ahh another month gone by and no updates in this blog. Don’t be fooled, I’m not all of the sudden busier. If possible, I’m working less, as every week I have at least one class cancellation. Still have yet to work a full 12 hour week! Crazy, really, but I am getting paid for it all so whatever. It’s too bad that I can’t get another job, because then I could use all this free time where I am actually earning my teaching salary to then earn yet another salary on top. If only such bogus jobs existed in America.. have I mentioned I’m not looking forward to the real real world? Because I’m not.. anyway, some ramblings from the past month.
I’ve recently completed a lesson on school in America and it caused me to make a list of the things that are different between here and the US. Besides teachers blatantly blurting out grades in front of the entire class (which I’ve already had first hand experience with at the Universite de Nice.. ah langue orale, still painful memories), there are other more minor differences. One is that I feel in general (though I usually feel this way in europe) that the kids are allowed more freedoms. They take public buses or trains unaccompanied, but really what I am referring to is that even my youngest middle schoolers (11-12 years old) have a changing schedule that looks more like a university schedule than anything I’ve ever seen. Basically, every day the schedule is different, and every day there are free periods. Sometimes they have whole afternoons off, sometimes just an hour somewhere in the middle. In the end, I just think the french kids should stop complaining about American kids getting out “so early” in the afternoon, when they have breaks that probably make their schedules either equivalent or less rigorous than ours. Not to mention a 2 hour lunch break and every Wednesday afternoon off. I need to also ask them about homework, because anytime I’ve seen a teacher assign something it seems very light in comparison to crazy Fairfax county. I remember learning that we (America) lead in the amount of homework, but I should still ask. I sort of doubt they get that much because French people don’t like to work, especially in their free time at home.
On the other hand, kids here have a 15 minute “recreation” period ever 2 hours where they are forced to go outside. Like they don’t trust them in the halls? Furthermore, the teachers have to go get the kids and walk them in at the end of this time. Even the oldest group of 15 year olds! This I find oddly contradictory.
Sometimes I just find the way things are said in French to be really interesting. I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head, but I recognized one in a letter I got the other day. Where we in English would say something like “this will be processed as soon as possible” or “you’ll here from us as soon as we can” or something like that, in French they use the term “Meilleurs delais” as in, your matter will be processed in “the best delays”. Seems so backwards to me!
A couple of weeks ago I had what could be classified as my worst teaching day ever (to date) (I hope it doesn’t get worse). First off we were doing a lesson on Groundhog Day, which I thought would be pretty interesting. I mean, it’s a pretty weird tradition. And I wouldn’t even care if they were like “Americans are so stupid, practically worshiping a rodent and expecting it to predict the season’s weather” as long as they said it in English! But instead I got the usual apathy and silence. Well, silence regarding the lesson, and way too much talking about anything and everything else. I essentially had to repeat myself with every direction, every comment, every explanation like a minimum of three times, and when we went around the room to go over answers for the worksheet I had given them time to do, everyone had blank sheets. Even after prompting and pointing to where in the text the answers were, they usually answered wrong, and this just continued through the rest of the excruciating lesson, and the rest of the kids talked while I was trying to coax answers out of a specific kid. Towards to end pencil cases and markers started to get thrown across the room. Yes, 15 year olds acting more like 5 year olds, throwing school supplies and stealing each others trousses. I managed to intercept a marker and tried to find the culprit, but no one would confess. I held on to it to hand to the teacher at the end, and heard a girl saying something about me “keeping her marker” as she walked out of the class. Seriously guys, I don’t know how many times I need to tell you, but I UNDERSTAND FRENCH! And I was just so fed up. And that was only class number 1!
Nothing stands out in my mind in the second class, however that probably just means it just wasn’t as bad as everything else, and maybe not necessarily good. I think I tried I different worksheet, teaching idea to no avail. Still lots of confusion no matter how I put it. Groundhog and hedgehog end up being the most mispronounced words yet. Sometimes I can’t even understand these kids.
Next up is a club of sixiemes (youngins). I’ve had bad days and I’ve had good days with this group. It is highly unpredictable. The problem with the club is that they think it is all fun and games, and while I like having the opportunity to play games with them and not worry about really making the material sink in, sometimes they don’t even want to do that. Sometimes they are really hard to control. And most of the time, I feel like a glorified babysitter.
Usually I have about 5 students, and even that feels like too many sometimes. But today, for some reason, I had like 16 show up. And that is when the mass chaos began. Luckily I had plenty of cutesy lessons revolving around Martin Luther King Day and Chinese New Year, as well as throwing in some directions, since they had been learning that. And to top it all off, a list of new vocab words to play hangman, their favorite, with. You can always bring their attention back to the lesson with hangman, I’ve found, even if they fight over who gets to go next, who gets to write points, who gets to erase etc. seriously, glorified babysitting. But did we get around to any of that? NO. One kid needed to go get a pencil (showing up completely unprepared and empty handed seems to be the norm for all age groups here in france) and then like half the class left to do the same. we started off with directions, and the kids weren’t getting it, even though I really think they just weren’t listening. When I went around to each individual student and asked them, everyone got all the answers right. But as soon as I turned my back on the group to talk to one, chaos broke out. Students started getting up, walking around, picking up tables and desks, stealing each other’s supplies, throwing things, and yelling, yelling and some more yelling. One kid wanted to write the date on the board, which just led to like 5 kids all rushing toward the board to try and write things. Anything I tried to say was drowned out my screaming from kids who were mad about their stuff being taken, and then screaming by other kids who were telling those kids to “shut up” because they couldn’t hear me. Even though those kids thought they were trying to help, they weren’t really paying attention either, and started trying to push each other off their chairs. They were screaming, I was screaming, telling everyone to sit down, no moving, no standing, no yelling, no everything, but it wasn’t working. It got to the point where I could see it all happening and I was like paralyzed, having no idea what more to say or do, but basically just standing there. Then a teacher came in the room saying she could hear them from the floor below and down the hall, in the teacher’s lounge. She didn’t seem to think I was doing a bad job, but rather said I could just send anyone out I wanted if they weren’t behaving. As soon as she left and the kids heard that, it all became an argument of who I should send out, and some yelling began again with the argument “no send him out!” “ no send HER out” etc etc. Needless to say that bell could not ring fast enough, and my throat was sore at the end of that lesson.
The next class went much more smoothly because the teacher had heard about my rough day, and told anyone who caused any problems to me was going to make the entire class get after school detention. Needless to say, they behaved quite well!
One last class at my last school was the usual amount of goofing off and not listening. I know they think they can get away with it because they are honors, but it is still frustrating and they are still nowhere near perfect. I was too tired at that point to care, though.
The next day, on my 10 am walk to school through the neighborhood where I live, some, potentially homeless, potentially drunk, man ran up to me, like literally chased me, down the street. Well I wasn’t running, but it was like he saw me, and ran down the street to catch up to me, yelling at me and trying to talk to me while I tried to ignore him with my headphones in. He walked in front of my line of vision so that I could ignore him no more and I tried to keep my reluctant responses brief. Sorry but once you heard I was from America, I was not impressed with the fact that you could throw out buzz words like Obama, white house and Washington. Not so impressive (and frankly I get it all the time). We finally made it to an intersection where he realized we weren’t going in the same direction and he left. But seriously, what a weird experience! My creeper magnet is back.
Speaking of which, I’ve completely left out my Lyon trip. The creeper magnet was on full blast there as we bar/club hopped. The way I see it, though, is just that most French guys are creepers. And that has nothing to do with me!
Another week, another absence of a schedule. Every Tuesday/Thursday I turn up to garibaldi and walk over to my schedule, usually to see either no change or to see one of the few hours (always less than my required 4) crossed off. So much for thinking things would be different post holidays (for the record, they are now saying things will be different after the coming holidays, but I just checked the schedule for the week back and I’ve only got 2 hours on there, and if they don’t write it before this Thursday, I won’t see it, so I won’t show up! I don’t have much hope.)
I’ve also had a bunch of new classes lately. I know it seems ridiculous this late in the game, and it is, but at the same time they have all been really young, and so all their first lessons have been introductions, which is quite easy. Since they are just learning the beginnings of English and their vocab is so limited, I get some funny questions and responses sometimes:
“I like sheep.”
“you like sheep?!”
“uh oui, I like sheep.”
“baaa baaa sheep??”
“nooo, sheeeeepssss”
“you like ships? As in boats? In the water?”
“no sheeps, sheeeepss, like food.”
“OH CHIPS”
“yes”
fyi chips/ships/sheep all sound the same to French kids.
As do bitch and beach. Yes I have come across that in writing as well.
Again vocab is limited, so one of the most common questions is – “do you like food?”
I mean is there not only one answer for that? If you don’t like food.. you die.
Then in my food lesson I got a lot of kids convinced that a bagel was a donut, since bagels are rare here. and I’m like no, a bagel is just the shape of a donut, but it’s not sweet and you put cream cheese on it (another unknown here) and it’s just so much better. Of course they don’t get that, so they will continue to think it is a donut.
Even after switching my worst Friday class to a different one, Fridays at perret still seem to take the cake for my least favorite class day each week. One girl, who hardly ever talks, however, did ask me a funny (maybe thoughtful?) question the other day, asking if I had “a little friend” (the literal translation of petit ami/boyfriend) to spend valentine’s with. When I said he wasn’t around, she told me that was “too bad”. Sympathy from some of the most apathetic students ever? Eh I’ll take it.
We even did a game one Friday and that didn’t turn out so well, meaning they just don’t get it! That day, though, we had visiting german exchange students, which in reality, was actually a real treat for me. Their English was so much better! And as they finished the work much faster than everyone else, decided to have nearly perfect side conversations with me. Motivated, smart students! Who are these kids – certainly not my regular bunch.
The next class had like 10 of them in it, and I walk up to hear the kids explaining in French (again, which I understand!!!) that they never understand anything I say and that the class is just really really hard. The german students again had no problem doing the work, sometimes even translating from English to French for the students!! One (punk) kid even took it upon himself to come up and talk to me after class. Our conversation went something like this:
“that class was a joke!”
“excuse me? What do you mean?”
“it was sooo easy!”
“well your French classmates don’t seem to think so..”
“well it was.”
“well I’m glad it was easy for you,,”
and he walked away. What a jerk!
Back to the lesson about schools, I mentioned something about cheerleaders and just got a baffled/blank stare from everyone. Surely they must know what cheerleaders are, they are like a symbol of America or something. Plus they love letterman jackets here, they are like some kind of trend at the moment, though I doubt anyone could explain their original significance. Anyway after they all ask me what a “sherrleder” is, they finally get the concept and all say “OH pom pom girls!!”. Seriously?! Not only do they call cheerleaders pom pom girls, but they think that is the proper English name for them. Um no.
Somewhere in the span of these weeks we lots heat/hot water for almost an entire 7 days here where I live. It was a ridiculously frustrating time, where I always felt cold and never felt clean. Showers consisted of me heating up a pot of water and pouring it over my head and I spent all my time in front of a mini space heater. 2 days went by without it being fixed because Claire was out of town, and then a ton more went by because they realized the problem was so big that they would need to bring someone special in? I’m not really sure. I’m also not entirely sure I understood the problem, as the technical French terms really meant nothing to me. It probably wouldn’t have made sense in English either, I don’t really know anything about heating in any language. Anyway after nearly a week, a different guy came and apparently the problem wasn’t such a big deal, which Claire said made her really mad. Well it’s about time! I’ve been mad all week.
Then you know, just when I thought I was going to start getting back on some kind of normal schedule, on fait la greveee! The teachers weren’t working so neither was I - 5 clases cancelled in one day! Only problem is that one school decided to reschedule those classes to next week.. meaning a 15 hour week! Could I actually not only finally work my required 12, but 3 extra?!
The answer is, of course, no. even though that was the plan, my first two classes Monday were cancelled, my third didn’t show, my only two on Tuesday were cancelled, one on Thursday cancelled, and finally one on Friday cancelled. Welcome to my life. That is the short story, here is a little more detail.
My French valentine’s day blow-by-blow: got up early to take early bus to get there 30 mins before hand, missed bus. Went back up and was able to grab scissors I had forgotten to cut bingo sheets for english club, figured that was at least a postive aspect to being late. Went back out, caught bus, made it to the last stop 2 mins early. Ran to school, saw my students in the hall and told them I would be there in 5 mins. Went to print and copy, which ended up taking more like 15 mins. Noticed I forgot my planner with copy code, so had to try it by memory, but that only took a few tries to get. Made copies went up to class, no students. Went back to staffroom to find teacher, no teacher. Went back to common area to find students, no students. Sat there for 45 minutes reading instead. Next group came, not really willing to participate. Accidently printed out wrong matching exercise with inappropriate words I had deleted, such as “make out”, and only realized after I had handed it out. Had no way to like ask for them back so had to go forward with it. Came home and tried to find my planner and couldn’t, finally found it in a drawer under my bed, where it must have slid through some crack somehow. Got to school early but class started late because no one could find the key (nor could they understand me asking, “where is the key?” these are honors kids, by the way) got through like no material because they are super slow and blatantly talked through everything I tried to do, and like half the class left early for some “appointment” or another. One girl did give me a chocolate, though, and another wanted a valentine’s day pencil so bad she offered to pay me for it. Ran into my teacher for tomorrow who said that she scheduled a test so I don’t have to come in. my 15 hour week has just turned into 10. (which then turned later into 8)
Last weekend we decided to go to Annecy and had such a travel snafu it was if we had never traveled in france nor lived here for the last 6 months.
Long story short, we missed the last train home, because both of us failed to check the last train time. We show up at the station at the clearly late hour of 7:30 pm, a little worried since Hannah had checked one line’s schedule and thought the last one was at like 7:30. We looked at the departures board, though, and saw one leaving at 7:38, so we rushed to buy tickets, validate them, and run to the platform, only to get out there and see.. no one. Looking at the departures board outside, our train wasn’t listed. I take out the ticket again and realized in my haste I picked a train for 07:38, meaning 7:38 am, not pm (which would be 19:38 here). the only two trains left on the board are going to paris in 3 hours. So we go back into the train station to check the machines – nothing. Our only option is a sleeper train that leaves in 3 hours and puts us in chambery, where we still would have missed the last chambery-aix train by 2 hours. We go out to the bus station, no buses. That’s right folks, there is no transit out of Annecy – a city at least twice aix’s size, after 7m on a SATURDAY. On Sunday you can leave at 10 pm. Sunday the day when everything is closed and nothing happens! But not on Saturday. So we start calling anyone we know to look for solutions, because chilling (literally) in the waiting room for the next 12 hours wasn’t really going to cut it. We leave a message for the woman I live with, Claire, and decide that plan a is the wait to hear back from her, and then plan b is to talk to the conductor of the night train, since we got mixed answers from other people as to whether it stopped in aix. While passing those three hours in the small waiting room, who should walk in but none other than one of my former, (from my worst class that I stopped teaching!) students. Maybe he won’t recognize me, but of course he sits right behind me. Seconds later, his friend turns around and says something like “uh excuse me? My friend says you English teacher.” This leads us into a long and rather painful English conversation about where this kid is from (Comoros, some island nation by Madagascar I’ve never heard of), with his friend/my student saying nothing. To be fair, he started the conversation in French by saying how much he liked my class because he didn’t have to do anything, but that he never understood a word of what was going on (yeah, doesn’t surprise me). His friend tried to get Hannah to give him English lessons, but maybe that’s just because she was being much nicer than me and actually speaking in French to them. Despite the fact that I don’t want to admit any sort of fault to these kids, I decide to casually drop in a line asking if they are planning on going back to aix-les-bains that night. They both said yes, that they were taking the tgv towards paris. When I asked to see their tickets, the produced these little regional tickets with no specific time, certainly not something you can take on a tgv. They were clearly just going to get on the train and hope not to get caught. We kind of argued for a while about whether or not it stopped in aix, as the machines said it did not, and with the train station being closed we couldn’t go back and check. They assured me they asked “mr. gare” (directly translated as mr. train station) and he said that it did stop there. I went out to try and find someone to ask and the only worker I could find was a distracted man who didn’t seem so sure that either of those tgvs stopped in aix, and told me to ask the conductor once it came, in an hour. During that time, though, we got a call back from Claire, and she fortunately agreed to come pick us up. The first tgv comes and goes and the guys tell us to get on, while I try to explain that I asked and it’s not actually going there. Still I get on and see the train pull away in the opposite direction of aix… and I wonder if they are half way to paris by the time we get picked up.
The real icing on the cake moments were when we explained to Claire that we had gone to Annecy to see The King’s Speech in English, since aix never has English movies. She then said that they were actually playing it downtown this week in aix-les-bains! And on the way home as we passed the train station in aix, I think I saw that sleeper train stopped there..
And here we are, the last week before 2 weeks off! This week I was scheduled for 11 hours, but had 4 Monday classes cancelled Sunday night and one Tuesday class cancelled Monday night, so I’m down to 6 hours this week. I’m starting to feel like classes being cancelled is a daily occurrence here. not to mention the one class I did come into on Monday, only 8 kids showed. This is because their teacher is out and they know it’s just me come to teach them. It’s been this way for the past 3 weeks and numbers have just been dwindling.
Well lot’s to pack/do before my two weeks of freedom!!
