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Is French B SL going to kill me?


Tsumuri

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Hey. I just started year 1 of IB, and not knowing what I was getting into, I chose French B SL. Now I don't know about any of your schools, but at mine, the French 10 teacher I was placed with was really really bad. They didn't prepare me or anybody in the class at all for this class, and now I'm completely lost. My teacher speaks maybe one or two English sentences per class, and teaches almost entirely in French. I don't understand what he's saying or what he's telling us to do at all. I understand that IB was going to be extremely hard, but I was prepared for the other subjects. The only subject that's actually scaring me right now is French.

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The best option you have is to talk to your IB French teacher after class. Let him/her know that you are struggling and are worried, and ask what your options are. If your school has an AB initio program, that may be a good idea. Also, it may be that other kids are also at your level and struggling and the French teacher just really wants to give you a guys a fully immersive environment and doesn't expect you guys to understand everything. In IB, you probably won't be the best at every subject and that's okay.

 

Edit: Also, welcome to IB Survival.

Edited by Nomenclature
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Guest TheMagical7

Yup as Nomenclature said, ab initio is preferable, and do talk to your teacher.

B-level subjects are not good for language starting, and to me it seems that you did not do French before, is that right? I did French for the 3 years of highschool before IB1 and it requires building up knowledge. Just to let you know where you might need to be at, before IB1 I understood the past tense, imperfect and future simple quite well. I've found that these three are foundations for some new tenses as you literally mix and match and IB1 so far was quite easy-going. Most of the time we merely learn about informal and formal text-structures, for example a journal entry, letter to an official etc. Our teacher also speaks in French but at least half of the time it is understandable. It's our responsibility to immerse ourselves in French.

Edit: It seems to be substantially more difficult for francophone countries. What are you being told to learn in your class?

Edited by TheMagical7
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Actually, most of the people in the class right now are having as much, if not more trouble than I am right now. 

13 hours ago, TheMagical7 said:

B-level subjects are not good for language starting, and to me it seems that you did not do French before, is that right?

I did actually take French 8, 9, and 10, of course. We're just doing pages off the Oxford IB book, and we're required to write three journals per week.

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I too struggled in French because it differed so much from the provincial French classes (in my case, Ontario). I was getting like 3s and 4s while half my class would fail tests. 

This is just something you gotta grind through and work with. My teacher just went head first and taught the content as hard as she could, because babying us would be a bad idea for the French B exams. Eventually through the constant exposure we were able to pull up our marks, and everyone passed with many of us getting 6s (no 7s though).

Work on vocab and grammar as much as you can. The more the better!

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Guest TheMagical7
7 hours ago, VeronicaG said:

I too struggled in French because it differed so much from the provincial French classes (in my case, Ontario). I was getting like 3s and 4s while half my class would fail tests. 

This is just something you gotta grind through and work with. My teacher just went head first and taught the content as hard as she could, because babying us would be a bad idea for the French B exams. Eventually through the constant exposure we were able to pull up our marks, and everyone passed with many of us getting 6s (no 7s though).

Work on vocab and grammar as much as you can. The more the better!

Can someone tell me what the Canadian standard for French is .-. Please. I need to know what I am going to be up against. Other than immersing myself in French movies etc, what had you already done by the end of IB1?

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Canadian Graded 10 French is still learning the basics of the language. You learn a few more verb tenses and get vocab sheets before going into a new unit. Speaking presentations are far from perfect and are often scripted.

IB French assumes you can be dropped off in a French speaking country and be fine. There is very little emphasis on learning the fundamentals but instead it focuses on improving French and progressively reading more complex adult literature. You gotta be able to read passages with no vocab sheets to prep you, speak on command and for several minutes, and write long responses to questions. There is no English anywhere in the course

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