Team spirit of the French group

During the following weeks, we are going to visit some courses and tell you what they are doing. 

One special thing in our school is the possibility to study very many languages.  Even though the number of students who want to study an extra language might be small, they still have the opportunity to learn the language they like.

Maiju visited the French class of the first year students  (at the moment the only students studying French in our school) :

The number of the French students is quite small (3) but despite the small size of the group,  the lessons are held as usual.   Annamari, Kalle and Juuso told me what their French lessons are like.

First we talked about the pros and cons of the small size of the group.  The students found much more pros. In a small group they find it easier to ask for help if they have problems with their studies. They can progress at their own speed and nobody will be overshadowed by the others. They don’t feel any pressure in the group because they have known each other since primary school – everybody feels comfortable and the team spirit is great. It is also really flexible to study in a small group.

Then I asked what kinds of methods they use in the lessons. The teacher, Jaakko Laaksonen, told me that they do a lot of listening exercises and practices with computers – the students use them in almost every lesson.  All of the material is also in a digital form and the students don’t use much paper or notebooks. That sounds great!

Annamari and Juuso are also studying Russian in addition to French - and all of them are of course studying English and Swedish.

I asked them a few more questions:

Do you think you will need French in the future? Maybe in the working life?

-          I might be interested in some kind of international work, so it would be useful to  
       speak French in the future , says Annamari.

To whom would you recommend French studies?

       -          Anybody can study French – all of us have started from the zero, says Juuso.

-          It requires  nerves to study French, it is not the easiest language to learn, Kalle says.

-          French is worth trying and it’s possible to cope with. Don’t be scared of it!,   Annamari exhorts.

After the “interview” Annamari, Kalle and Juuso begin to focus their attention on the vocabulary test which Jaakko is going to have for them. “Good luck!” I say and leave the French students studying.

Maiju Aalto 2A