I've not posted much this term about French class. The third-year class has two sections offered back to back. The noon to 1pm section is a lively little group of about a dozen. I'm so glad that most of them will return next term.
Because we are required to talk to each other so much (duh, it's a language class), we know each other much better than we do other people in our other classes. Sometimes better than other students in our own home departments. And of course our grammar and vocabulary are constantly expanding. These have combined to produce two interesting results.
First, in those few minutes before class begins, as people arrive in ones and twos from their other activities, we chit chat with each other about events in the news, about our other classes, what we did during the weekend, even banalities like the weather. In French. We don't even think about what we are doing, it just seems normal.
But the second result, the one that I find kind of exciting, is that as our ability to create more sophisticated sentences is improving, we are speaking in our own voices. In other words, we aren't just parroting sentences from our grammar books. I've listened to Anne and Will and Evan talking about freshman physics in English. I know what kinds of jokes they make and how this one speaks in short sentences and this one speaks in more complex ones. And even when run through the meat grinder of French grammar rules, I can now hear those same patterns when they speak French. I know that I am doing the same thing. Our own voices, but in French.
That is very cool.
Madame McC. assigns us a variety of exercises in which we can practice different aspects of the language. We have written assignments that are often based on a particular grammatical component, such as writing about a defined topic using only the subjunctive. We have been reading short stories and we have to answer questions about them both in writing and orally. And three times each term, we have to "listen to something in French and write about it".
That last assignment seems pretty open-ended, and boy, is it ever. One girl watches interviews with Canadian hockey players and writes about a different one for each assignment. Another watches episodes of "My Little Pony" dubbed into French for each of her assignments. My friend Melodie watches full-length French movies on NetFlix and writes a synopsis of each one. Others watch news reports about current events. There is no defined limit to the length of what you can watch, and while there is no defined limit to what you write about it, most of us cough up about a page, somewhere between 300-600 words.
As for me, I dabbled a bit in a gastronomy program, and last term I watched one full-length film (Le Placard; fantastically funny). But my speciality has become short films (les courts métrages) that I find on YouTube.
My criteria are simple: less than 20 minutes long so I can watch it three or four times, no violence, no animation. I don't need subtitles although those are nice.
Because the assignment is so incredibly broad, I even chose one short film this term that had no dialogue of any kind! It was made by a French director with French actors so it technically was French. I chose to retell the story then explain what I though it meant. For the last listening assignment due this term, I decided not to discuss the story told in the film at all but to focus on the language used by the two main characters--plenty of slang, profanity, and less offensive but "common" expressions that also get the Académie's panties in a twist (for example, expressions like that last phrase right there). My appreciation for the versatility of "putain" has increased exponentially.
Short films are like short stories. It sounds easy but making/writing a good one is extremely difficult. Lots of people try and fail, utterly fail. It is important to develop the characters quickly. And it helps if the ending is a surprise. I think that I've managed to choose some particularly fine examples of the art of the court métrage:
I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!
3 comments:
John and I have been watching a french TV series called "Engrenages". Cop show, but so well done. The main character is a woman detective. Its a serial show so the story continues from episode to episode. Heading to the French Film Festival the end of the month as I do every year http://frenchfilmfestival.us/2015-festival-schedule. Do you have a DVD player? I can grab you one when I'm there!
A friend in class recommended this series to me. No DVD required, I can watch it online. I have been a bit too busy this term to start up a new series. I'll take a look over spring break. No cows, no classes--what a luxury! Maybe I can use it for my écoutes next term.
French Film Festival DVD, not Spiral ;-) Long and short films. French food, lots of wine and all the introductions and speakers and actors and directors are there - all speaking in french. You'd love it!
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