Intensive Beginning Language and Culture – Mme Heather Edwards
While French was something I never intended on taking as a language, it has been one of the best experiences.
I got placed in a French class after I totally wanted to take Spanish in middle school in order to fulfill my credits for my advanced diploma. It lead me to some great opportunities, like going to Montreal and Quebec in 8th grade, as well as getting inducted into the French Honor Society in high school.
I never thought I would have to take a language after my sophomore year of high school until my brother was required to take Spanish again at Longwood. He complained about it, saying he hadn’t done it in years and he wished he never had to take it again. I feared I was going to have the same issue with my French classes, even though I knew I was going into beginner’s level French with some prior experience.
When I first got into the groove of everything with my French class, it seemed exactly like a refresher. I had many things we reviewed, and many which I remembered, which was nice.
I did start to struggle though when we started to go over new material. We went over the stuff I had known very slowly, as I remember just sitting in class and just flipping through the textbook after finishing our in class activity in one minute while it took the rest of the class 5-10 minutes. When we started to go over new stuff, I felt like it was a fast roller coaster that I had barely put the strap on for.
I was very lucky to get through it, but it was a bit of a struggle. I ended with an A, as I was always good with class participation, the homework, and our fun little projects, but I still had times where I felt unsure in class or sitting at my desk in my dorm.
Nonetheless, my professor was there every step of the way. Mme. Edwards always took questions during class, after class, and during office hours. She was so excited about the material and for us to learn, and tried to make things relatable for us. When talking about swimming and other sports, she was shocked to learn Longwood closed our pool and cracked jokes in French that we can’t swim at Longwood anymore.
We had many different projects and fun written activities, but they were all in French of course. One of my favorites was talking about what would happen if Longwood was in Alaska, using a verb form called la conditionnel. I conferred with friends and family asking how they thought the change would affect them, and I wrote ten sentences on how it would change my life, my classmates’ lives, and my friends and family’s lives.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mu-Jcn1-MfB6KUcOTncFtGkWWdpdl-SG340uxr3CywA/edit?usp=sharing