improve my French skills

i think since i am already going to be “studying” spanish, and doing grad school, it will be hard for me to actually “study” french. instead im going to need to get creative here. since im interested more in being able to use french practically, particularly in medical settings, im not too concerned with being able to write it well…more with speaking and understanding other people speaking it. so, i think here i will need to get some french music and start watching french movies. im going to try to work on this goal once im settled in my new apartment. my ideas are to try to get some french cds, literally music, and also to rent french movies. i figure if i watch 1-2 a week that will be a good start. i can also listen to dialogues online, i should look into that. i dont want to get too overwhelmed since i have a lot on my plate right now, so i will start looking into this more next week and work up to it.

I’m already bilingual and got to a French Immersion school (half the day French class, other half English class), therefore I already know a lot of French. But going to a French Immersion school is the whole reason why I’ve decided to do this.

In French I get anywhere from 80%-90%, so my grades aren’t a problem. It’s just that I don’t feel like I’m giving it my all, and that’s something I try to do in all my subjects; I’m somewhat of a perfectionist and over-achiever. Also another goal of mine is to win the Academic Excellence Award this year, so I have to get only the best marks to be eligible.

In order to improve my French I plan to:

• read French books in my spare time. Look up all words I don’t understand after each chapter and read chapter again.

• put aside 30 minutes everyday to watch French t.v.

• make an effort to speak the French language at home