I started taking French my Freshman year of high school because I didn't want to take Spanish like everyone else, not that I hate the Spanish language or anything ,I just wanted to be different.  My desire to learn French perhaps started when my mom told me that my older brother and sister took it in high school . When I was in sixth grade , I remember asking my brother how to say various things such as I love you ( Je t'aime) and rabbit ( le lapin). Two years later on Christmas Day I accidentally set up my pink iPod mini to French and did not understand any of the words written on the screen.Without hesitation, I passed it over to my brother and he understood most of the words on the screen and switched everything back to English.  But thankfully, I just had enough time to stare at all the French words before me so that I could guess their pronunciations in terms of spelling.Unfortunately , I don't remember any of the words offhand because I did  not make note of them and that iPod got e wasted a few years ago.
Towards the end of eighth grade, I went to Open House at Sonora High School and went to the classroom where I would learn French the following year. What attracted me the most about the classroom were the posters with various words and phrases and the alphabet which is similar to the English alphabet with some differences in pronunciation.Right then and there , I decided that I would take French all four years of high school to see if I could get anywhere with it in the future.   I still remember my very first day of French class like it was yesterday . My teacher Madame McClung  greeted me and the other students by saying bonjour and I said bonjour back since that was the only conversational word I knew at the time.  Then we learned how to say how are you doing ( Comment ça va ? Or ça va?)  and what is your name in the informal ( Comment tu t'appelles). All of us repeated these phrases in unison to Madame so that we could familiarize ourselves with pronunciation and  very basic conversation starters.  From there we learned how to order food by beginning with Je voudrais ( I would like) as well as vocabulary words associated with foods,colors and how to describe people's appearances.  During my last three years of high school, my classes focused more on grammar i.e. verb conjugations ,when to use certain tenses and subject object agreements.  At first I found all those grammar exercises were dull, but later on I realized that grammar is a stepping stone to language fluency. 
 As I was wrapping up my senior year of high school , I decided that I wanted to continue taking French courses in college.  I did not want to lose my language skills like my older brother and sister did.  I wanted to be able to speak a second language fluently so that I could interact with more cultures of people. I also had a new found gift since I got straight A's in all my high school French courses and Madame McClung told me that my pronunciation was excellent. After receiving information about French courses at Whittier College, I was automatically sent the link for the first part of the placement exam. When I opened the link, there was a paragraph in which I had to fill in the blanks with the correct verb tenses.At first , I was a bit nervous since I did these types of exercises in my AP French 4 class and sometimes got confused on which verb tense to use. I did not want Professor Chirol and Professor Wallis to think I was an idiot and place me in a level that was too easy for me or would not count towards my major.  A few days before classes started I took the second part of the placement exam which included a listening section ,short answers and and an essay question .While taking the test other students glanced over at me and said "she's gonna ace it", and my cheeks turned red. When I came to the written part of the test I decided to use mes amis ( my friends) les expressions idiomatiques( idiomatic expressions) which my high school teacher called "Fancy French." I felt that I could win over the professors by using these expressions and to further prove that I want to become fluent in French . Some examples of these include:  Avoir la parole  ( To have the floor in a conversation or the right to speak), ( Ne pas être d'accord avec  ( To not be in agreement with) and  être au courant de ( To be aware of).  When everyone was done with the placement exam, I remained in my seat with my test on my desk and waited for the professors to talk to the other students .
While I was waiting in my seat, I found out that most of the students got placed into Elementary French. And I told myself, " I hope this doesn't happen to me". After everyone else left , I handed my test over to Professor Chirol and waited for her and Professor Wallis to go over it . A few minutes later, Professor Chirol walked up to me and said that she wanted to talk to me. And I thought to myself, "Oh no !I did not do well on the test and she wants to point out the errors I made ."  But what she actually wanted to do was have a conversation with me all in French  and I was a bit nervous about this and excited at the same time. She opened up the conversation by asking about what I did over the summer. And I said that I went to go visit my aunt, uncle and cousins in Arizona, ate ice cream etc. During our conversation, Professor Wallis chimed in and thought that I had a wonderful summer and excellent French skills. Then, Professor Chirol told me that I was placed between the intermediate level and the conversation class and gave me some time to think about it. During one of my Freshman orientation meetings in the Language lab , Professor Chirol handed me the textbook for the intermediate class and asked me what I thought. I told her that I already learned the grammatical concepts in the book and  wanted to give the conversation class a try, and if it was too hard I would switch to intermediate. 
On the first day of the conversation class, we introduced ourselves and talked a bit  about ourselves. Then Professor introduced the course materials and talked about class rules . During the semester, we were expected to complete the assigned exercises in our du tac au tac workbook and to write about and discuss  current events in French . We also had to learn idiomatic expressions that random students selected in a book called "Ciel mon amour, Sky my Husband." Some examples of these include: Elle a du chien ( She is sexy),  Il est fainéant ( He is lazy) and C'est un m'as tu vu ( He is a conceited person). After learning a chapter's worth of expressions, she gave us quizzes which always took place on Fridays. Of course, I took a considerable amount of time studying for these quizzes because I wanted to get A's on all of them. Unfortunately, I got a C on the first one and was very disappointed in myself and did not like seeing all that red ink on my paper. But I knew I had to grab the bull by the horns in order to transition into the college academic world. Furthermore, I had to accept the fact that this class did not have the same level of difficulty as my high school courses. Later on I found that I had the drive to do better and prove to Professor Chirol that I was at the top of my game and understood the course material.  Perhaps a day or two later ,I looked over that first quiz and noticed that I made careless errors that I wouldn't have made if I studied a bit harder. With this in mind , I studied very hard for the rest of the quizzes and got A's on all of them . Due to this hard work, I got an A- as a final grade so I was off to a good start.
The next semester I had to take two 300 level classes which I was freaking out about. Usually , Freshmen do not take 300 level courses because they are geared towards Sophomores and Juniors.  The first 300 level class was French 310: Composition and Stylistics with Professor Wallis and the second French 356: Intro to French Lit. Part II with Professor Chirol.  The French composition class ended up not being too bad, but the literature class was quite a battle. It was from 9 to 9:50 in the morning twice a week which was not good for me since I am not a morning person. At first , I  thought I had  a clear understanding of the material but due to my shy personality , I was too afraid to participate in class discussions . And I was slightly jealous of the students who were older than me and had better French skills which did not help the situation at all.  Then the midterm study guide came and since I was so overwhelmed with my other  classes , I did not put in enough time to study for the test. When it was time to take the test, I knew hardly any of the answers on the first part and was tempted to go up to Professor Chirol and say I can't do this.  I managed to   to half ass  the second part since we had to read a passage and write a short essay on it.  I reflected upon all these factors while I was in my French composition class because I realized how much easier that class was for me . In that class, we did some exercises in a workbook called Bonne Continuation and wrote compositions as indicated by the course title.  I soon found out that Professor Wallis took a liking to my writing , but of course there were some minor errors that I had to fix since no one can write perfectly in their nonnative language. I managed to get A's on the workbook exercises and tests , but got high B's on the compositions alone. For my final composition, I wrote an 8 page story about a girl named Danielle who became a wizard which was roughly based off of Harry Potter.  With all my grades averaged together, I got a B+ as a final grade.
Meanwhile, when I got my midterm back in my literature I was extremely disappointed in myself to the point where I almost cried in class.  I got an F!!!I have never failed a test in my life until that point.  At the bottom of the page Professor Chirol wrote, " Venez me voir pendant mes office hours" in red ink.  This translates to come see me during my office hours . So, I went into her office and my arms were shaking and I was extremely nervous and mad at myself all at the same time.  She decided that she would let me finish the second part only , since I could not make up for the first part since that would be considered cheating and not fair to the other students. So I received 40 extra points by doing that , but I still ended up with a failing grade. Now, I really want to tell Professor Chirol that I was an idiot back then and am so much better in French now . I would like to prove this to her before I graduate. Despite the disappointment and difficulty with the midterm I was able to pull myself together so that I could receive a passing grade in the course.  In order to achieve this goal, I made an effort to contribute thoughts to class discussions and did a bang up job on my presentation regarding the mother and son relationship in the novel Moderato Cantabile by Marguerite Duras. I also studied very hard for the final exam and did much better on it than I did on the midterm. I was able to answer all the short answers without a problem and tackled the essay section at the end. I never found out what grade I received on this test, but I did well enough to where I got a C+ in the class. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with this grade because it did not measure up to the straight A's I received in high school and I wanted to continue that legacy. But I had to learn to accept the fact that this course was considerably harder than the courses I took in high school and to not get so frustrated if I didn't get an A. 
At the start of my Sophomore year, Professor Chirol wanted me to take the conversation class at the 300 level , because she wanted me to talk more in class. It was the exact same as the conversation class I took before ,except that I had to write compositions as well. Like Freshman year, I aced all the quizzes and I believe I received an A- on the midterm . But then I received B's on the compositions which weighed my grade down a bit. Then it was time for the final exam. I felt like I studied enough, but then I was rushing to take it and didn't have time to eat lunch oops! I felt that I did alright on the listening section and fill in the blank sections, but on the last section we had to write an essay about a movie we watched in class. This was a bit difficult for me since I had to recall facts from the movie. Since final exams are not handed back unless you ask for them up until the year after you take them, you cannot find out how well you did.I'm assuming my grade was somewhere in the B range since I received a B+ as a final grade. This frustrated me a bit at first since I felt that I deserved an A in the class despite some of the assignments that weighed me down. But eventually I got over it and accepted the fact that my grade was close to an A. 
Next semester, I had to take another literature course of which I was freaking out about due to my previous experience in Intro to French Lit Part 2. This class was called Modern French novel. Some of the novels we read included : L'étranger by Albert Camus, Un Coeur Simple by Gustave Flaubert et Le Champ dans les mars by Ying Chen.  Sadly enough, I went back to my fear of speaking  and saying the wrong thing and got frustrated with the homework assignments. I felt like I understood the material, but then I didn't analyze the material the way Professor Chirol wanted.  I was forced to think inside the box and not go outside it and put my own creative twist on it. Because of this , I was told that I was not answering the questions correctly. This was so frustrating to the point where I wanted to make up my own questions.  Then I was encouraged to participate in class again and did my best with that.  But, I felt that I did better on the tests since I gave myself plenty of time to study for them and was able to answer every question, but I still got C's, but at least I passed. Based off of my experience in this class, I learned that I liked and understood the books we read, but analyzing the  works themselves were quite difficult which was probably the cause of my C grade. 
For the fall semester of my Junior year, I studied abroad in Paris for three months with International Studies Abroad ( ISA) and took my courses at L'Institut Catholique de Paris. I lived with a woman named Evelyne Bocabarteille and  got along with her very well. She went the extra mile to engage me in French conversations and offered to help me with my homework if needed. We rarely spoke English which was a good thing since I was there  to improve my French skills. Unlike Sweet Briar , my program did not have us sign a contract in which we could only speak French because all participants had various French levels. But, we were not allowed to speak English in the classroom . The only time I really spoke English was when I had absolutely no idea what to say and didn't know how to play charades with it. I took four classes during my stay in Paris: L'actualité en France which discussed current events and important aspects of the culture such as how their political system works: L'histoire de Vercingetorix jusqu'à la révolution , this was a survey course of  French history from it's beginning, Middle Ages,  the Renaissance and the Revolutionary period. I missed out on the Revolutionary period since I had to leave in December and the semester ended on January 27. The third class I took was La télévision et la société, this course discussed popular French television shows and how some of their themes are portrayed in French society.  The fourth course I took was an intermediate level language class in which we did writing,grammar and listening exercises as well as reading articles and excerpts. Since all of these classes were taught in French, my language and writing skills improved tremendously. I also improved my language skills with my host mom and her mother , her friends Claude and Michèle , her hairdresser Nora , Lili a little girl that she babysits and her grandson Alexandre. All of these people did not speak English except for my host mom.  Based off of these conversations , my speaking skills improved tremendously because I forced myself to speak French and could not switch to English for the most part. Because of these experiences, I felt like I was French the entire three months of my stay since I not only spoke French every day , but also made myself a part of the culture by interacting with the natives . Towards the end of my stay, I did not want to go home because I became so accustomed to daily use of the French language and the culture. I also had a close relationship with my host mother, other students in my program and the ISA staff. I, then made the decision that I wanted to return to Paris to see and spend time with my host mom again and to teach English. I also came to the realization that Paris will always be there for me and that I have a reason to go back. 
During the spring semester of my junior year, I took a theatre course taught by Professor Wallis. The course was called Heroes and Heroines. The playwrights we studied were Corneille, Molière , Racine and Marviaux. There may have been a few that I missed. During the semester, we read sections of the plays out loud in class and discussed major themes and movements that were relevant to them. We also did presentations and wrote short papers in order to delve deeper into the material presented in each play. As the course title suggests, we did indeed focus upon the characteristics and values of the heroes and or heroines in each play through the study of both tragedies and comedies. I also found that I had a much easier time analyzing theatrical works in comparison to literary works. In my opinion, it is a bit easier to read plays in French  since the text is broken into parts and not several words at a time that have to constantly be pieced together and taken apart in order to find the meaning. But I suppose that these techniques can also be done with plays , but not to the extent of literary works. Based off of my thorough understanding of the material and interest in the subject matter, I received a B+ as a final grade. It would have been great if I had gotten an A , but I was happy that I received a grade that was higher than a c in a 400 level class which are generally geared towards those who are seniors. 
Now, I have started the fall semester of my senior year , I hope to improve my skills even more and apply to the Teaching Assistant in France program which is a seven month program in which you teach classes in English and or assist the teacher. This program requires that you have a proficient level in French and favors applicants who have had experience with children.Applicants also have the option to renew their contract for another year if desired.  As for my coursework , I am taking French for Business with Professor Sitbon in order to learn business vocabulary and what the working world is like France and other French speaking countries. I am also doing my Senior paper and presentation with Professor Chirol. I have decided to write  my paper on Maigret et la vieille dame, a detective fiction/mystery novel ( un roman policier) by Belgian author Georges Simenon. I am praying that both of my French classes go well this semester so that I can finish off my French major with Intro to French Literature Part I: which is a survey course that covers literary works from the Middle Ages.