....But I dont feel French.....

[Inara]

what is AP?

Oops, I should have clarified that. AP refers to advanced placement classes that lead to university credit. So it's like taking a college class in high school.

[squidward123]

Oops, I should have clarified that. AP refers to advanced placement classes that lead to university credit. So it's like taking a college class in high school.

Is it the direct equivalent of a college course that replaces a college course or does it just give you some "pre-credit" sort of thing for college by college that makes them see you more favourably for applications ...just out of interest

[Inara]

Is it the direct equivalent of a college course that replaces a college course or does it just give you some "pre-credit" sort of thing for college by college that makes them see you more favourably for applications ...just out of interest


It works both ways, actually. Not all colleges are obligated to accept AP (or IB - which is basically the same thing) credit, and some have higher standards than others.

For example, when I was applying to college, I discovered that Johns Hopkins didn't accept AP Latin credits but Yale did. Hopkins accepted only a 5 on AP Biology (the top score) whereas Yale would accept a 4. Conversely, Yale did not accept my AP English score of 4 but Hopkins did. So it depends from college to college. If you do get credit for it, it normally means you don't have to take that class in college - since you've technically already taken it - and it frees you from the drudgery of introductory level courses (that's how I avoided taking the intros to calculus, biology, chemistry, physics, English, and European history). Life was so sweet my freshman year.

But even if colleges don't give you credit for it, doing well on the classes and on the end of the year exam is looked upon very favorably. So much so that the very top universities here don't look at students unless they've taken a few APs.

[Catel]

hASvUze5Owc

Douce France cher pays de mon enfance...


http://www.terroirs-de-france.com/images/Bourgogne4.jpg


I feel sooooooo French. :) :o

[squidward123]

If you do get credit for it, it normally means you don't have to take that class in college - since you've technically already taken it - and it frees you from the drudgery of introductory level courses (that's how I avoided taking the intros to calculus, biology, chemistry, physics, English, and European history). Life was so sweet my freshman year.


by intros you mean the 101 classes? wow. you managed to avoid a whole semester's worth then in your 1st year??

[Inara]

by intros you mean the 101 classes? wow. you managed to avoid a whole semester's worth then in your 1st year??

Yeah, it was the 101 classes. I was able to because I took a total of 9 AP classes spread over my last three years of high school and did well on them, which is why I got the credit. But Hopkins didn't accept three of my APs: government, environmental science, and English language. At another school they would have been. So like I said, it depends.

APs are very nice when they work out, and I was glad to miss out on so many boring intro classes. But the flip side is I took some 200 level classes my first year, and that was really hard.

[squidward123]

Yeah, it was the 101 classes. I was able to because I took a total of 9 AP classes spread over my last three years of high school and did well on them, which is why I got the credit. But Hopkins didn't accept three of my APs: government, environmental science, and English language. At another school they would have been. So like I said, it depends.

APs are very nice when they work out, and I was glad to miss out on so many boring intro classes. But the flip side is I took some 200 level classes my first year, and that was really hard.

wow, you must have been smart to have been doing AP classes in not even your senior year...I didn't know they even allowed that...

[Metropolitan]

I dont know what it is, but I have a lot of trouble identifying with my French heritage. My last name is French, I celebrate Mardi Gras, I am taking French in the fall but I still dont feel that French.

Granted, I'm an American, but the thing that I have always noticed is that I have always felt more attached to my mother's Italian heritage. I do love Quebec, where my family went to before they entered the US, but I always have had trouble translating that pride to France.

I am not even sure of what I am asking anyone here. Im just stating that I have a problem with identifying myself with the nation. Does any other Americans have this issue with either their French heritage or other ones?Well, if that can help you, you should know there is no such a thing as a French ethnicity on the first place. France is a country with so many different regional cultures, on which have been added so many immigrants during two centuries, that it's simpy ridiculous to even consider a French ethnicity to exist. Do you just know that in the 30's, there was a larger proportion of immigrants in the French population than in the US population? All this to say that once knowing a bit about France, it becomes obvious that ethnicity has nothing to do with being French. What makes someone French is citizenship and nothing else, end of discussion.

And by the way, I'm never ceased to be amazed to see American people considering Quebeckers to be French. Frankly, if Americans don't consider themselves as English, why do they assume people having similar history than theirs to be treated differently? This is totally beyond me.

[Pierre-Henri]

VIVE LA FRANCE ! (I know, I said at large it was a backward country, but qui aime bien...)

Everybody loves France !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLt4YZkyrPw

A children' Choir singing "les champs Elysées", with an accent I can't identify. If you don't sheepishly smile, sweep a tear and love our backward, irrational, romantic, bloody foolish banana republic after that...

Non, non, c'est rien, j'ai une poussière dans l'oeil...

[Metropolitan]

Here's a Japanese version of "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" performed by Ishikawa Rika on Japanese TV:

Bg7-spXvjRI


As obviously there are people over here with few knowledge of French culture, I still post the original version performed by France Gall at the 1965 Eurovision song contest.

oGGviSJ4Ilw

[guignol]

i love that song. and the name reminds me of a polnareff oldie... la poupée qui fait non:

ew40aVf88ac

but shouldn't this go in the french music thread?

or maybe not... because these two songs, along with dimanche martin, mon oncle, félix potin, LU petit beurre, le gang des postiches... make me feel french. they're part of a world i discovered in the 70's that, while not exactly the one i grew up in, was much more like it than what the world i grew up in had become.

[Catfish]

I love living in America, but I dont feel that I have a national identity whether it is for my name or my nation.
I know how you feel. I'm a historian and found my ancestoral roots in my late 20s.
Many Americans don't care about their ancestry or embracing/remembering the languages or tradtions. The homogenization of America is dull, culturally destructive and sad.

[cmblfc]

I know how you feel. I'm a historian and found my ancestoral roots in my late 20s.
Many Americans don't care about their ancestry or embracing/remembering the languages or tradtions. The homogenization of America is dull, culturally destructive and sad.

The homogenization is also a bit of a lie. There isnt really homogenization here, it is just pressed by the government. I guess if you tell people enough times that they are all being treated equally, even if they arent, they start to believe it....

[Catfish]

I guess if you tell people enough times that they are all being treated equally, even if they arent, they start to believe it....
I'm not talking equality, I was referring to immigrants after a couple of generations
lose their unique foods, traditions, etc.

[sl7vk]

Well, if that can help you, you should know there is no such a thing as a French ethnicity on the first place. France is a country with so many different regional cultures, on which have been added so many immigrants during two centuries, that it's simpy ridiculous to even consider a French ethnicity to exist. Do you just know that in the 30's, there was a larger proportion of immigrants in the French population than in the US population? All this to say that once knowing a bit about France, it becomes obvious that ethnicity has nothing to do with being French. What makes someone French is citizenship and nothing else, end of discussion.

And by the way, I'm never ceased to be amazed to see American people considering Quebeckers to be French. Frankly, if Americans don't consider themselves as English, why do they assume people having similar history than theirs to be treated differently? This is totally beyond me.

Ding ding ding!!!!

France is an artificial hexagon carved out by many a war. My wife has Breton roots.... Ask them how "French" they feel.

My grandmother was forced to learn French at the age of 12. As one of her classmates told the teacher that had recently been trained in from Paris (in patois savoyard), "French? French is the language that we speak to the dog in."

This wasn't 200 years ago people!

"France" culture, language, society.... is nothing more then the invasion of ile-de-france on the Bergundians, Bretons, etc... over many years.

With that said, I still feel French. But maybe I wouldn't if I didn't have a Passport that told me I was.

PS- A massive tradition of Anglo Saxon Francophobia also contributes to many people of French origin "ducking" their roots so to speak. Being French now is about as unfashionable as being Irish in the late 19th century here in the US.

[Catfish]

PS- A massive tradition of Anglo Saxon Francophobia also contributes to many people of French origin "ducking" their roots so to speak. Being French now is about as unfashionable as being Irish in the late 19th century here in the US.
Especially here in the US with all that anti-French nonsense being spewed
on tv a few years ago. My wife is a prime example. She not only will NOT
mention it to people (friends included), but when I tell people...they
give an OH as if to say i'm sorry. this attitude makes me SICK!

[guignol]

i don't know who (could have been de gaulle, clemenceau or even napoleon) said that men were born parisian, bréton, provençal, savoyard or normand and only became french in the army.

in the days when people didn't move around much, france was a very distinct mosaic; in different regions people spoke their own patois, ate their own food and the only place a ch'ti would ever meet a basque was during his military service.

but the petit pays generally coexisted with the patrie fairly well, even in brittany or corsica. in places the old divisions were real, and at periods led to real friction, but are often exaggerated today as different regions try to reconstruct a unique identity as europe and the whole western world becomes more and more homogenous.

[SportBoy333]

About many Americans not caring about their ancestry well I think that could be a regional thing. Where I grew up your ancestory and heritage was a big deal. You pretty much knew who the Irish, Portuguese, and Italian kids where. There was definately a lot of pride going on. In gym class I remember that the kids from Irish and Italian ancestry formed teams and played against each other in football(American). In the New England area where you have huge Italian, Irish and Portuguese populations, ethnic pride seems emphazied first over American pride.

[Pierre-Henri]

People are travelling more within the country, too. Not so long ago, people used to stay in the same area for longer times. Today, many workers move from one region to another during their lives. Local identities suffer for this reason. I, for example, live in Alsace, but I was born in Dunkerque, meaning I don't know a single word of Alsatian language (and can't speak German either).

It's funny. When there is some traditional celebrations, many people who are wearing the typical costumes aren't not Alsacian. They take part for the fun of it... if, 5 years later, they move to Brittany, they'll be wearing traditional Breton costumes as easily for the same reasons. People are moving, but the traditions, somehow, survive.

[Catfish]

About many Americans not caring about their ancestry well I think that could be a regional thing. Where I grew up your ancestory and heritage was a big deal. You pretty much knew who the Irish, Portuguese, and Italian kids where. There was definately a lot of pride going on. In gym class I remember that the kids from Irish and Italian ancestry formed teams and played against each other in football(American). In the New England area where you have huge Italian, Irish and Portuguese populations, ethnic pride seems emphazied first over American pride.
Wait a minute, it depends on how recent their family immigrated AND
if they "stick with their own kind/don't marry outside of their ethnic group".
If you continue to only hang out with, live near, and marry people from the
same ancestoral homeland as you; of course what you stated is going to happen.

I know Mexicans, Serbs, Polish, Italians, Irish, etc. in Chicago
that are DAMN proud of their heritage and show it, but they
also are very often proud to be Americans.

We have 2 big St. Patrick's Day parades in Chicago, 1 for the entire city
celebrated by all and then 1 really big one on the Southside with wall-to-wall
Irishmen.