Votre Prenom...

Votre Premon?

French first names are rarely shortened or changed to nick names. Christophe is not Chris, Valerie not Val and Thomas not Tom. They take a pride in their full title; Marie-Louise, Jean- Claude or Louis-Henri.

Unlike the UK & US, where Bill & Bobs, Ron and Rob, Marty & Matt, Pam & Pat, abound. English first names are less traditional, changed by fashion, influenced by celebrities or fiction. Not in France the Kylies (Minogue), Harry (Prince or Potter), Wayne (John or Rooney), Johnny (Depp or Halliday). Neither do they intentionally invent or spell names differently; no Corrie-Lea, Kristofer or Zandras.

Granted they have David (Beckham or Bowie), Sylvestre ( Stalone) and Henry (Thierry or King), but it’s because they are traditional names. Names like Jean, Baptiste, Claudine or Virginia. In fact every day of the year is dedicated to a different saint’s name. These names are not just listed as a religious acknowledgement of that saint, but can be used to determine your name. Each December the local M/Md les Poste sell calendars (helps as a Christmas bonus) and, amongst the local information & maps is an almanac of saints’ days. Born January 21^st my middle name is likely to be Agnes, April 20th possibly Odette and I may celebrate the saints’ day as well as my birthday.

So if I really want to play the name game in France, I could be Paulin, celebrating on January the 11^th,Appauline and have my day on February the 9^th or  Pauline (actual birthday in August) and that’s just my first name. Just might take some convincing the family that I need three gifts each year.

Happy Clappy...

I arrived in the French classroom all prepared for a lesson to develop the children’s ability to describe themselves & their facial features. However waiting for me was a large envelope from the teacher in England, with letters inside from the children, written in their beginners French. Times like these require change. The children were intrigued and so I abandoned the carefully crafted lesson and ‘went with the flow’.

It was then, whilst listening to them read what their UK classmates had written, I remembered. This is what it used to be like in my early days of teaching; pre-National Curriculum, pre-Ofsted, pre SATS and league tables. Yes we had curriculum and planning, but we also had the freedom to use our professional judgement and be spontaneous.

An unexpected visit from the local MP, someones mum had had the baby, a child brought a postcard in from abroad, the daffodils were suddenly all in bloom. All these & so many more, could take you on a magical learning curve, with the children so motivated and eager to learn. Stories, cards, poems, pictures plays and number games. Real life in the classroom, not just dictated curriculum with carefully measured outcomes.

‘Happy Clappy’ we were not, grounded and flexible to learning style we were. Its true consistency was needed across the education system and that curriculum could vary, but we have lost something precious in all our preoccupation with measuring, assessing, listing and ranking. We lost the flexibility to bring learning alive and respond to the real world the children exist in.

As I watched the light in those French children’s faces and their sheer pleasure, I wondered if teachers trained now can move outside the format, the plan, the targets, could they kindle that special flame?

We did continue with our oral descriptions, we did meet our written objectives, the curriculum requirements were met, but all were embedded in enthusiasm to communicate with those children in England.

 

 

This was a lesson they will never forget, so thank you to my teaching colleague Emma who took real world of language, worked with, sent, built on and kept the flame alive.

Reticular Activating System

Now it seems that when your interest becomes your passion and your passion your career, it does not end just because you retire.

My weekly visits to the small French school always rekindle my curiosity of how & why learning occurs. So I suppose it was not a surprise that when I visited the offices of ‘Let’s Speak’ I homed in on the English language text books. They say a good teacher is like Blackpool rock, teaching & communicating runs all the way through.

The conversation led from English language teaching to dyslexia and the fact that French dyslexics are discouraged, even not allowed to learn English (Spanish being the replacement MFL). I was unsurprised, but amazed at this response and it seems that the company have been asked for help by several sets of parents whose dyslexic child has been refused English, because they will, “be unable to learn because of their intelligence”...

 I was aghast and asserted that in terms of the spoken language it was means, methodologies and motivation that was the difference and that dyslexia does not mean low intelligence, but different intelligence and learning styles. 

The discussion that followed proved that you never lose that passion, knowledge is not far under the brains veneer of mundane daily life and, above all creativity grows if you allow it.

Result: I have agreed to become a part of a working group, in the Pay de la Loire, looking at dyslexia teaching & learning.

Inaugural meeting Domfront 28^th June ~ now who would have believed that?

Not my loving husband who, when the e mail invitation arrived, scanned the text and said, “sounds good to me let’s do it”. Perhaps I should have known, as my good friend in England pointed out, “You don’t do retirement very well do you?” 

Le Petit Bac

My attempts at a thank you poem for my French hosts, which I performed the afternoon I left. It is based on a French game, called 'Le Petit Bac', that adults play with children to help develop vocabulary and identify homophones & rhyme,  Getting the cadence & the rhyme took some doing, so no grammatical comments...
I will never be a writer in French, but it was written at midnight after five days immersion and sounded great verbally.
After all the trip was with 'Let's Speak'

Le petit, petit poème,

Merci le bon séjour,

Du vin et éducation,

Fromage et bonheur.

 

La langue c’set très confusion,

Monette la patience bonne.

Je parle verbes, et Louis

Cultural à Francophone.

 

La grammaire et des erreurs

Les ‘tu’ & ‘du’ & ‘eu’.

J’ais apprendre toute les heures.

Merci pour 'tu' et 'tu'.

 

Tristement je départe

Pert être rendez-vous.

Ma maison a Carelles.

Vous avez bien venue 

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).

Teacher becomes student...let's speak about it

Its a common question amongst UK property owners in France, to ask, " So how long have you been in France?",  rapidly followed by,"can you speak French?" This is the  measure of your staying power, literally. So this made me think about our love affair with La belle France, a relationship that spans over thirty years.

Funny to look back and remember the naivety and lack of knowledge, both linguistically & culturally and the distance travelled over the years. Timeline reads\;

• 1980 Honeymoon on BMW motorbike touring Brittany & camping. Tourist phrase book, no school French we read ICI as a company name, tracked down an old military 'Camping' and couldn't understand why all the farm sites were 'a la ferme'...closed!
• 1987 Train trip to the south of France euphemistically named 'Mediterranean Express' stopped at every siding
• Ongoing car and camping trips down, across, via most regions. Linguistically faltering our way through, 'boisson v poisson' and 'demain v deux main' and so many other confusions.
• 1993 Basic French course & feeling very confident. Finding out why we were so oftern laughed at when booking; 'machin means whatsit/ thingamy' and 'Ron sounds like rond'...hence, "one room for Mr Round Thing" 
• 1995 decided in to buy a place, took to 2006 to find the funds & decide where.10-6-06 purchase and  a meaningful date. As Ron pointed out to the notaire, "this time we won"!He was not amused.
• 2007/8/9 Cauldon College French courses &  finally GCSE 2010 at the same time as I passed my Headteachers qualification, NPQH and equally proud of both.
• 2010 Stayed for five months & discovered the strength of pictures & humour in improving communication."Vous voulez la chienne Ron?", "Non merci je suis complete, non beaucoup le mange"......Franglaise!
• 2010 a hospital stay which improved my confidence whilst treating my sunstroke, after that nothing could be linguistically that scarey, "Je suis mieux..."
• French friends ever helpful, always supportive and thanks to Nicole, Evlyn, Valerie, Jean Claude, Patricia and all the others, I could not have do it without you!

So it is that today, 16 May, a very special day, my step daughters 40th  birthday, I take my courage in both hands and 'Immerse' myself in French. I have booked via a company called 'Let's Speak', to stay, for f ive days with a French family and speak,think, eat and breathe only in French.

 So how long have I been in France? 30+ years and can I speak the language, well let's see how I measure up!
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Bon courage Pauline!

Wisdom does not always need age...

We were highly flattered, earlier this year, to be asked if we would accept a repeat booking for a English Immersion student, who stayed with us last year. It is one heck of a compliment when a 15 year old asks to spend a good part of his holiday, not just with you, but working with you to improve his spoken English.
To say we felt honoured is an understatement, we were blown away. This young man is from a complicated background, English is his third language, with a forth one, German underway, but he realises that language and  particularly spoken language...communication, is so important.

We have just spent a week being inspired by the motivation, humour, courage & dedication of this young man and have we enjoyed it! We have shared jazz  and Brazilian concerts, archery, cooking and cycling.
throughout  all he has applied himself consistently. His written understanding had improved greatly, but it was his constant application and development in spoken English which was so inspiring.
And when we returned him home at his family invitation, we were treated to a small soiree.. All the children gathered around the table while our star student presented his illustrated account of his stay with us. To see & hear his confidence and pride was wonderful and his parents and family obviously felt the same.

We listened to an impromptu recital by his siblings, first the double bass, then his sister on the saxophone & finally,the younger sister, one on the clarinet.   We shared their laughter, their home made cake and more than anything their family, it was great. Feeling a little sad, we prepared to leave & then realised it wasn't going to end like that, it. So we all decided that technology , in the form of Skype would  be a great way to keep in touch & for our young friend to keep practising his English.





Motivated by our week and this teenager I have decided to follow his example and become an Immersion Student myself, but in French. If I can apply, work, practice and achieve even ten percent of what he has I will be delighted. So I say a humble & very sincere  thank you; youth has advised age and inspired maturity.