Who wants to read?

This video is hilarious, probably because it’s true. Cursing seems like it’s no big deal here. The French really do make all those noises with their mouths. After watching this video, I realized that I do it too. I don’t know why, I guess it just feels more natural when speaking French. They also say “ben…” a lot (pronounced more like bah—it’s nasal). Par exemple: “Ben… oui! Ben… regarde! Ben… écoute!”

The other day, I was reading Starter for Ten by David Nichols and since it’s British, I had the urge to try and read a passage out loud in a (horrible) British accent. The result? A French accent. Even as I tried to change it back to sound like I went to Hogwarts, it would just switch back to French, especially with my pronunciation of the ‘r’s. I’ve already randomly said English words with French accent in conversation. I apologize in advance if this ever happens when I’m speaking to you.

Anyways…

With the start of the new year, I’ve restarted the “freak out about my future” cycle. A year ago, I knew that I wanted to do this particular program for 2 reasons. One: I would get to live in France and work on my French speaking skills and two: it’s a test to see if teaching is for me.

I’m about halfway through the program and I still haven’t completely made up my mind about teaching. Naturally, there are good days and there are bad days. There are good lessons and there are bad lessons. Even though I have over 100 students, I’ve gotten to know each group enough to figure out what sorts of lessons work for each of them. One lesson can be really successful with a certain groups, but then a total failure with others. For the most part, the classes that are willing to participate are the ones that voluntarily added an extra hour of English class with me to their schedules. So naturally, the classes/groups that don’t participate are the ones that are sent to me during their normal English class time.

It’s frustrating getting those blank stares from students, especially when I know that they understood because I can hear them translating it for their friends. If no one volunteers, I reach for the roll. Sometimes it works and somebody raises his or her hand right away. But more often than not, I pick a name. The most frustrating lesson I had recently was when I decided to do a comparison between French lycées and American high schools, especially since that was a popular topic. I was telling them about the US education system-- elementary, middle, and high school. I just asked them for the French equivalent. Their responses? Head down, avoiding eye contact, until finally one student spoke up and said that maternelle would be the equivalent to American preschool. I’ve noticed that this mostly happens in the bigger groups. I guess it’s because they all think they can hide, unlike in small groups.

Luckily, I have enough classes that participate to make me not completely hate my job. I’ve noticed that for the most part the terminales (seniors) are the least motivated. I do have a couple good terminale classes, one of them being the only class that I see every single week (I set them up with penpals with my sister’s French class in the US!). My secondes (equivalent to freshmen) are all pretty good. As a matter of fact, this past week, 2 students brought their friends into my class just because they wanted to sit in on my class during their free period (instead of being hoodlums/smoking outside)!

Being a teacher in a completely different school system is definitely an interesting to experience to say the least. One day in the teacher’s lounge, some teachers were saying that it gets harder and harder to motivate their students because they use up all this energy trying to motivate them, but in the end, they get nothing, so then they have to motivate themselves to motivate others. After this conversation, one of my colleagues asked me if I was sure that I want to become a teacher. I told her that I’m not sure. Also, I had dinner with another English teacher recently. It was interesting to hear her thoughts about student and the education systemfrom someone who’s been teaching for 30 years, especially with all the reforms going on. But in the end, despite all of their complaints, they still say that they love teaching.

My experience hasn’t sent me running in the other direction, so I guess that’s a good sign? I’ve also recently had dreams about teaching. I’m just in front of a class, teaching or disciplining. As a matter of fact, in my most recent dream, the students thought I was being too mean. They haven’t been like nightmares, so I guess that’s a good sign too?

I also sometimes wonder if my lack of decision has anything to do with high schoolers. The boys I tutor are a lot more enthusiastic about learning English and they like to show off what they know. So maybe when teaching a foreign language, it’s better to do it when they’re just starting off because they’re more excited? The fact that my secondes are better (participation wise) than my terminales just proves my little theory.

My favorite part of teaching? Writing on the chalkboard and using the copy machineIt makes me feel so… teacher-y.

I need to keep up with my resolution to start updating this more often. I’ll work on that. Hopefully they’ll be more little anecdotes or observations that don’t have to do with teaching.

Bisous x

Nicole (say that with a really French accent)

Bonne Année!

I suppose that it’s finally time to update my blog—it‘s been almost a month. Maybe a new year’s resolution should be to update more often?

I spent mes vacances in England, first visiting my sister in London and then spending the holidays with my cousin and her family in Peacehaven (near Brighton). I found it kind of ironic, because on the train ride to London, my brain was still a bit in French mode and I even chose to listen to Zaz (a French artist) on my iPod. During the first couple of days, I was still somewhat in French mode, especially when I heard people on the bus or in museums speaking in French. Also, I want to say that I love accents and whenever I heard people speaking, I was so tempted to speak back in my oh so fake and horrible British accent. Luckily, I resisted (and avoided embarrassment—maybe I should just stick to my bad French accent).

Going from the small town of Béthune with 30,000 people (according to Wikipedia, but I swear it’s less) to the big city of London (should I even bother to look up this statistic?) was a pretty big change. Walk around Béthune at 9 pm and there’ll barely be any cars or people (if you’re not in the centre-ville, but even then, it can get pretty empty, especially since the Christmas Market is over). Walk around London at 9 pm and it’s completely the opposite. Cars, buses, and people everywhere. I did tell my sister that there were so many Asians (Béthune also isn’t too diverse). But of course, there’s so many of … everybody.

My first full day in London, Tuesday, I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and saw the Power of Making exhibit since it was free, but I didn’t see the Postmodernism one, which I wanted to see. Unfortunately, I didn’t think about taking my sister's ID so I could get in for free. My favorite part in the V&A Museum was probably the jewelry room. I like looking at the jewelry from way back when over the centuries and I can’t help but think how much I would love to wear some of their pieces. They also swords and crowns—so cool! Afterwards, I went to the British Museum, where I saw the Rosetta Stone (of course there was a huge crowd around it the first time I walked through the room), and other things like the remains from the pediments of the Parthenon, and Greek vases. Then, we went out for my sister’s early birthday celebrations and got to listen to some blues. It’s always nice to listen/see live music. :)

V&A Museum

Inside the British Museum

Rosetta stone

Wednesday, I wandered over to Buckingham Palace, took pictures along with other tourists and then walked down the Mall and stopped in the Institute of Contemporary Art for a bit before heading over to Trafalgar Square, where I was touristy once again and took pictures before going into the National Gallery. I saw some impressionist paintings (one of my favorite artistic movements) and some paintings by Camille Pissarro and Georges Seurat. Then I headed over the National Portrait Gallery, where one of my sister’s friends escorted me into the First Actresses for free. The weirdest thing in the NPG is the blood head. At first, I was just looking at it and thought maybe the artist had just used red wax. Nope. It’s his own blood. Kinda creepy, not gonna lie.

Buckingham Palace

Trafalgar Square

Thursday, we headed to Greenwich. We wandered around the market, and of course we bought some food, sweets, and mulled wine. Noms. Then we wandered around the Old Royal Naval College before trekking up to the Royal Observatory. I wasn’t going to pay 7 pounds just to see the Prime Meridian; so luckily, I was able to take a picture of it through the gate. :P We visited the Queen’s House for a bit and then later that night we saw Chicago, starring America Ferrara! As always, musicals make me wish that I could sing and dance (side note: I wonder if taking dance when I was younger would have helped prevent my old lady foot problem, or if it would’ve just made it worse). That actually reminds me, I’m surprised that I haven’t tried to download the soundtrack yet…



Royal Observatory on top of that hill



 The Prime Meridian

View of London

Friday was Aisa’s birthday, so that meant FOOD. We headed to Bourough Market (omg like heaven for my family ha), where there was TONS of food! We had two delicious sandwiches – one was chorizo and the other had lamb… nomnoms, once again, more mulled wine, and bought some baklava (teehee). Trying to fight the itis, we then went to Tate Modern. I wish I could’ve seen the Gehrard Richter exhibit since from the postcards and books I saw in the gift shop, I would’ve liked his work/probably should have studied him back in high school.

Christmas Eve, we left for Brighton to visit my cousin and her family. It was really nice to be around family and with the Filipino parties and food, it felt more like the Christmas season and a bit more like home (the rest of my family went to Orlando and went to Harry Potter World/Land (?)… kinda jeal!). The week in Brighton/Peacehaven from Christmas to New Year’s involved lots of food and therefore, naps. It was a nice relaxing week. Aisa and I took walks along the coast to try and not be complete bums and try and maybe work off some of the holiday weight (even though we ended up buying chips on the way back…). I also did a bit of post-holiday shopping in the town centre, but I didn’t buy too much (I’m actually being better with my shopping habits now!).

On the coast-- Peacehaven

One day during the week, Aisa and I went into Brighton and visited the Royal Pavilion and the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. I thought the Royal Pavilion was really nice, especially with the Asian influences (although the dragon on top of the chandelier in the dining room was a bit scary). We also had some tea and scones in the tearoom--- my first real cup of English tea! Afterwards, we just wandered more around the shops in town. Brighton is such a nice quaint town and it’s on the coast—so pretty!

Royal Pavilion

Brighton Museum and Art Gallery

tea and scones

New Year’s Day we headed back to London… and the wheels on my suitcase broke off. Lesson learned: don’t buy cheap suitcases. But I made it back to Béthune… back to being the only Filipino in the village. I definitely have to visit England again, not only to visit family, but also to do more touristy things (like the Tower of London, the London Eye), and see other parts of England. This is one perk of being in the north of France.

As for teaching, well it’s teaching. There’s not much to update there. Wednesday was my first day back teaching (school officially started on Tuesday, but I didn’t have to teach). For a bit during my first class of the day, I forgot that I couldn’t speak at my normal-having-conversation-with-friends speed since it’s hard for the students to understand me (props to any students who could). If you know me, you know that I speak pretty fast (my family likes to say it’s because I was born in NY), and it’s a bit shocking to hear how slowly I speak to my students. As a matter of fact, a couple of months ago, I found the interview I did for the school on youtube (I’ll have to find it again) and I was surprised at my speed.

For some reason the dreary, windy weather here in Béthune just feels more depressing. Sure, it was rainy and cloudy in England. Maybe it’s because at least in Brighton and London, the streets were still busy and full of life. That’s not really the case here. I feel like the streets only look busy when it’s noon and all of the students are leaving the school to walk that one block to the cafeteria.  

I can’t believe it’s 2012. 2011 was a pretty good year, probably the best that I’ve had in a while. A year ago, I was praying and hoping that I would end up in France after graduation and here I am. I had always told people that I would move here at some point after I graduate, but I didn’t really expect it to come true and so soon!

Here’s to an even better 2012… !

Bises x