3 years of hell or hope ?

[Pads]

I have just signed up for a 3 year french Alevel at college [:-))] Has any one else done this and can you give me any I dea of what to expect? I can only say lots of words but not many sentances yet , and I am bricking it. How hard will it get ? I know Im probaly going to be the oldest person there to , why did I do this ??? Arhhhh  

[suein56]

You will absolutely love it. You wont admit this until after it is over, of course. It will be invigorating, annoying, confusing and downright hard work and you will be enthralled, upset, delighted, disgusted and, eventually, very proud that you managed to do it - whatever your age. 

Go to it with you head held high and keep repeating ' I can do this, I can do this' and you will.

Sue [:)]

[Pads]

Thanks sue . I have a good incentive my husband says if I pass , we can move out to our place in france full time . as he works abroad any how , It dos'nt matter where we live, But he dosnt want me to live out there until I can talk myself out of the trouble he thinks I will get my self into [:)] MEN   

[ali-cat]

Good luck, Pads!! 

We've enrolled in a French class (at last) in Jarnac & start next Tuesday!!  Really looking forward to it & hopefully I'll start to feel a little less nervous when having to "chat" to our neighbour.  Up to now our conversations have revolved around the cats & vegetables! [:D]

[Pads]

Thanks Ali, Thats funny my conversations with my neighbour have all been about flowers and dogs, Oh and the weather. [:)]  

[5-element]

Congratulations Pads, that's fantastic! However hard it might seem to be at times, you will always be able to give yourself a pat on the back - you really mean business, and there will be many lifelong rewards! Bravo, and much success to you. You are a shining example to many.

[Pads]

Thanks Five E. Im out and about in Carcassonne next week for a little practise before I start the following week. Oh and a little shopping in the name of practise only........................[:)] 

[cooperlola]

Coo, you are good.  I did my A level exam way back when I was 17 so it will have changed a bit now!  One of the things I love about being my age is that I don't have to take exams any more; I think you're great to take them on.  Bon courage.

[Ysatis]

Hi Pads,

   Well done, you will thoroughly enjoy it. I thrived on it and my french neighbours really noticed an improvement in my conversations in the 12 months I hadn't seen them. It's so fulfilling and rewarding. You will probably not be the oldest, I'm sure. I happened to be the youngest in my class!!

   I've just completed the AS year of A level French. I'm hopefully going on to do the A2 year which will hopefully start on the 17th Sept. I say hopefully because there was only five of us who did the AS and only 2 of us have enrolled to do the A2, so it might not happen. Which would be a huge shame.

   Anyway, I can give you loads of info and tips as far as AS goes. What sort of thing do you want to know? I can post it here or PM you if you want. But there is a lot that I can tell you.

   Out of interest, where are you doing it, you can PM if you want. I'm interested just incase my intended course doesn't go ahead. I have done a little bit of searching but seen nothing. I'm assumming it's an adult education course. One thing I'm intrigued about is that your course is three years, mine will be/would have been (if it falls through) two years. I know geographically in England, we are not too far from each other.

Regards,

Liz

[Bones]

I've lived in France for three years now and would love to do an a level (probably need to start at o level actually!).

I can muddle by speaking French but my writing would be atrocious! Carcassonne isn't too bad though Pads: there's more English speakers than French anyhow. [:D]

[Pads]

Bones ......stop trying to appeal to the lazy side of me[;-)]

Sadley my coarse never got off the ground due to lack of numbers it was cancelled, I moved a few times to different places days and times but no joy, But I met the teacher who was to run it and Im now having private lessons with her to get me through the first year and will hopfully tag on to the second year if it runs next year. I have only had a few lessons with her and already I have come on leaps and bounds as I already knew lots of words she has helped me to put them into sentances plus, I have jumped from only being able to count to 20 to now being able to say and hear any number which is a big thing for me as I was getting fed up with asking people to write it down .

Theres no holding me down now [:)]

[Pads]

[quote user="EMH"]

Hi Pads,

   Well done, you will thoroughly enjoy it. I thrived on it and my french neighbours really noticed an improvement in my conversations in the 12 months I hadn't seen them. It's so fulfilling and rewarding. You will probably not be the oldest, I'm sure. I happened to be the youngest in my class!!

   I've just completed the AS year of A level French. I'm hopefully going on to do the A2 year which will hopefully start on the 17th Sept. I say hopefully because there was only five of us who did the AS and only 2 of us have enrolled to do the A2, so it might not happen. Which would be a huge shame.

   Anyway, I can give you loads of info and tips as far as AS goes. What sort of thing do you want to know? I can post it here or PM you if you want. But there is a lot that I can tell you.

   Out of interest, where are you doing it, you can PM if you want. I'm interested just incase my intended course doesn't go ahead. I have done a little bit of searching but seen nothing. I'm assumming it's an adult education course. One thing I'm intrigued about is that your course is three years, mine will be/would have been (if it falls through) two years. I know geographically in England, we are not too far from each other.

Regards,

Liz

[/quote]

Hi liz

Thanks or the offer of advice , one thing I would like to know. Do you know where I could get my hands on a copy of a exam paper (mock or real) as I would like to see what kind of standard I am looking at after year 1, 2,3.

The coarse I was going to do was at Bude college, it then moved to Launceston college but now all cancled.[:(]    

[Ysatis]

Hi Pads,

    Sorry to hear your course was cancelled, thankfully mine wasn't, at Laity House, Liskeard. Here is a link to the AQA exam board of past papers, as I did mine with AQA. www.aqa.org.uk/qual/gceasa/fre_assess.php  but there are others, but not many.

   Just briefly,

Module 1 is the Reading, Writing and Listening exam; you won't have the taping but there is, at least on some (from memory), a transcript of the taping at the end of the paper. Obviously this is only used in an exam if a tape/tape recorder fails.

Module 2 is an essay exam.

Module 3 is the oral.

Modules 1,2 and 3 are done in the AS year (first) and modules 4,5 and 6 are in the A2 (final) year.

We followed the Élan 1 in the AS year and continuing with Élan 2 for this(A2) year. You can buy the books from Amazon aswell as the tapes/CD's that accompany them or you can get them direct from Oxford University Press. The books tend to be cheaper from Amazon, but the tapes/CD's are about the same price. But I must warn you, a stiff brandy is needed before you read the price of the tapes/CD's from either.

On the AQA web site, here:  www.aqa.org.uk/qual/pdf/AQA-5651-6651-W-SP-08.PDF     gives the specification and more info if you want to wade your way through it, but it may only interest you if you are going to do the exam.

Don't hesitate to ask for more info, I'd be happy to help, also, I've sent you a PM.

Liz

Hope this help

[Pads]

Thanks Liz for the exam link, thats just what I wanted to see, at the moment I cant see my self ever being that good but Its a goal I intend to work hard at this year.

[Bones]

Pads, do a search in this section, there was a link to an aptitude test and it was great!

Just pop in test or something and see if you can narrow the parameters down to the language forum section....

[dans lorbe dune caresse, ma vie séteint]

French is a language as an other ! Stop these predjudices " french is hard french is hard". Do you believe that english is easy ? French has a verbal system a little more hard that english sure, but english is very difficul too ! Franchement, le français c'est largement plus simple que l'anglais.

[Pads]

Hi welcome to the forum.[:)]

No one is being predjudice, we are just helping each other with a bit of support as our old brains try to do something that should of been learnt when we were children, learning anything new is hard (but fun) imagine never having done any maths until you reach 46 then starting to have to learn it all in a few years now that would be hard. I know learning English is also differcult I had to do it 46 years ago and still have problems [:D] 

Trying to work out your name...................... is it ? In my world you touch my life ?

Maybe you could help some of us when we have problems trying to translate something?

[Chancer]

Dans L'orbe:

Je suis d'accord mais c'est un peu confusant que beacoup de gens francaises que je rencontre me disent "mais Francais est plus difficile de comprendre par rapport Anglais n'est ce pas?"

Pads

I too started learning at 46, two years ago, it can be done but you need total immersion, something that I have only just achieved by ditching British TV, mind you this forum is still a tentative grip on my mother tongue which dos dilute the immersion.