Concerning the english teaching in French schools

For me, no english teaching in school before I'm ten or eleven years old (I know first contacts exist for youngest students in primary school) and all my scolarity, I sucked in english. Most especially with conjugation. I think I sucks always with that, yet, even if it's a few better today. Finally, I believe I'm became better in english in few months with english subtitles of Babylon Five, than with eight years of school (for english).

Anyway, it's true that I was not a very assiduous boy in english during these lessons. At the time, to know speak english was the last of my worries, but today, my attitude with english teaching is a thing that I regret.

In oral, I can understand the least for survive, especially with not born english-speaking people. Most of the time, I don't understand oral english by English, American, Australian... people. But with Germans or Turkishs people, eg, english is clearer.

Mat a écrit:

As far as I'm concerned, I've had no english lessons in school before the age of ten or eleven (I know first contacts exist for youngest students in primary school) and for the whole of my studies, I've sucked at english. Most especially with conjugation. I think I still suck at that today, even if it's a little better (than before). Finally, I believe I have become better in english in the last faw months thanks to the english subtitles of Babylon Five, than with eight years of school (for english).

Anyway, it's true that I was not a very assiduous boy in english during these lessons. At the time, knowing how to speak english was the last of my worries, but today, my attitude towards english teaching is a thing that I regret.

In oral, I can understand the least that is necessary to survive, especially with foreign english speakers. Most of the time, I don't understand oral english spoken by English, American, Australian... people. But with German or Turkish people, eg, english is clearer (to me).

Most of the mistakes I corrected were not that big. Careful with the adjectives, they never change. I think the most important thing for you in the months to come is to keep on watching TV shows and films in their original version. Try to read in english also, maybe you could begin with comics, it's usually less difficult to get into, even for someone who doesn't know all the words.

I had my first english lesson when I was 13. My first foreign language was Dutsh, because I'm Belgian and I thought that I had to be at least bilingual to find a job in Belgium. But since I'm at university, I have to read some books in english because scientist's papers are written almost in english.

I think that foreign languages should be taught in primary school. It seems to me to be the better way to teach foreign languages.

I hope my english was not to bad


EDIT : thank you Parnassus for your observation. I didn't know (or I forgot ) that.

It's good. Careful, "to teach" is not a regular verb. I'll let you check.

As for me, well, I first heard of english in primary school, but I had my first real lesson at the age of 11. It's been decades since the whole of Europe makes fun of French people concerning our incredible ability to learn foreign languages.^^

Hey, we're all learning English here because those guys across the Channel or the Atlantic are quite unable to learn other languages (well, some are, but it's not as developped as in other countries).....OK, no, it's because they make so frakking good books and TV shows, but, it's soooooo worth the trouble, don't you think ?

Well, french had its glorious days as well: in the Middle Ages, in western Europe, many people (relatively speaking of course) spoke french.

When comparing two educational systems, let's say the french one and the north-american one, one can observe that both have their advantages and drawbacks. For instance, one of my friends is in Canada* this year, working as a french assistant teacher, and he told me none of his students had ever heard of grammatical notions like "declention", "object", "attribute", etc.

*not Quebec