Extension French (Info answering the question "Should I do it?") (1 Viewer)

[C'est la vie]

Extension French

Hi everyone,

I'm starting Extension French next term [ie Year 12], and I was wondering if anyone here does it? I'm not sure if I should be doing it, but when I told my French teacher I wasn't giving it a go, he said that's silly, because I'm perfectly capable, and he strongly recommends that I give it a burl. I think I'll try it, and if it's too hard, drop later on. What do you think? Is Extn any good? [apart from scaling!]

 

[RJ]

French Ext is one of the best things I ever did - obviously the scaling is a major plus, but like you, I was faced with a dilemma as to if it was really worth it. Someone said to me, you basically have nothing to lose - you can drop it at any stage and in the meanwhile, your French will be enhanced. I'm really passionate about languages, and I love the course, but it's really a matter of personal opinion. I would say go for it!

 

[FunkmistrssDina]

Definately go for it!

If you decide to drop it half-way through, if nothing else you will find that French Extension helps improve your French Continuers. Even if you feel that you are struggling (as I was most of the year) it never hurts, when learning a language, to be thrown into the deep end and forced to leap ahead of your current abilities by miles

Thats what I've found at least. Good luck with it!

 

[Lolliana]

hm very difficult course
the oral is a total ball breaker
but its worth it
if you love french do it, because even if you find it hard youl have so much fun, its very interesting
dont do it if the only reason youre considering it is becuase of scaling or your teacher said you should

theres too much work, and if you do it for shallow reasons youl propbably end up hating it

 

[sdpy]

extension

sorry dragging up old thread I think! But just found this and had to put in my 2 cents...
I agree with whoever said ext french was the best thing they ever did. It was for me. Extension French is like eating Lindt chocolate after the No Frills of Continuers. It really expands your horizons (now there's something to put in a composition!) not only in French, but in English! I may sound excessively passionate about this, don't mind me - there are lots of normal people who do Ext French! .
If you love French, you'll definitely get something out of the course - and if you find it's too difficult or whatever, it's all good for your Continuers work.

 

[illin]

French Extension...Is it really worth doing??

Hey guys i was wondering if French extension is really worth doing?

If I go ahead and do it, i would be the only person in my class
The teacher is shit (however she does have a good/nice body but an ugly face: minga/prawn)
I am currently doin (4 yr12)
2u adv English, 4u Maths, 2u Chemistry, 2u French, 2u Ancient History

If i pick it up i would have 13units incling French Extension
But remember the teacher is a bitch
I find french really easy cause i went to a biligual school i i am almost fluent
should i do it? I also ahve alot of other commitments such as Sport, friends, etc...
4u maths will take up a lot of my time and cricket takes most of my time (tuesday, and thursday arvos, Saturday all day)

WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Cheers!

 

[chepas]

Mmmm. Quite a pickle you have there!

I can't really compare my story with yours though I suppose, but will tell it anyway. I was doing Eng/Music/Modern/Ancient/German/French for the prelim. I hated Ancient, so that was an easy drop! I really loved music and I also adored French, so I picked up those extensions. But I found the work really argh, so in the end about 3/4 way through term 4 last year I dropped Modern, a decision I regret to this day (though I dropped it in the nick of time - an assessment was due a week after I dropped it!).

I think, seeing your commitments, I don't think it would be a good idea, as it is basically like English, even though there is only one set text, but you have to know it reeeeally well in order to succeed. But with HSC looming do you think cricket could be scaled back? It will be a big balancing act next year :|.

Also, ask yourself, do you really like French? Or is it sort of boring you... there were quite a few native speakers in my class (that took the good rankings grrr ) that also did extension and they shat themselves with boredom. Personally I really liked it. But also had a really nice teacher that did soo much for us.

So viewing your situation, I suppose you could give it a go, cos you could always drop it later on if it gets too bad.

Another sidenote: I ended up doing just 10 units and thought aaaahhh so much work the world is coming to an end, but it's very much an each to their own situation, so, try it, see how your teacher goes, and how you go with 13 units plus other commitments, and adjust your time accordingly

Good luck!

 

[malkin86]

I don't know, sorry! I only do 2U French Continuers..

 

[illin]

This year i also did German but i have decided to drop that straight away as it is really hard! I reckon i could do the french 2u exam right now and ace it! so should i do french
I told u that the teacher sucks
but having 1 on 1 is good
but I really hate the teacher
I am definitely not cutting down on cricket and other stuff
should i go ahead cause then ill have the chance to srop it or should i concentrate on other subjects
I feel if i do 3u french i would have to do even more work on other subjects to compensate for French
What should i do?

 

[chepas]

Well like you say you can pick it up, then you can drop it. I mean if you will ace the written parts, then at least that component of the Extension will be OK - it's just a matter of putting time into whatever the precribed film is and knowing it backwards, which will take the time. Like another module in English.

The compensation thing, idealy all subjects should get an equal balance in there, so it might feel like you're doing an awful lot of French, but it would also be so because it is taking up 3 whole units. - Also, another personal thing, I'd find doing 13 units really horrible, because at the end of the day only 10 are counted and then if your French Ext. unit is one that is not counted towards the UAI, I'd feel like it was all a waste of time and stress. But again that's jsut me...

Do it, then if it gets too argh, drop it later, I reckon... And who knows, your bitchy teacher might turn nice in year 12... It's fun, so see how you go. Cos here you get to express opinions and have people listen to them without arguing back . (Well, of course examiners etc can disagree but they're not marking us on that, hehe.).

 

[illin]

Does extension french make u put more effort into french as a subject
Im hardly doin any work on the subject (bit of study just before exams) and im caning all the others in my class
Does it help ur overall performance in french 2u? I guess it would...(what a stupid question)
I would be the only one in the class so that may be a bonus i guess
what else do u think?

 

[chepas]

Are you pretty much native? Or are you native even lol? It really depends...

Re: effort. Yeah it does, well for people who are not native/non-French background it does at least. The thing is, is that there's a text that we really have to know well, and sometimes it has pretty much nothing to do with how we study the language, but how well we know the film (thus, the language), in order to write responses. A lot of it is just empathy tasks (for the film bit). Like I've said before, the prescribed text part is very much like one of the modules in English, in that we need to know all the crap with which it comes.

The Continuers and Extension are completely seperate, so there will always be work for the Continuers, because it's a different focus - ie, the individual/the self, whereas Extension makes you look at the world and society, and you need to be savvy on current affairs a lot fo the time too...

Though I suppose if you're native you can pretty much cane the subject, as you have the capacity to think automatically in French, and formulate stuff that makes sense, without stressing about time etc...

Automatic 1st in the class is good in terms of rankings etc, but yeah ... I dunno.

Talking of not thinking, I don't know much else to think lol. Anyone else? I'm sorry if I haven't been much of a help... .

 

[Hippy La-Laa]

I don't do Extension, so I can't help ya there. But being the only person in a class chomps balls. But I'm the kind of person who enjoys interaction, talking, friendly competition etc...
I was lucky to have a really funny, nice, enthusiastic teacher (who actually managed to have the patience to put up with me ALL year..). If you know your teacher's a bit of une vache....perhaps you should think carefully about it. If you hate them and that same love is reciprocated, then it could cause a few disputes. There's nothing more aggravating than tension and awkwardness in a one on one class *cough* (I've learnt from experience).

Anyway. 10 units is THA way to go. !!

Good luck making your decision!!


x

 

[omg_a]

i would prob say no...........just because of 4u maths. i did that for a term, and the workload was so huge, with 13 units. i dropped 4u maths, stayed with 3u french. only do frext if yo really like french, and are interested in talking about issues like racism, unemployment, religious conflict. plus if u dont like your teacher....it would be v. difficult.......our class became like a lesson in life...v. personal

 

[illin]

No im not a native but like i said i did go to a bilingual school for primary so i picked a lot of it up there and i can basically think in french without translating everything from english which a lot of ppl do
I dont get how ppl cut down on soooo much stuff just because of the HSC, just put more effort i reckon, u dont have to study 6, 7, 8 hours a day just cause we have the HSC. I still dont know what to do
A lot of ppl r saying "do it and give it ago cause u can always drop it"
I dunno about this because it would just seem like a waste, putting all that effort in and just dropping it
Anything else about french ext. or any more advice??
Cheers!!

 

[chepas]

Mmm...

If you have a facility like that that could be handy in frext because then you're not wasting time going "Oh god what's that in French?" from time to time. But then again it can get fatally boring if it's not y our cup of tee.

The 'do it, then drop it if you hate it' seems the way to go at the moment. But I still think of the concept of doing 13 units and thinking of the work involved in it

On cutting down - there'll have to be sacrifices here and there, whether we like it or not, but that doesn't mean stopping it completely lol Il s'agit de trouver le bon équilibre, ceq ui est un peu difficile mais, chacun a` soi je pense...

chépas .

 

[illin]

Oui c'est vrai. Est-ce que 13u est tellement trop pour terminal? parce que je connais beaucoup de personnes qui trouve que 14u est rien et ils ajoutent les ext. ! ils font 15u!

I do think that 14u is a bit on the high side and that 13u maybe touching on that
I still dont know what to do
Et encore les gens dans mon classe de francais sont nuls! Mes amis ont fait le francais pour yr11 mais ils ne le font pas l'annee prochaine.
And that pisses me off!

(sry i cant get accents or 'c cedis' on this comp)

 

[Hippy La-Laa]

Et encore les gens dans mon classe de francais sont nuls! Mes amis ont fait le francais pour yr11 mais ils ne le font pas l'annee prochaine.

Meh. Mine all left before Yr 12 too. Their loss- but you will get lonely. So pretty much the verdict is: Do it. If ya hate it/don't have enough time/are bored with it, drop it. Easy as that.

15 units to me seems ridiculous!!

 

[chepas]

15 UNITS!!!! Oh my god that's murder... Soooo pointless! Like, unless there are a lot of uni prerequisites, but still, you'd have no life!

Pour moi je pense que ce serait vraiment nul, de savoir, en fin de compte que 3 unités de cours ne compteront pas, quand les notes de UAI viennent. Ce que je veux dire, travailler dûr pour rien me semble un peu bête. Mais si on fait des unités supplementaires ça peut nous donner un peu plus de chance pour obtenir des notes plus spectaculaires (bad word choice there but anyway..) parce que l'UAC n'utilise que les notes les plus hautes quand ils font le calcul etc.. Donc il y a toujours des arguments pour, et contre, donc on n'a que voir la situation quand ça se passe, (c-a`-d, en faisant le 3U Fr. )

13u c'est OK... mais comme j'ai déja` dit, quand le UAI s'approche ce serait les matières dans lesquelles tu as obtenu les meilleures notes, qui vont 'compter' quand ils font les calculations de UAI. Et que ce sera bcp de travail.

Est-ce que tu as déja` choisi ou tu fais les choix de matière a` l'école le trimestre prochain?

 

[chepas]

Bump again This is an even more ancient thread. Some of the descriptions are good for those who want an idea what Frext is like.

I wonder if there's a mod somewhere that can merge all the French Extension advice threads?

Edit: Read this in conjunction with the other threads at this present moment. Advice all around

Edit 8/2/05: Now I'm a mod I can merge it myself . One smooth story.