Week 14

Learning Objectives, Week XIV

- understand, appreciate and reflect upon the situation of Muslims in modern-day France and the controversy surrounding Muslim veils and headscarves
- begin review and consolidation of the semester's grammar and structures, using a clip from the French film "Paris, je t'aime" as a topic

Week 14: France and Islam

An essential concept in French society is that of "laïcité", or a "lay society", something like our notion of "separation of church and state", but taken to a greater extreme. For a general overview of "laïcité", see this article:

Laïcité

The veils worn by some Muslim women are seen by some French as contradictory to the values of laïcité, as they are a public display of religious affiliation, and the case of the "burqua", or the full facial veil, has provoked considerable debate. For a brief overview of the arguments for and against, see this short clip:

For and against the burqa

This past summer, the French government decided to ban the burqa in public places:

Burqa ban

Obviously, the decision was a controversial one. The co-existence of Muslims with other French people has often been a difficult one. For a more in-depth and recent debate on the veil question, see the video below:


Paris, je t'aime - "Quais de Seine"

In the following segment, you will see an except from the film "Paris, je t'aime", which takes on not the question of the burqa, but rather the more general issue of the acceptance and integration of Muslims into French society.

Paris, je t'aime is a 2006 film starring an ensemble cast of actors of various nationalities including American, British and French. The two-hour film consists of eighteen short films set in different arrondissements. The 22 directors include Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, Joel and Ethan Coen, Gerard Depardieu, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Nobuhiro Suwa, Alexander Payne, Tom Tykwer, Walter Salles and Gus Van Sant.

In this clip, "Quais de Seine", Francois, a French teenager, becomes attracted to a Muslim girl. In a rather light-hearted way, the question of Islam in France is raised.

Quais de Seine - click here to watch


WRITTEN HOMEWORK:

1. Review the grammar and vocabulary from chapters 0-5 in the Online Textbook.
2. Using structures and vocabulary you have learned this semester, write a description of what takes place in the Paris, je t'aime - "Quais de Seine" clip. You can describe and talk about any aspect of the clip you like, but don't go beyond the grammar and structures from chapters 0-5 (for example, no past tense, etc.).
3. Submit your description (150 words minimum) by clicking on the "Written Homework" button in the left-hand toolbar of this screen, and then click on "Written Homework Week Fourteen". Make your postings as original as possible, without "copying" sentences from other postings.

Study list for Exam V and Final Exam

Below is the list to study for Exam V and for the Final Exam, in the order that it appears in the online textbook. The material will also appear in roughly the same order on both exams. Note that there are hyperlinks to all material listed below. If you right-click on these links and choose "open in a new window", you won't lost this page, which might make your studying easier.

CHAPITRE PRÉLIMINAIRE

Je me présente
Les matières
L'alphabet

CHAPITRE 1

1.1 subject pronouns
1.2 the verb ETRE
1.4 definite articles
1.5 indefinite articles
1.7 "il y a" (don't worry about "voila")

Les salutations
Cardinal numbers
La date

CHAPITRE 2

2.1 the verb AVOIR
2.2 -ER verbs
2.3 possessives
2.4 questions
2.5 basic negation
2.8 adjectives
2.9 adjectives

Questions personnelles
La famille
Les mots interrogatifs
Les passe-temps
Les adverbes
Continents, countries and nationalities

CHAPITRE 3

3.1 the verb FAIRE
3.2 Expressions with FAIRE
3.5 the verb ALLER
3.6 le futur proche
3.7 prepositions with places

Le temps
Les saisons
La géographie
Les activités
Les transports
Les nombres 70-100
*Numbers 100 and greater

CHAPITRE 4

4.2 irregular adjectives
4.3 adjectives that precede the noun

Les couleurs
Le portrait morale (adjectives)

CHAPITRE 5

5.1 partitive articles

Au marché, au supermarché
Au café

CHAPITRE 6

6.3 demonstrative determiners

La ville
S'orienter
Les nombres ordinaux

CHAPITRE 8

A la maison
Les pièces
Dans la chambre, la salle de bains, la salle de séjour, la salle à manger
Dans la cuisine, dans la buanderie
Les tâches domestiques

CHAPITRE 10

La mode
Les passe-temps

CHAPITRE 11

Les matières et les cours

CHAPITRE 12

Les métiers


EXAM V

As promised, Exam V is a review for your final exam, which will be available next week. Exam V is untimed, and has 100 fill-in-the-blank questions. You can use any resources you like, but it must be completed in one sitting, so make sure you have time to do it all before you open the exam.

The study guide posted above will take you chapter-by-chapter through what you need to review, and the questions in Exam V are in the same order as the material on the study list. If you right-click on the "EXAM V" link above, and choose "open in a new window", you can keep both the study list page and the exam page open at the same time.

NOTE: DO NOT CLICK THE "SAVE" BUTTON AFTER ENTERING YOUR ANSWERS. JUST COMPLETE ALL OF THE QUESTIONS, AND THEN CLICK "SUBMIT" AT THE END OF THE EXAM.

Good luck, and let me know if you run into any problems!