[Potironette]

So, I've never been bullied in my life...except maybe by my mother but that's not the point. I get the sinking feeling my teacher's a bully '~'

Today the AP French teacher was handing out practice tests, and I suppose she mentioned not writing on them and I somehow missed it, but in any case, I thought I could write on that piece of paper.

We were going over the quiz from yesterday which I had utterly failed (it didn't count) and I unfortunately decided to take notes on the AP packets she was handing out.

She saw me and said something along the lines of "I hope you're not writing on the AP test."
I looked down and half-mumbled/half-spoke a "sorry, it's at the back of the packet though?"
And then she said: "If you're going to make a bloop like that you shouldn't sit in the front row where I can see you."
As she took the packet back I foolishly said "désolée."

Then she gave a mini-talk to the class about how we couldn't write on those papers and should be listening or something.

She gave me another packet (which ironically had someone's name written in pencil on it) and a minute or so later stared at me and said "put that pencil down before you write on the test again."
I wasn't sure if she was looking at me so I pointed to the pencil and said "this?"
She said yes and I stuffed it into my bag.

At the end of the class she said to me: "You should wake up. You aren't listening in class. You don't listen in class."

I never thought I'd cry because of a teacher :<.
And since I can't drop out of French class, I wonder how I'm going to survive the rest of it. Should I consider sitting in the back of the class where I can't see the board? It's just until the end of June though. Also, we don't learn anything in class anyway.

The teacher's always been rather snappish/mean to everyone. I feel like I get affected too much. Yesterday someone had told my teacher about a mistake on her quiz. Today she went up to the person and told them that they shouldn't have made such a big deal out of it because she "would have found it anyway."

One good benefit to this class though, is that I realize I don't like French enough that if a teacher kills my enthusiasm for it I won't stick with it.


(Although, on the bright side, being unhappy about French class makes me that much more grateful for the rest of my classes. Heck, today I even thought that history class was fun--and I've never really, really thought about it that way before except a little)

TLDR: Ranting about French class.

[Fulkth]

You should try switching to a different teacher if that's at all possible?

[Coda]

I've never seen a high school with more than one teacher for a given foreign language.

Take heart, though -- the school year is almost over. You've managed this far! It's all downhill from here.

[Potironette]

Although there are more than one teacher per foreign language, there's only one teacher for an AP foreign language class.

Just 46 more days to go! I should be able to endure that much. The third quarter just ended and I hope my grades don't start going because of this stuff though--we're actually having harder quizzes (which is new). Normally I just write some paragraphs for homework and that's all we do for class.

[Fulkth]

This happened to my sister once, but during work orientation. She got reprimanded for taking too many notes.

[Coda]

That... is bizarre. o.o I don't know if I'd want to work for a place that got mad at me for doing what it takes for me to learn best.

[McSwiggins]

It might just be because I am a teacher but I dont really see why thats condsidered "bullying". She was frustrated. She told you not to write on the packet and you did. We have to repeat ourselves a million times because there is always one kid that doesnt listen and does exactly what you asked them not to and it gets frustrating. She gave the mini talk to try to keep it from happening again, not to purposely humiliate you. And she told you you arent listening in class because you did what she asked not to be done, so she thinks you arent listening.

[Potironette]

Your sister wasn't doing anything wrong..admittedly I was doing something wrong.

I guess she is frustrated. But I'm not that one kid who never listens in class. If I was I would be sitting in the back row--which I've been considering because frankly I don't like the class.
I suppose it wasn't bullying though, thinking about it that way. I'm just too sensitive :/. Also, I felt like being told "you don't listen" and that I should "wake up" (when I wasn't even sleepy that day) may have given me a shock.

Yesterday there was a piece of paper where I normally sat, so I avoided the seat. She took the paper and put it on my desk with an eraser saying "you didn't get the point." I didn't mind erasing my notes in class, but there's something about the words that get on my nerves.

...well, I think it's a combination of "I think my class is useless" and the words I hear every day that make me feel that way.

I do understand that yes, I've done something wrong. But I was OK with her giving everyone a talk about...something. I was not okay with what I was told at the end of the class. I'll retract my statement about bullying though--I don't remember what my logic was when I said that.

I'm pretty she's not intentionally being hurtful, as people say she was a good teacher in the past. I just have a bigger issue with her style than the rest of my class.
Outside of class if you ask her stuff she's really helpful.
Inside of class, class isn't fun.

[McSwiggins]

Well, it may not be you everytime but there is always a classmate. Trust me, we say things a million times and sometimes we just get sort of tired of it and get frustrated at the next student who has us repeat ourselves. So I dont think it really has anything to do with you outside that incident. I've done the same thing, get frustrated at one student for making me repeat myself after weeks of repeating myself and then I feel like a jerk because they get upset the way you did.
I think she was telling you that because she didnt think you werent listening at all, so she was trying to get you to pay attention. I dont think she was trying to hurt your feelings or anything.

I think maybe if she's been a teacher for so long (which is what I'm gathering from your last paragraph) that she's just losing patience because trust me, some stuff does get very old after some years. I've been teaching for 10 years and I no longer can stand a variety of things I could in my first 5 years. And because of this, I think that this is why she's not very inviting in class but is friendly outside of class.

[Potironette]

Hmm, that makes sense.

My counselor had been trying to get me to see that but I didn't really understand it.

It helps to see it from that perspective. Thanks!

[McSwiggins]

You're welcome. Teachers have a lot of stuff they deal with that students and parents dont even realize is a thing for us, so sometimes we get overwhelmed and this happens.

I hope this made you feel better about everything. :) Do you like studying French? I am a Chinese teacher and a linguaphile, so languages are give me a nerdgasm.

[Potironette]

I'm not sure if I like French actually.
The thing with languages is that I always think "it'd be nice to learn that" but I never do because it takes so much time. (Clearly, that means I sort of like languages but not enough)

I have a mental list of languages I'd like to learn in order of how much I value them x'D. French is dead last, but it's there.
1. Mandarin - my grandparents are Chinese and it sucks that I barely understand it.
2. Korean - I like how it sounds and the characters look pretty...
3. Japanese - it's useful! And I like how the characters look..
4. Turkish - It just sounds really nice ><
5. German - Switzerland is nice? My music teacher spoke it sometimes.
6. French - Because why not if I have the basics? I'm Canadian and Switzerland is nice?

EDIT: Well, I probably liked French more once. My username and title are both because of French class.

[McSwiggins]

Ah. I want to learn so many that I only learn so much of one then move on to another. Usually I'll go back to it at some point. I can pick up languages fairly quickly and easily, so it makes learning them fun for me, since its not a struggle.
Right know I know: Mandarin (advanced), Irish (intermediate), Romanian (intermediate), German (so-so), Vietnamese (beginner), Kiswahili (beginner) and I am pretty good at ASL.
For languages I'm currently learning: Irish, Romanian, Vietnamese, Spanish, Czech, German, Welsh, Italian, Kiswahili and Icelandic.

If you are interested, I have some books for Mandarin and German I can get you the ISBN number for. It might take me a few days to gather it all so you'd have to give me some time.

I am salty about Japan and Japanese because my ex wife who was abusive (and still is managing to torment me) is Japanese. When I say this, I dont mean I hate Japanese people or anything. I just mean that everything to do with Japan gives me a sinking feeling in my gut and makes me anxious because of her.

[Potironette]

My problem with learning languages is that I want to speak it--but I can never tell if my accent's okay.
With mandarin, I know how things sound, but I'm not good at pinyin so when I look at a word, there's a high chance I'm going to say something wrong because I forgot how the word sounded like.
I don't really know how to learn a language either.
Technically, I could speak Chinese at home all the time, but I get embarrassed because there's so many words I don't know. Furthermore, I have to speak in English for my sister..and she's basically the only family member I talk to.

I'm sorry you had/have to experience that D:.

I don't know if this helps any, but I used to dislike looking at Taiwanese stuff because my mother's wife often said that Chinese people were awful and she was okay with the family because we weren't really Chinese. I didn't feel that way anymore after I exposed myself to a bunch of other Taiwanese people at once (there was this camp-like thing I went with my mother's wife to). It kind of helped me separate Taiwan from my mother's wife and my mother's wife from Taiwan...the fact that I like listening to Chinese songs and sometimes the song is mostly in Taiwanese probably played a part in it too.

[McSwiggins]

Do you have trouble with tone markers is what you mean? There's a chart, I'm sure you've seen it but you should probably look it over every once on a while when learning pinyin. Its okay to need to look at it more than once. I encourage my students to refer to it if they arent sure, rather than guess what tone the marker means. Never feel bad for needing to review something, even if you think it should come easily.

How I learn is I memorize vocabulary and use them as often as I can in every day life. Like, I will learn fruits and say them to myself as I pick out fruits in the store. Like, I will say at the store, "I need a tofaa for a snack tomorrow." Tofaa being apple. Plus I do lots of learning exercises to get free time.

I would but I already go through enough anxiety, anger, depression etc. I'm an alcoholic because I find being drunk easier than feeling these. I'm struggling with another addiction due to ptsd. I've struggled with addiction since I was a kid. I wont be able to handle it at the moment.

[Potironette]

I know what the tone markers mean, but I have trouble applying the one that goes up (/) and the bendy one (upside down ^).

EDIT: Err, I just found out recently that tone markers had numbers. I have trouble applying the second and third tones to new words.