As I've mentioned before on this blog I lived in a small town about a hour driving time north of Vancouver, BC for about a year when I was 16. This past summer I was able to return to Squamish to see how it had changed in the past three years. There is more retail...and more tourists but just about everything else is the same. It made me think of a quote by Nelson Mandela. "There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered." My year there was an important part of my adolescence but visiting it after only a few years felt a lot different than when I lived there. After moving I missed it and to me it was my teenage years in a nutshell...but after visiting I don't feel the same. I feel like I've changed more than it has...and that things aren't the same and that's a good thing. Kind of like going back to the old playground and realizing that the tall slide isn't as big as you thought it was when you were five.
That aside, it was still pretty awesome to climb the Chief...although much harder than I remember it. Here's some pictures:
You can't go to Squamish without stopping by McDonalds...the essence of a pit stop. Above is the sign by the highway.
...will be written about shortly...check back soon. I promise I'll have something up...because this year has already proven to be interesting and we've only been back for a week.
So although it's been six weeks I've still been thinking about immersion at Sainte-Anne. It was really unlike anything I've done before and turned French from dry memorization of verb tables into something that was amazing to learn more about every day.
Our only books I had for the immersion program were Bescherelle: Complete Guide to Conjugating 12000 French Verbs, and Le Mini Visuel, Le Robert &; Collins poche anglais and it was more than enough. the Bescherelle is hands down the best French conjugation guide, the mini visuel is an all-encompassing visual dictionary, and the Robert and Collins has most words you'd be using day to day and is a good begginers book well below the price of an unabridged edition required at the university level. The Bescherelle and the Robert and Collins were both personally recommended by our professor and Le Mini Visuel is more than worth it. The only thing I regret is not picking up Le Robert Micro 2008: Dictionnaire d'apprentissage de la langue française, a French only dictionary as naturally, it's best to find the definition in French.
There really is nothing that compares to full immersion... no real way to explain how much better it is in increasing comprehension, confidence, and thinking in another language than immersion. I would recommend it to everybody, even those not learning French in university, because it has fundamentally altered my way of approaching French and has made me interested and committed to learning the language more than anything else. Because of the program I've been seriously considering moving to Montreal to work and continue studying French part-time at Université de Montréal after I graduate from Mount Allison. I'll write again soon. For now enjoy this:
Here's a few videos from throughout the French immersion program at Sainte-Anne:
Café-théâtre @ Université Sainte-Anne
Le café théâtre des étudiants
HealerCody | June 03, 2010
Le café théâtre des étudiants
Sketch: 10 Choses à ne pas faire au Château
Numéro 1 -- "Se conduire comme on est ivre et débutant 1 pour draguer quelqu'un d'autre qui est vraiment ivre."
Ce video est pendant l'immersion français à l'université Sainte-Anne la session de printemps 2010.
Soyez gentil, le français est ma langue seconde. Débutant 1 est le premier niveau du français au programme d'immersion à l'Université Sainte-Anne. La blague s'agit de ça.
At Université Sainte-Anne, there are eight levels of French immersion for the spring and summer immersion sessions. After the entrance exam everybody is placed in one of eight levels: Débutant I, Débutant II, Intermédiaire I, Intermédiaire II, Intermédiaire III, Avancé I, Avancé II, and Perfectionnement I. I was placed in Intermédiaire 2 (cote du cours: FRLS 1816).
In that class, the main focus was on all of the all of the details of conjugating passe compose and imparfait and when to use each. We perfected the usage of pronouns including stressed pronouns. We also were practiced the plus-que-parfait. The class focused on depth of knowledge as opposed to skimming over a large breadth of knowledge. Here's the official list from the plan de cours:
Objectifs spécifiquies
À la fin du cours, l'etudiant sera capable de: -exprimer des faits passés a l'oral et à l'écrit en employant le passé composé et l'imparfait -employer le plus-que-parfair pour exprimer des actions antérieures dans le passé -employer les promnoms compléments correctement dans la communication orale et écrite -exprimer son opinion -lire et comprendre des textes simples< -organiser et presenter un eposé oral -employer des expressions idiomatiques appropriées -employer un vocabulaire varié
Below is a little bit of background information about the University for those unfamiliar with Sainte-Anne. From the Université Sainte-Anne Facebook page.
Université Sainte-Anne has a regular, year-round French immersion program, the only such program east of Québec. My next posting will about french immersion classes at the school, specifically niveau 3/Français langue seconde- intermédiaire 2.
Reconnue pour la qualité de son enseignement et de ses diplômés, l'Université Sainte-Anne est l'institution de premier choix pour les Acadiens, les autres francophones et les anglophones désirant faire des études post-secondaires en français, ainsi que pour ceux qui désirent poursuivre leur apprentissage de la langue française.. Mission L'Université Sainte-Anne mise sur une approche personnalisée pour offrir un enseignement de qualité en français à ses étudiants acadiens, francophones et anglophones. Elle offre à ses étudiants un environnement qui facilite leur épanouissement personnel et professionnel, et les prépare aussi bien à des études supérieures qu'au marché du travail. Le français à l'Université Sainte-Anne. L'Université Sainte-Anne offre aux Acadiens et aux étudiants de toute origine l'occasion de poursuivre leurs études post-secondaires dans un contexte qui favorise chez eux le perfectionnement de la langue française.
À l'Université Sainte-Anne, les cours, à l'exception des cours d'anglais et de certains cours offerts à l'éducation permanente, sont offerts en français et les manuels sont, le plus souvent possible, en français. La langue officielle de travail est le français pour les administrateurs, les professeurs, les étudiants et les membres du personnel de soutien.
Tous les étudiants de l'Université Sainte-Anne doivent tenir compte du fait que la langue d'usage est le français sur les campus et que seul un engagement personnel à respecter cette politique garantit et protège le caractère francophone de l'institution
This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of Mount Allison University. For official University policy visit their website.
