Blah-blah of the Anglophones

[Chauve-Souris]

French TV is awful !!!

Probably not more than the others. I guess it is a universal constant

True, Olivier (XANA's petit frère bienveillant), but I think those remarks apply primarily to "broadcast" TV.
Among all the specialized channels on SATELLITE, however, one can find some marvelous stuff. Pour moi, there're Cartoon Network, the History Channel, GOL-TV, Fox Soccer Channel, Speed TV(motor racing), Toon Disney, the Science Channel, G4-TV(computers and anime), and stuff like that.
Lately I have discovered RFD-TV. It is farm-life oriented, but includes great stuff on trains, antique tractors, horse-management, etc. So for me there is a lot of great programming. (And I don't even receive the network broadcast channels at all on my system. Who needs (ugh!) Dallas, etc.!)
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[garooob]

I wish you could order individual channels rather than having to get a bunch of them you don't want. If I had a choice, I'd get Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Speed Channel, Fox Sports World, ESPN and ESPN2. That's probably it, because that's about all I watch. Except FSW, cause I don't get that. Otherwise, I'd watch football all day! Oh, isn't there also another Nickelodeon channel that plays classic stuff like Ren & Stimpy and Pete & Pete? I'd get that, too.

[Chauve-Souris]

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Yeah, I was limiting my list. There are two oldie / no-commercials channels now:
-Cartoon Network's "Boomerang", and
-Nickelodeon's "Nicktoons"
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And there're also regular-Nick, regular-Disney, Nog, and Discovery Kids, all of which have plenty of animation -- some of it excellent!
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It's, like, toon-heaven, mate!
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(Incidentally, Nicktoons carries BEAUCOUP "Corneil & Bernie", a French cartoon that is just awful, but only because the English voices are so bad, bad, bad.)
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[Chauve-Souris]

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Hey Mans, Oliv, Clem, or someone:
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Please tell us what is "le brevet"? Some kind of exam certificate, apparently, but is it part of the bac, or what? It looks like maybe everyone takes it -- vrai?
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Clue us poor, ignorant ricains in, please!
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[Olivier]

The "brevet des collèges" is an exam that, as its name suggests, is taken at the end of the collège (so before the lycée) and has nothing to do with the bac. It's made up of 2 parts:

- The so-called "contrôle continu"
- A written exam

The first part consists in the marks that you get all along the year. An average is computed. The written exam gives another mark. A weighted sum gives the final mark, which decides whether you passed the brevet or not.

[MacIntoc]

It looks like maybe everyone takes it -- vrai?

About 80%.

[Olivier]

to take an exam -> passer un examen
to pass an exam -> réussir un examen

[Chauve-Souris]

to take an exam -> passer un examen
to pass an exam -> réussir un examen

Cool, Olivier! That's another of those "false cognates" to add to my horror-list of nasty pitfalls.
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Incidentally, what happens if one does NOT réussir the brevet? Remain in the collège for another year?
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(Thanks, Oliv and Mac, for the answers.)
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[Clem]

No, actually, the "brevet" has no value. If you d'ont have it, it doesn't matter, you even can go to the superior class...



ps: I must read all the topic because I want to answer to what everybody have said before

[manson]

Yes that's true, the brevet isn't important, it is like a training for next exams which are more important like ... the exam of maturity .

Nevertheless, it is a good training cause we get used to sitting for four hours . There are three parts if I remember : french istory and mathematics .
And yet, some pupils don't pay any attention to it cause they had good marks for two years and they passed it before taking it .

[Chauve-Souris]

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Mans, thanks. That's a strange situation, but I guess the main reason for Lyokofans' concern about passing the brevet is to not get in trouble with the parents, hein?
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And as for you, your attitude about the exam sections was well expressed by your use of smilies. I've always preferred the maths too.
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So, are you getting edgy regarding four days from now? If you and Vivi expect the news on EXACTLY the 4th of July, it must not be arriving by mail. So do you have to phone or go online to find out how you did? Or do they post it in a parchment document that's nailed to the mairie door (arf?). Oh well, we're not worried, are we...?
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[manson]

lol no don't worry be happy !

about the results , it must be different for vivi cause it's more important , but concerning the exam of maturity I must go to the high school in order to see the results . But I think we can use internet too, i'm not sure .

And of course I prefer the maths, french is totally useless to my mind and istory, it's interesting but ... difficult to learn .

About the brevet, you're right, if you pass it, it is good but not exceptional , and if you fail it, parents get angry and aren't proud of us .

[Chauve-Souris]

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Well, I hate to keep bugging you with silly questions, but now I am wondering how the bac can be less important to you, Mans, than to Vivi. Isn't it the same as a high school diploma to us yanks, i.e., you can't go further in school and you can't get a decent job without it?
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I've also noticed that you seem to be taking it in separate parts, on different occasions over a year or more, but Vivi did it all at once -- I think. Geez, exam-taking seems to be a national sport there (and in Japan). I'm glad I was a dumb Yank kid....(arf)
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[manson]

After the bac I'll carry on studying at the university, so isn't finished for me . But concerning Vivi, I think after her exam, she will study a bit obviously but she is going to have a real job . That's why I think it's more important .

About the bac and how does it runs, it's different for every students cause there are several kind of "terminale" : Me I'm in S ( scientific ) but it also exists L, ES ( economic ), STT ( ? ) and other fields .
When we're in "première" ( before "terminale" ) the S sit for the french exam ( written and spoken ) , then in terminale , there is the rest of the bac :
written with all the exams at the end of the year,
"TP" just before the bac which are" laboratory experiment " in physic and biology,
"TPE" which is a thesis on a special topic , it last the half of the year ; And I think it's ok .

But other fields are differents : For example, the ES or the L sit for the physic and the math in " première " and after ( "in terminale" ) they no longer study it . A bit like the S with the french .

I hope you understand me cause I don't know how to say the different class in English, I think it is a different system than "première" or "terminale" . I was told "premiere" was for you the eleventh grade ... but it looks strange so i prefer not saying it .

[Chauve-Souris]

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Great, Mans -- thanks.
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But now tell us about yourself. What field are you going to study at the university? Since you like math, perhaps it is engineering?
(Have you had any calculus yet? Geez, it is like a magic trip to another universe. You'll love it! Isaac Newton must have been SOME brain!)
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And what university are you going to? (I got my first degree at the University of Michigan [Ann Arbor], and my second at the U. of New Mexico [Albuquerque].
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Well, the 4th of July is tomorrow, so I hope your news is good....)
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[manson]

Well, the 4th of July is tomorrow, so I hope your news is good....)

Lol, I was satisfied of myself at the end of the bac so I don't worry . An other reason is that I'm too tired to worry cause of a little party for a friend who is just eighteen

But now tell us about yourself. What field are you going to study at the university? Since you like math, perhaps it is engineering?
[...]
And what university are you going to? (I got my first degree at the University of Michigan [Ann Arbor], and my second at the U. of New Mexico [Albuquerque

You will never see me in a "prepa" in order to be an enginer , I hate being supervised , so I'll go to an university so that I'll win autonomy .
I'll go to the university of ... Clermont Ferrand ( I don't know exactly its name but I know it is famous cause where I live, is a big study center with lots of high school and university )
And I go there to learn medicine I know I must toil but I'll toil . The work usually don't afraid me .

[Chauve-Souris]

And I go there to learn medicine

Wow! That will be hard work, indeed! But I'm sure you will do well.
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Bon courage! Go get 'em, Mans!!!
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[Chauve-Souris]

Among all the specialized channels on SATELLITE, however, one can find some marvelous stuff.

Another specialized channel is the NASA channel -- 24 hours a day of NASA activities and educational sessions -- which I keep on my surfing rotation list. Early this morning they had live coverage of the comet-impact mission. Yikes, was that amazing or what? And they nailed it exactly as planned.
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...makes a guy proud.... :wave:
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[kystrelchandler_Lyoko]

The date thing a couple pages back wasn't all that confusing...but then again, I've taken french I in school, so I pretty much had all that stuff explained to me. I don't like how america's not on the metric system, either! ^_^

[manson]

Yes chauve souris , You changed your avatar and your sign ! Good , I like how KIWI acts !

[Chauve-Souris]

Yes chauve souris , You changed your avatar and your sign ! Good , I like how KIWI acts !...

Thanks, but I made a mistake, resulting in a big blemish on Odd's cheek when Kiwi's ear moves away, so I have taken it out of my signature. I probably can't fix it, but I'll be doing more of that stuff now that I have found a great program for it (GIF Animator). And I got the program in French, so I'll be soaking up the français while I'm trying to figure out how to animate....
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[Chauve-Souris]

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Ooooops! Never mind. I figured out how to fix the GIF file....
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[manson]

GIF animator ? I don't know that program but it looks to be usefull , i will look for it !
And now your signature is perfect ... but i didn't see the problem before you changed it

[Chauve-Souris]

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Yeah, GIF Animator en effet. It's a ULead program specifically for making these animated GIF files. You can download it on a free trial basis, and then when you are hooked it costs around thirty-something Eurs, I think.
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http://www.ulead.fr/store/store.htm
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It is one of the best graphics programs I have ever used. It doesn't offer a lot of drawing features -- you are supposed to go to your favorite graphics editor for fancy drawing jobs -- but it surely does everything you want for the animation.
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To switch to another editor requires that that editor can handle some rather uncommon file formats, so I haven't dealt with that yet. In the meantime, I've been able to do all of the drawing jusqu'ici right inside of GIF Animator. It's really fun and interesting. (I'll expect to see your avatar pulling his goggles down over his eyes any day now....erf, erf)
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[manson]

I'll expect to see your avatar pulling his goggles down over his eyes any day now....erf, erf)

Lol, i can tell you that i will never change my avatar but my signature ... I will try to do something thanks to gif animator
thank you for the adress


edit : Arf i don't like sharware, i'll try to find a freeware or a crack .