French and I have a very interesting history.
I was encouraged to continue my French studies after grade 9 by my very intelligent mother who said that having another language would be a great thing and that I shouldn’t give up on it.
The summer of ’10, when I was 16 years old, I spent 8 weeks living in Montreal where I worked at a day camp as a moniteur, speaking francais seulement avec les enfants, and working on my language skills.
When I left for Montreal, I was 95% sure that I knew zero French after studying it for 10 years. I was absolutely positive that I would not be able to communicate in French besides the “Bonjour, Je m’appelle Jennifer” that I’ve been repeating every year before that. However, I did it. I worked in French for 8 weeks, speaking French and getting comfortable speaking French and knowing that I could be understood.
I continued to study French up until grade 12. Then, I was invited to a presentation by this French school called Glendon.
I was not going to go to Glendon. My plan for 17 years was to go to University of Waterloo and study English, go to Queens for teachers college, and teach high school English.
BUT if we went to the presentation, we got out of French class, so I went!
Three hours later, I went home and told my parents about this beautiful, gorgeous, small, and wonderful French campus in Toronto.
Three weeks later, I went to a Glendon open house.
One month later, I applied to Glendon College for my undergrad.
About one month after that, I received an early offer of admission to Glendon College, York University.
I remember running downstairs to my mom, crying that I had gotten into my dream school.
After first year of french in FSL 1100 and feeling like I hadn’t learned very much, I participated in the Explore Programme. I went to Trois-Rivieres, Quebec for 6 weeks where I had an AMAZING teacher who made grammar fun and I felt like I had improved a LOT!
Then I went back to Glendon, once again. The FSL program had changed a bit after some feedback from students, but it was still highly lecture based, with not much learning happening. The confidence I had gained in Trois-Rivieres was disappearing.
Then I went to Europe.
I kept disappering from Glendon, apparently.
My third year of school I was in the Netherlands where I took Dutch classes. I didn’t speak a word of French from September until January when I went to Paris for 4 days.
It was in Paris – the Parisian capital of the world with a reputation for not being nice to English speakers – where a French waiter complimented me on my French. I was shocked to say the least. Me? Good French? No way.
But then I went back to France in June with my mom for a week. We drove through southern France and I got a few more compliments on my French speaking. It made me feel amazing. I came to realize that my french goals are not to be able to conjugate perfectly or to grammar queen of all that is french. What I want is to be able to walk through a french city and feel comfortable communicating in the language of the locals. I wanted to understand. 
Coming back to Glendon this past fall, I found that the FSL program had changed COMPLETELY!!!!!! Instead of a lecture and tutorial, they had changed the program to a 2 hour class twice a week, meaning 4 hours of guaranteed French immersion each week. My professor, Alena, spoke ONLY french to us, and she was strict on us only speaking french. She was tough, but it made me want to do well and work. The class was much more conversation based; we got in groups and had discussions every week, forcing us to converse and express ourselves in the French language.
We also read this book in French by Amin Maalouf, called Les Identités Meurtrieres , some vocab work and – yes – some grammar, but it was much more based on conversation and expressing yourself, about doing activities in French and immersing yourself into the Glendon and Toronto French community.
For the first time at Glendon, I really felt like I was learning something.
Je suis sûre que j’ai amélioré mon français ces 12 dernières semaines. Pour une raison quelconque, je suis plus confortable avec l’écriture en français aussi. Pour ma classe finale, j’avais besoin d’écrire 400 mots en français, et je l’ai fait sans problème. Bien sûr, je fais des fautes, et mon français n’est pas impeccable, mais, pour une personne qui n’écrirai rien en français sans un dictionnaire, l’internet, ou une personne francophone… C’est là un grand succès pour moi.
SO, BRAVO Glendon on your new FSL program. After all the kinks, I must say that this new method is the best one for me. After all our ups and downs, I feel like French and I are finally starting to get along.
Laughing Through Life 