Sophie Queuniet

I had some background knowledge of French going into this class but Professor Queuniet made me excited about learning language again! She is truly a great professor and she cares about her students. The class is interactive and growing alongside making mistakes is encouraged in the class. She fosters a welcoming and encouraging environment that makes it very easy to excel in the class.

I'm pretty sure Queuniet didn't like me all too much. I forgot to turn in a vocab sheet quite in time, and she was pretty obviously miffed. That being said, I want to give her the highest possible recommendation! Sophie is a strong native speaker with an incredible vocabulary. She can call to memory random words, define them using only french, and still make it all interactive and fun. In a conversation class, you'd figure that there would be a lot of awkward silence, even from the professor, but it wasn't like that at all! She wasn't an overbearing, domineering professor that solely commanded the class. Nor was she a (pardon the French) laissez-faire professor, leaving it all to the students. Sophie was the excellent medium; she managed to steer conversations effortlessly from topic to topic, leaving all students satisfied. She brought in some french students to talk to, played "Taboo" with us, broadened our vocabulary immensely, and forced us to speak only in French. She was an excellently versatile professor, able to handle everything. That being said, she was by NO means an easy-A professor. If you struggle with vocab every so often like I do, she can be pretty brutal on quizzes. I haven't heard of any other Conv. Fr. teacher that gives quizzes yet. She also judges your presentations pretty harshly, but makes excellent criticism points. She wasn't an easy teacher, but if y…

What a wonderful teacher and woman. I've never been so encouraged to learn a language, and with such rigor and fun. Sophie clearly knows how to teach French, and how to relay difficult concepts to (frankly) lazy summer students. I appreciated that she corrected our pronunciation at every point. I walked into the class with barely any memory of French and walked out with what feels like 3 semesters' worth. Also, I took the course for fun, mostly, but after seeing Sophie's dedication, I studied hard and just wanted to do well for her — because she was putting in so much effort to teach us the material! Not only is Sophie the most effective teacher I've ever had at Columbia, but also she's the most patient and the kindest (with a great sense of humor, too). Very maternal and Mother Nature-like. I looked forward to coming to class everyday, and I'll miss her.

Professor Queuniet was an excellent teacher. She really tried to keep the class motivated and excited about the material, and if the class weren't at 9 a.m., she might have been successful. The grammar is important for the exams, but not so much for class discussion. The readings can be tedious and rather boring, but "La regle du jeu" makes it all worth while. Professor Queuniet is extremely attentive and will gladly explain any concepts with which you need help. She is also a native speaker, but admits she doesn't know everything there is to know about French, which leads to a lot of funny moments in class where she consults wordreference.com or the textbook. She doesn't do a very good job of explaining the different types of papers: resume, dissertation, explication de texte, and the one we didn't get to.

Sophie is *the* French teacher for a few reasons: 1. Sophie is a native speaker. 2. Sophie is exceedingly kind and patient. 3. Sophie actually cares about her students' learning (go figure!) 4. Sophie keeps the class atmosphere light yet still formal. 5. Sophie isn't afraid to admit that she doesn't know something; she will promptly look it up and give you the answer you desire. 6. Sophie is open to suggestions. 7. Sophie encourages learning from mistakes. 8. Sophie isn't afraid to criticize her teaching style or curriculum. 9. Sophie made waking up for a 9:00 class worth it and enjoyable-- dare I say even fun?

Sophie is was an excellent instructor for my French 1202 course; she was always well prepared for class, very responsive to student feedback, and adapted well to each student's level of French so that nobody felt left behind or too far ahead. The workload was average, we had a short quiz every week or two and a few assigned readings from the standard textbooks per week. What you'd expect for a 4 point course. On top of that, she's just such a sweetheart, and genuinely cares about your progress in the course. Sophie will make an effort to let you know what areas are pulling your mark down so that you have a chance to boost your grade before it's too late to change anything.

I learned different aspect of parts of speech in French language, some grammar aspect of the language and know-how ta make a good translation

I learned a very important part of French grammar and vocab; imparfait, imperatif, futur simple, and conditionnel. The vocab was mostly related to various spheres of life.+

A lot of in depth grammar rules, new vocabulary, and pronunciation techniques.

Assiduité - 20% Petits Interros - 15% (really challenging!) Listes de vocabulaire - 10% Participation (orale en classe et devoirs) - 20% Présentation finale - 10% Présentations orales - 25%