Because I am in teaching mode today, there is a lesson attached to this post. See if you can figure out what "les anges" et "un cauchemar" are from the various stories of a Thursday in my life.
Thursdays I start very early in the morning: 8:15. This might not seem that early to most people but let me explain something, it is pitch black when I have to wake up at 7 to get ready. It is most of the time very cold. The highlight of my mornings is breakfast, sometimes with and sometimes without my roommates, in which I have coffee, a bowl of cereal, glass of orange juice, and sometimes a piece of bread as well. My roommates most of the time have a bowl of coffee. Yes, that is correct, they drink coffee out of a bowl. I remember learning about this in my first year of high school French but it is very odd to actually watch them pour coffee into a bowl and proceed to drink it. In any case, I make sure to also drink coffee in the morning and I have to leave around 7:50 to catch the tram to my school. Because I live right next to the university, the trams are packed in the mornings with students shuffling to class and back and forth between the two campuses.
Today, I arrived to school and my first class was with Christine. Christine is a very sweet woman, whose husband is British and they are bringing up their children to be bilingual. I think this is an awesome concept and great for young kids to learn languages early. When I am with her class, she has me stay in the classroom she normally teaches in and she moves herself to a different class. Her class in the morning is another class of advanced students who take more English classes than regular students. I had two groups of about 12 for a half hour each. These kids were very kind, and while some were a little shy, most asked me many questions. I had a great experience with this class. Can you figure out what "les anges" means?
Then I had class with some older students with a teacher I had not met yet. I did not know where to go so Christine helped me find my way. The teacher had not yet made it to her classroom so all of the students were standing in the hallway talking very loudly. Christine spoke to another teacher Claude, in French, and explained that I was looking for Sevrine so that I could attend her class. A couple of the boys in the hallway heard Christine, saw me, and then said to each other, "Oh c'est la nouvelle assistant, elle est tres mignonne." Another lesson in French, this means "Oh, the new assistant. She's very pretty." So as they were laughing about this, I thought I would let them know I understood perfectly what they were saying. I said loudly, "I understand you." When they looked at me as if I had grown two heads, I said it again in French, "Je comprends." At least that quieted them down until they got inside the class.
Once inside they resumed their talking, none of it in English, and while their teacher tried to quiet them down, they did not respect her at all and continued behaving like children. Their teacher had to speak a lot of French with them because their level of English is so poor. Even then, they were talking back and talking out of turn. She tried to have them ask me some questions and while some participated, other just caused distractions. My favorite example was when they asked, "Who is your best friend?" As soon as I answered Justine, the worst kid of them all said in a thick, French accent, "Justin Bieber?" And because they are middle schoolers, everyone laughed. I told them no, I was not best friends with Justin Bieber, and Justine is a girl. Thank you Justine for being in my example! Has anyone guessed what "un cauchemar" means yet?
The rest of the class time did not have much improvements except when I was able to sit down and watch their lesson from the teacher. Even then, she had to practically shout over them and it was like pulling teeth to get them to answer. Luckily for me, I only have this class period every other week. I switch back and forth between two classes, and when I am not in the other class I am going to be doing recordings of articles for the students. I read an article and record it, and they listen to my recording when they do their homework on the article. I have already done one, it's actually really fun and I am excited to continue them!
My last class was this afternoon and while they did not give me an trouble or grief, the students were very shy. It was hard to get them to ask me questions. Their level of English is also really low so they desperately wanted me to speak French with them today. I am not sure how to get them to understand that I am just as nervous to speak French with them as they are to speak English with me. But because I am the teacher, I switched to French for a couple of minutes for them and I think they appreciated it. They are good, very nice kids, they just need some encouragement. I think it will be fun getting to know this class over the year.
And just like that, my first week is finished! I only work 3 days out of the week and only for 4 hours each day. I am used to a much more packed schedule from my time at the University of Oregon but it's nice having down time during the day. I am sure it will soon be taken up with lesson planning but I am enjoying the freedom for now. Thursday night is the night to go out in Caen because most students go home for the weekend. I think I am going to meet up with some other assistants, we need to celebrate this first week of success and share stories! It should be fun.
Oh right, I need to tell you what the words mean. Well, I used "les anges" to describe the first group who were all very nice, sweet, and willing to learn English.
les anges = angels
And I used "un cauchemar" for the second group of very rowdy, rude students who could care less they have a English teaching assistant to help them.
un cauchemar = nightmare
Hope you enjoyed this little lesson. I am sure there will be more to come!
C'est la bonne vie pour moi! :)
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