AP LITERATURE & COMPOSITION RESOURCE PAGE!

How did you get started? Did you have a teacher, did you self teach? And if so, what were the best resources you used to teach yourself? Is it hard finding books that help you learn?

I got started with French in high school, however I’ve learned the language mainly through teaching myself and tutors. I started teaching myself Chinese last year. Now I see a tutor once a week and continue to teach myself as well. Russian is kind of a hot mess atm so I’ll hold off on giving advice for that language haha!

In general I use a variety of books (textbooks and for fun books x x), YouTube (French | Chinese), tutors via italki or a language exchange partner via Tandem, Tumblr, Discord, etc. Here are also a few useful French and Chinese resources.

The most useful thing for me has always been a tutor or a language exchange partner, as it forces me to use the language and not just passively absorb information. That being said, any form of practising helps. There’s really no such thing as the best textbook or best method. Find a few resources that keep you interested and enjoy the ride :)

compiling some resources for all those students who have to keep up on their own <3 this was originally meant for GCSE / A2 language level but is helpful for all i think

Three words you probably don't know #2

A whisk: un fouet

The white part of bread: la mie de pain

A tissue: un mouchoir

French Quotes About Love part 1

Life- 1, 2, 3.

1. Aimer, c'est vivre; aimer, c'est voir; aimer, c'est être- To love is to live; to love is to see; to love is to be.

2. J'entends ta voix dans tous les bruits du monde- I hear your voice in all of the world’s noise.

3. La vie est faite de petits bonheurs- Life is made of little pleasures.

4. L'amour est une rose. Chaque pétale une illusion. Chaque épine une réalité- Love is like a rose. Every petal an illusion. Every thorn a reality.

5. Le désir s'exprime par la caresse comme la pensée par la langage- Desire is expressed by touch like thought is expressed by language.

6. Une femme qui connaît sa valeur ne mendie pas l'amour- A woman who knows her worth, does not beg for love.

7. Je viens du ciel et les étoiles entre elles ne parlent que de toi- I come from the sky, and the stars only ever speak of you.

8. La vie est belle, et vous êtes comme elle- Life is beautiful, and you’re like life.

9. L'amour, parfois, c'est aimer quelqu'un qui ne t'aimera jamais- Love is sometimes loving someone who will never love you back.

10. L'esprit s'enrichit de ce qu'il reçoit, le cœur de ce qu'il donne- The spirit grows with what it receives, the heart with what it gives.

Part 2?

tips for college classes that nobody tells you

1. don’t load your hardest classes in one semester. find out which classes within your major are rumored to be tough and divide them out throughout your time in college.

2. don’t show up to class earlier than 10 mins early. the class before yours will likely still be in there finishing up, and you’ll either walk in in the middle of a lecture or have to stand outside for a long time. just get there 5-10 mins early and you’ll be fine!

3. create a group chat for all of your classes. find a few friends from class and make a group chat! this can be either on imessage, groupme, or whatever is most popular to use at your school. this can be your go-to place to ask questions about assignments, due dates, etc. before asking the professor!

4. as for class participation, quality>quantity. in most college classes (with the exception of huge lectures) participation accounts for a chunk of your grade, and some professors take that grade very seriously. however, this doesn’t mean you should raise your hand and talk whenever you find the opportunity- your professor (and your classmates, for that matter) will appreciate you much more if your comments and questions are less frequent and have more to add to the class. 

5. the readings listed under a date in a class are due for that class, they are not homework for the next class. this is one of the biggest issues college freshman have at the beginning of their first semester. unless the professor specifically says otherwise, if the syllabus is set up to list each class individually with the readings underneath/beside the class, they are due for that class, not the next one.

6. make yourself known to your professor! this is especially important for a large lecture, where they won’t get to know you otherwise. stop by their office hours or go up to them after class and introduce yourself- making a connection with your professor can open more doors than you may know!

7. rate my professor is not always accurate. professors can get better or worse, and different people have different experiences. though it’s a great tool and you can still use it to see what people think, if you’re stuck with a professor that is ranked low, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have a bad time in that class.

8. sometimes it’s okay to just skim your readings. you’ll find out soon enough if your professor basically goes over exactly what the reading says every class. if so, you only need to skim it over and take light notes. don’t spend hours closely reading a textbook that your professor is just going to go over word for word the next day (unless it helps you- if so, do it!)

9. the guy in class that answers every question isn’t smarter than you. that’s it.

10. if you come from a lower income area or a worse school district than your peers, you may be playing the “catch up game” for a while. it’s okay! i personally go to a college where most students here come from wealthy families across the world and were sent to the best high schools possible. if you, like me, come from a mediocre public school, you may feel like you’re a beat behind your peers when it comes to background knowledge. don’t give up. work hard, you’ll catch up with them soon. (also- they aren’t smarter than you just because they had better opportunities than you did growing up. at the end of the day, you ended up at the same college)

PET VOCABULARY in French

General vocab:

faire ses besoins - to do your business 

caresser - to pat

l’animalerie - the pet shop

un animal de compagnie - a pet

un animal domestique - a pet

la garde d’animaux - pet sitting

la nourriture pour animaux - pet/animal food

accepter les animaux/qui accueille les animaux de compagnie - pet friendly (e.g. house/motel/café)

CATS

un chat - cat

un chaton - kitten

un minou - kitty

un minet - kitty

une minette - kitty

miaou - meow

un miaulement - a meow

miauler - to meow

la litière pour chats - kitty litter

la nourriture pour chat - cat food

DOGS

un chien - dog

un chiot - puppy

un toutou - doggy

ouaf ouaf - ruff ruff 

un aboyement - a bark

aboyer - to bark

la nourriture/la bouffe/les aliments pour chien

promener son chien - to walk the dog

sortir le chien - to walk the dog

Learning to read in your target language !

Learning to read in any language is difficult!  There’s nothing more frustrating than picking up a book you’ve read in your mother tongue and not understanding a word in your target language. Luckily, it’s a matter of vocabulary ! 

You won’t understand everything

 Even in your native language, you still don’t understand EVERY WORD, you use context to try to figure out something you don’t know. But you’ll find that if you keep at it, you will get visibly better.

I read Harry Potter as my first long text in French and I high lighted every single word that I didn’t know. Looking back, about 35% of the words on the first page are high lighted vs. about 5% on the last page.

To get the most our of language learning, you should start trying to read as soon as possible !

You get so much passive input out of reading comprehension. It’s easy to subconsciously pick up commonly used phrases and putting grammar points and vocabulary into application.

So, what methods can I use to get the most out my reading?

A.) Read a paragraph through and look up the words and their definitions, then read it again and really try to find the meaning of each sentence. This might be the most taxing method and easy to lose focus or motivation, but honestly it’s the best for learning. 

B.) Stop at every word you don’t know and look up the meaning. I personally don’t like this method. I find myself looking more for words I don’t know than the meaning behind the whole sentence. I also don’t like stopping and starting and stopping and starting. 

C.) Skim the paragraph or page for words you don’t know, highlight them, define them first, THEN read the whole piece of text. This is my favorite method. I like looking back at the beginning of the book and seeing all the words I didn’t know then but I know now.

D.) Try to gather context of sentence without looking up any words. This is what native speakers do, and it is, of course, the best method but it requires a deeper meaning of the context that most A1/A2 learners have yet to understand.

You might be struggling learning through textbooks because the vocab lists prioritize subjects like “body parts” and “animals” over giving you basic tools to describe things. It’s great to know words like “knee” and “candle” but how often do those really come up in conversation? Instead of finding random lists that might be useful one day, I suggest creating a list of vocab based on your reading content! When you see a word that has come up a few times and you still can’t gather from context what it means, look it up, then every time you see it in the text from now on, it’ll enforce that knowledge in your brain.

If you aren’t sure what kind of texts you should be reading or want more information and tips, check out my other post.

do u have any advice for ppl who want to study linguistics and languages but couldnt afford to study it at school?? thanks if you answer this, have a great day

yeah! you can easily download textbooks online and study from them AND I do have a dropbox full of linguistics textbooks!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qm7x5dz8fu4bdlp/AADshTfRGZG5JZALkDV6wFlwa?dl=0 

it includes phonetics/phonology, sociolinguistics, language acquisition, psycholinguistics, morphology, and etymology. 

I also have another dropbox folder full of language textbooks:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tdm26h60ccl9pe1/AABg0B3mOGaWLG9Kfyuvut6wa?dl=0

As of November 6: Includes 83 textbooks including Arabic, ASL, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovene, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, and Welsh :)

So if we wanted to watch some French animation, what films would you suggest?

the Triplets of Belleville is about an elderly woman searching for her son who was kidnapped in the middle of a Tour de France race. It’s largely free of dialogue, but the sound effects and such are wonderful. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature—it lost to Finding Nemo.

A Cat in Paris is about a young girl and her cat who discover mysteries in the course of one night. It was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, but it lost to Rango.

Persepolis is based on an autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi about her early life in Iran. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but it lost to Ratatouille.

the Illusionist is about an aging magician and an imaginative young girl who form a father/daughter relationship. It was also nominated for a Best Animation Oscar, but lost to Toy Story 3.

The Rabbi’s Cat is a story about a cat who swallows a parrot and gains the ability to speak like a human. It is set in 1920’s Algeria.

Ernest & Celestine is the adorable story about a big bear and a little mouse who forge an unlikely friendship. It was also nominated for an Oscar in Best Animated Picture, but lost to Frozen.

Kirikou and the Sorceress is a story inspired by West African folklore that tells the story of Kirikou, a boy who was born with the ability to walk and talk, who saves his people from an evil witch. The film was popular enough to spawn sequels and a stage adaptation.

A Monster in Paris is a 3D animated musical film that is reaaaaalllly loosely based on the Phantom of the Opera. It’s set in 1910 and is about, surprisingly, a monster that lives in Paris, and his love for a young singer.

The King and the Mockingbird is an 80’s film about a cruel king titled Charles V + III = VIII + VIII = XVI, who is obsessed with a young shepherdess, and whose attempts to capture the young girl are thwarted by a mockingbird whose wife the King had previously killed.  

Those are probably the most famous of the feature length animated films.

But the animated short films are just as glorious. Here’s a compilation of a bunch of short films and I can link you to others as well. 

Sorry for the long answer but I just really love French animation.

EMOTIONS/FEELINGS in French

This is a culmination of all my french emotions posts, so it’s a long one!

TO BE HAPPY

être content(e)

être de bonne humeur

être en liesse - to be jubilant

être heureux/heureuse - to be happy

déborder de bonheur - to be overjoyed

être satisfait(e) - to be satisfied

être repu(e) - to be full/satiated/satisfied (food)

TO BE EXCITED

être emballé par - to be excited about sth (to be enthused by sth that’s happening)

être enthousiasmé - to be excited/enthused

être enthousiaste - to be excited

être en verve - to be entusiastic/excited about sth

être excité comme une puce - to be really excited

TO BE IN LOVE

Épris - lovestruck

Être amoureux de - to be in love with

Fou/follement amoureux de - head over heels in love with s.o

Être fou/folle de qqn - to be nuts for s.o

TO BE RELAXED

En prendre à son aise (avec) - to take things easy (péjoratif)

être détendu(e) - to be relaxed

TO BE SAD/UNHAPPY

être triste

être insatisfait(e) - to be unsatisfied

être mécontent(e) de/que - to be unsatisfied about/be unhappy about

TO BE ANGRY/FRUSTRATED

être fâché(e) - to be angry

être furieux/furieuse - to be furious

être de mauvaise humeur - to be in a bad mood

en avoir marre de - to have had enough of

avoir les boules - to be pissed off

être furax - to be furious/hopping mad

se fâcher tout rouge - to see red

se mettre en colère - to get angry

se mettre/foutre en pétard - to blow your top

se mettre en rogne - to get very angry

TO BE ANNOYED/IRRITATED

être agacé(e) - to be irritated/annoyed 

être énervé(e) - to be annoyed/irritated

être irrité(e) - to be irritated

être gêné(e) - (in this case) to feel annoyed - softer/gentler than agacer

Avoir les nerfs – to be irritated/annoyed/cross

Avoir les nerfs à vif – to be at your wit’s end

Avoir les nerfs en pelote – to be on edge

TO BE BORED (OR FEELING LAZY)

être ennuyé(e) - to be bored

être mort d’ennui - to be bored to death

avoir la flemme (de faire qch) - can’t be bothered doing sth

TO BE TIRED

être fatigué(e) - to be tired

être écrasé(e) - to be stuffed

être épuisé(e) - to be exhausted

être crevé(e) - to be dead tired

être vanné(e) - to be ready to drop

être claqué(e) - to be bushed/beat

TO BE STRESSED

être stressé(e) - to be stressed

Être sur les nerfs - to be strung out

Être surmené/débordé - to be stressed/overworked

Être tendu - to be stressed

TO FEEL SICK (TO DO WITH ILLNESS)

se sentir mal - to feel sick

se sentir mieux - to feel better

avoir mal - to be in pain

Avoir des courbatures - to feel stiff

TO BE SCARED

avoir peur (de) - to be scared (of)

avoir les jetons - to be scared stiff

avoir une peur bleue (de qch) - to be scared out of your wits (by sth)

avoir le trac - to be nervous

être effrayé(e) par - to be frightened by

être mort de peur - to be dead scared

TO BE SURPRISED/SHOCKED

être surpris(e) (par) - to be surprised

être stupéfait(e) - to be stunned

les bras m’en tombent - I am speechless

être choqué(e) (par) - to be shocked (by)

en être baba - to be gobsmacked (due to admiration)

être ébahi(e) - to be astonished

TO BE CONFUSED

ça m’embrouille - I’m confused - lit. this confuses me

J’ai du mal à suivre - I’m confused - I’m having trouble following

Je suis perdu(e) - I’m confused (lost) 

Je ne sais plus où j’en suis - I’m confused - in the sense that you don’t know where you are in something (figurative)

Je n’y comprends rien (or: j’y comprends rien - to be more colloquial) - I’m confused - I don’t get it

Je ne comprends pas - I don’t understand/I’m confused

J’te suis pas - I’m confused (I don’t follow you)

TO BE PROUD

Être fier de (note: feminine= fière) - to be proud of

Être orgueilleux - to be proud (to be a proud [as in haughty] as a person)

TO BE SMUG

Être hautain - to be proud (snobby/up yourself)

Être fiérot (fem= fiérote) - to be a proud person

Faire le fiérot - to be smug/pleased with yourself

TO BE JEALOUS

Crever de jalousie - to be eaten up with jealousy

Être jaloux de - to be jealous

Être envieux de (plus formel/soutenu) - to be envious

Jalouser - to envy/be jealous of

TO FEEL DESPAIR

être au comble du désespoir - to be in the depths of despair

Se désespérer - to despair/lose hope

TO BE GRATEFUL

être reconnaissant(e) - to be grateful

savoir gré à qqn de qch - to be grateful to s.o for sth e.g. je te sais gré de ton aide

TO FEEL SAFE

se sentir à l’abri - to feel safe

TO BE HURT/BROKEN-HEARTED/UPSET

avoir le cœur brisé(e) - to be broken-hearted/broken up by something

en être malade - to be cut up/gutted by sth

être affecté(e) - to be cut up about something

être blessé(e) - to be hurt by sth

être bouleversé(e) - to be upset

être dans tous ses états - to be in a state

être désemparé(e) - to be distraught

être peiné(e) - to be hurt by sth

être accablé par le chagrin - to be grief-stricken

en être tout retourné - to be bowled over/to be devastated~shocked by

être anéanti - to be torn in two

avoir mal au cœur - to be very sad/heartbroken (can also mean to feel sick/nauseated) avoir un gros chagrin - to be grief-stricken/heartbroken

TO FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE

être dans ses petits souliers - to feel uncomfortable

être mal à l’aise - to be uncomfortable

être mal à son aise - to be ill at ease

se trouver mal - to be uncomfortable (uncomfortable position - e.g. sitting)

TO FEEL HUMILIATED

être humilié(e) - to be humiliated

être mortifié(e) - to be mortified