Week One of Work

So, my weekend starts today! Not bad, huh? It's been a trying week, but I made it through all right.

This week I started teaching conversation classes of 3 to 11 students. The majority of the students have chosen to meet with me and want to practice learning English...for the most part, haha. My instructions were simple: "make them talk". This week was pretty difficult because it's really my first experience being in control of an entire class, albeit a small one, of students, and having to prepare classes without specific grammar or vocabulary concepts. Each group of students has both a focus of study and a designation of either seconde, premier or terminal: the system doesn't really correspond to the US system, but for simplicity sake we'll say that they are either sophomores, juniors or seniors. I have one group that's post-bac, which is much like studying for an associate's degree.

So with all these different levels it was really difficult to guess what media I should use to fuel discussion. I opened each class with an ice-breaker such as "tell me your name, where you live, a hobby, and 2 adjectives to describe Joigny" or "if you were a pizza topping what would you be" or "if you had the day off, what would you do". Really only the last one worked because a lot of the students don't live in Joigny and the concept of a pizza topping and imagining yourself as a food item didn't go over so big. This week has been an exercise in trial and error.

I've tried word games, riddles, pictures, songs, comics and articles this week, and I think I'm learning little by little what is going to work with each group. But, this is a lot more work than I thought I was going to be doing. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying I didn't expect this much.

Yesterday was an excercise in culture shock for me again. I went back to the france telecom/orange boutique to ask for internet again armed with my bank account information, the name of the last assistant who had internet in the apartment, and my passport. After waiting in line for another 20 minutes, the woman told me I would still need an official certificat saying that I live in the lycée and another form saying that I work at the lycée. I'm just not used to this. The last time we took the bus that only comes every hour to the boutique they were on strike, this time I had to wait for an hour for the bus empty-handed to go to another boutique where I got a better deal and signed up to get internet installed in the apartment on the 28th of october. Still quite a shock because in the US you would expect to get internet installed within the week, right? but there are miles of red tape in the France and I took a deep breath and tried to accept that at least the intertron is en route.

After the internet ordeal I wanted a beer. Yet another cultural difference. If I order a beer at a cafe/bar, I know I will get an itty bitty cup for about 2 euro. I opted for the food shop near the apart for some tall boys to watch not an american football game, but a european football game (france vs austria). I prefer the european football anywho.

Classes today went better than before; I think by the end of next week I should have things down pat. I keep filling up my bag with more and more tricks to pull out according to different groups' interests and/or levels. This means I can't really plan each class in detail, but I think it works better to be more flexible. Obviously if a group is having trouble responding to a text, I shouldn't give them more articles, but rather prepare another text for the next session that's more appropriate to their level and with a subject they can identify with.

That's all I can think of for now. I'll try and post pics from bordeaux sometime soon.

Starting Work

So, where to start?

This past Thursday I went to a training/greeting for the new assistants in the académie of Dijon. It was pretty nice to back on the old stomping grounds, and I even got to go back to my favorite Irish pub, Flannery's and eat at the university. I met up with some English english assistants from Sens (about 20 mins away) and some other guys from OSU and we had a pretty good time. However, the training/greeting was also an opportunity for the French authorities to unload a metric ton of paperwork on all the non-european assistants. So, I've made friends with the school's copy machine and I'm thinking about filing a complaint against the French government for my developping carpal tunnel syndrome.

Saturday morning we were back in Joigny and an English professor was nice enough to take all the assistants to the town market and point out his favorite stands and goodies :) He also had us over for a 5-course "lunch" which was out of this world. We also had good fun gathering hazelnuts and walnuts from his garden and went to Guédelon, which was super, super cool. I think you would particularly like going there, Uncle Ernie.

Sunday I pretty much stayed in and slept. All this stuff has been really tiring for me, and a day of rest did me good.

This week I've been basically sitting in on classes and trying to get a feel for what will work to motivate the students. There isn't a lot of excitement in most of the classes to learn English, and I hope if I sprinkle in a few themes or subjects that really speak to the kids, then they might work a bit harder in the their classes. The levels really vary, there are some students that speak English really well, and others that struggle a lot, especially in oral expression. It seems that the French system in general has much higher expectations for students in written English than in spoken English. I guess my job is to help them out on their oral comprehension and expression. I've got some ideas, I'll keep you posted.

The search for internet continues. Everyone in the apartment wants to have internet installed; the issue is that we have to contact France telecom and get a landline and see if we can get a deal on the intertrons there. If not, we still have to go through France telecom to get a landline, then shop around for internet deals. The issue? the France telecom boutique is a good 40 walk or a bus ride away from the apartment...we went today and the workers are on strike!
How French.
Looks like it'll be a couple more days on that one.
On the other hand I did open a bank account today so I can get PAID :) :) :) at the end of the month...
It's gonna be an international fiesta with beaucoup de VIN
so good BTW- there's a little shop nearby that sells local appélations direct from the viniculteurs starting at 3€50. not bad at all, huh?
Also I'm excited about going to a free wine tasting this weekend in town with the other assistants. We're finding things to do.

Anywho, questions? comments?

I hope y'all r doin' real good back home.
à plus!

Back in Joigny

Hello all!
I'm back in Joigny and I've met up with the new assistants who are also my roomates for the school year :) First off, there's Mirna, the Spanish assistant who comes from Guadalajara, México. Looks like I'll have the chance to practice both Spanish and French this year! Secondly, there's the Cherman assistant, Benedikt who comes from Cologne, Uzbekistan.
That was a joke, he comes from Deutchland.
So far we all get along really well and we've been trying to communicate in broken French, haha. It's a blast. If you haven't seen the film l'Aubèrge espagnole yet, you should rent it to get a bit of an idea of the living conditions.

Last but not least, I have an address now, so feel free to send postcards, livestock, single slices of american cheese, or duct tape:

John PETRUS

Lycée "Louis DAVIER" -Apt. 8

Avenue Molière BP 247

89306 JOIGNY Cedex

FRANCE

More pictures to follow once I have internet in the apt. Ta ta for now!