Who is doing French Extension??? (2 Viewers)

[Miss Sunshine]

I was just wondering what determines whether you are capable of doing extension French? What do you learn about?? How is it different to the French continuers subject?? is it much harder than the French continuers subject?

 

[*Baby-K*]

French Extension (in my opinion) is much better than continuers if you are capable of thinking deeply. By that I mean you will look at topics such as poverty and belonging vs alienation which explore concepts of humanity, issues of racism and cultural differences etc. French Continuers is more creative ie. write a letter to your friend discussing your holidays. Extension asks questions like [FONT='Times-Roman','serif']"In our pursuit of wealth, we forget about what is really important: human relationships. Do you agree?"[/FONT]
[FONT='Times-Roman','serif']You will also do monologues (god I hated them), where you have 10 minutes to prepare a structured, logical and meaninful argument without using a dictionary or writing full sentences, then performing it for 2.30mins. It sounds easier than it is. [/FONT]
[FONT='Times-Roman','serif']Personally, I must say that it's probably one of the hardest subjects, although I do better at it then I do at continuers which is bizarre but can again be explained by the fact that I can form a better argument for extension than write a creative story for continuers. [/FONT]
[FONT='Times-Roman','serif']If you have those qualities and are able to discuss world problems as well as a pretty high accuracy of french then do it. HOWEVER the syllabus is being changed and the text which I studies which was a french movie Marius et Jeanette are now being replaced with a book. I know this because my teacher wasn't happy about it due to the fact that :it has hard gramma, things you wouldn't normally study. They also are increasing the number of Extracts you study from 5 which is what I am going to do, to 18! So, really have a think about it whether you want to get into it or not- it takes alot of time, it's hard and is about to become even harder! BUT it's fun (or so I thought) and I enjoyed every lesson I had, even the ones during holidays:uhhuh: [/FONT]

 

[Miss Sunshine]

French Extension (in my opinion) is much better than continuers if you are capable of thinking deeply. By that I mean you will look at topics such as poverty and belonging vs alienation which explore concepts of humanity, issues of racism and cultural differences etc. French Continuers is more creative ie. write a letter to your friend discussing your holidays. Extension asks questions like [FONT='Times-Roman','serif']"In our pursuit of wealth, we forget about what is really important: human relationships. Do you agree?"[/font]
[FONT='Times-Roman','serif']You will also do monologues (god I hated them), where you have 10 minutes to prepare a structured, logical and meaninful argument without using a dictionary or writing full sentences, then performing it for 2.30mins. It sounds easier than it is. [/font]
[FONT='Times-Roman','serif']Personally, I must say that it's probably one of the hardest subjects, although I do better at it then I do at continuers which is bizarre but can again be explained by the fact that I can form a better argument for extension than write a creative story for continuers. [/font]
[FONT='Times-Roman','serif']If you have those qualities and are able to discuss world problems as well as a pretty high accuracy of french then do it. HOWEVER the syllabus is being changed and the text which I studies which was a french movie Marius et Jeanette are now being replaced with a book. I know this because my teacher wasn't happy about it due to the fact that :it has hard gramma, things you wouldn't normally study. They also are increasing the number of Extracts you study from 5 which is what I am going to do, to 18! So, really have a think about it whether you want to get into it or not- it takes alot of time, it's hard and is about to become even harder! BUT it's fun (or so I thought) and I enjoyed every lesson I had, even the ones during holidays:uhhuh: [/font]

Wow! I must say you are talented It is pretty amazing that you didn't perform better at French continuers... did you by any chance do debating??? haha you have to formulate alot of arguments and speak on the spot as well! What you have said really allows me to understand what French Extension is like and thank you for that, i will consider and think very hard about my choices. I love French and I really want to go to France one day- it's an amazing place. Working on my speaking skills is a must! Have you been to France?? Did you find it helped you develop your French?? Thank you for your insight! i really appreciate it!

 

[*Baby-K*]

Thanks,
I think the reason I perform better at extension is that I have a better argument plus I spent more time on extension than continuers- luckily I have 1.5 weeks to prepare for my French and another week after that for extension. I've been to Paris- with parents, not on exchange and not while I was at Kambala so I was too scared to speak to anyone then. I am going to Paris after my HSC so I am really looking forward to it- I love it there! For some reason I am also better at speaking than writing- I am just plain weird, most things people find harder I find easier and the other way around. Oh and no I didn't do debating, to be honest I didn't get involved in after-school activities, I live too far away from my school.
Anyway, if you love French, you should do it just be prepared to spend alot of time working, writing monologues, essays, researching statistics- that's another thing, every point you present in your monologue must be backed up
IE. Racism is caused by people's ignorance and lack of understanding. For example, September 11 Terrorist Act in USA caused many arabs to be discriminated against based on their religion and nationality, further this has affected other countries as well. In 2004 27% of muslims living in Australia have reported that they have experienced discrimination and violence at workplace.
Good luck!

 

[Miss Sunshine]

Or you may be more logical than creative as you say French Extension requires more in-depth study of world issues and French Continuers is more on the creative side. I wish you all the luck for your HSC exams- based on what you have said you will do extremely well! Just be calm, focus and try your best! :] You are so lucky to go to Paris twice! Fun fun fun! Just what you need to finish off your schooling years- a visit to one of your favourite places! Well, for me, it's different- I perform better at writing rather than speaking (there are many pauses because i have to think before i talk) Best of luck for the HSC! Thanks for your advice.

Talk to you soon,

 

[ckprior]

For me i regret doing extention for many reasons: you study the text in so much detail that it drives you insane, for example i have watched au revoir les enfants eight times, pretty much know the script off by heart yet i still struggle. they ask questions like 'how is alienation and belonging represented in this scene' and i can never manage to get full marks...
then there is the creative pieces where you need to speak in the voice of a specific character, which is really hard because you get marked down for not addressing text type, not adopting the voice of the character and not showing sufficient information in the creative piece.... the essays are pretty easy tho.
basically if you like english you'll like french extension, but i hate english so it wasnt for me.

 

[Petite Choux]

ARGH. im doing french extension, and I find it ridiculously hard. I'm doing it through open high school, and I'm doing it with a couple of friends, and Jean de Florette - we had to read it in 2 weeks, all 300 pages. never.
it took us half an hour to decode the first page.
it got better, but its so boring.
and i don't understand the listening at all!! D=
did u end up doing it?
its so scary, because basically everyone that's doing it is fluent! D=

 

[fscolli]

Ahh yes, Jean de Florette was a bit of a marathon...our French teacher (who is a native French speaker) said that even she struggled to read it, because a) it was so boring and b) there were allusions/language that she didn't know, because there are the bits in Provencal...
My French teacher told us to read the whole book to just get the gist of the storyline, also to look it up on wikipedia to get the story, and then we just translate the extracts and look at them in further detail - after all that's all we're going to be tested on.

 

[Petite Choux]

eh, well im doin it thru open high, and my teacher is making us read the entire thing!! hahah. soo lame! D=

 

[chrasy]

I'm doing it at school normally and we're just reading to get the gist then studying the extracts in depth like fscolli is. My teacher isn't too worried about the novel at the moment - she wants us to study the topics more generally before we tackle the novel.

But damnnnnn, it must suck to do extension through distance ed!

 

[Kittikhun]

Huh? Chrasy, how did you get to do Japanese begineers and French extension together?

 

[chrasy]

I do japanese beginners via correspondence. They didn't have enough people for a class but I really wanted to do it.

 

[Kittikhun]

Oh crap! Is it possible to do Spanish beginners and French continuers together at Open High School?

Thanks.

 

[chrasy]

Uh, as in two languages via correspondence? Well, I wouldn't say it was impossible, but you'll probably get a lot of "I strongly advise you not to" from people. I mean, learning any language via correspondence is hard, so learning two must be bloody insane.

 

[Kittikhun]

Uh, as in two languages via correspondence? Well, I wouldn't say it was impossible, but you'll probably get a lot of "I strongly advise you not to" from people. I mean, learning any language via correspondence is hard, so learning two must be bloody insane.

Point. They're in the same language family which is why I wanted to do it but I understand where you're coming from. I'll probably burn myself out and be confused between the two languages.

 

[jess39]

I wanted to do Extension, but I was the only one at my school. I could have gone to another school if they had the classes before or after school, but they were all timetabled in. The last option was Open High School, but I'd heard from others how hard that is, so I decided against it.

I really don't think I could have handled it. I am so glad I didn't do it.

 

[besfrans]

french sounds hot~

 

[Kittikhun]

Ditto. I especially like the female Quebecois accent. C'est tres sexy et mignon!

YouTube - Fille québécoise

HEHEHEHE! Avec les cahloureez!

 

[corsalui]

Well I'm doin French and German continuers and French and German extension.

Personally I find French Extension a lot harder than French Continuers but I feel that over the holidays I've become more involved. I believe that French Extension pushes you out of your comfort zone and takes a look at issues that are happening in the world now.

Its very good for expanding vocab and looking at those issues. In the long run it will also aid you with French Continuers.

 

[Kittikhun]

So what do you learn and do in Extension besides reading that novel that practically everyone, from what I've read, dislikes?

Do you guys, also, have to do the Continuers exam with Extension?

Thanks.