The typical St. Andrews stereotype

aaandreaaa

Hey, I saw someone doing french in this thread, and I have a question :P

How difficult is French at St Andrews? I'm considering doing some French at least for the first year, but I'm scared it's going to be really hard and that it will have a bad effect on my other subjects. I've done French for the past 6 years, and am predicted a 6 out of 7 in IB French ab initio.

I can read simple texts, but have never attempted reading a novel in French. Should I still choose to do it? Or are most people doing French pretty much fluent in it?

I personally have found french quite hard... mainly because there's a large focus on oral french in the coure I do (french for science). but yeh, 6 years is quite long, (i mean ok i've been doing french for about 13 yrs, but only 6 of them was being taught proper grammar etc - the rest was just a few simple phrases in primary school lol) ...frad I don't understand the IB grading so that means nothing to me sorry :s-smilie:

But yeh, I'm pretty sure there isn't a beginners class, French... at the beginning of the year they do ask you to write a quick essay and do a grammar test which I think they do use to kind of split people into tutorial and oral classes of roughly the same ability. I think if you want to do French, you should give it a go! You have been learning it for quite a long time, and if you do find it too tough, or you just don't like it, you can change modules and choose something completely different within the first 1 or 2 weeks by which time you will know really (I did this for German -wasn't allowed to do ab initio, and found the advanced too tough-changed to Latin)

So yeh, give it a go, chances are you be just fine, otherwise you can swap :wink:

Reply 84

Elena*

I think it's just spanish that can be taken ab initio but they are also trying to change that too.

Reply 85

fg08

8

You can also do Italian, Russian and Arabic ab initio.
French and German are the only two languages which arent taught ab initio :smile:

Reply 86

fg08

You can also do Italian, Russian and Arabic ab initio.
French and German are the only two languages which arent taught ab initio :smile:

There is both a German beginners and advanced course... (I def know this as I tried to get moved down into beginners as I hadn't done German in so long, but they said I had to stay in advanceed... and also because I have a friend who had never studied German before, and she started it here in the beginners German module)... so i think French is the only one not to do ab initio...

Reply 87

fg08

8

sophie_c

There is both a German beginners and advanced course... (I def know this as I tried to get moved down into beginners as I hadn't done German in so long, but they said I had to stay in advanceed... and also because I have a friend who had never studied German before, and she started it here in the beginners German module)... so i think French is the only one not to do ab initio...

Ah ok my fault :smile:

Du studierst also Deutsch? Wie gut bist du denn schon? Kannst du fließend sprechen?

Reply 88

fg08

Ah ok my fault :smile:

Du studierst also Deutsch? Wie gut bist du denn schon? Kannst du fließend sprechen?

Ja, aber ich bin nicht sehr gut, und nein! Ich kann nicht Deutsch fliessend sprechen, :frown:

.... Aah, Yeh I did German years ago at school, and I wanted to take it back up again here, but they said I HAD to do advanced as I had done Higher German, but as I did it quite a whiley ago, I had lost a lot of it, and the fact that it was ALL taught completely in German, I got pretty lost! And they wouldn't let me down into beginners as apparently I would have an unfair disadvantage (despite the fact even the teacher noticed I was struggling), so I had to drop it which was really annoying! :frown:

Reply 89

graceyfo0

No Future

The weather is rather mild, sunny and pleasant atm

atm = atmospheric pressure :banana2:

Reply 90

taheki

Everyone seems to be splitting St Andrew's students up into 'Posh', 'State sector', 'Middle class', 'Designer brands'.. etc etc etc

It sounds terrible. Are people really so shallow that they only make friends with others who have parents in a similar pay bracket?

Makes me worried :s-smilie:

Enlighten me please!

Reply 91

M_E_X

14

taheki

Everyone seems to be splitting St Andrew's students up into 'Posh', 'State sector', 'Middle class', 'Designer brands'.. etc etc etc

It sounds terrible. Are people really so shallow that they only make friends with others who have parents in a similar pay bracket?

Makes me worried :s-smilie:

Enlighten me please!

Yeah, we do.
So if you could just upload a scan of your Dad's P60 form (latest tax year please), I'll know whether I should talk to you again or not.

James

ps I'm joking.

Reply 92

taheki

M_E_X

ps I'm joking.

No ****

Reply 93

ImperceptibleNinja

taheki

Everyone seems to be splitting St Andrew's students up into 'Posh', 'State sector', 'Middle class', 'Designer brands'.. etc etc etc

It sounds terrible. Are people really so shallow that they only make friends with others who have parents in a similar pay bracket?

Makes me worried :s-smilie:

Enlighten me please!

Sometimes, a person's background and their personality can be linked. You make friends with people whose company you like, and that may have the apparant consequence that 'birds of a feather flock together'. I very much doubt that anyone here has a financial checklist for potential friends.
If someone doesn't socialise with people from a certain financial background, it may not be that background that is the cause, but attitudes or traits that commonly occur in parallel with that background. If a high number of people from a certain background have an attitude or trait that riles you, then the probability of you being friends with someone from that background is automatically lowered. In that case, it's not a social failure at much as a mathematical result...

Reply 94

taheki

Everyone seems to be splitting St Andrew's students up into 'Posh', 'State sector', 'Middle class', 'Designer brands'.. etc etc etc

It sounds terrible. Are people really so shallow that they only make friends with others who have parents in a similar pay bracket?

Makes me worried :s-smilie:

Enlighten me please!

That's not really true... I mean you do tend to get yahs sticking with other yahs, but tbh, everybody just mixes together, and finds people they get on with etc. I mean I know for certain within my group of friends there are those who went to state school, on student loans and who have to pay for all their uni themselves because their parents cannot afford to help them (myself included) and then there are those who went to private schools and have everything paid for by parents..., and then those who are international students and perhaps struggling because of high tuition fees etc, but we all mix together and get on amazingly well! And to be quite honest, most people don't have a clue about the financial situations of everyone around them, unless they specifically flaunt their money and status etc, of whom you will innevitably find a few!

But yeh, it's great! I was worried about perhaps being looked down on before coming, but have found it the opposite, and everyone just integrates, and yeh you'll soon find a group of people with similar interests//ideas etc!

Reply 95

dragon500uk