Kids will be Kids
While my spoken French is (I hope) improving everyday, I've started to wonder how well my written French is nearly two years out of college. I sometimes wonder how I could've written 10 page papers in French. But then I also wonder how I wrote 10 pages of anything!I've started reading more in French so as to curb the brain cell loss. I even contemplated starting a journal in French. That idea didn't last too long.
Apparently I have nothing to worry about. My best class - the really smart and sweet ones who have in the past pretended to be stuck to their chairs just so that they could stay in my class longer - MARVELLED at my ability to write in French yesterday.
We are working on the parts of the body(as we have been for over a month now). The kids were all given a picture of a monster that they had to describe in their notebooks (i.e. "The monster has three eyes"). I then asked a few kids to come to the board. So as to not give away the spelling of the English words I wanted them to write on the board I wrote the body parts in French. As I was writing the words for nose, mouth, toes (le nez, la bouche, les orteilles) on the board all of a sudden all the kids started making noise behind me. One girl said "Wow Laura, you write really well in French!" and I turned around and was like "Thanks...but these are simple words..." As I turned back to continue writing on the board I heard one of the girls say to the girl next to her "Yeah, but she's English, you wouldn't expect it.." She then started telling me all these French expressions and asking if I knew what they meant. When I didn't she - and her classmates- would all chime in to explain it to me (even with little gestures when necessary!)
The kids don't fully understand who I am/what I do/what language I speak. Some examples:
Sometimes in the middle of talking to me in French the kids will ask me (in French) if I speak French. It makes me really wish I knew how to say "duh" in French.
One time (with my 7 year olds) in the middle of the class a kid said "oh, you speak English?" These are also the kids who think that their teacher went all the way to the United States to pick me out for them. The other day in class (also in the middle of the lesson) a girl randomly said "you can tell that you're not French, when you speak you have an accent sometimes." It's funny how the kids have a way of bringing you crashing right back down to earth whenever you think you're doing well with their language. The whole encounter was actually it was funnier in French so I'll put that part in for my francophile friends:
student: ça se voit que tu n'es pas française.
me: comment ça?
student: ça se voit quand tu parles. tu as un accent.
me: (laughing a little) ça s'entend plutôt, non?
The teacher in the back of the room got a kick out of that one.
Today I saw one of my students in the street with a kid I didn't know. I said bonjour to them and they said it back. Before I had even passed them the kid I didn't know turned to my student and said "Do you know her?" and my student turned to look at me and hesitated a second before saying "yeah....she's...the English student" and I said to him "assistant, not student!!"
Of course I can't forget the time that a student was showing me his marker box that was written in both English and French. He would cover up the French part and have me read the English part and then tell him what it meant in French. He would then compare what I said to what was written in French and was surprised every time that it was the same thing. I was never fully sure if he was testing my knowledge of English or of French.
How could I have written this much without mentioning 50 Cent? He comes up at least once a week: Laura, est-ce que tu connais 50 Cent? (do you know 50 Cent?) I'm never sure if they're asking me if I know 50 Cent personally or if they are just wondering if I've heard of him. Anyhow, I'm really sick of hearing about 50 Cent. One time a girl came up to me at the end of class with a picture that she had been begging her teacher all through classto show me . As she approached me with the picture I said to myself "I'll bet anything in the world she's going to show me a picture of 50 Cent." And guess what??? It was a picture of 50 Cent! It was a cut-out from a magazine and on the reverse side of the page was none other than Harry Potter. So, yes, in France 50 Cent is a role model for children!
Finally, I'll leave you with a few lovely mental images. If ever on a random Tuesday morning you think of me and wonder what I'm doing all the way over in France here are some possibilities:
-Forgetting the melody of "If you're happy and you know it" in front of a class of 30 students. It actually happened. It most certainly didn't help that their over-eager teacher was in the back of the room singing "If you're happy and you know it" to the melody from "She'll be coming 'round the mountain."
-Dancing the hokey-pokey in front of a group of 8 year olds.
-Trying to get some "too cool for school" kids to be enthusiastic about singing "if you're happy and you know it" and then calling a kid out for faking all the words.
-Standing in a circle holding hands with students and singing along to "The farmer in the dell" (or rather, learning the lyrics as I go along) with the aforementioned over-eager teacher who sings like a 7 year old girl despite the fact that he's a 50+ year old man.
-Trying to contain my laughter as I have my kids repeat the phrase "Run, Forrest, Run!"
Here's a picture of my babies, the 7 year olds. It's quite normal for kids to be out of their seats.
It often happens to me that I just say to a kid "Why are you standing?" and the kid will just turn around and go back to his seat without even responding.
Apparently I have nothing to worry about. My best class - the really smart and sweet ones who have in the past pretended to be stuck to their chairs just so that they could stay in my class longer - MARVELLED at my ability to write in French yesterday.
We are working on the parts of the body(as we have been for over a month now). The kids were all given a picture of a monster that they had to describe in their notebooks (i.e. "The monster has three eyes"). I then asked a few kids to come to the board. So as to not give away the spelling of the English words I wanted them to write on the board I wrote the body parts in French. As I was writing the words for nose, mouth, toes (le nez, la bouche, les orteilles) on the board all of a sudden all the kids started making noise behind me. One girl said "Wow Laura, you write really well in French!" and I turned around and was like "Thanks...but these are simple words..." As I turned back to continue writing on the board I heard one of the girls say to the girl next to her "Yeah, but she's English, you wouldn't expect it.." She then started telling me all these French expressions and asking if I knew what they meant. When I didn't she - and her classmates- would all chime in to explain it to me (even with little gestures when necessary!)
The kids don't fully understand who I am/what I do/what language I speak. Some examples:
Sometimes in the middle of talking to me in French the kids will ask me (in French) if I speak French. It makes me really wish I knew how to say "duh" in French.
One time (with my 7 year olds) in the middle of the class a kid said "oh, you speak English?" These are also the kids who think that their teacher went all the way to the United States to pick me out for them. The other day in class (also in the middle of the lesson) a girl randomly said "you can tell that you're not French, when you speak you have an accent sometimes." It's funny how the kids have a way of bringing you crashing right back down to earth whenever you think you're doing well with their language. The whole encounter was actually it was funnier in French so I'll put that part in for my francophile friends:
student: ça se voit que tu n'es pas française.
me: comment ça?
student: ça se voit quand tu parles. tu as un accent.
me: (laughing a little) ça s'entend plutôt, non?
The teacher in the back of the room got a kick out of that one.
Today I saw one of my students in the street with a kid I didn't know. I said bonjour to them and they said it back. Before I had even passed them the kid I didn't know turned to my student and said "Do you know her?" and my student turned to look at me and hesitated a second before saying "yeah....she's...the English student" and I said to him "assistant, not student!!"
Of course I can't forget the time that a student was showing me his marker box that was written in both English and French. He would cover up the French part and have me read the English part and then tell him what it meant in French. He would then compare what I said to what was written in French and was surprised every time that it was the same thing. I was never fully sure if he was testing my knowledge of English or of French.
How could I have written this much without mentioning 50 Cent? He comes up at least once a week: Laura, est-ce que tu connais 50 Cent? (do you know 50 Cent?) I'm never sure if they're asking me if I know 50 Cent personally or if they are just wondering if I've heard of him. Anyhow, I'm really sick of hearing about 50 Cent. One time a girl came up to me at the end of class with a picture that she had been begging her teacher all through classto show me . As she approached me with the picture I said to myself "I'll bet anything in the world she's going to show me a picture of 50 Cent." And guess what??? It was a picture of 50 Cent! It was a cut-out from a magazine and on the reverse side of the page was none other than Harry Potter. So, yes, in France 50 Cent is a role model for children!
Finally, I'll leave you with a few lovely mental images. If ever on a random Tuesday morning you think of me and wonder what I'm doing all the way over in France here are some possibilities:
-Forgetting the melody of "If you're happy and you know it" in front of a class of 30 students. It actually happened. It most certainly didn't help that their over-eager teacher was in the back of the room singing "If you're happy and you know it" to the melody from "She'll be coming 'round the mountain."
-Dancing the hokey-pokey in front of a group of 8 year olds.
-Trying to get some "too cool for school" kids to be enthusiastic about singing "if you're happy and you know it" and then calling a kid out for faking all the words.
-Standing in a circle holding hands with students and singing along to "The farmer in the dell" (or rather, learning the lyrics as I go along) with the aforementioned over-eager teacher who sings like a 7 year old girl despite the fact that he's a 50+ year old man.
-Trying to contain my laughter as I have my kids repeat the phrase "Run, Forrest, Run!"
Here's a picture of my babies, the 7 year olds. It's quite normal for kids to be out of their seats.
It often happens to me that I just say to a kid "Why are you standing?" and the kid will just turn around and go back to his seat without even responding.
posted by Laura at 10:35 PM
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