Ab Initio Spanish conundrum D:

[froggielog]

Hi, next year I am about to enter DP, scary huh? I came to my school last year with no previous experience in spanish and I am still struggling in it. Because I will have had technically had "2" years of it when I enter dp, would they not let me take Spanish inito? Is this policy or do the schools decide case by case?

Also other then the fact I am bad at it, I have no desire to learn it, however I do want my Ib diploma, I was reading and I came across somewhere, where it said I could take classic languages in my dp years. (If somehow I could learn Latin and still get my diploma ) Im not sure if they meant instead or with the normal languages? Can anyone shed some light?

Im sorry if I don't have my facts straight, at my school, dp kids are almost cut off from the rest of us and honestly Im not sure what to except in the next two years. I can say I am happy to have found this place. (:

Thank you so much!

[carpediem]

Hi, next year I am about to enter DP, scary huh? I came to my school last year with no previous experience in spanish and I am still struggling in it. Because I will have had technically had "2" years of it when I enter dp, would they not let me take Spanish inito? Is this policy or do the schools decide case by case?

It's IB policy - it's how they distinguish between students who should take ab initio and students that shouldn't. It's most likely you'll have to take SL, if you do Spanish.

Also other then the fact I am bad at it, I have no desire to learn it, however I do want my Ib diploma, I was reading and I came across somewhere, where it said I could take classic languages in my dp years. (If somehow I could learn Latin and still get my diploma ) Im not sure if they meant instead or with the normal languages? Can anyone shed some light?

As for the classical languages, yes it is possible to do Latin and (I think) Ancient Greek. There are IB classes offered for these languages. However, it's up to your school to offer them if you want to learn it at your school - I think it'll be difficult for your to self-study a B language, but I think the policy for classical languages is different to modern foreign languages. If you really want to stay at your school but can't do self-study, you may have to get a tutor to teach you instead of your school; that's my school's policy for self-studying languages. (But don't forget you probably need permission from your school, so that you are entered for that classical language exam to get your diploma.)

Good luck!

EDIT: I don't know if there are classical language ab initio classes, but I know for sure that there are B classes for them.

Edited February 17, 2013 by carpediem

[flinquinnster]

I'm not sure you can take ab initio because you've taken 2 years of Spanish at school. That counts as formal instruction, hence I think you would have to take SL. However, I'm not entirely sure myself - you should check and ask whether you have to take SL if you do Spanish, because maybe somehow the school thinks that 2 years doesn't count (even though it really should). I know at our school that people study a language 4 years before taking SL usually - that gives a bit of an advantage, but there's still a lot to learn.

I also do Latin, and it's pretty awesome . The thing is, there is no differentiation between ab initio and SL. Either you take SL or HL Latin - both of which assume some prior Latin instruction. So either way you're going to have to learn from scratch to get up to an SL standard for Latin. If you google there should be a subject outline that will clarify matters.

I would say that doing a Classical Language for Group 2 is easier than any other language to self-study. Firstly, there is no oral component - makes it so much easier. Secondly, there is no need to write. IA is also something that is probably easier than other languages - you either compose your own passage in Latin, do an oral, or write a research dossier. You essentially have to learn your prescribed texts inside-out and understand them (which can be difficult) for Paper 2, and you practice translating for an unseen passage that will appear in Paper 1 (however it is not technically unseen if you can somehow memorise the whole entire Ovid Metamorphoses). That can be done with resources, I believe - there are a lot for Latin.

However, if you are completely new to Latin, it would probably be quite hard to self-study it without a teacher. If you do want to do it, it would be advisable to find a Latin tutor, or find another ab initio language to learn or stick with Spanish.

Edited February 17, 2013 by flinquinnster