L'école en France T'choupi en Français
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00:00As the poet Henri Dès once said, C'est à l'école le tagadagada qu'on apprend
00:05les bêtises.
00:06It's a song you should check out.
00:08At school, you learn lots of funny things, but Troisième, CE2, Terminale, oh la la,
00:14the French ladder in the education system, doesn't make much sense when you first hear
00:19about it.
00:20We have a lot of 13-year-olds in college, for example.
00:24Let's have a look.
00:25L'école maternelle L'école maternelle is kindergarten, for
00:33children between 2 or 3 years old, up to 5.
00:37It's not mandatory, but 95% of children attend classes there.
00:42It's divided between Petite section, La moyenne section, middle division, and La grande section.
00:51They also call sometimes La première année, Deuxième année, Troisième année de maternelle.
00:56First, second, and third year of kindergarten.
00:59There, children start to learn how to socialize, and are prepared to learn how to count, write, and read.
01:09L'école élémentaire L'école élémentaire is elementary school.
01:13It's commonly called L'école primaire.
01:17It starts at 6 years old, and it's mandatory.
01:21Children learn the basics of la lecture, reading, l'écriture, writing, and les mathématiques,
01:28mathematics.
01:29In each year, they have one teacher, une maîtresse, or un maître, who is responsible for all
01:38their lessons.
01:40Children start to learn other subjects as well, such as history, geography, and civic
01:44education too.
01:46They can play sports at la récréation, La récréation, also called la récré, recess,
01:54try different activities, and maybe go to la classe verte, field trips of a few days
02:01somewhere with the teacher and the class.
02:04L'école primaire is divided into three cycles, or five years.
02:10Le cours préparatoire, mostly called le CP, for the first year.
02:16Then, le cours élémentaire, 1 et 2, CE1 et CE2, in second and third year.
02:25Le cours moyen 1 et le cours moyen 2, or CM1 et CM2, in fourth and fifth year.
02:32E
02:33Le collège In France, le collège is middle school.
02:41It lasts 4 years, and les collégiens generally are from 11 to 15, though children may have
02:48to retake a year, redoubler.
02:51At le collège, you start to learn about plenty of new subjects, and you have a special teacher
02:56for each.
02:57Children learn about French literature, geometry, science like physics, chemistry, biology…
03:03You start to learn a second language as well, on the basis of maybe a third.
03:08Most of the time, it's English, German, and or Spanish.
03:13And you can also choose to learn the basics of Latin and Greek.
03:20You can also try your hand at music with la flûte à bec, the famous one for French people,
03:25the flute.
03:26Les arts plastiques Les arts plastiques, visual arts, and technologie,
03:31la technologie, a mix between how to use a computer and how to weld small objects.
03:38Class numbering starts to make sense as a countdown to your majority.
03:43La sixième, or sixth grade, is the first year in college, then it goes la cinquième,
03:48la quatrième, and la troisième.
03:50At the end of la troisième, you have a very famous exam called le brevet des collèges.
03:55Le brevet des collèges, that we also call just le brevet.
03:59Now there are some special lines for the teenagers who are not fit for la voie générale, who
04:05just don't want to go to the general stream, like un collège technique, un lycée technique,
04:10or even dropping out, since education isn't mandatory after 16.
04:14But I won't develop these options here.
04:16It's not something to be ashamed of, or anything, it's just that for the sake of
04:21the clarity of the video, it would be too much.
04:23And most of the people follow the general stream anyway.
04:31Le lycée Things start to get interesting at le lycée.
04:35Le lycée is the equivalent of high school.
04:38Teenagers attend le lycée usually between 16 and 18.
04:41There are fewer lycées than colleges, so you have to go to the nearest bigger city
04:45for school.
04:46And you meet new people from other towns as well.
04:50When I was a girl, my city didn't have a lycée, so I went to the closest big city
04:54nearby, Versailles.
04:56Les lycéens soon have to choose their orientation, between economics and social science, hard
05:01science or literature and arts, named ES, S and L.
05:08They still have to learn at least a bit about each of these subjects, but their curriculum
05:13gets specialized and is a stepping stone for their university degree.
05:18Last numbering pick-ups where they left off, la seconde, la première, and the last one,
05:27la terminale.
05:30At the end of la terminale, the students are usually 18 years old.
05:34To mark the end of their education, in the secondary cycle and their majority, they have
05:39a national exam called le baccalauréat, or just called le bac.
05:44It's a very important and symbolic goal in the French culture, and the first day of
05:49the rest of their lives.
05:54Les études supérieures Les études supérieures, higher education,
05:58in France starts after le lycée.
06:00It's a complicated path, especially when trying to compare it with other foreign education
06:05systems.
06:06So I'm going to be very quick and non-exhaustive.
06:11Higher education doesn't really have standard class numbering, but it's usually summed
06:16up by counting from le baccalauréat, bac plus deux, bac plus trois, bac plus cinq, etc.
06:22The most common place is to go to l'université, l'université, also called la fac, short
06:28for la faculté, the faculty.
06:32It's close to the American system, and divided between la licence, la licence bachelor, le
06:38master, master, and le doctorat, doctorate, or Ph.D., le doctorat.
06:45La faculté de médecine trains future doctors, la faculté de droit trains future lawyers,
06:50etc.
06:51France also has the institutions of les grandes écoles, literally higher schools, les grandes
06:57écoles, engineering schools or business schools, including the most prestigious and sought
07:03after.
07:04They deliver a master's degree, and they're usually preceded by two years of preparatory
07:08school, called les classes prépa, or classes préparatoires, where students work a lot
07:16to prepare the competitive exams to enter une grande école.
07:20It's a system that's been written about a lot, and its benefits and drawbacks.
07:25This is where I've been before going to engineering school.
07:28Except for some private schools, usually business schools, higher education in France is heavily
07:33funded by the state, so the tuition costs are very low.
07:38And being un étudiant, a student, in higher education offers various advantages in day-to-day
07:43life, such as heavy reductions at the museums, cinéma, or for transportation, and also help
07:50for rent.
07:51Et toi ? Did you know the French school system ? Have you, or a loved one, been in it ? How
07:58did it go ? Any tips to share with the community ? Share your experience, in French if you
08:03dare, in the comments below this video.
08:05We can all learn from your story, especially here.
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08:59Sous-titres réalisés para la communauté d'Amara.org