Eric Matheis

Vocabulary on environment, school system, family, occupation; more grammar (subjunctive tense, simple past tense, etc); how to discuss films/written works/documentaries in French

This class can be time consuming, but the work you put in is reflective in how you do. I spent about 4–6 hours per week on this class; we have readings on the grammar, as well as book excerpts, movies, and practice, but most of it isn't checked. We do talk about it in class, though, and covering the material beforehand is useful because we never fully cover everything in class and you can participate more on idea-based assignments.

I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to be able to work with French scholarship in the original language. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Spring 2023 Course: FRENUN2106_001_2023_1-RAPIDREADINGANDTRANSLATION : RAPID READING AND TRANSLATION- FRENUN2106_001_2023_1 - RAPID READING AND TRANSLATION Instructor: Sophie Queuniet

My pronunciation skills improved and I learned how to speak and write a lot of french which I can use in my daily life. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2022 Course: FRENUN1102_003_2022_3-ELEMENTARYFRENCHII : FRENUN1102_003_2022_3 - ELEMENTARY FRENCH II Instructor: Eric Matheis

I learned new French tenses and refined the ones I already knew. I also improved my reading, writing, speaking, and comprehension skills.

I really like this class. I took it at a weird time, so my class was a bit small, but this class is very engaging and builds off from French 1102 very nicely. If you did well in 1102, then you're going to do fine in 2101. All the same grammar comes up and we do review conjugations and learn more particular rules. Professor Matheis is very endearing and he genuinely wants feedback about the class and tries to make it work better for everyone. There is more of an emphasis on speaking than in 1102, which I personally found difficult, but Professor Matheis isn't super picky about pronunciation and grammar when it comes to speaking, just that you can get an idea across.

Just less assigned homework. If the homework every-night took 10-15 minutes, not 30+ minutes, it would be much more manageable. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2021 Course: FRENUN1102_004_2021_3-ELEMENTARYFRENCHII : FRENUN1102_004_2021_3 - ELEMENTARY FRENCH II Instructor: Eric Matheis

I learned a lot from this class. I came with little knowledge in French and was personally assisted by Prof. Matheis in getting to the level of the class, which taught me both about French and about how education should look in Columbia in my opinion. When I came in at the beginning of the semester, I wasn't sure I would be able to match the level of the class, as I haven't studied French for about 4 years. I went to Prof. Matheis and he sent me a book which taught me all of the basics I needed to revise, and now I really feel that my transition to the next class will be much smoother.

There are a lot of assignments, about a quiz once a week as well as graded assignments, but he checks them really quickly and would definitely rather give a good grade rather than a bad one, so if you have like half a point he would round up no problem. I do feel like this class takes a big chunk of my week, but it's worth it, and because he checks the assignments so quickly it doesn't feel like you're alone in the process, he puts the same amount of time into the class as the students.

The aim of the beginning French sequence (French 1101 and French 1102) is to help you to develop an active command of the language. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the four language skills--listening, speaking, reading and writing--within a cultural context, in order to achieve basic communicative proficiency.