Before beginning this blog, I'd like to apologize to all my readers for not having kept up with my blogs as promised. This week, I will make an strong effort to get all of you "caught up" on the life of Monsieur André.

That being said, this week I'd like to share with you the various components of my student life here in Lille. As an aspiring linguist, I am taking courses in what is called as "Lettres Modernes" (or Modern Letters). This filière (or "academic track") is for students who are interested in reading, writing, and discussing French texts in addition studying the French language. This being said, I'd like to specifically talk about the University system here at l'Université Charles de Gaulle and the various courses I am taking. (For students interested in coming to France, you can use this blog as a sort of "mini-guide", if you will .)

I. UNIVERSITY SYSTEM

To begin, l'Université Charles de Gaulle (also called l'Université Lille III) is located in a part of southern Lille known as Villeneuve d'Ascq. The University particularly specializes in the area of the Humanities and Arts. (In other words, unlike many universities in the US, there are no "science" courses taught at this university.) It also is for undergraduate, Masters, and Ph.D. students. As you might expect, the university is massive. It's so massive that it took me several days (and a lot of patience) to figure my way around. (Please look at my pictures to see some pictures of the university.)

In regard to the university administration, everything seems to be rather "old-fasioned." Instead of locating all your courses and teachers online, for example, at this univeristy, all students must go to their respective deparment (or "UFR" [unité deformation et de recherche]) and look throughout the several tons of papers posted all around the walls. To make matters more complex, there areabout 150-200 students trying to do the same thing as you. In my case, being that I am an exchange student taking courses in multiple UFRs, I had to write down: 1) what classes I wanted to take 2) the various times that class might be offered 3) room numbers and various other information. Again, all this information was spread throughout the area, on various papers [some typed, some hand written] - It was honestly one of the most depressing, scary feelings I have ever had in my life. After completing this "circus" of course search , I had about 3 weeks to test out all my classes. After this "testing period", I had to turn in my fiche cursus (or your official registration form with all the classes, teachers, etc. listed) However, this too is easier said than done. To fill out the fiche curses, I had to go to each UFR, and request the guide des études (a book containg all courses offered by a particular department). From there, I had to find each course that I wanted to take (which was a challenge in and of itself) and then write all the information about that course down. Needless to say, it was a very long, confusing, time consuming process. With respect the homework/classwork, it does get better. The French do not seem to care about "busy work" (as we do in the U.S.). In France, students go to class strictly to get the notes. The teacher does not take attendance, give assignments, or anything of the like. That being said, it's important to attend class and take very good notes. If not, come time to take the examinations, you'll be very sorry.

With respect to the examinations, for the majority of the courses, there is either: 1) one exam given at the end of the semester (before or after Christmas - depending on the course) or 2) one exam in the middle of the semester and one at the end.) Some teachers, like my Introduction aux Sciences du Langage professor, make the first test completely optional. In other words, you can either be evaluated twice (50% each test) or once (100%). It's completely up to you. So far, I've been lucky to have received pretty good grades. (For all students contemplating coming here in France, I'd recommend making a friend so that you can suppliment your notes with his or hers.)

II. STUDENT DORM

The dorm (or "Résidence Universitaire") is about 20 minutes away from the university. Unlike in the US, the "résidence" does not belong to the university. There are several "résidences" around town. The résidence where I live is pretty comfortable. It's quite small (9m x 9m) but it's very clean and I have my own complete bathroom. There is a common kitchen area that all students must share. (I don't cook though so this doesn't really apply to me.)

III. COURSES

As stated above, I'd like to briefly share the courses I am taking this semester.

1) DEFI (Departement Enseignenant du Français à l'International) - Stage Intensif/Extensif

-> We are currently reading and presenting articles. Each class, we must come to class with an article read and prepared to present it to the class. At the end of the semester, we will have both an oral and written examination on all of the articles (which will at least be 35) that we will have covered. In addition to this, we must each give a presentation about new something we have learned in France (such as a museum, Church, architecture, musical styles, etc.) The presentation must last about ten minutes and contain a number of historical and relevant factors. At the end of the semester, our exam will include a section with questions about the several presentations given by the students. We must also write four papers throughout the year. In addition to this, we must go to the Language Lab where we work on various areas to improve our French for a minimum of 6 hours. This description that I have given you does not include the other numerous components of the class including the many grammatical exercises, small written assignments and various other activities that must been done.

2) Tandem

-> We must meet up with a language partner weekly (for a minimum of 1 hour and 45 minutes.) We are free to meet wherever we'd like including a museum, a café, a library, or even the cinema. One of the requirements of the course is that we speak half of the meeting in French and half in English. (It is forbidden to mix languages during the meeting.) We must also meet with a tutor (or "monitor") twice during the semester. Also, after every weekly meeting, we must answer questions on the Moodle forum for the course. We must also keep a weekly journal in order to evaluate what has been learned. Finally, at the end, we will have an oral examination (in French) to present our experience as well as answer various questions from the tutors.

3) Sporting Activity - Volleyball

-> I chose to take up volleyball as it matched well with my schedule. Basically, we must attend all the meetings. We will be evaluated on our 1) attendance 2) gradual improvement 3) final match 4) a written 4-5 page "dossier" about our experience with the sport (written in French, of course.) Believe it or not, a typical grade, even for this course, is an 11-12. (I'm still perplexed by the rigidity in their grading system!)

4) Traduction - Theme

-> This course has been highly productive. In addition to learning several expressions, I've been able to start concentrating on things like register, semantics, sentence structure, time sequence, etc. To succeed in this course, we must prepare a weekly translation of a text. Also, we will have one examination next week in which we will have to translate a text using all the tools and concepts we have learned.

5) Histoire de la langue Française

-> This course is, in every respect of the word, a history course. We have to know various historical facts concerning the development of France (and Europe, for that matter) as well as focusing on various stages of the development and surrounding cultural elements (such as the history of the Celtics, Charlemagne, etc.) of the French language. It's an extremely "dry" and "dense" lecture course. Basically, our final grade will consist of two exams - a midterm and final. Personally, I feel that this has been my most difficult course as there is so much information. We are expected to find out what we think is important about the French language and to be able to apply certain analytical skills when trying to examine a completely new, never-before-seen text the day of the exam.

6) Introduction of Science du Language

-> This course deals with learning a language. We discuss various branches and concepts in the field of linguistics including: signe, distinction de langue/parole, synchronic/diachronic, phonetics/phonology, etc. We talk about very cool things like à vs. en, varieties of pronunciation by region (and country, for that matter), and other extremely interesting things. At the end, we will have to give a presentation and examine a text, and ultimately discuss specifics elements articular phonetics and the IPA. This course, needless to say, is quite interesting for me.

7) Syntax

-> This course is particularly designed for French students who plan to become teachers. The goal of the course is to prepare the students for the Capes (and/or Agrégation) examinations. The course exams vigorously - and I mean vigourously - various grammatical and linguistically elements. We learn must first know 1) the theoretical aspect 2) how to use it 3) how to teach it. We must be able to identify various grammatical facts (including nature of words, syntactical functions, phrase types, etc.) For the two exams, we will evaluated on our ability heavily analyze a text (linguistically, grammatically, etymologically, phonetically, phonologically, etc.) and ultimately how we can explain it to students. Needless to say, this class is quite demanding as there is so much information we are expected to know, but it has been so much fun!

8) Lexical Semantics

-> This course, too, is designed for students who want to be future teachers of France. The course will focus on the study of the relations of meanings (synonyms, antonyms, polysemy, hyponymy, identification of register, etc.) It will also, at the same time, focus on the word formation (paronyms) and the meanings (word families: etymology and word derivation) We will also be expected to know about things like metaphors, metonymies, euphemisms, etc. We will be evalued by applying the various "tools" we have learned to a new, never-before-seen texts. We are expected to be able to explain, point out, and teach each of the things mentioned above. Though this course, as the other before it, is extremely demanding; however, I have learned so much!

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this blog. I do realize that it was rather long and "informative", but I felt that as a student, it was important to know exactly what i'm doing here (with respect to academics [and social life as well ]). I invite you to leave any questions or comments you might have for me and I look forward to writing for you soon.

Bien à toi,

--André