French?

[YQLRookie]

So I'm looking at my next semester in high school, and am considering dropping French in favour of completing a core subject earlier. Will not knowing French have any affect on my future flying career? I know that Air Canada and others list it as a helpful advantage, but not as a minimum. And I feel like finishing high school French wouldn't leave me with the dfluency they want. Any input? Thoughts, comments?

[GGCC]

I don't know what your future plans are but i think French would be very helpful if you plan to pursue commercial flying in Canada.......

Good Luck with flying....




Dave

[bmc]

I never appreciated taking high school french as much as I did when I moved to the french part of Switzerland. The move was certainly never part of my life plans, but it sure is very helpful.

Sadly, I attached a negative political attitude to speaking french, being originally from Quebec. I have to honestly say that I very proud to be fluently bilingual. It's great to know another language.

If you stay in Canada, it doesn't hurt to have it. That said, just remember the old saying, "use it or lose it". If you don't have opportunities to use often, you will forget a lot of it.

Good luck.

[hst]

I took french all through high school and I wouldn't have passed a bilingual test of any kind after graduation. I didn't study french post secondary. If you don't use it, you lose it adage is true here. Those in french immersion schools have an advantage IMO. Would I have advanced quicker with better opportunities had I been bilingual? My experience is an emphatic no.

Bonne chance dans celui que vous choisissiez. (yahoo translator)

[Expat]

Like bmc said, you never know where life will take you. Learn! Life is long, and you may use it, and not only in Canada. Africa, Haiti, and most of Europe speak french. It is also popular in the Middle-East, and in many ex-soviet countries.
Learning while young is also easier, as the mind and the memory are fresher.

[KAG]

It's nice to have but not required. Besides, High school core french is really a waste of time. I learned more french from my French coworkers then I did at high school.
If you really want to learn conversational french, buy rosetta stone.

[snoopy]

Keep the French! At one point in my schooling I dropped French in favour of German and a dabble in Spanish, and later had to work hard to get back what I lost. Because of inconsistency in my education, and lack of use, I'd have to say I'm embarrassed by my current level of French proficiency. There are many opportunities both in and out of aviation, where being fluent in French and/or completely bilingual will open doors to opportunities you would not otherwise have access to. Socially, I think it makes you a more diverse and accommodating person.

If you're still in high school, you are setting the foundation for your future - keep the French! (Spanish as a third language is very useful too!)

Cheers,
Kirsten B.

[Expat]

Keep the French! At one point in my schooling I dropped French in favour of German and a dabble in Spanish, and later had to work hard to get back what I lost. Because of inconsistency in my education, and lack of use, I'd have to say I'm embarrassed by my current level of French proficiency. There are many opportunities both in and out of aviation, where being fluent in French and/or completely bilingual will open doors to opportunities you would not otherwise have access to. Socially, I think it makes you a more diverse and accommodating person.

If you're still in high school, you are setting the foundation for your future - keep the French! (Spanish as a third language is very useful too!)

Cheers,
Kirsten B.

Socially? Right on! My knowledge of Russian attracts more attention than my big diving watch!

[Beefitarian]

Drop the class but continue on learning. Go somewhere they speak french and learn it properly after. The more languages you speak the more oportunities are available.

I have been to France twice and really love that country. The first time I went with my wife for a wedding and she couldn't or wouldn't say so much as bon jour. In high school she won awards for her skills in Japanese, never used it, completely gone, can't even order sushi. I learned more speaking french there in a week than ever before. While we were at the English speaking table there was a conversation about how great it was for the fluent bilingual Canadians to be in France to work on their French because it's quite regional and they lose so much of their skills not being there.

My wife's other friend went to a French University. The second time we went to France we met up with this friend, this was going to be great because we had someone to translate. Soon she can't help and says, "I don't speak food." Out of frustration and nescessity I had to fend for myself and did better with a combination of pantomime and my terrible French learned from a couple of tapes and CDs than the person with french university because I tried harder to work out the conversations.

[BTyyj]

High School is free. Anything you do afterwards won't be. I suggest you learn some now, set a good foundation. Once you're out of high school, keep it up. Try watch movies in French with English subtitles, read simple French kids books, buy Rosetta Stone. You could even attend classes at your local college. Build up your confidence in it. Speak to people in french, as there are bilingual people all around. You can always maintain it and build upon it one way or another if you put in some effort.

Assuming that you're in Alberta, you would have to do French 10 through to 30 I believe. Being an immersion student, I find that a lot of the people who took French as an option are lacking in conversational abilities. They are, however, able to understand almost as much as I do. It is a simply matter of more practice. The more you do it, the more confident you'll become, and thus the better you'll get.

For Air Canada and other majors, I would highly suggest NOT doing French just for hiring. You will not enjoy it as much, and you'll definitely not appreciate it. Yes, you can get a fair bit of extra points by being bilingual, but to become bilingual, you need to have an interest in doing it other than to please someone in HR.

[L1011]

Well YQLRookie, I had the exact same thinking as you when I was in high school. I guess you're from Alberta but in Ontario I took French from Grade 5 to 12 at the University entry level. Fast forward a few years and I can barely order at restaurants in French. (I don't have to, I just try...a lot of my coworkers don't even bother)

On top of that, I asked coworkers that recently got hired at Air Canada which option they selected on the drop-down menu part of the application that asked their level of French and they selected "none." (or whatever the application actually says)

I've got Rosetta Stone and maybe I'll pick up some more French over the years, but I'm not doing it to tick off a box (or drop-down menu) on an application, just because I want to.

[mcrit]

I'm going to be the voice of dissent here. If you want to be a working pilot there are subjects that are much more useful to study than French. I'd say pick up a tech course (electronics, machine shop, automotive), hard sciences (physics, chemistry), or maths. French is nice, but it's a long way from essential for a pilot.

[Beefitarian]

Sounds good to me mcrit, so that's two of us that feel he shouldn't learn francais until he's done math.

dropping French in favour of completing a core subject earlier. Will not knowing French have any affect on my future flying career? I know that Air Canada and others list it as a helpful advantage, but not as a minimum. And I feel like finishing high school French wouldn't leave me with the dfluency they want. Any input? Thoughts, comments?

And to repeat, I think he should go somewhere they speak it to learn it. Yes it will cost more than a course included in high school but I could never add French to my resume because I can't find anyone in Calgary to practice speaking it with.

[YQLRookie]

So it seems like there is a mix of yes/no's. What concerns me is that the French program at our school isn't very... practical? I find that we aren't actually learning the nescessities to carry out a real conversation and stuff like that. Just to give a bit more detail, my plan would be to drop Fench and do Social 20 (I'm in grade 10). My reasoning behind that is that I can focus on more aviationy subjects in grade 11 like Math and Physics, which I do struggle with and need to dedicate more time to. But at the same time, I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by closing some future aviation doors.
Thoughts?

[Beefitarian]

Seriously, the more languages you can speak the more "doors open." It might be tough to learn French from people that speak Honglaise and teach high school but if you can pull it off without harming other classes it would definately be an asset.

[oh yeah baby]

Poser la question c'est y répondre...

[BTyyj]

I wouldn't do French then personally. However, I would suggest you meet with a guidance councillor to make sure your high school path will give youenough credits to get your diploma. I would also check the post-secondary school you're interested in, and see what their admission requirements are for an Alberta high school student. Print the requirements out and bring them with you when you go meet with your guidance councillor.

You can find the requirements for the Alberta diploma here: http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/k_12/DiplomaReq/

[KAG]

YQL
In Aviation not speaking French will not hold you back. In a lot of other fields of work, especially government in Ont, it's required. The sad truth is years of conjugating verbs will not help you one bit in landing a flying job, nor will you learn french.
If I were you I'd do what your thinking, use that class time in another more useful subject that will get you to your goals faster- Maths, sciences, even co-op ( I got a highschool credit washing planes at YHZ which lead to a job offer).

Ps. I'm a pilot at Westjet, and I'm learning French on my own time because I want to. Highschool French (at least out east, I can't speak for the AB system) was a complete waste of time unless your in French immersion.

[Canoehead]

I dropped it in grade 10. I wish I had stuck with it.

[185_guy]

I wish I could speak some french, living in a 75% french speaking town. However I doubt high school french would have stuck with me for 10 years not using it.
During high school I took courses I was interested in, as few as possible and filled the rest in with the easy ones. Then I had lots of time to work, earn $$ and learn to fly. I got my private license while in high school and had the commercial shortly after graduating then went to work.
Looking back, I'd do nothing different but maybe ask a few different girls to the prom!!!

[TopperHarley]

What everyone else has failed to mention is that the girl-to-guy ratio in French classes (or in any language class) is always very high.

On a serious note, I would definetly stick with french. It could help out if you are applying for flying jobs in parts of Quebec and it does get you more points to get an AC or Transat interview. Not having french won't necessarily shut these doors for you, but having french (even if its a very basic level), will open them, even if it's just a crack.

Im a little biased though as my dad was a french teacher and I went to french school. I kept with it in high school and used all my electives in University to study french. It definetly helped me out to get where I am today. But I also really enjoyed the classes (including the verb conjugations!). If you hate it, then dont pursue it. Study something that interests you.

[Colonel Sanders]

High school French really doesn't teach you very
much, and even if it did, sometimes it's not always
about just speaking the language, even though it
might superficially appear to be so.

Learning spanish might be at least as useful as
French. An even better choice (albeit weird) might
be to study Latin. If you know Latin, then Spanish,
Italian, Portugese and even French shouldn't be too
hard to master.

[YQLRookie]

Hmm, a higher girl/guy ratio? I'm in! Haha, joking
The thing with French is that it's just not something that interests me. I've learned the basics grade 3-9, ie. Ou est l'aeroporte? And I enjoy having the basics. Would a positive course of action be continuing on with my current plan of dropping it, but on my own time or in college solidifying and expanding my current French?

[planett]

Sure, study French, just don't let the Republicans find out............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... yFaWhygzjQ

[BTyyj]

Hmm, a higher girl/guy ratio? I'm in! Haha, joking
The thing with French is that it's just not something that interests me. I've learned the basics grade 3-9, ie. Ou est l'aeroporte? And I enjoy having the basics. Would a positive course of action be continuing on with my current plan of dropping it, but on my own time or in college solidifying and expanding my current French?

This sounds like a good course of action. Still, only learn it if you're interested, even after you graduate.

If you are leaving high school to post-secondary and you are wishing to pursue french, there are a few decent programs out there that will teach you French while working towards a useable degree. The two I know of the most are the HEC Montreal BBA and the York Schulich iBBA. These programs will both give you a degree in business, as well as make you bilingual. Something to consider anyways.