I'm finally plugged into the world again!
(All right, take two!)
I FINALLY HAVE INTERNET IN THE APARTMENT! \o/ Lo, 'tis an epic tale of adventure, steadfast alliances, heartrending confusion, and an epic quest spanning the whole length and breadth of the fair city of Rouen. But, long story short, it took ten to fifteen days to set up the internet account (for some reason - I suspect the love the French have for bureaucracy is at the heart of it), but Claudine, my supervising professor, helped me work through the steps, so now Evelin and I have internet!
(Evelin, btw, is the Spanish language assistant. We communicate through French, because she only speaks a little English. It's better this way: we both get to practice… though we keep running up against walls when we realize that so many domestic terms were not covered in any of our French classes. Neither of us knew the French word for "dish towel, for instance, and so we get around it by saying the equivalent of "that piece of cloth we use for cleaning and drying off the dishes". Still, we're managing!)
Anyway, things have been going well! I have been mostly observing other teacher's classes last week and this one. I've sat in on classes on art, music, physical education, math, French (review and pro-tips for me!), and, yes, even a few English ones. Mostly, the purpose has been to introduce and/or acclimatize me to the students, as well as to let me see how the French teachers teach. I have also determined one very important fact
I totally would not have survived as a student in France at their age. I'm not thick-skinned enough. I'd be cringing all the time, perhaps in tears. The teachers here are not afraid to put the students in their place, verbally. They will scold them in front of everyone for what seems to me to be very slight misdemeanours. One kid got told off - told that he was bothering the whole class - when he unzipped his pencil case to get out a white out pen while the teacher was speaking. I have also heard teachers actually yell at students for things like speaking in class. I also saw one student crying in the hallway, and the teacher I was with asked what was wrong. Apparently she didn't do an assignment correctly and so had gotten a poor grade. The teacher said the equivalent of "serves you right" and walked on. I would have been terrified to be a student!
That being said, these teachers are the sweetest and funniest people in the whole wide world in the staff room, and even to me. One teacher snapped at a student in class for playing with his ruler and in the next breath was smiling and asking me how my "installation" (AKA moving-in) was going, and gave me recommendations for nice places to walk on the weekend. Today in the staff room I saw one of the teachers make a paper airplane out of a flyer and untie another teacher's shoelaces as a joke. I'm glad that I'm not on the student side of things. The worst I've had to do so far as an assistant is shush students suddenly for speaking out of turn in class… and one teacher told off a student for me when she made a disrespectful sound when I spoke about aboriginal people in Canada. I'm glad that the teacher dealt with it. ANYWAY I'm glad that I don't have to live in fear in class?
I have been interrogated by students so many times this past week it would make the Spanish Inquisition proud. In last week's classes it was mostly in French because not all of the students were in my English classes. This week, the students are less enthusiastic because many of them are still rather weak in English, and, quite frankly, formulating questions in English is HARD. "How do you"/"Which are/is", "What are/is", etc. Which one/what one do you use?? It's much more complicated than the simple French inversion of subject and verb. E.g.:"Tu as une pomme."(You have an apple.) becomes "As-tu une pomme?" (Have you an apple?). In English, they can't ask any question that pops into their heads. Many of them last week were fond of asking me if I spoke "Canadien", among other things, and the English-language questions were often about my hobbies, dreams, favourite colour/animal/sport etc.
I often write my answers (the key words) on the board, especially if it's something unusual like "knitting" or a place name. The teacher and I have also taken to quizzing the students at the end to see if they understood, and statement answers are easier for them to say. We ask things like "Where was Lauren born?" "What is her job in Canada?" and so on. It's really interesting!
I've also had professors assign me an escort of three boys to take me to a classroom I've never been to before. It makes me feel important, to have a posse.
The kids are generally pretty friendly. You always have a few disinterested ones in each class - the teens who are "too cool" for this. It's too bad, because they're missing out on a great opportunity. I'll try to engage them as much as I can anyway. I'm also probably going to lead a few conversation clubs for some of the keeners. I've run into a few of the students outside of class, mostly on the way to the metro stop around the time that school lets out. They have been very good about answering my questions and like to ask me about things like if I eat Nutella. I also did "la bise" (the cheek kiss greeting) with a few of the girls, and I'm not sure if it's something you only do with equals, but they seemed really pleased about it anyway.
(Side note: I never know whether to do la bise or handshake with professors. I normally wait for them to make the first move.)
They are also super polite about the mistakes I make in my oral French (not that my co-workers aren't, but I feel like they're not judging me)... though I'm pretty sure the students find my Quebecois accent amusingly strange/exotic rather than just endearing. The coworkers who've mentioned it say that it sounds cute, and is noticeable when I say certain words or phrases, like the "o" sound in "c'est la même chose". I still say "barrer la porte" ("bar the door") instead of "verouiller la porte" ("lock the door") and "souliers" instead of "chaussures" for shoes... oh, and "bicyclette" instead of "vélo" for bicycle. They say my French is clear and that I'm understandable, but I know for a fact that it's riddled with errors and provincialisms.
So those are my thoughts from the past week! I think I recovered most of what I was going to say, despite the limitations of my 21st century technological skills. Seriously, sometimes I think that if it didn't exist in 1846, I don't know how to use it…
Next time, expect more talk about history and museums in Rouen. I only technically work 12 hours a week, so I have plenty of spare time to visit nearby Rouen (which is twenty-five minutes away by metro! Easy-peasy!). You bet I've been hitting up every single museum there ever. Sneak preview: lots of breathtaking cathedrals and Joan of Arc related sites.
I FINALLY HAVE INTERNET IN THE APARTMENT! \o/ Lo, 'tis an epic tale of adventure, steadfast alliances, heartrending confusion, and an epic quest spanning the whole length and breadth of the fair city of Rouen. But, long story short, it took ten to fifteen days to set up the internet account (for some reason - I suspect the love the French have for bureaucracy is at the heart of it), but Claudine, my supervising professor, helped me work through the steps, so now Evelin and I have internet!
(Evelin, btw, is the Spanish language assistant. We communicate through French, because she only speaks a little English. It's better this way: we both get to practice… though we keep running up against walls when we realize that so many domestic terms were not covered in any of our French classes. Neither of us knew the French word for "dish towel, for instance, and so we get around it by saying the equivalent of "that piece of cloth we use for cleaning and drying off the dishes". Still, we're managing!)
Anyway, things have been going well! I have been mostly observing other teacher's classes last week and this one. I've sat in on classes on art, music, physical education, math, French (review and pro-tips for me!), and, yes, even a few English ones. Mostly, the purpose has been to introduce and/or acclimatize me to the students, as well as to let me see how the French teachers teach. I have also determined one very important fact
I totally would not have survived as a student in France at their age. I'm not thick-skinned enough. I'd be cringing all the time, perhaps in tears. The teachers here are not afraid to put the students in their place, verbally. They will scold them in front of everyone for what seems to me to be very slight misdemeanours. One kid got told off - told that he was bothering the whole class - when he unzipped his pencil case to get out a white out pen while the teacher was speaking. I have also heard teachers actually yell at students for things like speaking in class. I also saw one student crying in the hallway, and the teacher I was with asked what was wrong. Apparently she didn't do an assignment correctly and so had gotten a poor grade. The teacher said the equivalent of "serves you right" and walked on. I would have been terrified to be a student!
That being said, these teachers are the sweetest and funniest people in the whole wide world in the staff room, and even to me. One teacher snapped at a student in class for playing with his ruler and in the next breath was smiling and asking me how my "installation" (AKA moving-in) was going, and gave me recommendations for nice places to walk on the weekend. Today in the staff room I saw one of the teachers make a paper airplane out of a flyer and untie another teacher's shoelaces as a joke. I'm glad that I'm not on the student side of things. The worst I've had to do so far as an assistant is shush students suddenly for speaking out of turn in class… and one teacher told off a student for me when she made a disrespectful sound when I spoke about aboriginal people in Canada. I'm glad that the teacher dealt with it. ANYWAY I'm glad that I don't have to live in fear in class?
I have been interrogated by students so many times this past week it would make the Spanish Inquisition proud. In last week's classes it was mostly in French because not all of the students were in my English classes. This week, the students are less enthusiastic because many of them are still rather weak in English, and, quite frankly, formulating questions in English is HARD. "How do you"/"Which are/is", "What are/is", etc. Which one/what one do you use?? It's much more complicated than the simple French inversion of subject and verb. E.g.:"Tu as une pomme."(You have an apple.) becomes "As-tu une pomme?" (Have you an apple?). In English, they can't ask any question that pops into their heads. Many of them last week were fond of asking me if I spoke "Canadien", among other things, and the English-language questions were often about my hobbies, dreams, favourite colour/animal/sport etc.
I often write my answers (the key words) on the board, especially if it's something unusual like "knitting" or a place name. The teacher and I have also taken to quizzing the students at the end to see if they understood, and statement answers are easier for them to say. We ask things like "Where was Lauren born?" "What is her job in Canada?" and so on. It's really interesting!
I've also had professors assign me an escort of three boys to take me to a classroom I've never been to before. It makes me feel important, to have a posse.
The kids are generally pretty friendly. You always have a few disinterested ones in each class - the teens who are "too cool" for this. It's too bad, because they're missing out on a great opportunity. I'll try to engage them as much as I can anyway. I'm also probably going to lead a few conversation clubs for some of the keeners. I've run into a few of the students outside of class, mostly on the way to the metro stop around the time that school lets out. They have been very good about answering my questions and like to ask me about things like if I eat Nutella. I also did "la bise" (the cheek kiss greeting) with a few of the girls, and I'm not sure if it's something you only do with equals, but they seemed really pleased about it anyway.
(Side note: I never know whether to do la bise or handshake with professors. I normally wait for them to make the first move.)
They are also super polite about the mistakes I make in my oral French (not that my co-workers aren't, but I feel like they're not judging me)... though I'm pretty sure the students find my Quebecois accent amusingly strange/exotic rather than just endearing. The coworkers who've mentioned it say that it sounds cute, and is noticeable when I say certain words or phrases, like the "o" sound in "c'est la même chose". I still say "barrer la porte" ("bar the door") instead of "verouiller la porte" ("lock the door") and "souliers" instead of "chaussures" for shoes... oh, and "bicyclette" instead of "vélo" for bicycle. They say my French is clear and that I'm understandable, but I know for a fact that it's riddled with errors and provincialisms.
So those are my thoughts from the past week! I think I recovered most of what I was going to say, despite the limitations of my 21st century technological skills. Seriously, sometimes I think that if it didn't exist in 1846, I don't know how to use it…
Next time, expect more talk about history and museums in Rouen. I only technically work 12 hours a week, so I have plenty of spare time to visit nearby Rouen (which is twenty-five minutes away by metro! Easy-peasy!). You bet I've been hitting up every single museum there ever. Sneak preview: lots of breathtaking cathedrals and Joan of Arc related sites.