Can write but not so fluent in spoken French - can I apply to the French stream?

[hp18]

I am from Ontario. Learning French since high school. I have done 1 French credit in university too & plan to do one more in my 3rd year.

Do you think I can apply French pool of Ottawa & other med schools?

[blinknoodle]

Do you plan on talking to your patients and colleagues? Or just writing to them in French?

[hp18]

I can talk in French....not very fluent though.

[Jochi1543]

Well, consider the fact that your interview will be in French. Of course they'd weed out the guy who can barely string 2 sentences together.

[The Law]

I can talk in French....not very fluent though.

 

So then how would you expect to take patients in...

[hp18]

Will take only bilingual ones...

[Madz25]

You will be doing EVERYTHING in French...if you think you can handle that then go for it.

[Julie]

I don't know exactly how fluent you are, but I think your best bet would be to try the english stream. In the interview, the last thing you want is to be searching for your words. In my experience, stress doesn't tend to help with these things either, so your french at the interview may be even less fluent than it usually is. Also, they probably would guess that you applied to the french stream because of the lower cutoffs and not because it's really your language of choice, and I doubt that would come off well. I have heard of applicants being refused for such reasons.

 

The only possibility I can think of would be to actually go to a french university for a few years and basically live in french the whole time. That may give you the expected fluency. However, it would probably be much easier to just work towards meeting the english cutoffs

[The Law]

Will take only bilingual ones...

 

wishful thinking lol

[hp18]

My hard work learning French is going to be a waste...........

[Satsuma]

hp18,

 

Some have pointed out that getting through the interview could be a challenge.

 

Beyond that, please consider that you will be studying in French. That is, all your classes will be in French (at least 95% of them...we have the odd class with the anglo side), PBL will be in French as well as your clinical training.

 

You should feel comfortable enough, that you can write chart notes in French, and communicate with colleagues and patients in French, be able to reasure a patient in French in sometimes stressful situations.

 

Also, please consider that in clerkship (3rd year) at least half of your placements will be in French. Sometimes in Québec. And you will not always have the luxury of having bilingual patients. And even if you did, you should be accomodating to your patient and be able to treat them in the language they are most comfortable with....if you are going to take a place in the francophone program. The program exists to meet the needs of the francophone community.

[Smurfette]

My hard work learning French is going to be a waste...........

 

Learning is never wasted. Especially learning a language. You'll be able to use it when you encounter someone that speaks French in your experiences, even in an anglophone community. You'll also be able to use it when you travel to Quebec, France, and a whole host of other areas where many people speak French. And you'll have a better understanding of how a different culture thinks. I think one of the best ways to understand the way a group of people think is to understand their language (this includes dialects).

[clkt]

can't decide if this thread is funny or pathetic...

[mikkey]

Hey

I would never apply to a program where the language of instruction is not familiar to me. French is uber hard to learn and it takes years to be able to communicate very basically. Plus, some Quebecers, especially the ones that only talk French, hate anglos and resent them for not talking perfect French (even though they would never learn a second language themselves)

I am a francophone myself (bilingual) and I have been told on multiple occasions by random strangers (when I converse in English) that we are in a French province and to speak in French.

[Ève]

Hey

I would never apply to a program where the language of instruction is not familiar to me. French is uber hard to learn and it takes years to be able to communicate very basically. Plus, some Quebecers, especially the ones that only talk French, hate anglos and resent them for not talking perfect French (even though they would never learn a second language themselves)

I am a francophone myself (bilingual) and I have been told on multiple occasions by random strangers (when I converse in English) that we are in a French province and to speak in French.

 

Whatever!!!

 

First, French is harder than English, but not "uber hard". Try German, Modern Greek or Chinese for hard.

 

Second, it doesn't take "years" to communicate "very basically": it takes dedication and hard work. It takes a true desire to conquer the language, i.e. when you try speaking to people and they reply in English, thinking they're being nice and helpful to you, you must reply back in French; when you don't know how to say something, find another way in French, don't resort to English; and when you feel dumb making stupid mistakes, well, just take it! Learning a language means you will be making tons of mistakes until you get it right. You might look like a fool at times. It's just the way it is, take it with a grain of salt. I said "lawn moaner" for YEARS before anyone said to me "it's lawn mower!". Multiply that by 10000 of other comical things I came up with, unknowingly.

 

Third of all, French people don't expect Anglophones to speak perfect French. We expect that when they come over, they will at least attempt to speak French to us and not just DEMAND to be served and spoken to in English, which happens all the time. A little "bonjour, je suis désolé, je ne parle pas très bien français" goes a long way. We don't hate Anglos, we don't resent them for not speaking perfect French. We resent the attitude of "I do speak a few words, but I will not lower myself to speaking it to you" or "I hate French, so serve me in English" or "This is Canada, you should speak English. Plus English is the international language. So in your province, speak to me in my language".

 

In Rome, at least try to do like the Romans. And in this forum, try not to overgeneralise and make it sound like us French still hate them Anglos. If you've noticed, we're moving away from anything that is connected to any "referendum" stuff. The majority of kids our generation are bilingual, working on becoming bilingual, or have a desire to eventually do so. This whole hatred for the Anglos is getting old, but I will agree with you, you might encounter it still. However, you encounter close-minded and mean people everywhere. They are not the majority, so don't make it sound like that. Besides, some people got fed up with the attitudes described above, and now they have very little tolerance. Can you really blame them? Really?

 

Anyway, to reply to the OP, if you want to go to med school in French, well, you might be able to, but it's up to you to become fluent in French, and that's doable. This country is full of bilingual people who didn't all learn their second language as kids. It does take hard, dedicated work, and it might be frustrating and humiliating at times, but in our country, you have access to all the resources and opportunities needed. It really is up to you. Just don't take the spot of a Francophone at UofO if you have no real intention of servicing that population. And don't think that being good at comprehension and at written French is all it takes, and the rest will eventually happen by itself. Go out there, meet little froggies, speak French as much as possible, never resort to English (tell them you're German and speak no English), watch French tv, get a g/b-friend who speaks French, volunteer with elderly people who only speak French, etc. Force yourself to speak it non-stop, until you dream in French and can say anything you want in French.

 

If you already understand it well, you've done the biggest part of the work. Now do the most important part of the work.

[degoo_]

^^^ I have actually experienced a lot of discrimination because I don't speak French anymore with a quebecois accent (I lost it years ago). I've had a strong influence of french from France, and when there I don't don't encounter any hostility, even in the small all french banlieues. In quebec, sadly, I've encountered a lot and I really don't like it. For me, its not even the loss of words, its the loss of the accent and certain expressions which causes people to raise a brow, not smile or respond to me in english.

[Nima123]

^^^ I have actually experienced a lot of discrimination because I don't speak French anymore with a quebecois accent (I lost it years ago). I've had a strong influence of french from France, and when there I don't don't encounter any hostility, even in the small all french banlieues. In quebec, sadly, I've encountered a lot and I really don't like it. For me, its not even the loss of words, its the loss of the accent and certain expressions which causes people to raise a brow, not smile or respond to me in english.

 

Yeah, I've experienced this, too. You could talk to people in perfect French, but as soon as they realize your accent is not Quebecois, they'll respond in, sometimes horrid, English.

The language thing is never ever as much a problem in other bi- or multilingual countries as it is here. Language really isn't that big a deal. People need to be more friendly.

[eise]

I was once offered a position as a receptionist in a bilingual psychiatrist's office. I thought to myself, if a distressed suicidal francophone patient calls, would I be able to communicate clearly and effectively in order to calm this person down, understand what they needed, and communicate it to the psychiatrist? I did not take the job.

 

Interestingly, i now work in a suicide unit