So for those wondering what the French subject classes are like for Anglophones, particularly after my previous entry regarding how poorly my first few weeks in the French section of psychology went , I figured I'd give a few more examples. In my first semester I ended up taking history in French, and my history professor used very detailed powerpoint presentations as a visual aid for the class. While this was great as it allowed students to read most of the pertinent information even if they couldn't keep up with the professors lecture, the prof did not post the powerpoints online (unlike most of the other classes I've had) and so it was difficult to copy down the information on the slides and listen to the prof at the same time. To counter this some students took notes in pairs where one copied the slides and the other the information on the profs lecture. What I found most useful however was to take photos of the slides so that I could copy them later and then listen and take notes from the profs lecture during class (please note however that you must first ask the profs permission to take pics of the slides).
Mon cours ce trimestre était le Politique et la Globalization. Pour ce cours-ci le prof nous a envoyé les présentations de powerpoint sur le Virtual Campus, mais il n'a pas les vraiment utilisé durent les lectures. Il a plutôt simplement parlé du sujet ou a discuté les lectures que nous avons lues pour la classe. Dans ce cours j'ai trouvé que ce n'était pas les détails qui étaient importants, mais les grandes idées alors c'était beaucoup plus facile de suivre la classe même quand j'ai manqué quelques partis de ce que le prof disait. Le problème que j'ai eu avec cette classe c'était que les idées étaient toutes liées et alors désorganiser et alors pour comprendre chaque phénomène de la mondialisation tu avais dû comprendre tous les autres.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
A few questions; a few answers
Hey,
These are some profile questions I responded to a little while ago. I figured I may as well put them up here as well because they relate to immersion and making use of bilingualism.
1. Describe the volunteer experience you are currently pursuing.
Je fais du bénévolat avec le Conseil Économique et Social d'Ottawa-Carlton, un
organisme qui aide les nouveaux immigrants francophone à s'adapter au Canada. Pour
ma partie, je dirige les tables de conversation de l'anglais débutante. Un des
problèmes c'est que tous les immigrants avec qui je travaille ont des différents
niveaux de compréhension et en général leur anglais c'est vraiment débutant alors au
lieu d'une table de conversation c'est plutôt moi qui enseigne l'anglais et puis ils
répètent et écrivent ce que je dis. De plus, car c'est un programme pour les aider à
s'adapter je toujours essai de trouver des situations où ils rencontrent l'anglais
et leur montrer comment répondre.
Par exemple on pratique comment répondre au téléphone ou poser des questions au
conducteur d'autobus. Et c'est toujours un processus de répéter des choses qu'on a
déjà faits et trouver les nouveaux sujets de pratiquer.
2. Pourquoi avez vous décidez de poursuivre cette opportunité?
I chose to volunteer with this organization because my family also immigrated to
Canada when I was younger, and although I don't remember much about that time, I
felt like I could relate to the many transitions that come with moving to a place
with a new language and culture and I wanted to play a part in maybe making that
transition a little easier.
3. Comment est-ce que l'immersion en français affecte votre expérience en tant que
bénévole?
French Immersion and the whole process of learning and developing a second (or in my
case third) language have allowed me to better understand where the difficulties are
in learning a language. So now doing the process backwards in teaching English to
fracophones I understand the kind of things, such as grammatical differences between
the languages, differences in the pronunciation of certain individual or groups of
letters, etc, that I have to teach.
4. How does your volunteer experience affect your studies in French?
C'est une expérience vraiment diffèrent pour moi, car les immigrants avec qui je
travaille viennent différend(s)."des différents pays, ils ont des différentes
accents et façons de parler alors j'ai besoin d'adapter et j'apprends plus la
française. De plus, car j'essaie de trouver des situations concret où on utilise la
langue et les choses dont on parle ne restent pas dans le contexte de l'école, je
trouve des zones ou mon éducation en française n'est pas complète. Alors, ils
m'enseignent la française au même temps que je leur enseigne l'anglais.
These are some profile questions I responded to a little while ago. I figured I may as well put them up here as well because they relate to immersion and making use of bilingualism.
1. Describe the volunteer experience you are currently pursuing.
Je fais du bénévolat avec le Conseil Économique et Social d'Ottawa-Carlton, un
organisme qui aide les nouveaux immigrants francophone à s'adapter au Canada. Pour
ma partie, je dirige les tables de conversation de l'anglais débutante. Un des
problèmes c'est que tous les immigrants avec qui je travaille ont des différents
niveaux de compréhension et en général leur anglais c'est vraiment débutant alors au
lieu d'une table de conversation c'est plutôt moi qui enseigne l'anglais et puis ils
répètent et écrivent ce que je dis. De plus, car c'est un programme pour les aider à
s'adapter je toujours essai de trouver des situations où ils rencontrent l'anglais
et leur montrer comment répondre.
Par exemple on pratique comment répondre au téléphone ou poser des questions au
conducteur d'autobus. Et c'est toujours un processus de répéter des choses qu'on a
déjà faits et trouver les nouveaux sujets de pratiquer.
2. Pourquoi avez vous décidez de poursuivre cette opportunité?
I chose to volunteer with this organization because my family also immigrated to
Canada when I was younger, and although I don't remember much about that time, I
felt like I could relate to the many transitions that come with moving to a place
with a new language and culture and I wanted to play a part in maybe making that
transition a little easier.
3. Comment est-ce que l'immersion en français affecte votre expérience en tant que
bénévole?
French Immersion and the whole process of learning and developing a second (or in my
case third) language have allowed me to better understand where the difficulties are
in learning a language. So now doing the process backwards in teaching English to
fracophones I understand the kind of things, such as grammatical differences between
the languages, differences in the pronunciation of certain individual or groups of
letters, etc, that I have to teach.
4. How does your volunteer experience affect your studies in French?
C'est une expérience vraiment diffèrent pour moi, car les immigrants avec qui je
travaille viennent différend(s)."des différents pays, ils ont des différentes
accents et façons de parler alors j'ai besoin d'adapter et j'apprends plus la
française. De plus, car j'essaie de trouver des situations concret où on utilise la
langue et les choses dont on parle ne restent pas dans le contexte de l'école, je
trouve des zones ou mon éducation en française n'est pas complète. Alors, ils
m'enseignent la française au même temps que je leur enseigne l'anglais.
Ma première classe d’immersion
Ma première classe d’immersion
When I first made course selections in the spring of 2012 for my first semester in university, I chose to take the requisite French courses for the immersion program as subject courses taught in French along with the accompanying FLS course. And since I knew that first year psychology courses are the most standardized due to the large number of students who enroll in them I figured that the best French course to start with would be psychology. Big mistake.
And before you start criticizing my limited French abilities let me just say that the Francophone students were almost as lost as I was. The Profs deep unfamiliar accent, coupled with a giant lecture hall with hundreds of students tapping away on laptops and whispering their confusion, no mike and pour acoustics made understanding the professor virtually impossible. So I sat their tried to decipher what I could and hoped that I would get used to it and things would get easier to understand. They did not.
Finally I decided to switch out of the class. At first I tried to switch into the other French section of the same course but unfortunately as that section hadn’t been designated for the immersion students I wasn’t allowed to take the FFS course with it and since I needed to have two courses in French and the FSS course was my sixth course I would have had to drop one of my English courses and take another French course. So instead I switched into a history course in French with the accompanying FSS course but as the history course conflicted with another of my courses but there weren’t any other immersion courses that I was interested in taking with spots available I also ended up having to switch another of my electives to a different course offered at a different time.
At this point I had missed to and a half weeks of the courses I was now registered in and had spent just as long trying to work out a way not to stay in a class where I understood only maybe 5% of what the professor said. Ironically I had even looked up the professor on rate my prof before picking the class in the spring and had seen comments regarding his accent and how difficult it was to understand him. If I had heeded the warnings I could have avoided all this but, at the time, I had figured that the comments were exaggerating. Obviously they weren’t. (Although that is not to say that everything on rate my prof is completely accurate, it is better to look at the comments in general not individual remarks).
The lesson in all this? Listen to others advice and don’t be afraid to switch out if you don’t understand a course. It might be a hassle initially but it’s possible and a whole lot better than being lost all semester.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
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.
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.
Introduction
Hello,
Well, I've never actually written a blog before and I don't keep a journal so I'm not actually sure how to start this but please bear with me as I muddle my way through. I suppose I should start with the requisite information: who I am and so on. Here goes:
Alors, je m'appelle Romina. Je suis une étudiante de la première année à l'Université d'Ottawa dans le programme intégré de Science Politique et Droit Commune. Mais, car ceci c'est ma première année, je fais que la partie de Science Politique de mon programme. Et, car je suis une anglophone, je le fais en immersion française, ce qui veut dire que je prends deux de mes six cours chaque semestre en français.
A vrais dire j'ai choisi l'Université d'Ottawa principalement à cause de son programme d'immersion. Dans l'école secondaire j'étais dans le programme de Extended French (ce qui veut dire que j'ai pris sept de mes trente cours en française) et, car j'ai grandi à Ottawa, j'ai voulu continuer d'utiliser et d'apprendre la française sans être censée de prendre seulement des cours de langue ou de grammaire française.
De plus que les cours que je prends en Francaise je fais aussi de bénévolat à une association pour des immigrants francophones qui s'appelle la Consiel Économique et Social d'Ottawa-Carlton (CESOC). Là j'enseigne l'anglais débutante aux nouveaux immigrants francophones. Je trouve cette expérience est vraiment intéressante, car c'est exactement l'envers du processus que j'ai vécu en apprendre la française.
So that’s my introduction for now. I hope my French wasn’t too terrible but I do apologize for the numerous mistakes I know I probably made. Till the next post.
Well, I've never actually written a blog before and I don't keep a journal so I'm not actually sure how to start this but please bear with me as I muddle my way through. I suppose I should start with the requisite information: who I am and so on. Here goes:
Alors, je m'appelle Romina. Je suis une étudiante de la première année à l'Université d'Ottawa dans le programme intégré de Science Politique et Droit Commune. Mais, car ceci c'est ma première année, je fais que la partie de Science Politique de mon programme. Et, car je suis une anglophone, je le fais en immersion française, ce qui veut dire que je prends deux de mes six cours chaque semestre en français.
A vrais dire j'ai choisi l'Université d'Ottawa principalement à cause de son programme d'immersion. Dans l'école secondaire j'étais dans le programme de Extended French (ce qui veut dire que j'ai pris sept de mes trente cours en française) et, car j'ai grandi à Ottawa, j'ai voulu continuer d'utiliser et d'apprendre la française sans être censée de prendre seulement des cours de langue ou de grammaire française.
De plus que les cours que je prends en Francaise je fais aussi de bénévolat à une association pour des immigrants francophones qui s'appelle la Consiel Économique et Social d'Ottawa-Carlton (CESOC). Là j'enseigne l'anglais débutante aux nouveaux immigrants francophones. Je trouve cette expérience est vraiment intéressante, car c'est exactement l'envers du processus que j'ai vécu en apprendre la française.
So that’s my introduction for now. I hope my French wasn’t too terrible but I do apologize for the numerous mistakes I know I probably made. Till the next post.
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