jenny28

I would really appreciate some thoughts or experiences of how well children adjust to french emersion. I have two boys aged 7 and 4. I am looking into different school systems such as publicly funded, Catholic system or french emersion. How difficult would it be for our 7 year old adjust to french emersion?
Jenny

iaink

My eldest (7) is in Catholic FI in Ontario (FI at english catholic board school), and she loves it, but it seems that there are different approaches to it in different areas. BC for example seems to be a lot more "in at the deep end" than my area, here half the classes are still in English, there I hear its different. I expect different school boards within a province have different approaches to it too.

You know your kids best, so its hard for an outsider to say how they will take to it, but the school here is generally supportive, and you can rest assured you wont be the only parent in that "how is it going to go" boat. Worst case you can always transfer out of FI anyway... My kid had the advantage (?) of doing FI from J-K, so its not like parachuting in in grade 2. Offspring #2 (4) likely to be enroled in FI J-K for the fall.

dbd33

If you're looking at Ontario there are four public school systems:

- English Catholic
- English Other
- French Catholic
- French Other

To be eligible for the French school systems a student needs one francophone parent (though there's some cheating). The English school systems offer French immersion but that's a different thing than attending a French school.

rwin

Our kids are in French Immersion in Calgary. They are in the public system and started with Kindergarten.

It started out as total immersion with only emergency situations in English (and I suppose other things at the teachers disgression). I don't think they had classes in English until grade 4 or 5 - don't remember for sure.

They are both in Jr. High now - there are more classes in English since they take some of their options (woodwork, sewing, band, etc.) with the English kids (or rather non-French Immersion kids). And their English Language Arts of course.

There is the option for late French Immersion which starts in grade 7 if you miss kindergarten. They say that after a year in late immersion you are pretty much caught up with those who started in kindergarten. I can't speak from personal experience on that though.

ExKiwilass

It's a kind of a 'how long is a piece of string' question to be honest.

It depends on your kid. The feeling here is that kids who are academically challenged in any way don't do well in French. They're not set up for it (the FI stream) and they will encourage you to send your kid right back to english, where the english stream is expected to deal with it.

It depends on the province, and how they deal with French immersion. It varies a lot as others have pointed out. I'm not a fan for various reasons but I would consider late immersion over early.

Chookie

My 11 yr old has just applied for a place at the late entry french immersion school here in Calgary... she is really keen so I hope she gets in there.

Obviously, because of this, I can't give you any real advice but will be watching this thread with interest

Lemonfish

How would you cheat to get your kid into the French school system? Genuinely interested, as this is something might want to consider in future. Could you claim to be French speaking, and as long as you speak French, get away with it?

Am not convinced by how well immersion works, hence the question - know lots of people here who did it and they don't seem to speak French at all. Think there are plenty of studies on that too.

Alternative in this town is to move to the dark side over the river and get your kid a real French education. But seems a lot of effort if you can avoid it.

jenny28

Thanks for your replies.

Greenhill

My kid has been in non-religious French immersion the last couple of years (grade primary and now grade one).

I was a little worried initially as no English is taught at all; they leave this up to the parents or assume the kids will catch up later (when English lessons are added, from grade 3 onwards, I believe).

She seems to like it though and, although we do lots of reading and writing together, as well as a bit of math in English, I don't think she really needs it - more a case of me making sure she knows and understands what I think is important and that she enjoys learning.

Oink

Personally, through my work, I've seen too many problems with children in FI to offer a recommendation. Often their French is poor, they end being behind when the English portion kicks in and they can be isolated and discriminated against if the FI classes are contained in an English language school. I understand for many parents who don't quite understand the system, it has a certain amount of cache, but if your children have any sort of challenges, FI will only exacerbate them. Secondly, if you do place them, pay very close attention to their progress.

dbd33

Typically the children at the school my children attended, Le Collège français in Toronto, who were not francophone, had parents who had spent some time in francophone countries; as diplomats or sportsmen. A parent had sufficient French for parent teacher discussions and the like without the family being fluent in the language. Arguably this could be a problem in that the parents would be ill equipped to deal with helping with homework and so on but, tbh, by the time the kids were six months into the bac, they were so far beyond me that the language was the least of my worries.

lmartin999

Now I'm really curious about what you do...in an interested way

Steve_P

We have a very good friend who is a retired elementary principal here in Calgary her last school was FI and regular program and she would echo those comments.

We also had a niece and nephew go into FI on Vancouver Island, the niece pulled herself out of FI in grade nine when she noticed her English skills along with other subjects were lagging behind that of her none FI friends and the nephew was pulled out because he developed behavioral issues because of his own perceived difficulties with the language.

It also important for the language to be spoken at home to help reinforce what is taught in school.

barrett

I did it, starting @ Grade 7. From that point of view i'd say start at Primary level & ideally a french school-not immersion, or not @ all. It was an isolating experience and my skills at best were only ever "ok" and still too shy/uncertain to approach a French person to speak to them! So for me, it was useless. Once i hit University reality struck and I could not do Chemistry, even though I had just come from advanced Chem, but was taught in French. (I pointed to an object in first lab class "what do you call this in English? the reply " a beaker")
If your child is shy forget the second language all together.
Just my 2 cents!
nicole

dthomas

Agree with first part of your comment - sound suggestion. Last comment (i.e. late immersion) is nonsense; late immersion students invariably suffer academically with a typically watered down French instruction. I've seen this happen so often it's pathetic = French Immersion instruction at the tragic expense of their primary language.

Absolutely true. Flavour of the month, like IB schools.

If your child does not use French regularly (at home, the mall, with friends at the pool hall, behind the bike shed, with the GF/BF, etc.) and frequently, you're pissing into the wind. Why bother learning French unless you plan to live in a Francophone region/country? I'd be more inclined to have the kid learn (1/2 assed of course) Cantonese. China's gonna be calling the shots soon enough anyhoo . . .