French

[robynmarie0619@gmail.com]

Has anyone taken French with At your pace?  I took it a million years ago in high school. I can read it with some difficulty, but speaking, forget about it. I am at my max of transfer credits, so everything left to take has to be completed at UMPI
Thanks!

[ss20ts]

You may want to change your user name so it's not your email address.

I took Spanish at UMPI and the French course is very similar. You will have to be able to answer a bunch of questions in French for the Milestones. For the Final Assessment you will have to write an essay in French answering a bunch of different questions. You'll so have to make a recording of yourself answering a series of questions in French. You know in advance what the questions are. So you will need to be able to write and speak in French. Not fluent.

If you take a language class outside of UMPI you can still request it to be transferred in. You'll give up something else but there are other classes like American Government which are super easy to do at UMPI. The language classes aren't the easiest.

[rachel83az]

A couple of people have taken French. It's definitely a love it or hate it class. Ironically, because you have some French experience, you might not do so well.

[ss20ts]

A couple of people have taken French. It's definitely a love it or hate it class. Ironically, because you have some French experience, you might not do so well.

Same professor for Spanish and I was given a VERY hard time because I had knowledge of Spanish. I took it for 3.5 years in high school. After my experience I recommend the language course be completed elsewhere. I've heard from several other students that they had the same problems with the professor.

[Vle045]

I would follow the advice to take it elsewhere. My son is taking French and he’s been using DuoLingo to help practice. It’s NOT for credit. Just for learning. I would hate to start learning a new language at this point in life. I took Spanish, French, German and Russian back in my HS and college years. I remember very little.

[sksandorff90]

I already speak a little bit of French (enough for travel purposes and my reading and listening skills are at a lower intermediate level) and considered the class at UMPI very easy. During one activity (I can't remember if it is part of a milestone or just one of the "add to the discussion board" activities) you are supposed to say why you're taking the class, so the professor knew that I had prior knowledge and the class was mostly me brushing up on my writing and speaking skills.

There is almost no speaking in the class, just a small recording for a milestone, and then the final has a speaking portion. I wish there was more speaking because I wasn't entirely sure how to pronounce a few words, though she does give a website that will "read" whatever you type in the correct accent. The hardest part was the final because I was scared she would accuse me of cheating. There is a word count you need to reach that just doesn't seem to be reachable given the very limited vocabulary and grammar that the course covers. I made sure to ask if I was allowed to use a French dictionary to help and provided the link to the one I was using. Using a French dictionary is allowed, but translating services aren't. I just barely made the word count by adding as many redundant sentences that I could ("My dad is 65. He lives in Washington. He is a salesman. He has gray hair and brown eyes. My mom is 60. She also lives in Washington." etc.).

I think if you haven't taken French since high school, you will be fine. I think where people struggle with the language classes at UMPI is if they have too much knowledge on a language, or are perhaps a native speaker as whatever languages people learn growing up are very different than how that language is taught in a classroom setting.

[peonyplenty]

I would follow the advice to take it elsewhere.  My son is taking French and he’s been using DuoLingo to help practice.  It’s NOT for credit.  Just for learning.  I would hate to start learning a new language at this point in life.   I took Spanish, French, German and Russian back in my HS and college years.  I remember very little. word hurdle

I think you'll be alright even if you haven't studied French since high school. If you already know a lot about a language or are a native speaker, you might find it difficult to study it at UMPI, because the way a language is taught in a classroom is significantly different from the way it is learned in everyday life.