I almost did it! I almost did an entire week of work! This week was looking like it would actually be the week that I would do all the hours that I am meant to do, but it didn't work out in the end. Turns out there was another holiday this week: Armistice Day. Armistice Day is a commemoration of the end of World War I and is celebrated by taking school off. Taking the day off to celebrate the end of WWI made me realize I don't really know ANYTHING about WWI. I have studied WWII quite a bit and feel like I have a pretty good general understanding of what happened in WWII. WWI, on the other hand, was somewhat of a mystery to me. In order to change that a little bit, Ariel and I went to the "Musee Militaire" in Perigueux which is a museum dedicated to the evolution of the military from the Middle Ages to present day. They boast the fact that they are the largest military museum in Europe. I was very impressed by the huge amount of legitimate war artifacts actually used and salvaged from the wars of the world, particularly French wars - everything from clothing to weapons to art and newspaper clippings from the time of each war. Some of the items were damaged from bullets or fires from the wars, which honestly made it feel more real to me. I thought it was very unfortunate the way that most of the stuff was displayed. For the amount of amazing artifacts they have and the history that is behind each and every piece of it, they could have gone to a lot more effort to present it in a more beautiful/pleasing/informative way. I think if they were to tidy the place up, they would have a lot more visitors. All the mannequins were terrible colors, broken, ugly, etc. There was little information about each artifact, sometimes a date but not much else. Because of the poor presentation, I learned less about WWI than I was hoping, but had an enjoyable time none the less. Perhaps it was a good thing because it inspired me to want to learn more about the war on the internet which I will do during my 5 day weekend. What better way to commemorate the end of the war than by studying the war?
The days I did work this week were great. I was glad to have Thursday off because it is my longest and most difficult day. I learned very quickly that the younger students are much more difficult to work with than the BTS (post-graduate students), even if they have a better level of English than the older ones sometimes. The young students may know how to communicate better, but they really don't care about English, they aren't interested in learning English or the American culture, they tend to talk to each other, joke in class, and always speak French. I ask them questions in English and they respond in French. They understand the question and I know they could respond in English if they wanted to, but it is too much effort to speak English when they know I will just understand their French. Another thing that is pretty annoying is that, among the younger students, there are many of them who are pretty good at English so they make it their responsibility to translate everything I say in English for the other students of the class. I will ask a specific student a question and from the other side of the room someone shouts out the same question in French. Then the student responds to me in French and someone else in the class will translate their response or tell them what to say. None of this is doing them any good, neither for the students who are translating or the students receiving the translations. I think I am going to have to make a strict NO TRANSLATING rule for the classroom and maybe make a couple posters or something to hang on the walls. Perhaps a punishment of bringing me a dessert if you are caught translating too many times or something. I don't know if that would be allowed in French schools. I guess I better figure that out.
I am really loving working with the BTS students. They are closer to my age, between 19 and 22 for most of them, and they seem genuinely interested in learning about me and America in general. They often times have a harder time speaking English since it has been a couple years since they studied it, but they make more of an effort than any of the younger ones. They ask questions - not because I tell them to ask questions - but because they want to know. During one of the classes, one of the students told me he had worked a lot during the holiday break. He explained that he works at McDonald's and we proceeded to discuss as a class the differences between a French McDonald's and an American one. They really enjoyed this discussion and later on in the class, when I asked them if they had any questions for me, one of them raised his hand and said, "Do you want to go to McDonald's with us next Tuesday?" Apparently they are going as a class, the whole class, but not officially as a class, to McDonald's together and Ariel and I will be guests of honor. We are very much looking forward to this experience.
Speaking of going out, the students are not the only people from the school who have become our friends. Some of the teachers of the school have been very kind to us as well. There is a young couple, both about 25 years old, both English teachers in high schools, who have been very kind to me since I got here. Ariel just met them yesterday for the first time when they invited us over to their apt for a home cooked French lunch which was delicious. We sat and talked for hours and hours about many things. It's funny because I think they know more about American Pop-Culture than either of us! They know all the American actors, tv series, movies... really anything related to the television and celebrities, they know it. They were kind enough to lend us a couple DVDs of French sitcoms so we could catch up a little bit. I must admit I'm a little nervous about what we will find on these sitcoms since I know the French have very different standards of what is appropriate for television than we do in the United States. I suppose all we can do is give it a try and see what we find. Most of the sitcoms are actually pretty historically accurate, based on King Arthur and Camelot or King Henry VIII. That will be not only entertaining but also educational.
Aside from that, life has been a little uneventful due to the weather. It has been raining since Monday, and today is Friday. Tomorrow is supposed to be mostly sunny, then we will start another week of rain every day. It makes it hard to want to get out and explore when you are cold and wet after just two minutes outside. On top of that we have both been battling little colds, so not a whole lot of new experiences to recount. Hopefully my next week of work, which will actually be my first FULL week of work, will bring some new adventures and insights.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire