School & education words

LESSONS INSIDE (11) → [115 CARDS]

School subjects ◆ Education summary levels ◆ Grade levels at primary school ◆ Grade levels at (middle) junior high school ◆ Grade levels at senior high school ◆ Grade levels at university ◆ School buildings & facilities ◆ Teaching and administrative staff ◆ Students ◆ Objects founds in the classroom ◆ Activities in the classroom

LEARNING GOALS

• You will introduce yourself at a more advanced level.
• You will be able to talk about yourself on topic such as marital status, your origin, your occupation, you sex, your address and phone number and much, much more.
• You will be able to model Q & A scripts to anticipate potential questions on a wide range of topics.
• You will be able to hear and repeat these important French words and phrases in actual sentences and practice them yourself for improvement.

 
COURSE DESCRIPTION

This section is going to be about the French words and vocabulary used to describe the things and the people related to school & education in general. There are noticeable differences between the French education system and its American counterpart, including the lunch menu and the cost of education itself among others.

​Some of you already know that I taught French for almost a decade at an American university. I must say that coming from a French-based educational system myself, I was already expecting quite a few surprises, but boy, oh boy, I wasn’t ready for this one! See for yourself: My college students in America pay $2500 (give or take) for a 1-semester French course (5 credits). Meanwhile, in France, roughly a third of this amount ($800) could pay for a for a full bachelor’s degree, (that’s multiple courses taken over 3 or 4 years of study!). In other countries such as Germany and Scotland, college is even free (with no conditions attached). To make things short, let’s just say that my American students were never happy to be reminded of this difference.

While this vocabulary course does not linger too much on the differences between the school systems across the world, you will definitely learn a great deal about the inner workings of the educational system, i.e. its grade levels (France), the objects found in a classroom and much more.

TARGET AUDIENCE

• You are a complete or false beginner of French (although students at higher levels can still benefit from practicing with flashcards and from listening to the audio clips).
• You want to master the intricacies of the French school system and become familiar with the educational world in general.
• You don’t necessarily have French-speaking conversation partners readily available to start a simple Q&A talk.
• You’re looking to take your listening and speaking skills with confidence and at your own pace.

 
REQUIREMENTS

• You must have a computer and it must be connected to the internet.
• Your computer must be equipped with built-in or external speakers to be able to listen to the recorded French audio segments.
• No prior knowledge of French is required as everything will be taught.
• You must, at least, be familiar with the English and/or French alphabet, and if you were able to follow me until now, chances are I don’t have to worry about it on that point.