maintenant, je trouve que le bilinguisme et l'immersion, comme le plus-part des choses dans la vie, ont ses avantages et désavantages.
In terms of advantages, other than the obvious benifits of being bilingual later on when applying for a job and all that good stuff, being bilingual at the University also allows for a wider and in my opinion better range of opportunities. One of the first things I noticed for example is that the University administration, staff, and even many of the Professors are mainly bilingual Francophone's. When calling the University to make inquiries, getting lunch from the caf, or purchasing textbooks the first language of service is generally in French, English is only used if the student doesn't speak French. This fact often annoys many unilingual English speakers but for the immersion student it provides ample opportunity to practice French oral communication. Another thing is that the University offers many workshops, resources, and events to students and it is easier to take advantage of these if one is bilingual. This includes everything from bilingual comedy presentations and poetry nights to success workshops to the writing help center that allows each student to book one appointment per language per week. The final advantage to immersion that I will include in this entry is that immersion students, particularly in the accompanying immersion courses will generally get to know their fellow immersion classmates better and more quickly than regular students.

As for the downside of immersion, the main one I've experienced so far is the difference in the way the professor and the francophone students treat immersion students in class taught in French. This is not to say that immersion students are prejudiced against, but there is a noticeable difference. In the History class I took in French the first semester for example the professor took the approach of treating francophone and immersion students the same, and while this sounds good in theory it put many of the immersion students at a disadvantage because of the poorer French skills. Immersion students who chose to write their papers in French for example often lost marks due to grammar and French writing skills. On the other hand some profs like the one in my politics course this semester may distinguish too much between the francophone and immersion students to the extent that immersion students receive different assignments, are not graded for the quality of their French on papers (unlike the francophone counterparts), and are singled out as a group to participate more in discussions and so on. In both cases there is no doubt that the professors are trying to be fair to all students in their own way and yet because of the problems underlying the situation where their are two groups of students in the class there are some issues in how equally or equitably immersion students are treated.

Il y a encore beaucoup d'avantages et désavantages associer aux études en immersion et le bilinguisme, et peut-être que je vais aborder ces sujets encore plus tard, mais pour l'instant je crois que j'ai déjà trop parlé. Alors, jusqu'au prochain.