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Ray of hope - FSW - 1

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ns317

Hero Member
Aug 29, 2019
264
262
Well, I've never lived outside of my home country, so everything that I say here will be based on feedback that I get from friends and people that I follow. Basically, I do think that people overvalue the concept of learning a language faster because they're "immersed" in another country. I personally don't believe on this.
Once you land in Québec, you'll have plenty of things to worry about... normal life stuff... paying bills, doing groceries, learning how to move around the city, job search, etc and specially, spending a lot of time in your masters program. In the end, I honestly don't believe you'll be able to find time to study as much french as you would if you really put a lot of effort on learning it now, in your home country, without the stresses of attending classes, doing assignments, taking twice the time to do groceries, building network to get a job, dealing with winter mess, and so on.
Again, just my opinion: I don't think we learn by "immersion". We learn by studying and practicing it. But if we have less time to actually sit, open a book and study the language, immersion is just useless, because you won't magically understand what people is saying.
I did "immersed" byself while I was studying french in Brazil. All my devices were set to French, even my TV operating system. The homepage of my browser became RadioCanada, I did my commute listening to french podcast and watching youtube videos in french, I did iTalki conversation classes almost daily, and so on...

Not trying to convince you otherwise. If you feel the master is the right choice, go for it. But, if I were in your place, I would save that 30k CAD, because in the end I believe you'll get PR faster (and cheaper) by learning french right now.
Well in my case, I've already got my ITA via learning French, so I'm certainly not doing another masters degree in Canada now :)

But for others, it really is a highly subjective thing. I've seen extremely clever people struggling to learn languages, because it just doesn't come naturally to certain people. For those guys, a Canadian masters will almost certainly be a better option to pursue to increase their CRS. For those who are comfortable with languages, French is definitely the way to go.

As for immersion, I've lived in Italy in the past and mastered Italian almost entirely by immersion - never really studied it formally. For French too, as you did, I had set my device languages to that and most of the media I consumed during the time was French - so that was a type of immersion as well. Couple of Indian languages that I know were learned entirely through watching movies. One can learn languages in multiple ways - each approach has its merits.
 

guelphite

Hero Member
Jan 22, 2021
318
303
Ontario, Canada
Category........
FSW
NOC Code......
2173
AOR Received.
28-10-2020
Med's Request
03-12-2020
Med's Done....
07-01-2020
One year masters in Quebec. Costs anywhere between 10K to 30K CAD for international students. More points due to Canadian masters' + the opportunity to improve your spoken French by immersing yourself in a francophone culture. I think that's a good deal for most people. PGWP duration is immaterial if they can apply via FSW immediately after completing the masters.
This! Definitely agree.

Jrossi - most people here are not native portuguese/spanish speakers and your estimates for how easy it is to learn French are not realistic imo
 

hydrizxcv

Star Member
Jan 16, 2020
147
24
Assume a complete beginner to French:
Does anyone have an idea how many hours per week do you need to get a B1 grade and for how long does one need to prepare?

Even a 4 point increase from 467 would be great. My friend has already wasted a lot of time writing IELTS.
 

MapleSyrupPoutine

Star Member
Oct 28, 2020
84
30
UK
Category........
FSW
AOR Received.
05-01-2021
Assume a complete beginner to French:
Does anyone have an idea how many hours per week do you need to get a B1 grade and for how long does one need to prepare?

Even a 4 point increase from 467 would be great. My friend has already wasted a lot of time writing IELTS.
It will depend on what your mother tongue is. As a native French speaker, I would say you would need at least 2h/day for 6 months to reach B1.
 

joconstantine

Hero Member
Mar 30, 2020
657
555
Category........
FSW
NOC Code......
0213
Pre-Assessed..
Yes
AOR Received.
01-08-2020
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ZAtoCD

Champion Member
Nov 3, 2019
1,133
1,329
South Africa
Category........
FSW
Visa Office......
Ottawa
NOC Code......
1123
Looks like there will be even more restrictions. Back to square one. This might be the main reason why general draws have stopped.
Seems like they're going to be very nervous about anything travel-related until the general population is vaccinated, or at least begins to be. And the EU is now threatening to stop exporting vaccines.
 

Uncle Yayo

Hero Member
Jun 16, 2020
379
364
Nigeria
Category........
FSW
Visa Office......
Accra
NOC Code......
4112
Doc's Request.
26-11-2020
AOR Received.
15-10-2020
Med's Done....
08-09-2020
Passport Req..
28-1-2021
Wow a lot PPR rained today from Accra visa office. October AORs, three months time line is so fast.
I agree, I got my PPR this morning.

AOR - Oct 15
MEP - November 26
BIL - November 26
ADR - November 26
IP 1 - December 15
IP2 - Jan 19
PPR - Jan 28
VO - Accra

FSW O, Nigeria
 
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