LOOKING FOR ADVICE

[Meenzhang]

Hey everyone!

So im currently taking French VCE 1+2 right now, and I can really feel the amount of work need to be put in. I really want to succeed in French, but most of the people in my class have been on exchanges, so they're just so much further ahead than me. I just had the unit 1 exam, and I have to say I did pretty bad. for the 200 word essay at the end, I only managed to write 5-10 lines. my pronunciation isn't very good, my speaking and listening isn't very good either. it takes me really long to get through reading comprehension...yeah, you get the idea.

I just want to ask if its worth the effort to continue French. It would be great if I could really get French down, but its just so difficult right now. I need you people's advice. 

[abcdqd]

The standards in VCE French will keep going up as you progress through the year, and next year in year 12. I got complacent with my level in unit 1, and have subsequently gotten lower grades for everything. You're going to have to put in a lot of work and probably get a tutor as well, but it's entirely possible- my mate used to be one of the worst in the class and he's probably better than me now. In the end I reckon it's worth continuing it because of the huge scaling it has. What study score are you aiming for?

[Cookiez]

Hey!
I was in the exact same predicament you were in last year, and I was absolute shit, I didn't even know how to use the present tense by 3rd term, only the past tense!
But I'm doing French this year, after quite a lot of touching up in the areas I need to catch up on (with the assistance of a tutor)
I'm the guy abcdqd was talking about (He's pro at french, probably going to get like 45 raw)- (he linked it to me because this WAS the exact same situation I was in last year)
But nonetheless, like what qong said, your decision on whether or not you want to continue French is entirely up to you and your aims for a scaled study score.
However, French does scale quite high, so if you do decide to continue and put a little work into French, it'll be well worthwhile your efforts.

Some tips I'd give you as of now,
Memorise verbs and their meanings. Focus on Faire, Etre, Aller and Avoir first. Then the irregulars, and the regular verbs.
Once you've memorised these (at least as much as you can), try to conjugate each them using the Future, Present or Past tense.
This will give you the basis to write a sentence, and try to practise some sentence formations if you have time.

Following this, try to remember the most commonly used words, the ones your teachers and even (actually especially) your friends use which they seem to understand but you don't, as these ones will definitely be basic as their essay writing will be basic themselves.

Also, I recommend that you don't use Google Translate to write your essays, unless used for single words or simple and well-known phrases, as Googs has tonnes of grammatical errors, which inevitably lead to your loss of marks in SACs.

It's pretty hard to find valuable resources from here, so it would be good if you found a tutor to assist you with these resources. There's a tutoring company called Alliance Francais or something which I would recommend you invest your time into researching. But with these resources (exams, comprehension, listening exercises) will enable you to extend your vocabulary (tantamount to your success and ability to write an essay)

Also, listen in class. Even though your friends may not be listening (I sure wasn't in class last year) but try to create a vocabulary notebook if possible, and keep all the sheets your teachers gives you and if you have time try to understand the passage and try to take note of some sentence structures that you don't understand and ask your tutor/teacher if you don't understand them.

Who's your teacher? If it's Dr. H, find a tutor ASAP.

So I guess this is my two cents on the topic, all the best with your studies etc

IF you have any questions feel free to ask on this thread.

EDIT: [9:28:02 PM] abcdqd: dont use google translate 4 essays only in ur reading sac pls


Also if you play LoL, quit now while you're ahead (srs)

[watto_22]

It's pretty hard to find valuable resources from here

My collection of online resources that I used for French 3/4:

French.com - basically for anything at all, vocab, declensions, phrases. this particular link gives help with the subjunctive and lots of example sentences which may well find their way into your writing as they did into mine http://french.about.com/library/verb/bl-subjunctivator.htm

Linguee - essentially a better version of Google Translate that gets its translations from website texts and hence shows the words in an actual French sentence. very handy
http://www.linguee.com/

Le Monde - in my opinion, the best French newspaper for 3/4 purposes. Very good for your reading comprehension and also for new vocab. This is what sophisticated French writing looks like.
http://www.lemonde.fr/

Memrise - for learning vocab. will send you a whole lot of email reminders to 'water your plants memories' and hopefully a few of the words in their lists will be of use to you in the writing section
http://www.memrise.com

Language Guide - truly a handy way to get better at listening, although not quite in the French 3/4 manner. a passage is read out, and you can first try to understand it just from what you hear, or choose to include the transcript which helps to match up the sounds of the words with how they are spelt. a variety of difficulties are provided so very useful. one resource that I think I should have used more.
http://www.languageguide.org/french/readings/

Quizlet - my favourite Vocab resource. essentially it creates online flashcards (you can print them out) - you write in your words in French and their translation(s), and then you can do a variety of activities with these new words. I'd say that the best mode is 'Learn', in which one side of the flashcard is show (you can choose either the English or the French side) and you have to write in the other side. you go through all the cards in the first round, but then the best part is that the second round comprises only of words that you got incorrect in the first round. it continues to test you on the words that you got wrong previously - so you're only ever looking at the words you don't know, instead of wasting time on vocab that you know already. (of course you can start again to put all the flashcards back in the pile, if you will).
Quizlet is just a really really helpful resource, you can make your own lists (unlike Memrise) and there is even an iPod App for learning on the go. My top recommendation.

Other resources - French music (for listening comp) and French movies (likewise). also, for when you can't find any good French films, just play an English one but put French subtitles in there as well.

Overall, the more you do for French, the better. It doesn't matter if it's practice exams, newspapers or movies, just do as much as you can and you'll be sure to see the benefits.

[Meenzhang]

Wow, thanks for the quick responses guys!

It really sounds like i should really continue French. But the thing is im taking Chinese 3&4 this year, and i have been kinda neglecting it, resulting in pretty bad SAC scores. Im scared that if i start to study more for Chinese, i would bein the exact same position for French next year as i am in French.

@abcdqd: Ill be happy with a study score above 30

@cookiez: My teacher is Mr. L, and he told us that next year, we will have either him or Mr. McM, so safe either way.

[Cloud Nine]

Also if you play LoL, quit now while you're ahead (srs)

Ahahahaha


But seriously though, in my opinion, languages (unless you speak it regularly or something) are the most time consuming subjects in VCE.
I did Chinese 1/2 last year, I spent the same time on it as my other subjects and I did relatively crap as I wasn't 100% familiar with the grammar and sentence structures.
Plus listening and orals fucked me over too.

You need to spend A LOT of time on your language if you choose to pursue it.

[Cookiez]

I did Chinese last year too (heh) and I do admit that it took me quite the effort but it was actually worthwhile the effort I put in. Just think of the scaling of two languages, it'll greatly contribute to your ATAR score.

Moreover, if you do decide to change subjects halfway through the year you'll have missed out on one unit- and that one unit could have some components in it which other students have already learnt for unit 3&4- putting you at a slight disadvantage from the get go.

The combination of French and Chinese is a really powerful, and you should be able to predict and play with a few figures using the VCE scaling report (http://www.vtac.edu.au/pdf/scaling_report.pdf) or use ATARCalc on this website (http://vce.atarcalc.com/) to kind of predict what you want to get. Your decision should ultimately come down to the subject you think will give you the highest scaled atar (or fulfilling necessary prerequisites for university).

Provided you put in just a little bit of effort starting from now (or as soon as possible) you'll definitely be able to get at least a 35.

And good, Dr. H. is horrible, but the other teachers are really good. I haven't had Mr. McMahon, but I've heard good things about him.

[Meenzhang]

But how did you manage to balance your Chinese 3/4 and French? Chinese is getting to that time of year where your supposed to be revising hard-core, but French still need some improvement.

Oh yeah, I got around 20/30 for reading comprehension in the exam, and got a D for my essay. But because I didn't write enough, my teacher gave me more time, and I got a B instead.

[vox nihili]

Hey everyone!

So im currently taking French VCE 1+2 right now, and I can really feel the amount of work need to be put in. I really want to succeed in French, but most of the people in my class have been on exchanges, so they're just so much further ahead than me. I just had the unit 1 exam, and I have to say I did pretty bad. for the 200 word essay at the end, I only managed to write 5-10 lines. my pronunciation isn't very good, my speaking and listening isn't very good either. it takes me really long to get through reading comprehension...yeah, you get the idea.

I just want to ask if its worth the effort to continue French. It would be great if I could really get French down, but its just so difficult right now. I need you people's advice.

Don't fret too much! It's a complete falsehood that you need to go on exchange to succeed in French. Personally, I've never been to a French speaking country, and through my schooling I didn't have a native speaking teacher. Never went to a tutor or anything like that either.
So why did I say all of that? To brag.... Ok, no, that's not true! To make the point that you don't have to have all of those opportunities to do well. Nor do you have to do an extremely huge amount of work. I've seen plenty of people work as hard as the next person, but just do it all the wrong way.

It sounds really tacky, but the key to doing well in French is enjoying it. Trying to find something fun in it. I always tried to find ways to marry French with my life. So if I got angry, rather than swearing in English, I'd try to say something in French. Then I tried to do these sorts of things in different situations. My friends all got sick of the derisive "oh mon dieu". Follow some pages on Facebook that put up a whole lot of memes in French. Most of them you won't get, but it feels pretty cool when you can actually understand one. It's like you're in on the joke. Furthermore, actually changing your Facebook language or maybe your phone or something like that to French. You'll find that you can navigate through things just from memory and won't actually need to read anything. And if you do, try and translate it, or google translate you go. At the moment my printer is actually in French...much to the disgust of my family. Actually trying you use it and making it relevant though is a really fantastic idea I found. It makes you feel like you're not learning a subject, nor even a language, but rather, being invited to join a new lifestyle. It makes everything so much more worthwhile and enjoyable.

Also, YouTube has a host of French stuff. Most of it you won't understand, but the little bits should be seen as victories. Also, try listening to some French music. It's good to get a bit of Frenchiness into you that way! You'll pick up some words in passing, and that's certainly good for your confidence. It's much better getting things that are relevant than filling in god awful verb charts. Learn extra things on the side as you need them. All of these things help your confidence and make your study much more relevant.

And my last little trick, which is also a bit quirky. Singing a song in your head? Or even out loud? See what you can do with the lyrics...can you make them French? Don't expect to get the full song, and quite often the lyrics won't fit, but you can get little things. I had a habit of getting one lyric of Gotye's "Maintenant t'es quelqu'une que je connaisais"

[greenbeans]

Even if you feel discouraged being behind those that have been on exchanges, even if your level of French ain't great, if you put the effort in and find some motivation and enjoyment behind the subject, it will be worth it. You just need to find ways of how to enjoy learning the language. Watching videos is great, so are games, songs...  But I still stick charts of things i need to memorise all around the house, for even the most basic things as learning tenses. Find what works for you and stick to it. For essays, it's a good idea to look at tutoring. It's hard to get that one on one time with your classroom teacher, particularly with the 200 word essays. They can help you with things more in depth, and identify your problem areas that you need to really focus in on. But all in all, you yourself need to be willing to put in the work for French. It will be tough, but if you find ways to enjoy it then you'll dig deep and hopefully be pleasantly surprised by the scaling fairy