Jump to content
Complete France Forum

Will my education be affected and will ipick up the language?


polly

Recommended Posts

Me and my family area going to move to Brittany this year. I am 14 and i was told i needed to be held back a year to pick up the language so i would be in year 10. i am slightly concerned i will not pick up the language and i a worried about going to a french school. can any one help?[8-)][8-)]

please email me        ![:)] thankyou

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Polly, if your family are definitely moving over here, then I hope you all ready having private French lessons.

I think it is quite normal to 'stay back' a year in France, but at your age there will be a great deal of catching up to do, so you really should be making a start with the language now.

I don't have any children here, but I do know of at least one 14 year old who settled very well, and is now 16, but she had extra tuition in French both before moving and still does.

Have a look at this thread, but do show it to your parents too.

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/816742/ShowPost.aspx

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try and get some intensive french lessons now and upto when you move, you will need to work very hard once here to catch up so it would be better to start now. Eventually you will learn the everyday words but grammar is difficult for beginners especially verbs so they need a lot of practice. As long as you are prepared to give it a go, not rebel against the system here and generally integrate you should be fine. Being held back a year or even two is nothing here, everyone goes through it and it is not a stigma like it would be in the UK. Crikey my son had a 11-year local boy old in his class when he was 8 here because he was a slow learner but he came good in the end.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="TWINKLE"]

You'll be fine Polly!

Just a word of advice - make sure that you hang out with French kids as well as English ones.  Your French will improve so much quicker this way.

[/quote]

Follow Twink's advice Polly, it will really help you.

My friend moved over here 2 years ago, her eldest daughter was 13 & the next one down was 11. The eldest lacked confidence but really gave it a go & has blossomed at school. She mixed with French kids & that really speeded up learning the language. The 11yr old, very confident, chose to spend most of her time with an English girl & although fine now, she did struggle. Despite having the same extra lessons that her sister had.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Jean-Luc Picard"][quote user="wen"]It isn't mean't to be ![:P][/quote]

Is that misplaced apostrophe a stylistic point, a typo, an ironic statement or a mistake? Or simply a case of not knowing where it is meant to be?
[/quote][:D]I generally try to ignore grammar and spelling mistakes as my own is not so hot but don't set yourself up, wen.  Captain Picard will notice!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Going back to Polly, it might be better not to think in terms of "picking up" the language as this rather implies that it will just happen without much effort. It's worth emphasising that the more you work at  learning French and the more effort you put into it, the quicker you will learn it. And although Wen's comment was a bit harsh, it's true that you 'll find it easier to learn and understand French grammar if you gain a better grasp of the English language as well. (You might also find it a bit embarrassining to have your poor English corrected in English lessons in a French school!)

All the best.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

cooperlola, let's face it, with the dictee's and marks being taken off right left and centre for spelling and grammatical mistakes, one has to be nigh on perfect at these things in french schools to get half decent marks. I'm sure that Wen is well aware of the exigencies of the french system and thus her suggestion is not untoward as far as I am concerned.

I was always lousy at grammer etc at school, good job I was good at sums wasn't it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

TU I 'chastised' wen too. This was one of two times she had a pop at Polly, and with Polly being new here it's not the most welcoming thing.

Also, if Pollys parents have made the decision to come here, then Polly can't do much about that.

Agreed she will probably find it hard, but I don't think wen criticising her grammar is helpful in terms of her looking for help on this site.

Elsewhere I linked Polly to the big thread titled 'moving to France with a 13 year old girl' which put both sides, and I hope her (and Helixxs) parents have read it and are getting them some extra French before they come here, rather than just letting the girls do their own research and relying on people saying 'you'll be fine'.

I don't think Polly will find it easy without some intensive French lessons, starting now.

There are plenty of other threads in the education section, which they might all benefit from reading too.

Edit; also plenty of people are lacksadaisical about their grammar and punctuation here. It just seems so unfair to me to criticise her, or judge her English Language use as 'poor'.

It's not in the spirit of the forum, however much people pretend we are picky here, about these things.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Surely the point is that Polly wants some help, not a snipe about punctuation. I think she deserves our help and support for having the initiative and bottle for posting to a forum such as this in such a sensible manner.

And as someone else said, she gets her message across more clearly than many older posters...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...