Thursday, March 5, 2015

On second thought, French Exams are also Trés Difficile

My last post, about essay writing skills and my lack of said skill. This post is about French-ing skills and my lack of this said skill.

In Missouri, it is optional to start a high school foreign language in middle school, therefore I opted to take that path. This meant that over 7th and 8th grade, I took what was equal to one year of high school French. By the time I reached freshman year, I was in French II. That means Junior year, I should be in French IV, yeah?

Plot twist: This summer, we moved unexpectedly. The day we registered for school, I arrived in Frisco after waking up at 7 am and driving four hours in order to make it in time for our registration appointment. Lets just say that I was feeling a bit out of sorts. Filling out all those enrollment forms absolutely fried my brain, and by the time I was actually supposed to tell the counselor what classes I wanted, I was just DONE.
After filling out a sheet where I wrote down what classes I'd like to take, I was told that one of the classes did not exist, two weren't required, and there were actually 2 other classes I should have taken before junior year. By the end of the discussion, I was thoroughly confused. I just agreed to anything and everything the counselor said with reckless abandon.

When it came time to decide on what level of French I should take, I decided I'd go out on a limb and take the AP level- French IV, because it was logical for me to take the next level of French. (It was definitely NOT a desire to seem super smart because I've got Asian standards to live up to ...)

The catch: In Missouri, the AP level French isn't until French V, so technically I needed another year of French to be at the AP level.

On the first day of school, I showed up in the class, and the teacher began spewing a slew of fluent French. The whole class nodded and acted on her instruction. I, on the other hand, realized I had made a GRAVE mistake. How on earth could I ever have possibly thought I could survive in a class full of smart people (three of which I was sure was fluent already anyway). I understood two statements the teacher made that day : Bonjour when I walked in and Au Revoir when I walked out.

I went home feeling rather dejected, but decided to persist with the class anyways. I am supposedly a respectable Asian who DOES NOT GIVE UP on any account! I muddled through a semester of the class and miraculously ended up with an "A" in the class by winter break.

Now standing on the other side of the New Year, the AP exam is hurtling towards me with the speed and force of stampeding cows. After several practice speaking exercises, reading and multiple choice exercises, and essays, I'm realizing that maybe I should have NOT taken AP French IV. Someone rescue me because this French IV life isn't working for me.

Thanks,

Alexis

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