Wednesday, November 08, 2006: (changeant des langues)
If you guessed that that means "switch languages", you're right. Tell me that you're all happy, because I'm going to blog in English today! But this isn't going to be the combined post that I was promising; I'm going to blog about the Local Immersion Programme (thus far; there're two more days to go).
To start off, a tag reply:
[5 Nov 06, 21:33] den;: you're going for a french local immersion programme? sounds interesting x)
-> Indeed it is, Denyse. And it's fun too.
(turning back to readers in general) How was it fun, I hear you ask? Read on to find out!
First of all, meet my "correspondant" or partner, Caroline! Finally, a nice Caroline, unlike another one I know.
OK, I know, there's no picture. But I wouldn't have posted any photos anyway. Sorry. And I actually forgot to bring my camera for the past three days.
Now... to the lessons!
On Monday, there was Math, English (with Literature combined in), Sports (aka P.E. in a local context), Technology, and History-Geography (which should correspond to Social Studies/History and Character Education, combined).
Math: The lesson was on algebraic functions and such things as factorising. With two math-haters (or people who dislike math) next to each other, I'd have thought the material would be tough. But it wasn't. In the end, I was explaining the method to Caroline as best as I could.
English: The French students will be doing this book called Cry Freedom, about the Apartheid era in South Africa; on Monday, they handed in their research, and the teacher explained to them the background context of the story. Once more, it's an epic battle between Black and White people, a tale of the consequences of the then-European greed for power and control. I won't say whether it exists right now, but it did back then.
Sports: Everyone underwent a fitness test comprising 10 laps of freestyle (they have a pool) and 10 laps of running. I was the slowest. Still, I must say Merci Dieu that I made it. However, because I was slowest, we had about 5 minutes to have lunch. We ended up eating into the next lesson and having to leave behind half our lunches (I paid $4.30 for mine... grr).
Technology: While the French students designed webpages with the help of the French version of Dreamweaver, we local students surfed the net. Everything was allowed, except playing (but of course). The French keyboard is different from ours; you have to press SHIFT to get the numbers on the number keys - you get accented letters if you don't. I researched the Apartheid era during this time, as well as a bit more about Choir.
History-Geography: It was all in a French context. I'm not sure what it was about though.
On Tuesday there was Life and Earth Science (corresponding to Biology and, perhaps, Ecology combined?), Physics-Chemistry, Foreign Language, Hist-Geo and English (combined with Russian Revolution History this time; Caroline had a test to take, so I was diverted to another class).
Life and Earth Science: The lesson was Bio-oriented; it was on gamete formation. Does anyone who's reading have any idea how many different gene combinations you can get in gametes? 2 to the power of 23. That's around 8.3 million! And that's why it's very highly unlikely to get identical twins unless the zygote splits into two during division.
Physics-Chem: It was more Physics-oriented. Nothing much sank in, for some reason. I'm still figuring it out.
Foreign Language: Caroline and I had to split up here because she takes Spanish, which I don't understand. Instead, she told a friend who was going to a Chinese class to bring me to their class. Therefore, by right, I wasn't really studying a foreign language. The foreign stdents were made to introduce themsleves to us. Their accents were a bit strange, but we (the other Immersion students from the MOELC and I who were in their class) could understand - all but Rohan, who's Indian. One of the French pupils, called Julien, made fun of his own assigned Chinese name and called himself "pig face" (in English) when it was time for him to introduce himself to us. He's a real joker.
Hist-Geo: This time, the lesson was about the French national symbols - the tri-coloured flag, Marianne, their motto (meaning "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" when translated into English), and their national anthem, titled La Marseillaise. They don't sing their national anthem in the morning, though; it originated as a war cry during the French Revolution, and was meant to stir the men of the time to fight. Then the teacher threw the ball into the court of the local students and quizzed us about the national flag of Singapore and our national anthem, Majulah Singapura.
English: I was diverted to the "Advanced" class, which has English combined with History. I took home nothing but one thing, which I shall now share. If you didn't know already, do take all political stuff with a pinch of salt.
Today now. There was Foreign Language, French, Math and Art, and Early Dismissal. Haha, did I fool you there? Hope not.
Foreign Language: Just like yesterday, I went to the Chinese class. While the French (plus the American) students were taking their test, the teacher revealed that their attitudes were bad because some had been forced by their parents to take Chinese and that they didn't see it as a core subject. And Julien got a name change. The pinyin of his name is no longer zhu lian, but zhu li en. It's indeed better, I think.
French: We were given texts and asked to analyse the viewpoints of the writers (it wasn't that hard really, it was just a question of First or Third Person).
Math: More on algebraic functions. Again, I had to explain to my partner what she didn't understand. And there was something we both couldn't understand!
Art: They did printing, something that Cedarians have done. The teacher let the local students have two pages (or rather, one sheet) from a sketchbook. Guess what I drew? I'll bet it's not really consistent with the PhOTO story, but I drew Christine running after a "retarded-looking" Raoul (my fellow local student said this of him, not me; I meant for him to pause in his footsteps on hearing Christine), with the PhOTO himself looking angrily at them from a high balcony. (Does anyone know what I mean when I refer to PhOTO now? You ought to, or so I think.)
Early Dismissal: Normally, we're dismissed at 4.30, but this time we were dismissed at around midday.
There - my informal report's done! I was blogging while waiting for my food to digest. Now, it's time to train. See you around, people! (changeant des langues) Au revoir!
(changeant des langues) Other tag replies:
[6 Nov 06, 16:13] liyana! (:: HELLO PENELOPE! LINK ME! (: hee.
-> Sure!
[8 Nov 06, 17:51] me: Heya! Are you french?
-> Who're you? I don't tag as "me" on my own tagboard. Please leave a name and link! I won't reveal it until you tell me.
(changeant des langues) Et maintenant, c'est vraiment "au revoir".
~Seraphine Chorister~ sang in The Butterfly Garden
[1:56 PM]
