First day at DEFLE
Pat had the same teacher all afternoon and came out smiling. They had a lot of discussions and conversations and generally I think her first day went really well.
I started with a class on the literature of the Maghreb (Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco) which was interesting and pleasant - a good start for 8h30 on a Monday morning. (By the way, remember we are an hour ahead - 8h30 for us is REALLY 7h30! 22h30 for you is 23h30 for us)
Then came one and a half hours of "compte rendu". I was a bit unsure what this would be, but it turned out to be a sort of standard French technique. And a bit like one of the French "Extreme Word Games".
You know the French have Extreme Word Games, don't you? For example, they have competition dictation for big prizes televised prime-time with a household name quiz-inquisitor, Bernard Pivot. They also play "synchro Scrabble" and they have World Championship Spelling Competitions.
Well, "Compte rendu" struck me as being an extreme word game. Here are the rules of the game. A text is read twice. This morning's considered the freedom of the press. The players listen assiduously and take notes as the text is read. (This assumes, of course that they understand what they hear - a rash assumption!) Once the text has been read for the second time the clock is started and the players have to summarise the text in a set time and in a set number of words, without unnecessarily using phrases or words from the text and without hesitation, deviation or repetition. (Oops - I was wrong about hesitation). This morning we had to render the text in 40 words. I, of course, struggled to make it exactly 40 but the quiz-inquisitor later explained that roughly 40 would do.
It was REALLY hard. No, I mean REALLY hard. After that I thought "I'll never manage this! Not in a month of Sundays! I BET I fail my Compte rendu exam.
Thankfully the next class was translation from English with a delightful teacher who is real fun, and we were translating some "Anita Brookner". That was OK. At least, I could imagine myself being able to do it at some stage.
Then came an hour and a half queuing to sign up for "phonetique". Thankfully the teacher accepted that there is really only one slot where I can do it, so we're OK for the kids on Wednesday afternoon. Also because I am salaried, if I flunk my course-work they will just discount it and have everything rest on the exams. Is this a good thing? I think I'll just keep up with my coursework...
Sometimes I caught myself wondering what all this had to do with the price of fish - but as we queued I chatted with two students, an American and a Venezuelan, and I thought "Yes - this is what it's about, isn't it". We often have to chat in French because not everyone speaks English. We talked about the Venezuelan president and his decision to expel New Tribes Mission from the country, amongst other things.
By the way, some of the Americans are collecting photographs of euro-mullets - big-time hairdos that are "business at the front, party-time at the back". Apparently Bordeaux is a rich vein to strike for euro-mullets.
I started with a class on the literature of the Maghreb (Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco) which was interesting and pleasant - a good start for 8h30 on a Monday morning. (By the way, remember we are an hour ahead - 8h30 for us is REALLY 7h30! 22h30 for you is 23h30 for us)
Then came one and a half hours of "compte rendu". I was a bit unsure what this would be, but it turned out to be a sort of standard French technique. And a bit like one of the French "Extreme Word Games".
You know the French have Extreme Word Games, don't you? For example, they have competition dictation for big prizes televised prime-time with a household name quiz-inquisitor, Bernard Pivot. They also play "synchro Scrabble" and they have World Championship Spelling Competitions.
Well, "Compte rendu" struck me as being an extreme word game. Here are the rules of the game. A text is read twice. This morning's considered the freedom of the press. The players listen assiduously and take notes as the text is read. (This assumes, of course that they understand what they hear - a rash assumption!) Once the text has been read for the second time the clock is started and the players have to summarise the text in a set time and in a set number of words, without unnecessarily using phrases or words from the text and without hesitation, deviation or repetition. (Oops - I was wrong about hesitation). This morning we had to render the text in 40 words. I, of course, struggled to make it exactly 40 but the quiz-inquisitor later explained that roughly 40 would do.
It was REALLY hard. No, I mean REALLY hard. After that I thought "I'll never manage this! Not in a month of Sundays! I BET I fail my Compte rendu exam.
Thankfully the next class was translation from English with a delightful teacher who is real fun, and we were translating some "Anita Brookner". That was OK. At least, I could imagine myself being able to do it at some stage.
Then came an hour and a half queuing to sign up for "phonetique". Thankfully the teacher accepted that there is really only one slot where I can do it, so we're OK for the kids on Wednesday afternoon. Also because I am salaried, if I flunk my course-work they will just discount it and have everything rest on the exams. Is this a good thing? I think I'll just keep up with my coursework...
Sometimes I caught myself wondering what all this had to do with the price of fish - but as we queued I chatted with two students, an American and a Venezuelan, and I thought "Yes - this is what it's about, isn't it". We often have to chat in French because not everyone speaks English. We talked about the Venezuelan president and his decision to expel New Tribes Mission from the country, amongst other things.
By the way, some of the Americans are collecting photographs of euro-mullets - big-time hairdos that are "business at the front, party-time at the back". Apparently Bordeaux is a rich vein to strike for euro-mullets.
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