A quiet day at DEFLE
for Alan anyway
Just single civilisation 9h30 - 10h30 with a male lecturer. He isn't quite as easy to follow because his voice is deeper. Also the lecture room was still half full from the previous session, so I ended up sitting too far from the front. Still - it was OK.
Then double contemporary history, where I learned that when the French history books say "Nos ancetres les gaulois" they are really referring to the Welsh. I knew it! So we didn't just own Britain before the Angles and the Saxons came - we had France as well. The lecturer quite enjoyed having a gallois in his class, I think, and kept making wry little remarks about "pockets of resistance" against the germanic invasions of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Goths, Visigoths, etc.. (I know this doesn't sound much like contemporary history, but first he was trying to define what we mean by France.) This class worked better for me because I sat at the front again. I think some people think it's because I'm keen. It's not. It's because I'm partly French-deaf - I have to lip-read.
Then Pat and I had our lunch together on the steps, where we chatted with an Iranian man whose situation seems really alarming, and later with an American chap from my class who 1) already has a degree in French 2) has been at DEFLE since January doing the previous level. What? Still it's not a competition. Well it is. It's a race, but it's not me against him or anyone else..
Just single civilisation 9h30 - 10h30 with a male lecturer. He isn't quite as easy to follow because his voice is deeper. Also the lecture room was still half full from the previous session, so I ended up sitting too far from the front. Still - it was OK.
Then double contemporary history, where I learned that when the French history books say "Nos ancetres les gaulois" they are really referring to the Welsh. I knew it! So we didn't just own Britain before the Angles and the Saxons came - we had France as well. The lecturer quite enjoyed having a gallois in his class, I think, and kept making wry little remarks about "pockets of resistance" against the germanic invasions of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Goths, Visigoths, etc.. (I know this doesn't sound much like contemporary history, but first he was trying to define what we mean by France.) This class worked better for me because I sat at the front again. I think some people think it's because I'm keen. It's not. It's because I'm partly French-deaf - I have to lip-read.
Then Pat and I had our lunch together on the steps, where we chatted with an Iranian man whose situation seems really alarming, and later with an American chap from my class who 1) already has a degree in French 2) has been at DEFLE since January doing the previous level. What? Still it's not a competition. Well it is. It's a race, but it's not me against him or anyone else..
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