les actualités de janvier

Hello again! Well January flew by, and if my math serves me correctly, I only have nine weeks of teaching left before I am finished for the school year. It’s a bit odd that the program has us finishing English lessons before the kids are actually done with school for the year, but regardless I am amazed at how little time that leaves me to try and teach these kids something they’ll manage to remember over the summer! Through a series of fails and disinterested stares, I have finally caved into the advice my advisers and teachers told me at the beginning of the year: the kids love songs. It doesn’t matter if it is the stupidest song on the planet, if it’s in English and it’s something they can listen to me idiotically rattle off in sync with the all-too-canned music, they love it. On a more serious note though, it has been a good lesson in seeing that what I might think is the best way or the way that I want to do it, isn’t necessarily the best. This little lesson seems to crop up everywhere in my life, I suppose it’s time I actually start learning from it. On the other hand, I tend to struggle, especially in a new or unfamiliar environment, with the ability to resist almost automatically and mechanically following suite with my surroundings. The particular example I am thinking about has to do with the teaching style here in my schools. Teachers are extremely strict with the kids, and tend to be very diligent at pointing out flaws and shortcomings, while neglecting to add praises and encouragements that aid creativity and effort. Obviously this is not a one hundred percent of the time, across-the-board situation, but the majority of the time that is what I see. One teacher in particular (who is conveniently the directeur, or principal of the school) took a kid’s ruler from him in the class while I was teaching, and proceeded to hit him on the head with it. I imagine he had been having a rough day and whatever minor disturbance the student was creating just tipped him over the edge, but it was a difficult moment for me. Do I continue on with the same critical attitude over their mispronunciations, demanding the same painstaking stillness and concentration from mere seven year-olds, or do I dare forge a different style where it is not at all normally seen? Based on my observations from the students and the already insecure platform that foreign language study can create, I think it is important to give credit where it is due, and to correct and instruct with as gentile a spirit as possible. Don’t get me wrong, I still have to pull the fangs out a time or two, especially for the spindly little student who thinks that the exercise is “trop facile” (too easy) and proceeds to unwisely say so right in front of me, but if I really take a second to think about it, I would probably relish the opportunity to say I knew something too if the rest of my day was more about filling me up with what I didn’t know than praising what  I had successfully learned or participated in learning. I have decided that it is best to take a momentary pause before getting super frustrated or critical and approach the situation with perspective, while obviously maintaining what little authority I seem to have at times. Anyway, sorry for the not-so-brief interlude, I just wanted to articulate what appears to be a growing pattern in my teaching experience.

As for what I have been doing outside of school this month, a few day trips and outings of various sorts have kept me somewhat busy. Last Saturday, Dilly and I went to Lyon for the day with a new friend we found who also lives in Aix-les-Bains and is a German au pair. She speaks English though because she had previously au paired on the East Coast, a fun topic of conversation for us all. There were two other au pairs here as well, but both have decided to return home, so I am glad that we met her (for her sanity and ours!). Otherwise, yesterday I went with the good, old (literally) Grapevine members (the English-French association I go to monthly) to Geneva to see a play on The Great Gatsby. It was a nice little bus ride, about an hour and fifteen minutes each way, and it was the first time since arriving in France that I had gone outside the country. Not that anyone would have ever known considering how relaxed the border crossing into Switzerland was. We seriously just drove through. It was funny for me and definitely made me enjoy the ease of European boarders, but kind of made me mad that the US boarder situation is so messy and complicated. Anyway, the play was pretty good, especially considering there were only five actors and a few boxes for props. I am sort of spoiled with my 5^th Avenue experiences serving as a gold standard comparison, but it was fun either way. I loved hearing all the French people I was with talk about how difficult Myrtle’s accent was (those Southern drawls aren’t exactly commonplace in France) and for my own selfish pleasure, being able to effortlessly understand what they were saying was a delight. I miss not having to concentrate and think so hard in conversations and movies! It certainly is a humbling experience to be the gracious recipient of patient French people who help guide me in my baby stepping up the linguistic ladder, so the play was a nice reminder of how important it is to be kind when you find yourself on the other side of the language barrier. After I got home yesterday evening, I met up with my friends Alex and Janys, and the adorable baby Quentin of course! They had some friends visiting from Lyon so the four of them went to dinner in town while Q and I played for a while. It was great to see them again, particularly because they significantly add to my “friends in Aix” quotient.

Not much else I can think of at the moment, but still counting down the time until home. It definitely has become one of those moments where you try your hardest to look at what is in right under your nose while also shifting your gaze from time to time toward the nearing horizon that beckons you back to “comfort”, but I suppose what we always see is an idealized version of what awaits. Sometimes I forget while being in France that life is bittersweet no matter where you are, and that it’s important to recognize what parts of life comprise both the bitter and sweet at the moment so as to learn from what makes up our hardships and cherish that which makes life sweet. Speaking of journeys, I found this great quote from Tolkien in his beautiful story The Lord of the Rings that resonates with me at the moment. “The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places. But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now mingled in grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater”.

Until next time, mes chéries!

Bis,

Amy