La Vie Quotidienne

My first day back at school since Toussaint, and what a lovely day it was! Started my day working with the cinquième EURO doing 'On the Ning Nang Nong' (see earlier), and bless them...three of the students had learnt the entire thing off by heart to recite in front of the class! And no, this wasn't their homework; they had just done it because they enjoyed the poem. It's really nice when you know that you have chosen exactly the right thing for a class to work on. Even more pleasing was when Karine (their teacher) asked if any of them would like to recite it to another class the entire class all volunteered, so it was decided that the whole class will go! And boy was it adorable listening to them practise...to keep everyone in time they were doing it to a clicked beat...and it really is heart-warming to hear twenty French schoolchildren reciting an English poem, in a French accent, to a clicked beat. Brilliant.

My next class was the sixième INTER, who were in the computer room researching the author of The Bridge to Terabithia. Was really interesting to see the difference in level of language when having to read and write rather than speak...and some of the students can read as easily as they can speak English whereas others really do struggle. After a chance meeting at lunch with the Arabic assistant (didn't even know the school HAD an Arabic assistant!) my final lesson of the day was with the troisième EURO, who were being introduced to debating...and after an hour of teaching useful phrases ("I agree", "I disagree with your point of view" etc.) we then went to the computer room (again!), but this time they were writing statements about themselves to send to their twinned school in Greece. I pretty much spent my time correcting English and trying to figure out some easy phrases for them to remember!

Words I learnt today:-
- Gagner sa vie - to make a living
- D'interdire - to ban
- Excentrique - quirky


Highlight of the day was seeing Laura and Kendra (pictured!) for coffee at Dolly's...the first place where Kendra and I met! This was then followed by a trip to the cinema with Laura and Claire to see Nous York, which I really enjoyed - I think I probably understood about 90% of what was going on...definitely an improvement from when I first arrived! Talking of improvements, the evil receptionist in the foyer is continuing to be nice to me (hmmm), and today told me that my French had improved, as at the beginning she "couldn't understand me at all". Not sure whether to be complimented or slightly insulted...but I'm definitely taking it as a compliment!