[laurastevens]

It really depends on your previous level of french education because anyone with grade 12 french gets put in this class. So you have a mix of people with core french, french immersion and all french schools in one class, which makes it a little interesting.

I really liked the class size. You have only about 25 people in your core section, and maybe 12 in your tutorial. So you really get to know the prof, and participate in class.

Classes are conducted entirely in french. Rarely does the prof slip in an english word or explanation. You do A LOT of grammar, read a novel each term and go over vocab in tutorials. You have one test, one essay and one oral presentation each term as well as any little assignments your teacher assigns. Nothing you write is ever over 500 words. There is homework every week, as well as reading the novel. There is a midterm exam during first term exams, as well as a final.

The grammar covered is: present, imperatif; passe compose, imparfait and plus-que-parfait and when to use each, verbes pronominaux; pronoms personnelles, disjoints, COD's and COI's, genre et nombre des noms, les articles; le futur simple et le futur anterieur and when to use them; conditionnel and conditionnel du passe as well as phrases conditionnels, adjectifs et adverbes and subjonctif and subjonctif du passe. As well, there are also a bunch of little things like expressions that you cover.

Don't worry if this sounds like a lot, it's spread out over the whole year so it's really manageable. There are three lectures a week + tutorials.

The marking is pretty fair, I know that my prof at least is much more picky in terms of spelling and grammar than my highschool teacher so I've lost a couple of marks there, but that's to be expected when you study french at a higher level.

Overall it's a pretty good course. I didn't find it that interesting because none of the major grammar was new to me. As long as you're willing to put in the effort you should be fine. Profs are very accomodating and more than willing to help you out if you have any difficulties.

I LOVED this course, because the 20-30 people was a nice change to all my larger classes. I had Dr. Hanley as my prof and he is very funny and genuinely wants to get to know you. I'm considering taking one of his upper year classes because I liked him so much.

I came in with Grade 12 French Immersion, and found the course really easy. None of the concepts were new, but I understood them better than I did in high school, and definitely improved my written and spoken French.

My class did two days of grammar and one day of literature for both semesters. I didn't find the tutorials very interesting and my mark in our weekly quizzes didn't really change depending on whether or not I had spent the 2 hours learning the vocab.

If you can get Dr. Hanley, I would highly recommend this course!

Originally Posted by KRan

I LOVED this course, because the 20-30 people was a nice change to all my larger classes. I had Dr. Hanley as my prof and he is very funny and genuinely wants to get to know you. I'm considering taking one of his upper year classes because I liked him so much.

I came in with Grade 12 French Immersion, and found the course really easy. None of the concepts were new, but I understood them better than I did in high school, and definitely improved my written and spoken French.

My class did two days of grammar and one day of literature for both semesters. I didn't find the tutorials very interesting and my mark in our weekly quizzes didn't really change depending on whether or not I had spent the 2 hours learning the vocab.

If you can get Dr. Hanley, I would highly recommend this course!

What about the other profs.. Banks.. Rosner.. etc
Thanks for the Review btw! Looking forwad to continuing with French!

I had Rosner for the second half of my course, and she was very nice. Marked a little harder than Kabonda, but was more competent and more organized. She made hand-outs to summarize and worksheets for the grammar.

Kabonda was kind of crazy. His notes on the board were very disorganized, but he marked easy. As long as you are comfortable doing a little bit of learning by yourself you'll be fine.

I had Dr Posthumus and she was really good. She knew everything she was talking about and was willing to accommodate for those who don't understand the grammar rules or whatever right away. She was also very organized.

Guys! For some strange reason, this course is full on SOLAR?! even though I was set to take it.. What should I do?! I don't want to wait till August and risk the possibility of it NOT opening.. BUt if I contact the faculty to open up a spot for me.. would it actually work?! =S Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Originally Posted by sara_h216

Guys! For some strange reason, this course is full on SOLAR?! even though I was set to take it.. What should I do?! I don't want to wait till August and risk the possibility of it NOT opening.. BUt if I contact the faculty to open up a spot for me.. would it actually work?! =S Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Seats aren't guaranteed. You can try to ask them for a seat, you should have a good reason though.

In the meantime look for electives that you wish to take to take the spot of French 1A03. That way if you don't get French you got your backups already registered. If you keep on checking and manage to get a seat in French 1A03, you can sign up for it and then drop the other courses.

Thanks Jeremy. I was actually surprised that it was full.. since there's 5 or 6 sections I believe. I guess I'll just wait till August to see if anyone dropped it. But if not, can I e-mail them then.. or would it be too late?

Originally Posted by sara_h216

Thanks Jeremy. I was actually surprised that it was full.. since there's 5 or 6 sections I believe. I guess I'll just wait till August to see if anyone dropped it. But if not, can I e-mail them then.. or would it be too late?

E-mail then now and see what they say.

People can even drop the course in their 7 day period, so I would check from time to time while SOLAR is still open.

That class is actually full? Damn... things just aren't right in the world. Last year, but it was 1K06, there was probably like 50 people in my class.

That's still a decent number for it to be full :S .. especially for 1A06 since it has 5 or 6 sections or so.. and judging by numbers from previous years, each class had about 30 people.. so they should be accepting at least 150 or so people.. Can't believe it's actually full ='(. It was the only course I wasn't worried about in terms of getting in.
Who should I e-mail if I want to ask for a seat? and Is wanting the course for a minor a good enough reason?

Originally Posted by sara_h216

That's still a decent number for it to be full :S .. especially for 1A06 since it has 5 or 6 sections or so.. and judging by numbers from previous years, each class had about 30 people.. so they should be accepting at least 150 or so people.. Can't believe it's actually full ='(. It was the only course I wasn't worried about in terms of getting in.
Who should I e-mail if I want to ask for a seat? and Is wanting the course for a minor a good enough reason?

Hmm, e-mail the french department which I think is within Linguistics and Languages but I'm not sure... hmm, yes I think mentioning that you want it for a minor will win them over. It's worth a shot.

Thanks a lot! and I'll double check about the contact info for the french department.

When I picked my courses last year, this course was full, but I got a spot sometime in July after SOLAR reopened. So keep trying!

KRan Thanks for yoru post! You actually gave me hope! I'll keep checking this week, and in August when SOLAR opens again. Thanks a lot!