My one class today so didn't happen. Lunch at the cantine consisted of three maintenance guys, a handful of teachers, two surveillants, a handful of my BTSers, four other students, and us. Even a lot of the students who live here have gone home! There is only one surveillant staying with the boys tonight, because there are so few! At dinner, Sn. told me that there would be less students tomorrow! This is ridiculous! Not that I don't mind this impromptu extended holiday, but seriously? The buses still won't be running tomorrow. Umm... the roads are perfectly clear! I'm about 99% sure that I won't have my 10am tomorrow, because the one student that was here from that class was one of those who lives here that went home. If I get up for my 9am, and it doesn't happen, I won't be a happy camper. I saw Carole in town today, and she was like "Peut-etre a demain". Ahh... what the hell? But maybe she was just confused as to what week we are in??
Anyway, I think I mentioned my New Year's resolution on here?? Maybe? Well, it starts tomorrow. I have Natasha on board now. It was her and Paul that were holding me back. Sorry, Paul, but it's happening whether you like it or not. Starting tomorrow, I will no longer be speaking English. The only exceptions are with my students (obviously... though I normally use more French than English with them anyway) and people who speak no French (aka Kylie and her husband and people from home who I only speak to on the phone anyway). S
o theoretically, especially if I have no classes tomorrow, or if I only have the BTSers who won't speak English anyway, I may be speaking no English tomorrow. Wish me luck! I'd like to keep this up until I leave. Hopefully, that happens! Don't worry, I'll still be keeping my blog in English. Though I probably should practice my French writing skills some as well, because I tend to use more verbal expressions when I write than I should which is fine on MSN but not so much for formal writing. Well, I'm going to be helping Natasha with her year abroad paper (she's writing about integration in France! I wonder where she got that idea from... *hides all my research and papers* Yep, no idea.), so I'll be brushing up on my writing skills. I like to think that I used to have fairly strong written French. On verra.
Wow, very ambitious! Do you think you don't speak enough French? I guess since you have other anglophones there you don't get the same total French immersion situation that I have. Personally I prefer not speaking French with anglophones because you can pick up bad habits and accents. But I guess if you ever come to visit me I'll speak French with you.
ReplyDeleteBonne annee! Meilleurs voeux!
I agree, I really don't like speaking French with the anglos here. Its much more efficient to speak English. And I think that about 4 of the assistants here (not all anglos) don't know enough French to carry on conversations in it all the time. But hell yeah, more power to you!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I think I have a weird eye condition. I HATE word verification things. I can never see what they are and I always get them wrong. These aren't so bad, but the ones that have funny spots and lines are impossible for me. I have to do the "handicapped" audio ones. Grrr.
We're sort of failing at this speaking French thing. I'll start but the others don't necessarily follow which makes it difficult. I'm not really worried about the accent thing (their accents are much better than the accent chaunoise), and I have Claude and the rest of the teachers helping me out with grammar and such. The speaking French with the anglos thing is more to improve my spontaneous conversational skills. I want to be able to talk about anything end everything in French. And you're more likely to talk about certain things with your good friends than others who you don't know so well.
ReplyDelete