The second week

Hi everyone!

On Wednesday, I had a day-long meeting with the other language Assistants (those doing the same thing as me) in the region Nord-Pas-de-Calais. There are hundreds of us and we spread out over primary schools, secondary schools and colleges in a fairly large area. It was nice to meet up with people in the same position as me, and it made me very grateful that I’m not American, because it costs them so much to get here and get back that they’re stuck here for the whole 7 or 9 month contract! People have found a whole range of accommodation, ranging from free to costly, countryside to city, with families, flatmates or alone. One girl I met is currently without a fridge and having to keep things cold on a window ledge! Thankfully she’s found somewhere else to move to in a couple of weeks. On hearing this, another girl said if it were like that for her she would’ve turned round and gone home!

As promised, I’ll talk about churches. There is an English-speaking church round the corner from my flat which meets both Sunday morning and evening. I’ve been along to the evening service both Sundays I’ve been here. There’s a meal afterwards which most people stay to, and it’s really good (not just the meal, the service too!). I am determined that I should join in with a French-speaking church too, and I have been to two different ones in the mornings, both of which seemed good, but I didn’t manage to introduce myself to anyone as everyone seems very busy talking to each other at the end or is eager to leave. There’s not tea and coffee like in most English churches. Maybe I’m at fault for not hanging around long enough. Maybe the key is to get there nice and early to try and spy someone out to sit next to and chat with…I don’t know, but I’m not giving up.

Here’s a strange thing – I am constantly in exchanges where I need to use my French, and this means that I often come away from situations having taken a knock to my confidence, as my spoken language and comprehension is only good enough to stumble through. On the other hand, constantly dealing with new things (some of which I have never had to deal with in England before on my own) or perhaps doing something better a second time round means my confidence grows! Again, I am of two minds when it comes to wanting to speak. Sometimes I want to speak all the French possible this year and create extra opportunities to speak French. At other times I just want to hide away and do the minimum speaking possible!

I start teaching on Friday in one school which is a daunting prospect, from the point of view that after only 2 weeks observing and little information from the teachers, it’s hard to really gauge the level of the kids. It’s nice because in this school, they’re giving me the freedom to teach what I want, but with that comes more responsibility. Each first lesson I have with a group will be crucial in setting the standard. I am going to have to be confident with them and more strict than I’m used to being. I’ve been in various positions of leadership before but it’s nearly always been in a pair or team, and/or in a less formal setting.

One hard thing in school here is that the state school system by law is laïque which means that it is secular, and anything religious or political is not allowed in the classroom. You may have heard about the uproar over the banning of Muslim headscarves a number of years ago. By law I am not permitted to say anything about my political or religious views. When I have been involved in so much Christian activity and the music I listen to is mostly non-secular, etc, I have found that I have had to edit my answers to certain questions that the children have asked and not be fully myself.

I’m finding things quite hard at the moment. I don’t know how to explain it all, but encouragement is coming from friends and family and God, so that’s good. There’s so much to do still before I’m sorted with all the French admin…every time I think something is sorted there’s always another part to it! Constantly making first impressions on people is tiring. I’m also feeling quite lonely. Thankfully I’m meeting up (separately) with Alison and Kiki this week, two friends from university.

If anyone fancies it I’d love to have someone/people to stay between mid-November and mid-December.

Fiona xx