French Class
Grace Kahn
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Ever taken a class in French? I hadn't until sixth grade when I was moved to Abu Dhabi. French wasn't exactly the language I wanted to be taking but choosing wasn't really an option, so French it was. Me, being a person somewhat eager to learn but almost immediately side-tracked by whatever else catches my attention, was not too happy to be in French, especially with my fluently-french speaking teacher. "You just need to stop talking and pay attention." was something I'd been told on several occasions. But I liked to talk and I didn't really think French was that important. I'd been moved around virtually every seat in that class, in order to shut me up. It did nothing.
About halfway through the year, my teacher stopped me while I was walking out of class. "Listen. With your grades and your persistence to keep talking, you're probably not going to pass this class." After that, I had a major epiphany, if I failed this class, I'd have to take it again and do yet another agonizing year of french. That was it, that made me shut up, or not really shut up but take the class seriously. I actually started listening to what the teacher was saying in classes, however hard and painful that was for me. At the end of my first ever year of french, we got our grades. Opening mine, I thought there was basically a 50/50 chance of me passing. In my mind, half a year of slaking and half a year of work was 50/50. Looking at the grade, I passed. It wasn't really a good grade, especially comparing it to the classes I actually paid attention in, but I passed. My first thoughts were along the lines of "Take that teacher! I did what you said I couldn't!" I had passes my first year of french class but I still had to do french, though passing the first year was a victory in my mind. Realizing that if I actually put a little effort in a class I didn't care about meant I could be successful in the other classes I wasn't partial to. I just had to try.
It was an amazing memoir that I relate to! It was informal that suits the language conventions of a memoir but also very informative. It had a strong voice, a relaxed tone of narration, could use more stylistic conventions and dialogues but still overall it did do justice of evoking senses of audience. You had a hindsight wisdom and anecdote so it has everything a memoir requires to have, just a bit more implementation of dialogue will top it off, although I must say its already fantastic!
ReplyDelete- Avyanka
This is a good example of connecting with your readers in your memoir, it is very relate-able especially whether it is any sort of class others take. you use appropriate language like literary devices to emphasize your memoir. you have a strong voice which shows how hard and challenging the time was in this context. This memoir also shows a good use of dialog to connect with your past self in grade 6. I really enjoyed reading this for you had incorporated a subtle hint towards the lesson behind the memoir which was to work hard when others doubt you. One thing you could improve on is add more dialogue and some imagery to capture the audiences picture of the "scene"
ReplyDeleteI loved reading your memoir, it was quick, and straight to the point, making it easy to stay attentive throughout. I enjoyed your strong voice, which was represented throughout your memoir. It was very informal, and was filled with dialogue, and anecdotes. increasing the interest of the reader. I can definitely relate to your experiences with learning a new language, especially at school with the pressure to pass constantly on your mind. However, I do think that you could have used more descriptive words to describe how you felt and to emphasize on the tone of this memoir. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, it's an amazing piece!
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