Sejour a Evron...

 Sometimes you forget what it’s like to be a student. You move so far from being a learner that you can’t remember how it feels to be uncertain and not understand.. Having watched our English immersion students struggle, comprehend and live the learning experience, I decided it was time I followed their example and immersed myself in French.
Since qualifying as a teacher inthe early seventies I have always been driven to improve and to learn more. Through London University externals, the Open University & numerous accredited courses,  to a Masters degree at Manchester I have striven in,  my own time,to learn more.

Now was my time to apply all that knowledge and all those forty experiential years. With some trepidation I set off for my sejour with my French hosts Monette & Louis. What a wonderful time, eight hours plus daily in French. Beautiful  house  ,excellent French cuisine, fine wines and cultural education; I ate, drank and yes, even dreamt ,in French.

And what did I learn? Well in addition to consolidating my grammar and improving my conjugations I learnt the pleasure and confidence that being relaxed into a language gives. All my early childhood memories of learning and writing, all that excitement came flooding back. Like then I was eager to learn more, practise and apply. Hungry to communicate at my level of cognition it was a rewarding & truly amazing experience.

I learnt too, the skill of a good teacher; who can make confusion & sadness into comprehension & pleasure. So this is a thank you to all those past teachers who inspired me and who may never know.

 

And to my newest teachers and now friends ~ to Monett for her patience and creativity and Louis for his humour and oenology, I say “ Merci mes amis”.

What did I learn? Well I relearnt the excitement of learning!

(With special thanks to Sarah & Beatrice of ‘Let’s Speak’ who were so encouraging).