On doit toujours parler en français!

With the beginning of our real teaching period and the end of our first break, the other assistants who live at Blaringhem and I have decided to actually speak in French with each other all the time, or as much as possible. We had been speaking English with each other ever since we arrived, so it hasn’t really done much to improve our French, and when we actually do speak French to other teachers or waiters, we found ourselves stumbling, trying to get our mind back in French mode, thinking about vocab and grammar. Now with us trying to constantly speak in French, it’s helping our brains constantly be in French mode and like anything else, practice makes perfect.

To help my brain stay in French mode, I’ve been watching more tv when I have time and at times, I just leave it on the music channel (even if there are some songs in English), instead of watching whatever shows I have on my external HD or listening to music that’s in English. I’ve been watching a show called Plus belle la vie, which is on during lunch and in the afternoons, and I guess it could be almost like a French soap opera or drama? I’m still trying to follow the characters and how they’re related to each other. All I know is that this one guy is in love with his mother-in-law.

Also, in the mornings, when I’m getting ready and eating breakfast, I’ve watched cartoons/kids shows, like “Le Petit Nicolas,” or the news. In the morning, there are a lot of infomercials, and a few of them are dubbed. I find it interesting because I have seen a lot (and I mean A LOT) of infomercials for these undergarments for women that instantly slim the figure. I think the name of one them is ceinture ventre plat (belt for a flat stomach). A lot of them are things that help enhance/slim the figure or exercise equipment in general. I wonder if this has anything to do with the stereotype that all French women are thin.

On Sundays, after church, How I Met Your Mother is on tv. And of course, anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love that show, so of I course I watch it, even dubbed in French. Legendary is translated into = Hallucinant! “C’est hallu… attends… cinant!” That definitely doesn’t have the same feel as legendary. It also makes me wonder how they translated the line with “… and I hope you’re not lactose intolerant because the end is dary (or something like that).”

Teaching

Now, I really understand how teachers feel when students don’t participate, when they ask a question and nobody raises their hand, and why they randomly call on people. I know it’s difficult because it’s a foreign language and because they’re not used to hearing an American accent as opposed to a British English accent. Hopefully the lessons when I do games, etc. will be better, but for now, I’m still seeing certain classes for a first time, so I have to get a feel for the students and their levels. Also, I’m hoping that the students are just shy and eventually they’ll warm up to me. Thank goodness for the Hermiones of the class (the student who will raise his/her hand and will most likely have the answer to every question or who volunteer for everything). When I think about it though, 5 years ago, when I was in their spot, I barely ever participated. One of the teachers lent me some books with ideas for games, etc. for teaching English as a foreign language, so I’m definitely going to look into those. 

One really interesting thing that I found out from my students’ introductions is that they live all over the place. When I say all over the place, I really do mean throughout the region. Some of them don’t actually live in Béthune, some live in the small towns right outside of Béthune, and others live in towns that are a bit farther out. For example, one student lives in Arras, which is the big town I visited over break, and that’s a good 30 minute train ride away. I’ve also heard of students living Hazerbrouck (another town, at least a 15 minute train ride away). This isn’t too weird to me considering that I went to Henrico High School for IB, so students came from all over the county, but Blaringhem doesn’t have a specialty center. It doesn’t seem like they do zoning at all, and I wonder how students choose to attend this particular lycée. There are other lyccées in the area that do have some sort of specialty program as well. I guess this is something that I’m going to have to find out in a lesson I do about high school in the US vs. lycées in France.

We have a 3-day weekend coming up for Armistice Day (11/11), so hopefully I’ll be able to go to Belgium… more specifically Brugges! I heard it’s the chocolate festival there this weekend too…

Bises xx