Hi aska,

I’ve got a few questions, so I’ll keep them short and simple.

1. I’ve just applied for a BA(Humanities) majoring in Spanish at U of T St George. My current average is an 87%. Should I be panicking about being accepted?

2. I’ve been told that none of the Spanish profs are native speakers. I’d like to know if this is true or not. I’d prefer to learn from a native speaker because I am already a bilingual speaker.

3. Is there a club for French Canadian students? Im French Canadian. I’ve been told various times that people in Toronto really, really don’t like us. At all. Is this something that could hold me back socially or is it just some sort of friendly rivalry caused by hockey? Is there a French Canadian student association?

4. I’ve been looking into sororities. Judging from their websites, they seem like a good idea. However, my boyfriend is in a fraternity and says that most of them are bad and cult-like. Could anyone help me out with this?

Cheers

M

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Hi M, sorry about the extremely late response. I totally missed your post for some reason. Anyway, hope the reply makes up for it.

1) I wouldn’t panic if I were you. Just try and keep your marks up, but make sure to enjoy your last year of high school too!

2) Check out this webpage. In the FAQ session, it says ‘Our instructors come from different regional origins, and our curriculum is inclusive, so you will hear different accents and be exposed to a variety of texts. Our basic courses emphasize the common structure of the language and no particular accent or dialectal usage is preferred over another. As you progress, you will become exposed to the richness of Spanish across the world.’

Glancing over the staff listed in the departments webpage, at least two of the professors did their degree in Argentina. Another was born in Dominican Republic and grew up in Puerto Rico. Another was born in Brazil – at least that’s a neighbour of a Spanish-speaking country. If that’s not good enough for you, then you’re just being picky. Instead of being hell-bent on being taught by a native-speaker, why not embrace the diversity of the professors at UofT? After all, not all English professors have English listed as their first language, and physics professors certainly dont start out doing quantum mechanics as babies. Even though some of your professors may not be native speakers of Spanish, it doesnt mean you won’t learn anything from them. In fact, it might, as the FAQ says, ‘expose [you] to the richness of Spanish across the world.’

If you check out the anti-calendar, youll see that all the Spanish classes are very small compared to many of the other classes at UofT – ITA251 had 23 students and ITA355 had 21 and so on. If anything, youll enjoy the personal attention that the professors will be able to offer you.

For more information, you may want to check out the courses offered and/or email the department. For opportunities to actually practise speaking in a Spanish setting, you may want to look into an exchange program to Spain or Mexico or another Spanish-speaking country.

3) I’ve browsed through ULife and I cant find one, though I did find a French Club that seems pretty active. You can also try asking the French club if they have events specifically for French Canadian students. I haven’t really had a problem with prejudice against French Canadians, but then again, I’m not French Canadian. At the end, though, I think Toronto really is an extremely diverse city. I suppose it’s possible that you might meet a bigot, but the chance is probably less than that of most other cities… most people are pretty open here.

The French Club probably has some French Canadian members. How about emailing the club and asking to speak to one of their French Canadian members? They might be able to give you a better perspective about life in Toronto as a French Canadian than I am able to.

4) The past responses in the fraternities and sororities category have been very negative, but being objective isn’t really a requirement of aska’s job. But anyway, the sororities page has some information that pertains to UofTs sororities directly that you might want to read up on. Apparently, they have no hazing rituals, so thats good for you. They don’t seem to be on the radar of most UofT students, from my experience, but perhaps the average UofT student avoids them because they are ignorant of them and the only thing they know about frats/sororities are the stereotypes they have. Stereotypes shouldnt dissuade you from joining one, though. One of my friends supports them whole-heartedly… while another one says that there hasnt been any bad press about them for years. Still, you should note that the sororities at UofT are not recognized as official clubs, unlike they are in the US.

If you are interested in sororities, then you should go to the ‘rush’, their recruitment period. There you’ll be able to meet with other people from each sorority and see how you get along with them and see how you feel in that certain sorority. It might give you an idea of whether or not you’d like to join, just like touring a University would give you an idea of whether or not you’d like to attend it. At the end, joining a sorority is not signing a contract. If you join a sorority and then find that they are actually obsessed-with partying or they offend your morals (or whatever), you can always ‘depledge’ and withdraw from one. Also, if/when you get into UofT, your local college registrar is just a call away and may be able to give you more information.

No one can tell you whether or not to join a sorority but yourself. Personally, I would never join one but hey, I’m more of a person who likes to talk with people on a one-to-one basis. If the panhellenic lifestyle (yeah, sorry, I just had to post something stereotypical … like I said, being objective is not part of aska’s job. Oh, and don’t watch that movie. It’s terrible.) appeals to you, then by all means, go for it.