End of term tales

Apologies about the space between the last post and this one, but I’ve been busy finishing off the marking, travelling home and then chilling out a bit!

Praise God, I made it through!

I really do believe I had to do a job in the last couple of weeks of term that a teacher of my level and experience shouldn’t have had to do. I tested nearly all of my students (211 of them) on their English speaking ability and five classes on their listening skills too. The listening tests were fine although we (Martin and I) were harsher with the marking this time round. What got me going however was the oral exams. In each test we had to concentrate hard on what each student was saying, listening for good and bad bits and write plenty of notes, because there was no recording equipment at our disposal and no second teacher for a second opinion (and we will have to justify our marks to our supervisor in January). We had already done a set of oral tests with our first year students, but they were role plays which were easier to mark (as it was largely down to guess work!!).

This time I tested the first year students on their spontaneous English which I felt was important because they like to write things down all the time before speaking but they’re at university level now and that’s not how communication happens outside of the classroom. So for the test they came in to the room in pairs and I gave each of them an advert from a British magazine and after a minute or so they had to describe it and give opinions on it. The second part was to have a conversation with their classmate on a randomly chosen topic out of five that were face down before them. I think some of them were surprised with how well they handled the task and others got a wake up call. I was not impressed with those that strolled in saying ‘So what are we supposed to be doing Miss?’ (we had practised it the week before in class!), but there’s always going to be some of those.

This time I had a mark scheme and it was much more time consuming to write out comments on all of them and add up the marks, but I think it was worth it. It did surprise me how hard it was to not have a bias towards students who work hard or have a pleasant manner or have a generally good level of English (or the opposite – a negative bias towards those who wind me up!). Some of them are very enthusiastic students but when you look closer at their English they’re making silly mistakes. For others, you can’t understand some of what they’re saying because of their sentence structure or their accent…then you get stuck as it means you haven’t got much to go off for the marks!

The second and third year students did different kinds of oral exams, which was good as it gave some variety to my fortnight (I won’t bore you with the details!). I celebrated the end of the 14-week craziness by sharing a tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream with some friends J I think it’s fair to say that overall there was good progress made over the semester and I’m pleased with the job I did. I got quite attached to some students over the 12 weeks and some of them got quite attached to me too! I got a few disappointed comments of ‘Is that it?’, and ‘Aren’t you teaching us any more Miss?’ at the end. (I will carry on teaching some, but said goodbye to the majority).

The Spaghetti Challenge

One of the more fun activities I did towards the end with some of my classes was the ‘spaghetti challenge’. In teams the students had to build the tallest free-standing tower possible in 18 minutes, with 20 spaghetti sticks, 2 lengths of tape, and a marshmallow which had to go on top (whole). Here's one of the winning towers pictured. They had to do the task entirely in English and every time I heard a person speaking French, I told them I’d note down -1cm for their team! It worked a treat for most participants and showed them they could put their English to practical use. I was impressed by how well some of them resisted the temptation to speak English.

Fun times

In the last couple of weeks before leaving for home I enjoyed making biscuits and cards at friends’ houses, I wandered around the Rennes Christmas market, went to the cinema and along to our church’s Christmassy family fun afternoon.

Next time I’ll tell you about my Christmas break. I hope you’re all enjoying the festive season!

Fiona
x

The French university system

I just don’t get it

It’s about time I told you a bit more about the university here and how things work (or don’t sometimes as the case may be). In France they’re fans of education. Children can go to state-provided pre-schools from the age of 3, then by the time you get to the other end of the education system, you’re expected to have a degree in order to be qualified for a lot of jobs, and many students are looking to do a Masters in order to get the job they want.

Unfortunately when you talk about the French university system with any French person or foreigner who has been here for a while, everybody moans about it and doesn’t seem to have much confidence in it. Except for maybe the highly prestigious ‘grandes écoles’, but they’re something else. The French university system seems to be lacking resources, a bit outdated, and in complete disorder with no one being able to do much about it.

There are two large problems in my opinion (plus a number of others). The first is that there does not seem to be much (if any) standardisation… is a grade of 12 out of 20 the same with one teacher as it is with another? I don’t think so and (to my knowledge) nothing is done about this. Are all the students of a particular course assessed the same? No. Are they taught the same material? No. Therefore the knowledge a person gains in a module and whether or not you pass will largely be down to which teachers they have been lucky or unlucky enough to have.

The second is this: A range of students obtaining the equivalent of A levels can sign up to any one course, meaning you have ‘A’ calibre students in the same class as ‘E’ just-scraped-a-pass students. Now this means the ‘A’ students have to put up with the ‘E’ students in all their classes. This isn’t so bad for lecture theatres crammed full of students where the teacher just talks at the students, but it’s not so great for smaller, more interactive classes (like mine). Some of the more capable students are really held back by their lazier or less intelligent class mates. One second year student said to me she felt she hadn’t learnt anything in 1^st year because they were going over basic things and having to put up with less serious students in the class, so she thought it had been wasted time.

The French system is one which is about the survival of the fittest. The French expect a high drop-out rate in first year (1 in 5 students or higher I would estimate!). If you get below 50%, you don’t get into second year, and already lots will start to drop out or change course in first year by Christmas. (This resulting in me having new students post half term, and numerous people telling me X isn’t doing the course any more as I try and organise end-of-term assessments). They also expect a large number to not get through to third year.

I can’t help thinking if the system was more just and regulated and everything worked towards the same quality result, maybe there would be more jobs available off the back of a Bachelor’s degree and not so many would have to prove themselves by doing an extra two years in education (a Masters).

Someone told me this week “The teachers don’t care and the students don’t care”. Well, I don’t completely agree with that from what I’ve seen, but it can be the case because it starts to get tiring to battle against all the difficulties encountered in the system. I’ve certainly been hurt by not-caring attitudes and found it extremely hard to find my way in this system with very little direction from more experienced people.

Aside from that…

I’ve not had a very good week. I’ve had a cold, am battling tiredness, and feeling lost in 100s of oral exams which are time-consuming and difficult to mark. The highlight of my week was having lunch with my American friend Halle, at a Chinese buffet J

Bonne semaine* everyone, hope you’re keeping warm in the colder weather!

Fiona x

*Have a good week

Late November happenings

Last Saturday was an interesting day. In the morning I got up and went with Manqi to a careers talk at the university. There were a whole host of talks to choose from and the one she had chosen to go to was about a man who manages film festivals in Brittany, with a particular focus on British films. I thought it sounded quite interesting and would be an opportunity to hear some extra French so went along. He spoke for an hour without a powerpoint or anything, just him and a microphone, then there was a question time and it was interesting to get an insider view into festivals like that.

We then went to the market in the city centre and bought a ‘galette saucisse’ for lunch. I’m afraid I don’t have a picture of it – we gobbled them up before thinking about the camera after waiting in a queue for 20 minutes! It’s a local speciality and is basically a sausage wrapped in a pancake, but it is tasty. They can even cook cheese ham and egg into the pancake and then wrap it around the sausage if you want something more special! We also saw a fun music group all dressed in red playing some lively music outside the metro station, I could’ve stayed for quite a while to enjoy their performance.

After that we wandered through town a bit and bumped into our housemate Andrew. The three of us decided to try out a café called ‘Haricot rouge’ (‘Red bean’ or sometimes translated as ‘Baked bean’!). Manqi had already been with an American friend of ours who raves on about it, because they have many different sorts of hot chocolate and milk shakes. We enjoyed sitting down for a bit having a chat, and a mini brownie came free with my drink which was nice. The prices there are reasonable and you can borrow board games to play if you want, but it wasn’t quite as exciting as it had been made out.

A few times this week I’ve found myself in a big crowd for dinner. Last Saturday there were 9 of us at my house for dinner in the evening, then on Thursday just gone our home group had a Thanksgiving dinner (we were 15-strong) and last night, Manqi had a number of Chinese friends round making spring rolls and things so that was interesting. Tomorrow quite a few of us are going round to the pastor’s house for lunch too. It means that things are quite lively around here, but so many large gatherings in one week gets tiring!

That’ll do for now, I’ve started writing about something else but this post was going to get too long if I included it so I’ll save it for another time!

I hope you’re well.

Fiona x

Fun, a Flanders flower and a faithful God.

Hello!

Last Wednesday I went to my friend Halle’s 27^th birthday party. She had around 20 girls round to her flat for a bring and share meal. There was so much homemade cake! Halle is from the US and works full time as a team member for Agape Campus, a Christian student group here. It was good to chill out, I had been really looking forward to it. When it came to it I was a bit nervous as I didn’t know most of the people that turned up at first, but it was a nice set of girls and we chatted a bit then played a game.

With another American friend, Christy, and my Chinese housemate, Manqi, we have taken to making biscuits (or ‘cookies’ as the Americans say).

So far we have made lime and coconut, peanut butter and chocolate chip, and apple and toffee biscuits (pictured). They have all been rather successful, and I’m impressed at that as foreign recipes aren’t always guaranteed to work. I’m sure we’ve made another type too, but it escapes me.

Last week in class I wore a poppy and asked my classes if they knew what it was about. They didn’t have a clue. Which was fair enough really as they’ve probably never been to Britain in November. However, less excusable was the fact that Remembrance Day is a bank holiday in France, and many of them didn’t even know why they had a day off! It was quite nice to give them a glimpse of something cultural and explain it when none of them knew. Some of them were a picture of ‘I don’t care about this, when are you going to stop talking?’ whereas most were genuinely interested.

Despite going through a tough time here, I’m going to tell you some of the ways in which God has been good to me (thanks for your prayers).

• I am grateful for my timetable in general, and the early morning starts (I never thought I’d say that!). I have to start teaching at 8:15am on 4 out of 5 mornings, which is hard for me as I’m not a morning person! But it does mean that I am able to have a routine and get more done in my day which has been essential for getting lesson preparation done and the suchlike. My timetable has a nice mixture of classes most days except for Tuesdays, but then I just repeat the same 2-hour lesson three times in the same day so I’m well-practised by the end! Also I find that the students are less concentrated in the afternoons, so I’m glad I’ve got a mixture of morning and afternoon classes (though sometimes they seem as though they’re still asleep in the morning!).

• I get along well with my colleague Martin and I think he gets along with me too, which is obviously a good thing. Even though he often annoys me when he chats on all the time about all sorts of things or doesn’t listen to me, he often makes me smile or laugh. There’s a real sense of being in this together. We’ve both been thrown in at the deep end and we both have the same heap of work this semester with teaching and prep and marking. Things here could be a lot worse if I didn’t get along with my colleague or they didn’t get on with me.

• God has provided me with a few friends who have been forthcoming in inviting me to do things, rather than me having to organise to do things with others. This has been a real blessing as I’ve been able to join in with things without making the effort to organise them. I'm not averse to organising things of course, but this term I’ve been spending so much energy on my job that I just wouldn’t have bothered getting out there and meeting people if they didn’t invite me, so it's helped a lot.

That’s all for now,

Fiona x

La langue anglaise, des toilettes, et un samedi...

The first week back hasn’t been that great. Students and teachers alike didn’t want to be back following the holidays, and I’ve given classes their grades and feedback, which I found hard with the students or classes who have low marks.

Since starting to teach English at a higher level, I’ve been learning just how difficult the English language is. The French students I teach self-confessedly struggle most with pronunciation and understanding different accents. I’ve realised how hard it is for them to imitate or get a feeling for the stress patterns we use when speaking and our intonation. These things can change the meaning of a sentence or word, so they’re quite important sometimes, but even when sitting there imitating someone’s voice and listening back to themselves (in a class which is specifically designed to work on these things) they don’t seem to be able to hear things right and imitate correctly. I’m sure I’d struggle too in French. That’s not to mention the different tenses we use, ‘faux amis’, vocabulary and everything else! I do love my native language though. I was looking through some tourist websites for a student who wants to set sail for Great Britain next year and I really enjoyed seeing the different expressions they use to describe places (albeit a bit flowery and publicity-led).

L building toilets

It is high time I told you about the toilets in the building where I work. I’m sure you’re all aware that France is not renowned for its toilets and the university ones are no exception. (I know there are worse in the world before you start sending me stories of your trips to far off places). There are three sets of toilets within not-many-metres-at-all from my office. Two sets of unisex toilets and one set of women’s toilets. The toilets are not blessed with the luxury of a seat. They have a flush which is weak when pressed once and gives enough to power a white-water rafting experience if pushed again (you avoid splash back if you can). There’s thin toilet paper of course. Pink. Then once you’ve relieved yourself, you go to wash your hands and try and avoid being splashed a second time, except this time it is much harder. Martin aptly nicknamed the sink ‘the trough’ as that is what it looks like. If you give the tap a push, a jet stream comes out and as soon as your hand is under it even a fraction, water sprays everywhere. Sometimes even in your face. So how do I conquer the tap? (After all, it is essential to wash one’s hands). I have to dispense the foamy soap into my hands, then stand to one side and lean on the tap with one hand while putting the other under it, and swapping hands. Even then there’s a risk of getting a puny trickle or pushing too far and getting the jet stream I’m trying to avoid in the first place! It’s always cold water. Not a week has gone by without me getting splashed a few times (if not every day)…of course I then make a brief effort to dry my top under the air dryer as well as my hands. I dread the times that someone lines up to wash their hands next to me in case I splash them too. We found out the other day that there are some staff toilets (9 weeks in) but apparently they’re not so much nicer that it would make them worth walking the extra distance!

Saturday

Last Saturday I allowed myself to go shopping for some clothes as I need some new ones and my favourite shop had a sale on. I came away with some new clothes but none of them sale items! Later on my colleague Martin and I went out for the evening with the English-speaking ‘lecteurs’ (our job title) from the English department on Saturday night and it was good to talk about our job at the university as they’re finding certain things difficult like us. Just to clarify – yes, I’m teaching English, but I’m in the ‘Applied Foreign Languages’ department, not the English department. One guy was a bit of a crazy American and said he’d sometimes used the technique of swearing (which he’s quite a fan of!) to make the students quieten down and listen up – not a technique I’ll be taking on myself!

Until next week,

Fiona x

A good week in my homeland

Dear all,

The week I spent back in England was very enjoyable. I spent some time catching up on sleep but it still seems as though I need another week’s rest, as it went speedily by. I enjoyed browsing English shops and buying some bits and bobs that I needed which are either much easier for me to buy in England or carry a much lower price tag than in France. I met up with a friend for coffee on Tuesday, went to my friend Amy’s flat for a meal on Wednesday and then she also celebrated her birthday with a meal out at a nice pub on Friday, where I enjoyed catching up with some of our other friends too. I enjoyed relaxing with my family as well, it was really good to be with them. One of my aunties paid a visit on Thursday too which was great.

I’m not very happy to be back, the six weeks of teaching and assessment until Christmas seem like a mountain to climb. A few logistical challenges lie ahead, as in some classes there were a few people ill for tests at the end of last half term, and I want to give feedback and move on but will have to teach other things until we’ve found a mutually convenient time for them to catch up. There’re also a few bank holidays thrown in...I risk having all my 14 classes at different points in the teaching programme and losing the plot! Please pray for that!

Fiona x

Into the swing of things but glad for a break.

Teaching

Just popping by to tell you a bit more about some of what I’ve been teaching. It’s hard to get the balance right, in choosing things which aren’t too hard and aren’t too easy and which are accessible and engaging for all sorts of people.

In one lesson I taught them about the bottled water market and we had an interesting discussion on that based on listening to a podcast (Trust me, it doesn’t sound that fascinating but the report threw up some good questions). Another piece of work I’ve done with them was based on predictions about 2050. I wrote 12 statements about life in 2050 and they had to discuss whether they think it’s possible or not and why in pairs, and afterwards they wrote their own predictions about the areas of healthcare, education and fashion. This was very revealing about the scope of different ideas any one class has about the future, and even more so across different classes.

I’ve done a ‘two truths and a lie’ activity too, for which I showed a banana to the class that I had written on, introduced the fact that I like bananas, said a few other things about them and built up intrigue, then I would ask a member of the class to read out the three statements written on the banana about my life. Then I announced that two are true and one is false, and they needed to guess which is false. I managed to fool a lot of them! I then went on to ask everyone to write down three statements about themselves and we exchanged them in the classroom and had a guess at the false statement and found out interesting things about everyone.

As another activity, we thought about a Desert Island scenario and they had to tell each other who they would or wouldn’t like to be stuck with, what clothing/items of food/book they would take with them, etc. It was very interesting. For the book, one girl said ‘I’d take anything except the Bible’, and another lad said he’d take ‘The satanic bible’. Another guy said he’d like a visit from Jesus (I think he was joking...or at least it made his classmates laugh).

I tested my first and second year students last week. The first years were tested on speaking and listening skills and the second years just on listening. It was a whole new experience for me marking them, and it wasn’t my favourite thing because I want everyone to do well and some of them were not up to scratch!

Fun stuff

Last weekend I had a lovely time on Saturday afternoon with my new American friend Halle, chilling out on the grass at her local park chatting. On Sunday, the pastor and his wife had all the student-aged youth round for lunch which was very tasty and the atmosphere was very friendly, it was a nice group of people.

On Tuesday night I was treated to a meal at a crêperie by the languages department. A teacher from my department had organised it as she thought all the lecteurs (the people doing the same job as me) should meet each other. She’d sorted out a table plan so no one was sitting next to someone of the same mother tongue, so we all had to speak in French and there was much more of a sense of togetherness which was nice. I was sat next to a Russian girl and a Chinese girl, and opposite a Spanish guy, a Syrian girl and an American guy (so fairly close to another English speaker, but we were well-behaved most of the time!). It was a lovely evening and we may well meet up again. There were so many nationalities! It’ll be nice to say ‘hi’ in the corridors if we see each other now!

I’m now at home for half term, enjoying time off. Teachers definitely deserve half term breaks, I have a new respect for them!

Fiona x

Hello to my regular readers,

Just a note to say I'll write on Monday 24th Oct. I've not had time to blog this week because I'm going home tomorrow for the half term holiday and so I've been working hard marking 100s of tests so I don't have to take marking home with me. I'm glad I made it to half term!

A bientot,

Fiona

Recent happenings

Le 'Restaurant' Universitaire

Last Wednesday I went to the University canteen for the first time and it was a madhouse (well for a nervous English girl at least, but I think even the French brace themselves for the experience)! It didn’t help that I went at peak time – 12:30. Thankfully I was with some French girls who were happy to look out for me and explain how the system works. You go in and there are a range of names of dishes displayed on posters under different stand names, so you take a look at that on your way up and decide what you’d like to eat. This also tells you how many other items you can take (in terms of starters or desserts). When you get upstairs you can queue up at the stand of your choice, but some being more popular than others, and so increasing the time you wait.

There’s not really enough space to queue so you have to watch out for other people trying to get past, then after you’ve got your main meal on a tray, it’s a free-for-all to grab puddings or starters and get through the till, trying to hold your tray steady and not bump into other people!The till ladies work as fast as they can putting (pre-bought) meal tickets through the till and taking money for any soft drinks or extra bread that people are buying. Once through the till you take cutlery and a glass (for tap water) and more importantly, find somewhere to sit. People must end up waiting for their friends or wandering round the large seating area all the time, as it’s very easy to be split up (either through choice or otherwise!).

Un mariage français

Last weekend I went to a wedding in Lille. It was strange to be back as I hadn’t been there since a brief visit for New Year. It was my friends Laurence and Hugues who got married – Laurence was a teacher at one of the schools I worked in and I often spent time with her and her boyfriend-turned-fiancé during the year there. They’re also linked to the church I used to go to in Lille, so a number of my friends were invited to the wedding too. The wedding was a lot of fun.

At first I went to the Mairie (Town Hall) to see what happens there. The French are obligated to go to the Marie to legalise their marriage, and this has to be done before any kind of religious ceremony. There are a number of marriages every Saturday in quick succession and I managed to go into the wrong marriage ceremony! The couple I know were supposed to be in the ‘wedding hall’ at 11am. I went up to it and there were already people inside so I told the man outside I was there for Laurence and Hugues’ wedding and he said to go in. Except for the fact that when the town hall official asked the married couple to stand up it certainly wasn’t them! So I clapped and waited respectfully until the ceremony was finished and slipped out the back door hoping I hadn’t missed the one I was there to see.

Thankfully I hadn’t – they were just running behind on time and I found the group for my wedding in another smaller room waiting to go in to the bigger one. What was even weirder (and another reason for slipping out quickly and quietly) is that one of my students from Rennes was a guest in the ‘wrong’ marriage ceremony! All that way away, on the same weekend, at the same time! He didn’t see me so I surprised him in class today by saying that I knew where he was on Saturday!

(Outside the Town Hall)

Then there was the church service which was packed out with an overflow projection screen downstairs (there were around 300 guests). There were two pastors from different churches working together to do the ceremony and it went fairly well considering they both had traditions from their own denominations that they wanted to respect. It was an opportunity to share with many people who normally wouldn’t set foot inside a church and the preachy part was good.

Afterwards there was the ‘Vin d’honneur’ (roughly translates as ‘Honouring wine’). All the people from the service are invited to this. It’s basically a time when a selection of drinks and nibbles are served (both sweet and savoury) and people chat and have the opportunity to take pictures with the bride and groom. The nibbles were really lovely – a variety of hot and cold ones for the savoury and neat little French pastries and cakes for the sweet. I took some time to talk with my ex-colleagues from the school I used to work at with Laurence.

I took a break between the Vin d’honneur and the evening celebrations and went home with a family from Church for a bit which was nice. The evening meal included four courses plus coffee (starter (pictured left), main, cheese, dessert). It was delicious and the presentation was top notch! For the main course they came table-by-table with the food covered by one of those bell-shaped covers, they put all the plates on the table at once and then lifted them simultaneously! There was also the grand unveiling of the dessert (many cakes and sparklers!). We felt spoilt.

The French have entertainments between the courses organised by friends and family of the couple, and the entertainments at this wedding were very well done. I was sat with some people from church and we had a great time.

I’m sure there was something else I wanted to tell you about, but I don’t remember, so it’ll have to wait or be forgotten!

Have a good week,

Fiona x

Crunching through autumn leaves on a summer’s day

I, like you, have been surprised by the sunny weather over the past 10 days, and it made the French happy which was nice. I had to suffer a hot classroom or office a lot of the time, but enjoyed it when I was out and about and it gave me a good excuse for an ice cream on Friday afternoon!

Teaching

I’m already halfway through my fourth week of teaching and I haven’t told you much about it. Tiredness is starting to kick in, as motivating a classroom full of students to speak English for 19 hours a week takes energy. I understand better why they don’t put so much emphasis on speaking foreign languages in schools when teachers have classrooms of 30 children at a lower level! One positive thing is that my level of French is higher than the students’ level of English which gives me confidence during lessons, as I’m not always dreading the question ‘How do you say X in English?’. They are generally quite understanding it if I don’t know how to say something too. Sometimes we get there after a bit of discussion, other times both sides are left very confused as to how to express a certain French word or phrase in English. I’m starting to grasp the majority of names now too, which is very useful!

The activities that I have been preparing have been working well for the most part, and I need to try and remember that, as disappointing or discouraging moments come often too. As a wise person said at the weekend, some things that I’m battling with are out of my control and it’s not necessarily me as a teacher who fails when certain things don’t go to plan.

Yesterday someone fainted in my lesson! It was quite a surprise to hear a shout of ‘Alexandre!’ in response to a question I had asked and I looked up to see one of the students on the back row was on the floor, blacked out. It was stuffy in the classroom and I guessed he had just fainted so I told his friends to open the window to get some air in and lift his legs up. He soon

came round, and they got him to stand up rather too quickly for my liking, but he was ok. I asked if that kind of thing had happened to him before and he said ‘yes’. I prayed that it wouldn’t be me who fainted next (I have a bit of a history of that too)! The problem with that room is it’s very hard to keep the window open because it doesn’t want to stay open on its own.

Just have a little patience...

Ok so already within 5 weeks of being here there have been plenty of opportunities to grow my patience, and there are plenty more on the horizon! God must be up to something. The colleague who does the same job as me talks constantly about anything and everything, and although I find some of the comments interesting or amusing, other things are not and I get frustrated when I’m trying to work. My landlady also loves to talk and make her opinions known in a loud voice (as does her ex-husband who has visited a few times). There is also Jade, a 4 year-old who is child-minded at our house until 9pm two evenings of the week and 8pm another, and understandably gets a bit tired and grouchy at the end of the evening. Those who know me well (or maybe you’d guess), know that I seek out peace and quiet over loud and noisy, so I find certain characters can test my patience. Then there is Manqi, who faffs around even more than I do and I’m now appreciating why some of my family get annoyed with me sometimes!

Church

I’ve chosen which church I’m going to commit to this year, it’s called La Rencontre. It’s the one which my landlady goes to and my two other housemates are going to go there too. It’s a warm and friendly church and I feel at home there already.

Agape campus

This is the name of a Christian student group in Rennes and I’m sure you’ll hear more about them over the course of the year (I know I’m no longer a student but I’m linked to the campus and they’ve welcomed me with open arms!). The group seems very active with lots of different ideas for outreach and it is blessed by the presence of a number of staff workers to lead it. I went along to the welcome BBQ where there was an encouraging number of students (many of us from outside of France though), and I’ve also been to a small girls’ group meeting which was nice.

(Pic of me and Manqi, my housemate at the BBQ)

That’ll do for now, well done for making it to the end!

Fiona x

One month in

Respect!

I know this sounds obvious, but I’ve realised this even more during my first month here. When you go to live in a foreign culture, it’s really important to respect the culture you’re surrounded by and keep as much of an open mind as possible. It’s surprisingly easy to make quick judgements on other people and their customs, so it’s good to be aware of how our own culture shapes us and why we might be shocked or pleased by something in a foreign culture. It can be humbling to realise that sometimes people in other nations do things better in some areas.

My awareness of this has been all the more heightened by Michele’s daughter Jannick, who is staying in England this year. She has been back to France twice while I’ve been here and by the end of this weekend just gone, I started to dread the words England or English coming up in the conversation as I was wondering what criticism was coming next. To be fair, Jannick is 36, so much more stuck in her French ways than a lot of French people who arrive in England at a younger age, but even so I don’t think she realises quite how many complaints about my country come out in front of me, and I think some of her problems could be overcome if she made more effort to be open and understand, or work round things. So I try to gently persuade her otherwise or advise her to go about things differently on some matters and on others I just have to swallow my pride. There is also my colleague Martin who will often complain about things in France, and regularly finishes sentences with ‘Oh France!’. I do agree with him on some things which are frustrating for Brits in France, or related to our job, but for some things I think ‘It’s not that big a deal, we’re not perfect’.

“Ma petite Chinoise” (My nickname for my Chinese friend, even though she is the same size as me)

I’m really enjoying spending time with my Chinese housemate Manqi and learning lots about China. I thought I already knew a lot from talking to Chinese friends at International Café, but it appears there’s so much more to learn! I’m especially happy to learn things about China as I have two friends who are going out there to be missionaries within the next year.

New arrival
On Sunday, Andrew arrived to live with us. He’s a Christian from Walthamstow and will be an English language assistant, like me in Lille. He’ll be teaching two very different age groups – primary school children and 15-18 year olds (who go to lycée). It’s the first time he’s lived away from home as he commutes from home into London for his university course. He seems rather nervous and is a quiet kind of guy, and doesn’t know how to cook. So I’ll get alongside him when I can, but it’s going to be a steep learning curve for him as well. It’s interesting to see someone go through what I went through two years ago, it’s bringing it all back.

Marché des Lices
I went to the Marché des Lices on Saturday for the first time (and no it doesn’t translate as flea market, though it looks as though it should!). It’s a very large market in the centre of Rennes and it was teeming with market stalls of all kinds, I think it’s the best market I’ve seen in France (apart from the fact I’m not keen on the sheer size of the crowd that’s there). I got a bargain at one stall – a baking potato for 5 centimes! At one point, I went to a bakery stall which attracted my eye and saw a nice-looking cake, of which there was only one left. I asked the lady on the stall for this cake but at exactly the same moment a Frenchman ordered it too (from the lady’s colleague)! I quickly realised what had happened and said that the frog could have it and proceeded to choose something different (which turned out to be very disappointing!). He seemed a nice man and pleased to have it. I’ll return to their stall some other Saturday when I’m there to taste the cake. I hope it’s worth it!

Work
I’m feeling more comfortable at work, things are settling into more of a rhythm. The students regularly look at me as if I’m from outer space rather than across The Channel, but I’m starting to get used to that! It’s for the sole reason that I’m speaking English apparently. Ho hum. More about that soon.

A bientôt,
Fiona x

P.S. A few photos of the university are here in a post of their own if you want to take a look!

Photos of the university

First week of teaching

This past week could (unfortunately) only be described as one thing: stressful.

We arrived on Monday morning at 7:45am (lessons start at 8:15am here!) and no one was in the department. We couldn't get into the staff room to access some equipment we needed due to a dodgy lock and neither did we know if it was going to be possible to unlock the classrooms we were teaching in, as we didn't have a key and the offices where they are kept were not going to open until 9am, which left one hope, a teacher who owns a set of keys, but there was no sign of her. Thankfully she did turn up at 8:05, it was such a relief to see her! And you'll be glad to know they agreed to giving us a key afterwards.

I had to teach a number of times in a language lab with a capacity of 12 when I had up to 21 students, and what's more, it was an old-fashioned one meaning the tables were all separated off into booths with wooden and plastic dividers. That did not make communication easy. There were many other rooms on the small side too, meaning having to hunt for chairs and sharing desk space. I have sorted out the worst room situations without much fuss which is a huge blessing. Large classes are a common problem in the department at the moment as the courses here are over-subscribed, meaning some teachers have language classes which are going on 45 students! I don't know how this has arisen, it's apparently the highest number they've known, and we just all have to get on with it, knowing a bit of absence would do us a favour!

I think I'll get used to the class size, but it's a tall order to keep them all speaking English! Most of my lessons went pretty well, though some classes were more difficult than others (naturally). The most difficult thing is the mixture of levels in any given class. There are students who have lived and worked in an English-speaking country for between 3 months and 2 years, students from countries other than France who are very comfortable with English, and even a few British-born girls. Then there are also a fair number of students who have a very weak level of comprehension and spoken language and have never been to an English-speaking country (though I realise the two of these do not necessarily go hand-in-hand!).

The timetabling was all a bit disorganised too, the students have to look at a notice board, pay careful attention and write their timetable down. As my colleague Martin and I get half groups, there were a number of mix ups between our timetables and the noticeboard. For one particular lesson, I started my introduction and about 3-4 mins in, another 20 people started piling into the room saying they were here and the group I had should be elsewhere, meaning nearly the whole class changed and I had to start again!

We suffered from a real lack of knowledge and direction on a number of things last week as newbies not knowing the French system so it was a struggle. I was unwell from Tuesday onwards last week too which of course didn't help matters!

A few positives: - My Chinese housemate cooked a nice meal on Monday evening for the Moon Festival. - I had a lovely evening on Saturday with an American girl. - I am grateful for the education I received at the University of Southampton, even if it does cost a crazy amount by comparison!

Fiona x

Two by two

Two countries

I spent half of this week back in England. My Grandma’s funeral was held on Thursday and after deliberating over what to do, I decided I would go back and join my family, because classes didn’t start this week and although it was going to be tough, God assured me that I could go in His strength, not my own. I’m really glad I went. I had support from my family and was able to give support too. I learnt more about my Grandma’s life and it was great to remember her character and the many things she had done for her family and others in her lifetime, often during difficult times. She has blessed people the most through prayer and baking J I had the privilege of reading my Great-Gran’s testimony when I was at home too. I never knew her but it was inspiring to read her story of God at work throughout her life.

Two semesters

My timetable is a bit crazy (everyone who hears about it agrees). This first semester I’ll be teaching 19 hours per week, and in the second semester only 4. This creates a big imbalance, meaning a lot of work this semester, and twiddling thumbs next semester (though I hope to find things to do so that that won’t be the case). It’s the same for Martin who’s doing the same job as me. ‘Why?’ I hear you say. The students we’re teaching study two languages and business. The way it works is that they study more of English (compulsory) in the first semester and more of their other language in the second semester. And the teachers can’t do much about it, so all the other English teachers have a heavy timetable this semester too.

Two churches

I’ve been to two churches in Rennes and they’ve both been nice and welcoming and have potential for being my new church. I’m just going to wait and see what to do and maybe visit one or two more. Apparently Rennes has a good number of churches. The one I went to today was big and had a very nice building of its own (not that common for evangelical churches here). The man who preached spoke for what felt like an hour (I think it might have been too), and that’s too much all in French for a tired Fiona (I had a bit of a long journey back yesterday with a delayed flight)! But he was a visiting speaker and apparently it’s not always like that.

Two years on...

I got an email from an American girl who is preparing to leave home to go to Lille at the end of September to be a language assistant in the schools I worked in. She wanted some advice about what to bring and the post. I hope my response was useful. The schools haven’t had a language assistant for a year as their application to have an assistant for 2010-11 got lost in the post so it was tough luck as there weren’t enough to go round! I got slightly jealous thinking about her treading my paths, spending time with teachers and pupils I got along with well, but I remind myself things move on and I’ve got new paths to tread!

Classes start tomorrow, I’m nervous but actually glad they’re going to start after waiting so long!

Fiona x

Je m'installe

Hello!

This week has seemed like a long one, I feel like I’ve been living here longer than I have! I think that’s because there is so much to get used to, and I’ve spent a fair amount of time getting to know my landlady, Michèle, and her 35-year-old daughter, Jannick, who is going to live in England for a year, from this Wednesday onwards.

I have a new housemate! Her name is Manqi, and she’s a Chinese Christian student. We met her at church last Sunday where we learnt that she was staying temporarily with some friends-of-friends in Rennes while trying to find more permanent accommodation, but she felt she was outstaying her welcome a bit. So Michèle suggested that since Andrew hadn’t arrived yet, she could stay with us until she found something if she wanted to. On Monday evening I returned home to find Manqi in the living room! She proceeded to try and find somewhere else to stay but it was proving difficult, so Jannick suggested to her Mum that Manqi lives in her room while she’s away. Not only does she have Jannick’s room, but it’s part of a whole side section to the house which comes off the living room including a small kitchen, living room and bathroom, so she’s struck gold! We get along very well and I’m pleased she’s staying here.

This week we had Michèle’s granddaughter to stay for a week – a really cute four-year-old. I have never seen a child smile so much over the consumption of cheese! Cheese was the treat she asked for more of after meals. Her little brother of 22 months was the same the day they dropped her off – he asked a number of times for more Camembert!! I’m learning a lot about the French culture already through this family, but especially about how they teach their children to eat.

Michèle looks after 4 other children during the week at varying hours of the day, and in varying numbers. The downside being that in this house you can hear everything (there are no carpets, and barely any curtains). I didn’t realise how much children cry and make loud noises and do silly things they have to be told off about! Ah well, it’s good for me to learn, and I like children, but I think I’ll work in the office at uni quite a bit if I can!

This week on Tuesday I was really pleased with myself. I managed to sort out various administrative proceedings in various locations and it all went relatively smoothly. I could feel the difference in my language level and cultural knowledge as I went about the tasks, it was easier than two years ago.

I’ve actually browsed the supermarket quite a lot this week, it’s so big – each time I go I discover a new aisle that I didn’t think they had! The other day I decided it was a good idea to buy some more skin-coloured tights to wear with my skirts, but I spent a long time trying to work out which ones were the ones I wanted. I won’t bore you with the details, but I was astounded to see how a simple task became so complicated in another culture. I still

won’t know if they’re right ‘til I put them on!

On Thursday we signed our contracts which went well, but there wasn’t much else to do as the man in charge of us wasn’t available until Friday afternoon. Friday afternoon went well too, so thanks for your prayers. After an unsure start (no response from the man we were supposed to be meeting) we were warmly welcomed, and the head of the department already knew our names and said if we have even the smallest worry his door is open. In terms of some things there’s a lack of organisation which could prove difficult (we’ll see next week), but it’s nice that they’re friendly. I start teaching on Monday 12th Sept.

Other bits and bobs...

- I went to see a Spanish film subtitled in French(!) at the cinema and it wasn’t my sort of film but I could appreciate that it was a clever storyline and well put together anyway.
- I enjoyed a delicious ice cream on Friday afternoon in bright sunshine :)

- I met a lovely Christian girl who works with one of the student groups in Rennes.

- I’ve discovered a lovely park nearby, and went on a mini adventure to find ‘Rue d’Angleterre’ (England Street). It was a lovely street with large picturesque houses. One house even had a mini house for its post!

Love, Fiona x

Je suis arrivée

Dear friends and family,

I arrived safely in Rennes on Friday and was met by Michèle, the lady I’m staying with. I was very glad to see her at the airport, as the plane was an hour late and there was a small fear in me that she wouldn’t be able to wait around for some reason or other! She took me to her house which is very big despite first impressions. My room is lovely and big with a double bed – what a luxury! There is room here for guests to stay – in my room and in other rooms in the house, which is great as I’d love to have a few friends to visit during the year (hint hint!).

Michèle is a Christian who I got in touch with by emailing churches asking if they knew of anyone who was looking for a housemate or rented a room/flat. God proved His goodness in the hunt for accommodation as I’d agreed on the room that I’m staying in within a week of sending out emails. I have already heard tales of it being very difficult to find a flat or room to rent around here. There is another lodger who will join us at the end of September, Andrew, a British Christian student.

I live in South Rennes, and the university where I’ll be teaching is the other side of the city, but we’ve got a very handy metro link (which we also use to get to the centre of Rennes). The pompiers (firemen) are just round the corner as they were in Lille, so their siren should help me feel ‘at home’! I have my very own French shutters for the first time, but I can tell it’s not going to be pleasant opening and closing them during winter time (I have to open the window in order to do so - brr!).

I’ve already had a little look around Rennes. People say it’s a nice place to live as it’s big enough that there’s enough going on but small enough that you don’t feel lost. I have to get to that point where I don’t feel lost before I can appreciate that, but it’s very early days of course! There are some very pretty parts in the city and some not-so-pretty. There are plenty of shops, and although I don’t live where the main shops are, there is a sizeable shopping centre not very far away from me with a large supermarket. I think it’s best if I never go there in a hurry though (easier said than done), because it’s taken ages to get through the till both times I’ve been!

I have been warned that if there are any student protests, or strikes, they are likely to start at the university I’m teaching at! By the sounds of it, if I can get the students half as excited about speaking English as starting protests I’ll be doing well! I’ve met the other guy who’s doing the same job as me, Martin. He’s chatty and seems quite positive. We’re a bit unsure as to what’s expected of us as the university are leaving us in the dark, but thankfully some knowledge has been passed on to me by my predecessor. We go in on Thursday for the first time, so prayers would be appreciated for that.

I’m feeling a rather overwhelmed by it all at the moment. There are so many new things to face and things to work out. It’s a lonely process starting out somewhere new. But I’m doing my best to trust in God.

My Grandma (on my Mum’s side) suffered a stroke nearly 3 weeks ago and as a result died and was taken to Heaven on Saturday morning (27/08). I’m relieved she’s safely home and out of pain. She was a wonderful woman who was faithful to God throughout her life.

Love to you all,
Fiona x

P.S. I’ll be trying to write fairly regularly, but the workload is set to be high this first term so we’ll see how things pan out.