Our language is beautiful, but complex and difficult for many to master.
Confidence. In elementary school, according to my 6th grade teachere year, I was so poor in French that she refused me a letter of recommendation for the best schools. My mother still registered me (thank you mom) and I was accepted into the CHALLENGE program at Sophie-Barat (as well as two private schools). After five years, only 60% of students have completed this enriched course, including me.
In CEGEP and during my baccalaureate, I was a very good student, but I continued to have shortcomings in written French.
Who ate the apple?
I don’t know which synapses in my brain weren’t connecting, but I didn’t understand verb agreements, past participles, direct or indirect object complements (from Chinese), the difference of possessive or demonstrative pronouns and I on the way. Who ate the apple? Me ? Who ate what? Apple. I never asked the right question. I did not understand anything. I groped there, somewhat haphazardly, and I wrote in the masculine to avoid further errors in gender agreement.
At university, as soon as I could, I had my work corrected and I reread myself a thousand times. I obtained an enviable average which allowed me to be on the Dean’s list of the best students. Me, the pocket of the primary! Despite everything, I made mistakes in French. I was not proud.
The click
Then one day, when I was a master’s student, I got it all. I started writing without making any mistakes, or almost. It’s incredible, but it happened, by dint of writing and reading. A miracle !
I’m telling you my story, because I too am concerned about the deficient level of written French among today’s students, but I remain hopeful. I do not believe that young people should be excluded from their academic career for this reason.
While many are making fun of CEGEP students on social media these days, let’s be careful not to make them feel ashamed of writing; because there, all would be lost!